Showing results by author "Sendhil Mullainathan" in All Categories

Why do successful people get things done at the last minute? Why does poverty persist? Why do the lonely find it hard to make friends? These questions seem unconnected, yet Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir show that they are all are examples of a mindset produced by scarcity. Drawing on cutting-edge research from behavioral science and economics, Mullainathan and Shafir show that scarcity creates a similar psychology for everyone struggling to manage with less than they need.

It’s Sunday night. You’re the deputy mayor of a big city. You sit down to watch a movie and ask Netflix for help. (“Will I like Birdemic? Ishtar? Zoolander 2?”) The Netflix recommendation algorithm predicts what movie you’d like by mining data on millions of previous movie-watchers using sophisticated machine learning tools.

Though they’re powerful predictive tools, algorithms can run amok if you don’t understand how to apply them.

Warum bleibt die Armut weltweit bestehen? Warum grassiert die Übergewichtigkeit? Warum haben es einsame Menschen schwerer, Freunde zu finden? All diese scheinbar unverbundenen Fragen beruhen auf dem Phänomen der Knappheit - ob an Zeit, Ressourcen oder sozialen Kontakten. Sendhil Mullainathan und Eldar Shafir begründen darauf eine neue Disziplin an der Schnittstelle von Ökonomie und Psychologie.