One of the themes running through Fooling Houdini that I like the most was the strong connection that Stone made between magic, con artistry, and even common business practices. Magicians have long been known for their ability to spot scams. After all, their profession is based on developing the ability to fool people. That is…
Is it difficult to push yourself each day to go to a boring job? If you are looking for a way out, consider how you got there in the first place. It may be that you chose that boring job over a more interesting one because you didn’t think alternative jobs would pay you enough for…
More than two-thirds of employers in the US are paying their obese employees in some form or another to lose weight. Some give health insurance discounts to employees based on target BMIs. Others literally dole out cold hard cash to overweight employees who meet weight loss targets. Employers are adopting these strategies because they work. At…
As someone who has been working in the field of behavioral economics for a couple decades now, I have long been aware of what psychologists call “the availability heuristic.” This was a phenomenon described by Kahneman and Tversky in some of their seminal research from the early 1970s. I recently came across a nice example…
Not long ago, I had the pleasure of reading Fooling Houdini, by Alex Stone. It is a marvelous book, part memoir about how his obsession with magic pulled him away from his career in physics, but also a wonderful explanation of the psychology of how magic works its wonders. Get rid of all those images…
Would you rather work in a stimulating, challenging job or a routine one filled with mundane repetition? Almost everyone would say they prefer the former. But a new study finds that people typically contradict themselves once salaries enter the decision. If the two jobs pay the same, people often opt to put out less effort, not more….
A recent article in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, my former hometown newspaper, made the kind of statement that is all too common in popular reporting on behavioral economics: “The idea that we humans are not that smart comes from behavioral economics.” Really? Behavioral economics discovered stupidity? Irrationality? The limits of human intelligence? That is…
McDonald’s has announced that it would no longer market junk food to kids and it’s going to include more fruits and vegetables in on its adult menu. The move came after another fast food joint, Burger King, rolled out the lower-calorie French fries it has dubbed “Satisfries.” Apparently, they are 20% healthier but “taste the…
In collaboration with several co-authors, including Peggy Liu – a marketing PhD student here at Fuqua – I just published a paper on how behavioral economics can help us think about better ways to combat obesity. Feel free to check it out. And feel free to send along your thoughts, too. Using Behavioral Economics to…
Fascinating new research sheds light on why so many people stick with dull jobs over trying something more exciting: They don’t expect to get paid enough to justify going after the more interesting options. Research into “effort aversion“ by Duke University Fuqua School of Business marketing professor Peter Ubel and David Comerford, an assistant professor at Stirling University found that in…