Reply to comment

It is a shared dream, like a hollywood fantasy, or Playboy, if each of us pays into it, we can all have that feeling of Could Be, and THAT is what they buy. It is therefore not irrational, but adaptive, it has ecological validity to have that dream. There is a real and tangible gain, but it is in neurochemical reactions in that impossible interim between the purchase of the ticket and the final let down; the fact that it lets down at the end is no different from the dumb endings that most fantasies have, that's not the point of buying the travel ticket, the point is the JOURNEY.

So I still think the study is naive, because they measured the wrong thing. Instead of being anthropological or even evolutionary biologist about it, they didn't start with the reality "They buy tickets" and then ask "Why?" they started with the premise it was a "bad decision" and then asked "Why are they not rational?" -- my point is that they ARE being rational, because we already have research that shows the value of such myths of release in enduring the seeming impossible reality.