Isaac Bashevis Singer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote across many genres, including children’s books. In an essay called Why I Write for Children, he explained the appeal. Children read...
In a medical study, it turned out that obstetricians in areas with declining birth rates are much more likely to perform cesarean-section deliveries than obstetricians in growing areas—suggesting that...
If you really want to persuade someone who doesn’t wish to be persuaded, you should tell him a story.
If asked how we'd behave in a situation that pits a private benefit against the greater good, most of us won't admit to favoring the private benefit. But as history clearly shows, most people, whether...
If almost all letters have stamps, then the benefit of checking each one with 100 percent accuracy is infinitesimal, so it makes sense to let some unstamped letters through.
Human beings aren't the most candid animals on the planet. We'll often say one thing and do another—or, more precisely, we’ll say what we think other people want to hear and then, in private, do what...
How selfish soever man may be supposed, Smith wrote, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though...
For every extra year a young person was exposed to TV in his first 15 years, we see a 4 percent increase in the number of property-crime arrests later in life and a 2 percent increase in violent-crime...
El 28% de las mujeres de la página web declaraban ser rubias, un número bastante superior a la media, lo cual indica grandes dosis de tinte, de mentira, o de ambos.
Décadas de estudios han demostrado que un niño que nace en un entorno familiar adverso tiene muchas más probabilidades de convertirse en un delincuente.
But in both instances, the dissemination of the information diluted its power. As Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote, Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.
But if you are told that you have a 10 percent chance of dying within the next year, you might worry a lot more, perhaps even choosing to live your life differently. And if you are told that you have...
A veces, a los políticos les gusta pensar como economistas y utilizan incentivos económicos para fomentar la buena conducta. En los últimos años, muchos gobiernos han empezado a basar sus impuestos de...
«La disposición de causas y consecuencias de este mundo es tan inescrutable que un impuesto de dos peniques sobre el té, aplicado injustamente en una parte aislada, cambia la condición de todos sus ha...
You cannot solve tomorrow’s problem if you aren’t willing to abandon today’s dud.
Prohibir a los médicos llevar corbata, porque, como ha observado el Departamento de Salud del Reino Unido, «se lavan muy de vez en cuando», «no tienen ningún efecto beneficioso en la atención al pacie...
Podría sugerir que la moral representa el modo en que a las personas les gustaría que funcionase el mundo, mientras que la economía representa cómo funciona éste en realidad.
Ofrecer a los donantes de órganos incentivos como «amnistía fiscal, seguro de enfermedad garantizado, becas universitarias para sus hijos, depósitos en sus cuentas de jubilación, etcétera.»
Los experimentos de laboratorio tienen el poder de transformar a una persona en «un autómata estúpido» que puede manifestar una «entusiasta disposición a ayudar al investigador de todas las maneras po...
It is even harder to persuade people who do not wish to be persuaded.