Question 1

Play Social Scientist for Two Days [40 points]

As discussed in the introduction to Predictably Irrational, Ariely’s initial interest in examining many of the topics found in the book comes from his own personal experiences and day-to-day life. More generally, research questions for many social scientists originate from simply looking around in the social, political, and economic world that we inhabit. Over the course of a two-day period, we would like you to keep track of your activity using a notebook or anything else that you like. Where do you go, who are you with, what do you do? As you’re compiling this log, try to start thinking about these events and occurrences through the lens of social science. Where do you see variation? Is that variation interesting to you – is it likely to be interesting to others? Why (or why not)? What might explain that variation?

For your actual diary submission, pick three events/activities that happened during your two-day tracking period and for each of them: (1) provide a brief description of the event/activity (i.e., give us some context as to what was going on), (2) extract and identify the research question (or questions) from that event/activity, (3) make an argument as to why this is something that might be interesting or worth studying (i.e., why should we care about the question), and (4) provide some speculation about potential answers to your question.

Question 2 (40 points)

Everything is Relative – or is it? [40 points]

Think about your day-to-day life in consideration of Ariely's statement that we often only know the value of something, know what we want, etc. when we see certain things in relation to others. Are you really such a relativist, or do you feel that you're at all better grounded in reality? Provide an example of your evaluation of the monetary value of some good that you have purchased or have considered purchasing. Did you think very much about the item's value? How did you decide what it was worth? Are you happy that you did or did not make this purchase? Was it a rational decision? Next, think about an instance in which you have decided between two alternatives that were both appealing but for different reasons. How did you decide between these two? Was there any contextual information, or were there any further alternatives, that might have influenced your decision? Are you happy to have chosen as you did? Was this a rational decision?

Question 3 (40 points)

Motivating Data [40 points]

The driving motivation behind Wheelan’s book (and this course) is that it is important for you to be “data literate.” That is, in today’s world, there is so much information that those who are not able to make even a bit of sense out of it will be at a considerable disadvantage compared to those who can. We’d like you to spend some time documenting whether your own day-to-day experiences are consistent with this argument. In other words, you’re going to be gathering some data on how important it is to be data literate. In the vein of Question #1, spend a couple of days and keep track of how often quantitative data and statistics are involved in your life. After you’ve done this, please write a response about what you observed. Things you should talk about include: (1) How often did data actually come up? (2) What were some examples? (3) Did you expect to find more or less than you did?

Question 4 (30 points)

Descriptive Statistics and You [30 points]

Think of an example of the role that descriptive statistics play in your own life, other than in sports, grade point averages, or any of the other examples that Wheelan discusses. What does this statistic seek to describe, how is it constructed, and how is it put to use? How successfully does the statistic capture the facts that it seeks to describe? In what ways is it successful, and in what ways does it fall short? Are there any alternative descriptive statistics that might be preferable, or that complete the picture painted by this statistic?