Preferences - do you have any?

Quick, tell me what your preferences are for food. Ok, at least think of things you like. 

What if I told you that you do not really have any preferences? What if I told you that your preferences are malleable depending on the circumstances and what you are being told at any given point in time? 

Yes, I know. You would be very angry with me. You would like to believe that you have a strong-willed mind, one that has opinions and likes and dislikes. 

Sorry to say, it is simply not true. 

Your "preferences" are an outcome of a series of events and circumstances that conspired to make you believe that you are the one with likes and dislikes.

In truth, our likes and dislikes are affected by a host of factors. I love Italian food. Pasta and pizza. I am a vegetarian. What do you think my son likes? 

My friend introduced me to Ethiopian food when I was studying in Michigan. It took one meal for me to include it in my list of preferences. 

Now, of course, you are arguing in your head and saying, but what if I had not liked the Ethiopian food? 

That is where it gets interesting. 

In the famous book Nudge, by Thaler and Sunstein, they narrate the story of how children started picking different foods and food groups, depending on how and where the food was displayed. 

Just changing the location of the food group could make people consume or avoid it. The same happens to us on a daily basis.

When we visit the grocery store, when we meet people and watch how they behave, and when we see images of chocolate dripping from a waffle.

So what you think are your preferences are actually choices based on what you experienced.

So what are you experiencing on a daily basis? What would you like to experience?

Whatever it is that you want, surround yourself with people, events, and content that reinforce what you want as your preferences. Hang around people who do not drink, for example. 

Happy Birthday to the best father in the world!! May you live another hundred.

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