Freakonomics HW 9

Through out the movie the sources used/ relied on where statistics and surveys taken by researchers. One main survey was taken in the streets an researchers asked random pedestrians what they thought about certain topics such as the typical white and typical black names and how that affected some one's future.

Another tool that was used was bribery, researchers when to a high school and told a group of 900 9Th graders that if they maintained a c or higher they would receive 50 dollars a month. At the end of this "experiment" it was found that only 5- 7% of 9Th graders accomplished what was being asked of them. Another tool used was explaining and examine the data in order to find patterns. Such as when they were explaining sumo wrestling people started noticingcheating and in order to figure out how the cheating was occurring they checked the data of the wrestlers. After checking and evaluating the data of the wrestlers researchers found that sumo wrestlers who where already in the final rounds would let a wrestler who only needed one win, to make it into the finals, win the match in order to move on.

Statement: I agree that freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the hidden in plain sight weirdness in our society. Freakonmics used experiments and bribes such as giving a 3 yr old m and m's every time she used the toilet and giving students 50$ a month to keep there grades up. These experiments/ bribes where a great way to help explore the hidden secrets of business and teenagers. With business and corporations if the outcome results in a good income everyone is willing to work and put their part in, and they soon find ways around the outcome to get a better income such as the 3 yr old did in the movie.

This applies to our food unit because franchises such as McDonald's bribes everyone to like them by having a popular mascot that blinds customers from wondering why the food taste so good, and how the food is made.

It'd be interesting to see if researchers paid a group of people not to eat McDonald's for a month how many people would actually do it, and if having a break from McDonald's would change anyones food habits in the future.