This presentation contains 6 questions which are answered for last round of Freakonomics competition in the technical fest - Innovision of our college NSIT, University of Delhi

1. Team- Tushar, Nitin and
Nilayan Das Gupta
NSIT, University of Delhi

2. Why do you press harder on the
buttons of a remote control when
you know the batteries are dead?

5. • It Works!- Even though people don’t know the scientific
theory behind it.. More pressure on the switch can
reduce the contact resistance a little, thereby reducing
the voltage drop across the switch by a very small
amount.
• Behavioral conditioning -Probably because back in the
day, a remote might have acted like the batteries were
dead, but in fact the button was just missing the spot it's
supposed to hit on the circuit board in the remote.
• Laziness- Watching television discourages brain activity,
and often makes people very lazy, not wanting to go to
shop
• Denial- Our brains believe that there are a few more
clicks left and that the possibility of the batteries going
dead can't possibly happen in real life.
• It’s light years away You see, remote controls don't
usually need the batteries replaced as much as any
other battery powered device in our home because it
only get used when we are changing channels or
adjusting the volume.
• Anger- Frustrated that the remote is not working in
general, and the current channel is boring/ irritating
• For example, someone waiting for an elevator might
press the button multiple times in frustration, - time and
efficiency

6. Is it more likely that a tall CEO is
more successful? Does height
equal power?

7. average CEO in the U.S. is 6' while the average man in the U.S. is 5'9". 30% of CEOs are 6'2" or taller. Hollywood
has also courted the tallest. Will Smith who has achieved success like few is 6'2". Old Hollywood Gregory Peck was
6'4". Clint Eastwood is 6'4". Pierce Bronson (of 007 fame) is 6'2". No short bond men ever! Keanu Reeves is 6'1"

8. Statistically speaking, the taller you are, the more money you make. Each inch is worth about
$789 more per year. Someone who is six feet tall is expected to earn $5523 more per year
than someone who is 5-feet-five.

9. • Le Gourmet Gift Basket CEO Cynthia McKay wears 3-inch heels even though she's 5-foot-
9 in bare feet.
• Why? For the same reason that 6-foot-3 Don Peebles, CEO of The Peebles Corporation,
the nation's largest African-American-owned real estate development company, puts his
hand on the shoulder of shorter adversaries and crowds into their personal space when
negotiating a key deal.
• A 2005 study in Finland found that baby boys who were taller than average by their first
birthday earned more 50 years later. The last U.S. president who was shorter than the
average man was 5-foot-7 William McKinley 106 years ago.
• "If someone can't look me in the eye when they make a statement, or are passive, I
downplay their credibility,
• Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania argue, based on their research, that tall men
who were short in high school, earn like short men, while short men who were tall in high
school, earn like tall men. Arianne Cohen, author of [external link] The Tall Book, says that
tall people are 90% more likely to ascend to the CEO chairs of Fortune 500 companies. And
the preference applies equally to female executives as to males, with the average height of
prominent female CEOs being 5'9".
• With height, you can intimidate people, by directly looking in the eye
• Height gives confidence
• It is always connected to being better, phrases like “scaling new heights”, “towering”
A survey of Fortune 500 CEO height in 2005 revealed that they were on average 6 feet (183 cm) tall, which
is approximately 2-3 inches (7.5 cm) taller than the average American man. Fully 30% of these CEOs were
6 foot 2 inches (188 cm) tall or more; in comparison only 3.9% of the overall United States population is of
this height.

10. Why is it that when men and
women ride in cars together, men
are far more likely to drive?

11. A poll of 3,000 readers of an Australian magazine revealed only 15 per cent felt
comfortable letting their wives or girlfriends drive the car.
About half of respondents pointed out that their partners drive poorly and
many admitted they were embarrassed seeing their partners drive
----They usually maintain it, and are possessive about the it
----Lack of remembering places
----Comment heavily, hence, even women want them to drive to save all the
bickering

12. The data says women are more likely than men to be involved in car accidents on
a per mile driven basis (it’s a U.S. study). Men, apparently, have quicker reflexes
and, as a group, have superior spatial perception skills to women.

