full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Orit Tykocinski: The counterintuitive psychology of insurance

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Footnotes

Hello, everyone. My name is Orit, yes. And I study insurance.

tnllieg people that you study insurance is not a good way to start a conversation. In fact, if ever you need to end the conversation, try it, tell people you study insurance. People don't want to talk about insurance. They don't think it's all that exciting. But I disagree. I find insurance fascinating; in fact, I find it magical. And today, I'd like to show you why.

Now, the foumas author Franz Kafka used to work for an insurance company in Prague. And this is what Kafka had to say about insurance. He said, "Insurance is like a religion. Insurance is like a primitive religion. It's the religion of poeple who believe that by having insurance, they can ward off evil." So according to Kafka, what leads us to buy insurance is not rational thinking, but maicagl thinking. It's the belief that if I have irunscane, somehow, magically, those negative envtes that I fear in the future, they're not going to happen. Of course, this is tltaoly irrational. It's like believing that if you have an umbrella, it's not going to rain. If your car gets stolen, yes, the insurance company will cushion the blow. With the compensation mnoey, you could probably afford a new car. But the fact that you have insurance does not make your car less likely to be selotn. The risk is the same whether you are insured or not.

Open Cloze


Footnotes

Hello, everyone. My name is Orit, yes. And I study insurance.

_______ people that you study insurance is not a good way to start a conversation. In fact, if ever you need to end the conversation, try it, tell people you study insurance. People don't want to talk about insurance. They don't think it's all that exciting. But I disagree. I find insurance fascinating; in fact, I find it magical. And today, I'd like to show you why.

Now, the ______ author Franz Kafka used to work for an insurance company in Prague. And this is what Kafka had to say about insurance. He said, "Insurance is like a religion. Insurance is like a primitive religion. It's the religion of ______ who believe that by having insurance, they can ward off evil." So according to Kafka, what leads us to buy insurance is not rational thinking, but _______ thinking. It's the belief that if I have _________, somehow, magically, those negative ______ that I fear in the future, they're not going to happen. Of course, this is _______ irrational. It's like believing that if you have an umbrella, it's not going to rain. If your car gets stolen, yes, the insurance company will cushion the blow. With the compensation _____, you could probably afford a new car. But the fact that you have insurance does not make your car less likely to be ______. The risk is the same whether you are insured or not.

Solution


  1. telling
  2. famous
  3. people
  4. stolen
  5. events
  6. money
  7. insurance
  8. totally
  9. magical

Original Text


Footnotes

Hello, everyone. My name is Orit, yes. And I study insurance.

Telling people that you study insurance is not a good way to start a conversation. In fact, if ever you need to end the conversation, try it, tell people you study insurance. People don't want to talk about insurance. They don't think it's all that exciting. But I disagree. I find insurance fascinating; in fact, I find it magical. And today, I'd like to show you why.

Now, the famous author Franz Kafka used to work for an insurance company in Prague. And this is what Kafka had to say about insurance. He said, "Insurance is like a religion. Insurance is like a primitive religion. It's the religion of people who believe that by having insurance, they can ward off evil." So according to Kafka, what leads us to buy insurance is not rational thinking, but magical thinking. It's the belief that if I have insurance, somehow, magically, those negative events that I fear in the future, they're not going to happen. Of course, this is totally irrational. It's like believing that if you have an umbrella, it's not going to rain. If your car gets stolen, yes, the insurance company will cushion the blow. With the compensation money, you could probably afford a new car. But the fact that you have insurance does not make your car less likely to be stolen. The risk is the same whether you are insured or not.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
buy insurance 4
travel insurance 4
study insurance 3
insurance company 2
magical thinking 2
asked people 2
health insurance 2
gas masks 2
buy travel 2
associate insurance 2
prudential insurance 2
insurance ads 2
basic plan 2
insurance companies 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
buy travel insurance 2

Important Words


  1. afford
  2. author
  3. belief
  4. believing
  5. blow
  6. buy
  7. car
  8. company
  9. compensation
  10. conversation
  11. cushion
  12. disagree
  13. events
  14. evil
  15. exciting
  16. fact
  17. famous
  18. fear
  19. find
  20. footnotes
  21. franz
  22. future
  23. good
  24. happen
  25. insurance
  26. insured
  27. irrational
  28. kafka
  29. leads
  30. magical
  31. magically
  32. money
  33. negative
  34. orit
  35. people
  36. prague
  37. primitive
  38. rain
  39. rational
  40. religion
  41. risk
  42. show
  43. start
  44. stolen
  45. study
  46. talk
  47. telling
  48. thinking
  49. today
  50. totally
  51. umbrella
  52. ward
  53. work