Quotes from Steven D. Levitt

Never, ever think that people will do something just because it is the "right" thing to do.

People are complicated creatures, with a nuanced set of private and public incentives, and that our behavior is enormously influenced by circumstances.

How are you supposed to get everyone to pull in the same direction when they are all pulling primarily for themselves?

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.

Los incentivos constituyen la piedra angular de la vida moderna.

Norma McCorvey ejerció en la criminalidad un impacto mucho mayor que la suma del control de armas, una economía fuerte y unas estrategias policiales innovadoras.

Porque no hay nada como la pura fuerza de los números para retirar capas de confusión y contradicción.

that number is 58 percent

The next time you're in a real jam, facing an important question that you just can't answer, go ahead and make up something—and everyone will believe you, because you're the guy who all those other times was crazy enough to admit you didn't know the answer.

No CEO in the world, therefore, is so delusional as to expect his employees to show up every day and work hard for no money. But there is one gigantic workforce asked to do exactly that. In the United States alone, they number nearly 60 million. Who is this massive, underpaid throng? Schoolchildren.

The opposite of fear is hope, defined as the expectation of good fortune not only for ourselves but for the group to which we belong. Fear is about limits; hope is about growth. Fear pushes away; hope pulls others closer. Fear divides; hope unifies.

El enfoque económico no pretende describir el mundo como cualquiera de nosotros quisiera que fuera, o teme que sea, o reza por que llegue a ser, sino más bien explicar lo que hay en la realidad. La mayoría de nosotros querría arreglar o cambiar el mundo de alguna manera. Pero para cambiar el mundo, primero hay que comprenderlo.

His best chance of doing so is to engage the public's emotions, for emotion is the enemy of rational argument.

Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. And understanding them—or, often, deciphering them—is the key to understanding a problem, and how it might be solved.

If you study the words in ads for a real-estate agent's own home, meanwhile, you see that she indeed emphasizes descriptive terms (especially "new," "granite," "maple," and "move-in condition") and avoids empty adjectives (including "wonderful," "immaculate," and the telltale "!"). Then she patiently waits for the best buyer to come along

Your argument may be factually indisputable and logically airtight but if it doesn't resonate for the recipient, you won't get anywhere.

The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's law'—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's.

Just Like Canada, with Better Bacon.

But one need not oppose abortion on moral or religious grounds to feel shaken by the notion of a private sadness being converted into a public good.

Could any man resist the temptation of evil if he knew his acts could not be witnessed?

maestros, criminales y agentes inmobiliarios pueden mentir, y también los políticos, e incluso los analistas de la CIA. Pero los números no.

If you are willing to confront the obvious, you will end up asking a lot of questions that others don't.

Government agents sardonically known as the Menstrual Police regularly rounded up women in their workplaces to administer pregnancy tests. If a woman repeatedly failed to conceive, she was forced to pay a steep "celibacy tax.

Don't Burn the Food (SDL) In a sample of thirteen African countries between 1999 and 2004, 52 percent of women surveyed say they think that wife-beating is justified if she neglects the children; around 45 percent think it's justified if she goes out without telling the husband or argues with him; 36 percent if she refuses sex, and 30 percent if she burns the food. And this is what the women think. We live in a strange world.