University students were randomly paired up. Half the pairs were asked to make small talk, while the other half were given questions designed to build intimacy, such as "What does friendship mean to you?", "For what do you feel most grateful?", and "What one item would you save if your house was burning?". The intimacy exercise worked so well that one pair of participants got married.
If this happens to you, we would point you to our most popular post ever, Consult an economist before buying a wedding dress.
The book is a fascinating examination of the value of random trials in making data driven decision and arguments. Equally as interesting however is the author himself, with a background in law, economics and currently an Australian politician. I was surprised to see an economist using data to support the idea that companies paying higher taxes create more jobs than those paying lower taxes... https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/26/companies-that-pay-less-tax-create-less-jobs-labor-research-shows
ReplyDeleteAndrew Leigh resigned his university post and is now a member of Parliament in Australia!
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