Why Winners Often Lose & What Great Teams Do Differently
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Why does closing your eyes improve memory recall?
Today on Something You Should Know, a simple technique that can help you remember anything better. Then why do so many winners end up disappointed? It's called the winner's curse. Lottery winners, for example.
With lottery winners it's on the first day they're super happy, but then that happiness goes right back to baseline because people don't take into account that their phones are gonna be lighting up for the rest of their lives with people asking them for money.
Also, a little kitchen trick you'll be so glad you heard. Then being on a team, working in groups. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Groups are
the engine of almost all the best stuff in the world. That if you want new scientific discoveries, they're being done by groups. That said, groups are also really hard and we get them wrong a lot of the
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Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, something you should know with Mike Carruthers.
Have you ever noticed that when you ask someone to recall something, in trying to recall it, they'll sometimes look up or even close their eyes. Well, why do they do that? I'm gonna tell you as we start this episode of Something You Should Know. Hi and welcome. I'm Micah Ruthers. And so it is a common response. You've probably done this too. You ask somebody to remember and they They close their eyes in trying to recall, or they look up into the sky or at the ceiling. And the reason they do that, the reason we all do that is it really helps with recall. It seems that any kind of sensory distraction inhibits our ability to remember things. Closing your eyes blocks out the visual distraction. Researchers discovered that any sensory distraction makes remembering more difficult, but what's even more interesting is that visual distractions make it harder to remember what you saw, and audible distractions make it harder to recall what you heard.
So if you need to remember something, get away from any kind of distraction, and that greatly improves your odds of remembering it. And that is something you should know. You've probably heard those stories about lottery winners who end up broke and miserable just a few years after hitting the jackpot. They win, and somehow they lose at the same time. That's a classic example of something economists call the winner's curse. But this phenomenon goes far beyond lottery tickets. It shows up in auctions, business deals, and even in everyday decisions. And the psychology behind it is fascinating.
What is the winner’s curse and why do lottery winners end up disappointed?
My guest is Alex Emos. He is a professor of behavioral science, economics, and applied AI at the University of Chicago. And he is co-author, along with Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler, of a book called The Winner's Curse, Behavioral Economics Anomalies Then and Now. Hey Alex, welcome to something you should know.
Hi, Mike. Uh thrilled to be here.
So I just use that lottery example to illustrate the winner's curse, but take us down the road a little farther.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why does closing your eyes improve memory recall?
0:02–4:17
2
What is the winner’s curse and why do lottery winners end up disappointed?
4:17–9:39
3
How do over‑optimistic bids cause the winner’s curse in auctions and business deals?
9:39–14:38
4
What are other behavioral‑economic anomalies like the sunk‑cost fallacy and how do they affect everyday decisions?
14:38–20:11
5
Why do most groups struggle and what makes a team thrive?
20:11–25:03
6
What is the optimal size for a high‑performing group?
25:03–30:56
7
How does diversity versus similarity impact team performance and decision‑making?
30:56–37:30
8
What early‑stage practices prevent group dysfunction and keep teams effective?
37:30–43:01
Speakers
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