Conventional Wisdom In Stephen D. Levitt's Freakonomics

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In the nonfiction novel, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt, and Stephen J.Dubner, the purpose is clearly given in the introduction. Using his extensive background in economics to disprove the stereotypical connections the human mind often makes, Stephen D. Levitt combines his talent for numbers with a unique perspective to produce a very different way of looking at the world. Intentionally, this allowed the readers to create a new trade of thinking. The true purposes of this novel are to prove that not all things happen for a reason, nor do they have to correlate, and to lead them to conclusions that reveal the unreliability of conventional wisdom.
Throughout the novel, the authors …show more content…
In today’s society, parents believe that the upbringing and success of a child is determined by factors of education, social status, and the neighborhood they live in, as well as where they stand financially. In all cases, the authors conclude that these theories of conventional wisdom are anything but the truth. For instance, the authors mentioned the example of the white and black boy. Unfortunately, in modern times, an individual may jump to the conclusion that the second boy ¨is the one who did not stand a chance¨ when in reality, Roland G. Fryer Jr., the second boy, is studying black underachievement at Harvard while Ted Kaczynski is serving his time in prison. Not only are people currently leading to incorrect conclusions, but they are also trusting the wrong people. It is conventional wisdom to think that a real estate agent is helping people for the best, but the authors proved that they have incentives of their own. It is also conventional thinking to assume that larger police forces are the answer to the decreasing crime rates, but the authors dug beyond these assumptions and lead to a conclusion that the legalization of abortion caused the minimizing amount of crime rates There is even a section of the book in which the authors share a common conventional thought, but then prove it to be wrong. For example, the author states one of the many examples, ¨Matters: The child’s parents speak English in the home. Doesn’t: The child’s parents regularly take him to museums.¨ (Levitt and Dubner, 172). Throughout the book, the authors proceed to prove that conventional wisdom is anything but accurate, and it is what is keeping the reader from producing their own, original ideas and
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CIA4U Chapter Summary

Book Review By: Samiksha Oberoi Part A: Economics is defined as the study of incentives and how people peruse them. Some incentives are so tempting that people will do anything in their power to accomplish them. The authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, use cheating as an example to prove their theory. Levitt devised a plan to analyze data to detect the incidence of cheating and the patterns that may have compelled cheaters. Two cases that were focused on were, a Chicago public school where…

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