Freakonomics Experiments has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.
We’ve already had more than 15,000 coin tosses.
The single most popular question: “Should I quit my job?”
There also seem to be a whole lot of troubled relationships out there. But not many people agonizing over whether to grow a beard.
Here’s Tim Harford’s take on the project in a cleverly written Financial Times piece.
We all face big choices from time to time. Which college to choose? Should I break up with my girlfriend? Should I quit my job? Should I dye my hair blond?
Sometimes the decisions are easy and obvious. Other times, no matter how much you think about it, no clear answer emerges. Your life might be very different depending on what path you take, but you just can’t tell which choice will leave you better off.
If you find yourself in that kind of bind, we are launching a new website today, www.FreakonomicsExperiments.com, that just might be your savior.
If you’ve heard our podcast “The Upside of Quitting,” you’ll know that we think that strategic quitting has its place. A new paper looks at the peer effects of quitting. From the introduction:
Quitting is an important issue but its determinants have not received extensive research. Quitting lets an individual benefit from alternative opportunities but it usually also has costs, either monetary or moral, or both. There are also many reasons to believe that quitting is affected by social interactions and by observing others’ quitting decisions. This is particularly the case when thinking about quitting addictive behavior.
The researchers paid 104 undergrads to work for up to 75 minutes: a compulsory 15 minute followed by 60 minutes in which the participant could stop working at any time. Researchers Julie Rosaz, Robert Slonim, and Marie Claire Villeval found that if workers are not alone and allowed to interact with each other, they are more prone to quit at the same time:
I realized I had been a bit misleading. I looked at my blog post “Ten Reasons You Need to Quit Your Job,” I realized that I said 90% of people “should” quit their jobs and I gave 10 reasons for recognizing if now is the right time for you to leave. But that’s a little different than saying, you have to quit right now.
But the reality is, most people need to begin their exit strategy right now.
So here are the 10 reasons you need to quit your job right now. And below that I have the methods for doing it.