1/11/2024 0 Comments Ulysses meaningPsychologically, the Ulysses Pact works by acknowledging that human beings are often less than completely rational. And so, during times of calm rationality, we spend a few minutes of tedious work and set up an automated system to pay our bills and invest a little each month. ![]() Still, at our best, we know that paying our bills on time and saving for retirement are important, meaningful goals. Or how tempting it can be to spend that extra commission money from this month’s paycheck on a new iPhone instead of putting it into a savings account. We all know how easy it can be to forget to pay a bill among the endless todos of daily life. How The Ulysses Pact WorksĪlso known as a commitment device, The Ulysses Pact is a technique from behavioral psychology that allows us to make a choice in the present that binds us to or “lock us in” to an action or decision in the future, usually by means of a structured system of external constraints or incentives.Ī common example of a Ulysses Pact in regular life is setting up automatic bill pay or investment contributions. ![]() And because he’s been bound to the mast of his ship, Ulysses will get to do what no man before him had ever managed-to hear the beautiful sirens’ song and live to tell the tale.Īs a psychologist and former student of literature, it’s fascinating to see how one of the great moments in the western literary canon became the inspiration for one of the great techniques in psychology and behavioral science: The Ulysses Pact. The dilemma Ulysses faces is that he desperately wants to experience the beauty of the sirens’ song but also avoid their enchantment.įortunately, the witch Circe advises him to plug his mens’ ears with wax and instruct them to bind him to the mast of his ship, only releasing him once they’ve sailed past the sirens’ island.īecause of the wax earplugs, his men will be immune to the enchanting song of the sirens, allowing them to sail past the island successfully. ![]() In Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Ulysses and his men must sail past the Sirens, beautiful women who sing such enchanting songs that any man who hears their voice will become so captivated that they cease to act rationally and will do nothing but sit and listen to the sirens’ song and eventually die.
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