The Republicans said no to a wide range of presidential primary hopefuls, instead settling on Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton has all but won the Democratic nomination, but only after a significant challenge by self-described...
Category - Social norms
When my oldest son, Robert, landed a full-time job as a customer service agent at a local consumer electronics company, we went out to dinner to celebrate his success. When we ordered, the server said, “That’s...
It’s clear that being fat has gotten cheaper along almost every dimension: calories cost less, unhealthy calories cost much less, food preparation costs have plummeted, some of the most costly health effects of being fat...
The FDA’s new anti-smoking campaign is getting kudos for a savvy approach that proponents say is likely to be more effective among teens than previous attempts. The campaign seems to leverage three key psychological...
Ford is running a (pretty funny) campaign centered on the idea that “and” is better than “or.” In the ad below, for example, Ford asserts that their Fusion hybrid gets better mileage AND looks better than...
The folks at the New York Times are either super lucky, or they have a keen understanding of how to apply behavioral economics. Earlier this year, the New York Times began putting the majority of its content behind a “pay...
I gotta admit, G and I have been totally out of the Groupon loop. But a company that turns down billions from Google and plans an IPO with an implied valuation in the $20B range deserves a bit more attention. Other than...
Good old (well, new) khakis are hitting the streets for more than $500, and Eric Wilson of the New York Times wants to know why. After all, economic times are a bit dicey, so it would seem hard to justify five Cs on pants. But...
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...
Jay Leno announced way back in 2004 that he would step down from The Tonight Show and hand the keys over to Conan O’Brien. (Watch for yourself.) This is pre-commitment on an impressive time frame — five years in...
