Steven D. Levitt

“There are three basic flavours of incentive: economic, social and moral.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“Few people think more than two or three times a year,” Shaw reportedly said. “I have made an international reputation for myself…

— Steven D. Levitt

“Keepers jump left 57 percent of the time and right 41 percent—which means they stay in the center only 2 times out…

— Steven D. Levitt

“[...]finding a few bad apples out of millions would be difficult. Our odds would improve if we could somehow trick the bad…

— Steven D. Levitt

“For emotion is the enemy of rational argument.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“When moral posturing is replaced by an honest assessment of the data, the result is often a new, surprising insight.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“Few people think more than two or three times a year,” Shaw reportedly said.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good.…

— Steven D. Levitt

“How selfish soever man may be supposed,” Smith wrote, “there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the…

— Steven D. Levitt

“But as incentives go, commissions are tricky. First of all, a 6 percent real-estate commission is typically split between the seller’s agent…

— Steven D. Levitt

“The brilliant rationalist had encountered a central, frustrating tenet of human nature: behavior change is hard. The cleverest engineer or economist or…

— Steven D. Levitt

“Government agents sardonically known as the Menstrual Police regularly rounded up women in their workplaces to administer pregnancy tests. If a woman…

— Steven D. Levitt

“So it may be that going to the hospital slightly increases your odds of surviving if you’ve got a serious problem but…

— Steven D. Levitt

“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…

— Steven D. Levitt

“When you ask the question differently, you look for answers in different places.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“The evidence linking increased punishment with lower crime rates is very strong.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“The swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“It's easy to let your biases—political, intellectual, or otherwise—color your view of the world. A growing body of research suggests that even…

— Steven D. Levitt

“[...]the best way to get what you want is to treat other people with decency.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“But as history clearly shows, most people, whether because of nature or nurture, generally put their own interests ahead of others’. This…

— Steven D. Levitt

“A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.”

— Steven D. Levitt

“When Al Gore urges the citizenry to sacrifice their plastic shopping bags, their air-conditioning, their extraneous travel, the agnostics grumble that human…

— Steven D. Levitt

“The best way to increase wolves in America, rabbits in Australia, and snakes in India is to pay a bounty on their…

— Steven D. Levitt

“It was Klan custom, for instance, to append a Kl to many words. (Thus would two Klansmen hold a Klonversation in the…

— Steven D. Levitt

“An expert whose argument reeks of restraint or nuance often doesn't get much attention.”

— Steven D. Levitt