By now, most of us have seen the toothless smile of Mr. Chris Shaw, the young feller from Missouri who found himself the sole winner of the 10th largest multi-state lottery jackpot to date in the US. His take: $258 million. ...
In a recent NY Times column, Robert Frank schools us on social transitivity, noting that some people can’t be better at something unless other people are worse at it. His core argument is that paying mediocre performers is...
Some very exciting news today. For the first time ever, Express Scripts has quantified the hidden healthcare costs of very common behaviors related to prescription drugs. We estimate that procrastination, forgetfulness, and other...
In a previous blog entry, I shared an interesting study by Thaler and Massey showing that teams with earlier draft picks seem to do worse than those with lower picks. Ugh! What’s going on? Thaler lists a number of...
Nudge guru Prof. Richard Thaler is at it again, digging up evidence of how bad we are at making decisions. This time he (and a Yale colleague) go after the NFL first-round draft, showing that pick order and “trade...
When James Carville was asked who he’d like to be reincarnated as, he said the bond market. If someone asked me that question this morning, I might say Apple. And the reason is laziness. I am a reasonably hardworking...
The Wall Street Journal reports on the emerging TV trend called “behavioral placement.” It’s an odd term, but is a reworking of the practice of product placement, in which a sponsor’s goods show up in the show. Behavioral...
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on an Express Scripts study of GlowCaps, an integrated system for monitoring and improving medication adherence. Why are we excited about this study? A few important reasons: Non-adherence...
I had the pleasure of speaking with Prof. Brian Wansink the other day. He’s the food genius who’s done all those funky experiments that remind me of something out of Willy Wonka (e.g., bottomless soup bowls). ...
Steve Jobs cranked up his technolust juggernaut yesterday by announcing what we Apple freaks have all been waiting for — the iPad tablet. (Even though I am not planning on buying one straight out of the gate, I am...