13. The data says women are more likely than men to be involved in car accidents on
a per mile driven basis (it’s a U.S. study). Men, apparently, have quicker reflexes
and, as a group, have superior spatial perception skills to women.
However, the bad new is-- When men do get in
accidents, they are flat-out dangerous
compared to women. Men are far, far more
likely (by 50-100 per cent) to be in crashes
involving loss of life.

14. Why Kolaveri di sensation had
gripped the country's
imagination?

15. India’s Biggest Ever Viral HIT

18. • Money isn’t everything: Kolaveri is a great example of how
promoting a song is done. And it doesn't involve huge
budgets. Try to make fans, not earn them.
• Have a great product: If Kolaveri wasn't entertaining, it
would have flopped. Make a VOW product first.
• KISS- Keep it simple, and stupid. The video isnpite of being
unprentitious, unlike your Shiela or Chameli associated
with most Hindi movies. Something clicked.
• Touchhearts: Associate emotion, people's emotion with
product. And make it real, not those love-making nights in
Paris but non-sensical lyrics and the foot tapping music.
• Have an idea that connects: Apart from emotion, and song
gave us lingo- Soup Boys (love fail), bouw you(rejected),
life reverse gear. Something pan Indian.
• Use other what other's don't know. Indian media has
always failed, using social media. It taught us something to
use for free.

19. Why do people have fewer
children as they get richer?

20. Larry Jones and Michele Tertilt and their paper “An Economic History of Fertility in the
U.S.: 1826-1960” *ungated version], which shows that as the U.S. got richer over time,
fertility fell.

21. -The Economists

22. • As people become more educated they grow richer
and have less interest in family and settling down and
focus more on increasing their exploits and riches.
• Children are looked upon by the poor as a type of
investment which will reap dividends once they
mature
• The poor also have a sense of longing to accomplish
great feats and end up believing that what they
couldn't do in their life would eventually be done by
their children
• According to the rich the poor appear to inferior goods
while their evolved choice increasingly involves the
desire for ultra worldly pleasures.
In a related paper, Alice Schoonbroodt and Michele Tertilt say that, “There is overwhelming
empirical evidence that fertility is negatively related to income in most countries at most
times.” They are right. Whether you cut the data across countries, through time, or across
people at a point in time, the same fact arises: The richer you get, the fewer kids you have.

23. Is Paying Students to Perform
more likely to enhance grades?

24. As you may have read on this blog, the economist Roland Fryer has done quite a bit of
research on bribing kids — i.e., offering financial rewards for good grades. A new
working paper from Josh Angrist, Philip Oreopoulos and Tyler Williams examines the
effect of financial rewards on performance among an older cohort: college students.
First- and second-year college students in Canada were offered cash rewards for
grades above 70 and were also contacted by upperclassmen advisers “trained to
provide advice about study strategies, time management, and University?
bureaucracy.” The authors found that “[t]he intervention increased the number of
courses graded above 70 and points earned above 70 for second-year students, but
there was no significant effect on overall GPA. Results are somewhat stronger for a
subsample that correctly described the program rules.” Their findings are consistent
with previous research indicating that the incentives are less successful for older
children.

25. Pay Day in School
At the Burroughs Education Center in Washington DC, students get paid on the basis of metrics like
attendance, behavior, tests and class work. The school is part of a larger experiment to learn whether
incentivizing students with money leads to improved academic performance. -Times

26. Study by Harvard economist named Roland Fryer-
Vouchers
At the Takoma Education Campus, also in Washington, students line up to get their payment
vouchers. The study met with different results in each city. In Washington, one of the more
interesting findings was that boys responded particularly well to the financial incentive.
According to Fryer, this is contrary to other reforms, which tend to help girls more.

27. The kids reported doing different things with the money. Some said they were
saving for college, while others used it to buy clothes or candy. One student at
Takoma recently earned $95, her highest check ever. When asked how she did it,
she replied, "I tried my hardest." But what about working hard for the love of
learning? "Honestly," she says, "We are kids. Let's be realistic."