For purposes of contrast, Professor List and his team then increased the attractiveness of the woman who asked for the money. The more attractive women (a "one standard deviation increase in attractiveness," in statistical terms) had as big a positive impact on giving in the range of 50 to 100 percent as moving from the least successful fund-raising method to the most successful.
This sounds like Stephen Levitt's boneheaded ideas are gaining currency in the academy. I considered getting a PhD in economics 15 years ago but found the math requirements too much of a hurdle. Maybe I should have pursued "freakonomics".
-- www.marxmail.org
