#UncertaintyTax when circumstances are uncertain our brains press pause. An experiment that Berger cites: students were offered a cheap vacation and placed in three groups: pass, fail and unknown. The pass and fail groups both wanted the vacation. The uncertain group didn't want the vacation as much. Yet eventually they will either be in the pass or fail group, so their interests should be the same. The Uncertainty caused them to press pause.
#UncertaintyTax#InfluenceAtWork - How much would you pay for $50 gift card at a local retailer that must used in two weeks. On average people were willing to pay $45. Now offer a lottery ticket with 50% chance of winning a $50 and 50% chance of winning $100 Gift card. We would expect the perceived value to go up or stay the same. In fact it dropped to $16.
To reduce the #UncertaintyTax at work, offer experiments and make bigger decisions reversible.