Of Canceled Flights and Rationality: It’s All About Context
I'm convinced that to truly understand the depths of human decision-making, you need to experience a big travel fiasco. All possible contextual factors come into play: money, time, sunk cost, unfamiliar environment, social norms of other travelers, regret aversion, scarcity.
In case you haven’t guessed already, I was in a bit of a muddle recently. A flight of mine was canceled minutes before boarding. I was left in limbo for a few hours, with a toddler in tow, not knowing how I was going to get back home. I had options, of course:
- I could wait patiently for the airline to do something about it, but it came with the uncertainty of not knowing when it would happen. This was hard, given that I was traveling with a baby.
- I could take action, change my booking to another flight (not the same airline since I don't trust it anymore), pay for everything again and then fight for refunds from the original airline.
After 24 hours of waiting for any semblance of news, handling an increasingly annoyed toddler, mingling with a crowd of irritated travelers who wanted to be anywhere other than where they were at the moment, staring at the bland interiors of an airport hotel room, my tired cognitively exhausted mind succumbed. I went rogue and bought my own ticket. Only to get booked on the same flight by the airline an hour after I spent a bucket load of money!
References
- Gigerenzer, G., & Selten, R. (Eds.). (2002). Bounded rationality: The adaptive toolbox. MIT press.
- Artinger, F., Petersen, M., Gigerenzer, G. & Weibler, J. (2015). Heuristics as adaptive decision strategies in management. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36, 33-52
- Haselton, M. G., Bryant, G. A., Wilke, A., Frederick, D. A., Galperin, A., Frankenhuis, W. E., & Moore, T. (2009). Adaptive rationality: An evolutionary perspective on cognitive bias. Social Cognition, 27(5), 733-763.
- Payne, J. W., Bettman, J. R., & Johnson, E. J. (1993). The adaptive decision maker. Cambridge University Press.
About the Author
Preeti Kotamarthi
Preeti Kotamarthi has built and led Behavioral Science teams at two of the largest tech companies in Southeast Asia and India. She established the Behavioral Science practice at Grab, helping product and design teams understand customer behavior to create better user experiences. Currently, she heads Behavioral Science and User Research at Swiggy, where she continues to blend data, design, and human insights—drawing inspiration from spending a lot of time with Indian consumers. With a Masters in Behavioral Science from the London School of Economics and an MBA in Marketing from FMS Delhi, Preeti brings over 12 years of experience in consumer products, from co-founding a rural startup in India to shaping behavioral design in tech. Her passion lies in making behavioral science a core part of the product development process. When she’s not uncovering human insights at work, she’s likely busy applying behavioral lessons on her two-year-old.
About us
We are the leading applied research & innovation consultancy
Our insights are leveraged by the most ambitious organizations
“
I was blown away with their application and translation of behavioral science into practice. They took a very complex ecosystem and created a series of interventions using an innovative mix of the latest research and creative client co-creation. I was so impressed at the final product they created, which was hugely comprehensive despite the large scope of the client being of the world's most far-reaching and best known consumer brands. I'm excited to see what we can create together in the future.
Heather McKee
BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST
GLOBAL COFFEEHOUSE CHAIN PROJECT
OUR CLIENT SUCCESS
$0M
Annual Revenue Increase
By launching a behavioral science practice at the core of the organization, we helped one of the largest insurers in North America realize $30M increase in annual revenue.
0%
Increase in Monthly Users
By redesigning North America's first national digital platform for mental health, we achieved a 52% lift in monthly users and an 83% improvement on clinical assessment.
0%
Reduction In Design Time
By designing a new process and getting buy-in from the C-Suite team, we helped one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world reduce software design time by 75%.
0%
Reduction in Client Drop-Off
By implementing targeted nudges based on proactive interventions, we reduced drop-off rates for 450,000 clients belonging to USA's oldest debt consolidation organizations by 46%
