To give a brief overview of the non-fiction book "Freakonomics", it is about series of events with statistics that compares two things you would never think have any relation. Unlike economics, which some may argue is a dry and uninteresting topic, the authors, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner looks at the hidden side of everything using the tools of economic research.
The authors wrote the book to explore the hidden side of everything. Whether it is teachers and sumo wrestlers cheating, the authors found out there was cheating involved by looking at statistics. A message that was being conveyed in the book was incentives. Everyone has an incentive. As for the school teachers changing the students answers for the standardized test, their incentives is seeing a bonus pay.
The last chapter in the book is what I found really interesting. It was unbelievable how names can can be perceived in a negative way. There was an example where they sent out two identical resumes to employers; one with a white name and the other with a more african american name. It was proven that the white name received more calls back. This stood out to me because it is really unfair, and the term equal opportunity is very misleading.
The book is very easy to understand and good for those who do not read often. I highly recommend the book because it touches topics that are interesting and viewed at different perspectives.
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