Perception is not Reality!
Well, that's the impression I was left with after I read Steven Lewitt's Freakanomics!
Life is defined and played with Perceptions. Everybody, especially people in Marketing use it get people hooked! We pat ourselves when we realise that our perceptions are right. We take pride in it! But, is reality as seen by us always the truth? Some things stare you in the eye and maybe that's the reason they blur the truth..
Steven Lewitt delves into this theory and illustrates this with some hard numbers. Perceptions may lie, but facts and figures cannot! Atleast, that is an Economists perception :D
There were quite a few examples in Freakanomics where Steve shows this! There were a couple of examples that I really liked though, things that happened counter-intuitively!
Well, I am sure you are quite curious to know what they are, even otherwise I will say what I want to :)..Take a look at this.."Effect of Increasing a fine.. what does this bring to your mind".. more compliance? Generally yes probably, but not in all cases..For example, a daycare center in Israel increased the fine levied onto parents for picking their children late and it actually resulted in more violations! Totally against our perception and the reason was that parents actually felt "less guilty" about picking their kids late and actually did it more :) :)..
Decreasing crime rate in New York was one issue that was broached..common perception is that this is because of Giuliani's great leadership and reforms, but facts and figures show that it was on a rapid decline even before Giuliani took up office. Infact, the real reason behind the whole decline was "legalised abortion", which came in very handy for downtrodden, poor families! It was observed that children from such families were more prone to take up crime..less children of this kind, less crime! simple formula :)...
There's a lot more Steven talks about and I think it is better read than said..my hands are already aching :(..His book is surely worth a read!!
Life is defined and played with Perceptions. Everybody, especially people in Marketing use it get people hooked! We pat ourselves when we realise that our perceptions are right. We take pride in it! But, is reality as seen by us always the truth? Some things stare you in the eye and maybe that's the reason they blur the truth..
Steven Lewitt delves into this theory and illustrates this with some hard numbers. Perceptions may lie, but facts and figures cannot! Atleast, that is an Economists perception :D
There were quite a few examples in Freakanomics where Steve shows this! There were a couple of examples that I really liked though, things that happened counter-intuitively!
Well, I am sure you are quite curious to know what they are, even otherwise I will say what I want to :)..Take a look at this.."Effect of Increasing a fine.. what does this bring to your mind".. more compliance? Generally yes probably, but not in all cases..For example, a daycare center in Israel increased the fine levied onto parents for picking their children late and it actually resulted in more violations! Totally against our perception and the reason was that parents actually felt "less guilty" about picking their kids late and actually did it more :) :)..
Decreasing crime rate in New York was one issue that was broached..common perception is that this is because of Giuliani's great leadership and reforms, but facts and figures show that it was on a rapid decline even before Giuliani took up office. Infact, the real reason behind the whole decline was "legalised abortion", which came in very handy for downtrodden, poor families! It was observed that children from such families were more prone to take up crime..less children of this kind, less crime! simple formula :)...
There's a lot more Steven talks about and I think it is better read than said..my hands are already aching :(..His book is surely worth a read!!
posted by Vijay Challa | 11:55 AM
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