I like the color red. When people around me wear red, it makes me happy—when they wear any other color, it makes me sad. I crunch some numbers and tell myself, “People wear red about 15% of the time, but they wear blue 40% of the time.” I campaign for increasing the amount that people wear red, but my campaign fails miserably.
“It’d be great if I could like blue instead of red,” I tell myself. So I start trying to get myself to like blue—I choose blue over red whenever possible, surround myself in blue, start trying to put blue in places where I experience other happinesses so I associate blue with those things, etc.
What just happened? Did a belief or a preference change?
I like the color red. When people around me wear red, it makes me happy—when they wear any other color, it makes me sad. I crunch some numbers and tell myself, “People wear red about 15% of the time, but they wear blue 40% of the time.” I campaign for increasing the amount that people wear red, but my campaign fails miserably.
“It’d be great if I could like blue instead of red,” I tell myself. So I start trying to get myself to like blue—I choose blue over red whenever possible, surround myself in blue, start trying to put blue in places where I experience other happinesses so I associate blue with those things, etc.
What just happened? Did a belief or a preference change?
You acquired a second-order desire, which is a preference about preferences.