Sendhil Mullainathan
at University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Sendhil Mullainathan’s [MUH-la-NAY-than’s] findings
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Box Two
at University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Most famous for his book Scarcity on how being poor hinders cognitive ability. He also researched discrimination in hiring and is co-founder of Ideas 42, a non-profit that uses behavioral science to solve social issues.
People Mullainathan
• Scarcity impedes unrelated tasks and keeps the poor poor.
Sendhil found that the cognitive ability of sugar cane farmers in India was much lower before their harvest period, when money was tight, than after. When under Scarcity, we're driven to focus on the now, as explained by Present Bias and Delay Discounting.
Be mindful of the cognitive tax placed on those in a stressed situation, using smart Defaults, shorter, well-chunked forms and reminders to reduce Analysis Paralysis.
“The tug of scarcity can be strong. But understanding its logic can minimize its negative consequences. We can go some way toward “scarcity-proofing” our environment.”
• We're unconsciously racist when hiring
Sendhil did a study on recruitment, where resumes were assigned either a very African American-sounding name or a very White-sounding name. The results showed strong discrimination: white names received 50% more interviews.
Unconscious bias can be reduced by putting systems in place to remove it. New companies, such as Applied are doing just this: removing the candidate’s personal details and allowing the recruiter to focus on the important information.
• Crime can be reduced with behavioral economics
Inspired by Daniel Kahneman's popularized Fast-and-Slow Thinking model, Sendhil co-authored a study on youth crime in Chicago. It found that promoting reflection on our automatic (System 1) thoughts on risky behaviors by encouraging use of our less spontaneous, more controlled System 2, total arrests dropped by 28-35% and violent crime arrests by 45-50%.
• Scarcity impedes unrelated tasks and keeps the poor poor.
Sendhil found that the cognitive ability of sugar cane farmers in India was much lower before their harvest period, when money was tight, than after. When under Scarcity, we're driven to focus on the now, as explained by Present Bias and Delay Discounting.
Be mindful of the cognitive tax placed on those in a stressed situation, using smart Defaults, shorter, well-chunked forms and reminders to reduce Analysis Paralysis.
“The tug of scarcity can be strong. But understanding its logic can minimize its negative consequences. We can go some way toward “scarcity-proofing” our environment.”
• We're unconsciously racist when hiring
Sendhil did a study on recruitment, where resumes were assigned either a very African American-sounding name or a very White-sounding name. The results showed strong discrimination: white names received 50% more interviews.
Unconscious bias can be reduced by putting systems in place to remove it. New companies, such as Applied are doing just this: removing the candidate’s personal details and allowing the recruiter to focus on the important information.
• Crime can be reduced with behavioral economics
Inspired by Daniel Kahneman's popularized Fast-and-Slow Thinking model, Sendhil co-authored a study on youth crime in Chicago. It found that promoting reflection on our automatic (System 1) thoughts on risky behaviors by encouraging use of our less spontaneous, more controlled System 2, total arrests dropped by 28-35% and violent crime arrests by 45-50%.
