Why Do We Vote? So We Can Tell People We Voted
…friends or co-workers. The “suggestion” of that Swiss study has now been expanded upon, with experimentation, in a new working paper (abstract; earlier PDF) by Stefano DellaVigna, John List, Ulrike…
Also: Why do so many people feel lost in their 20s?…
For most of us, the athletes are what make sports interesting. But if you own the team or run the league, your players are essentially very expensive migrant workers who…
…friends or co-workers. The “suggestion” of that Swiss study has now been expanded upon, with experimentation, in a new working paper (abstract; earlier PDF) by Stefano DellaVigna, John List, Ulrike…
Kevin Kelly believes A.I. will create more problems for humanity — and help us solve them. He talks to Steve about embracing complexity, staying enthusiastic, and taking the 10,000-year view….
…John List and I wrote an academic piece about field experiments in businesses a few years back that focused on how partnering with businesses could help academics with their research….
John List, one of the heroes of SuperFreakonomics, is a master of clever field experiments concerning fairness and altruism. He is particularly adept at imbuing experiments, whether in the field…
In this busy time of year, we could all use some tips on how to get more done in less time. First, however, a warning: there’s a big difference between…
At 27 — and without a college degree — she was named chief technology officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Today, Marina Nitze is trying to reform the foster…
…any list I would have produced at the time. If the list-makers wrote up their picks, starting with those they thought most likely to win at the top, they didn’t…
The U.S. immigration system is a massively complicated machine, with a lot of worn-out parts. How to fix it? Step one: Get hold of some actual facts and evidence. (We…
Economists have a hard time explaining why productivity growth has been shrinking. One theory: true innovation has gotten much harder – and much more expensive. So what should we do…
In many ways, the gender gap is closing. In others, not so much. And that’s not always a bad thing.
…after the previous memo, confirming that “my man” (John Brown) was initiated into the Atlanta Klan. (click here to download the pdf) A memo from John Brown, dated Feb. 7,…
In many ways, the gender gap is closing. In others, not so much. And that’s not always a bad thing.
How did an affable 18th-century “moral philosopher” become the patron saint of cutthroat capitalism? Does “the invisible hand” mean what everyone thinks it does? We travel to Smith’s hometown in…
Humans have a built-in “negativity bias,” which means we give bad news much more power than good. Would the Covid-19 crisis be an opportune time to reverse this tendency?
Humans have a built-in “negativity bias,” which means we give bad news much more power than good. Would the Covid-19 crisis be an opportune time to reverse this tendency?
We tend to think of tragedies as a single terrible moment, rather than the result of multiple bad decisions. Can this pattern be reversed? We try — with stories about…
…list today doesn’t mean it’ll be off the list 10 years from now. Likewise, there are substances that athletes are doing right now that are perfectly legal that may be…
She’s the author of the bestselling book Grit, and a University of Pennsylvania professor of psychology — a field Steve says he knows nothing about. But once Angela gives Steve…
Steve Levitt has so far occupied the interviewer chair on his new show, but in a special live event — recorded over Zoom and presented by WNYC and the Greene…
Why do Americans tip so much? What happened when Angie eliminated grading in a college course? And why did almost every pay toilet in the U.S.A. vanish between 1970 and…
When you want to get rid of a nasty pest, one obvious solution comes to mind: just offer a cash reward. But be careful — because nothing backfires quite like…
Hospitals compete for prime spots on the U.S. News rankings — but could those lists be doing more harm than good?…
…Journal list to past lists, but I can’t find the list online and I didn’t happen to snip last week’s list out of the paper. 4. Or maybe, I thought,…
Also: is it better to “go with the wind” or to “be the wind”?
We explore votes for English, Indonesian and … Esperanto! The search for a common language goes back millennia, but so much still gets lost in translation. Will technology finally solve…
…was a bad situation for everyone, really. We have learned from it. Q. What has been the most surprising or unusual market you’ve listed? A. I guess when we listed…
A reader named John Grund wrote in to lament the relative unpopularity of Paul McCartney — relative, that is, to John Lennon. Grund bases his assumption on a Google Trends…
What’s the purpose of profanity? Why is cursing on the rise? And will Angela finally swear off swearing?…
