Obligatory TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_con

Obligatory TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_o... Countries with low organ donation rates are simply countries where the box isn't checked by default, and in countries with high organ donation rates the box IS checked by default. Basically the decision of whether or not to donate your organs is such a complex decision that the majority of people do not waste the mental resources on it and just go with or justify the default choice. edit: if anyone is interested in cognitive biases and heuristics, wiki Daniel Kahneman. Only psychologist to win a Nobel Prize (was for Economics). Also heuristic mentioned in the original link is an example of Anchoring & Adjustment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_and_adjustment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_and_adjustment