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INSTRUCTOR'S GUIDE



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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Note to Instructors

3

Before You Begin

4

Expanded Activity

4

Chapter One: What Does It Mean to Think Like a Freak?

5

Chapter Two: The Three Hardest Words in the English Language

7

Chapter Three: What's Your Problem?

9

Chapter Four: Like a Bad Dye Job, the Truth Is in the Roots

11

Chapter Five: Think Like a Child

13

Chapter Six: Like Giving Candy to a Baby

15

Chapter Seven: What Do King Solomon and David Lee Roth Have in Common?

17

Chapter Eight: How to Persuade People Who Don't Want to Be Persuaded

19

Chapter Nine: The Upside of Quitting

21

Expanded Activities

23

Books in the Freakonomics Series

24

About the Authors

24

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NOTE TO INSTRUCTORS

The purpose of this instructor's guide is to provide additional opportunities for your students to understand and explore what it means to think like a Freak. This guide can be used in classrooms or study groups. Instructors can choose to use the provided materials for some or all chapters. The guide contains the following features: 1. Chapter Summaries. These brief summaries review the main ideas of each chapter. They can be used before

or after reading each chapter to preview (or review) the main ideas. 2. Discussion Questions. Each chapter is accompanied by several discussion questions designed to reinforce

the main ideas from the chapter. The questions can be used to guide group discussions or can be answered independently. 3. Activities. Activities for each chapter provide opportunities to apply thinking like a Freak to your students' lives. 4. Expanded Activities. Several expanded activities are included at the beginning and end of the guide. Expanded activities require creative thinking and application of the principles from throughout the book to solve problems, conduct research or share knowledge while thinking like a Freak.

This guide was prepared by: Melissa Birkett Greene, Ph.D. Northern Arizona University | K. Laurie Dickson, Ph.D., Northern Arizona University

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Consider asking your students to complete this expanded activity before they read the book. We think it will help them to get the most out of their reading and thinking.

EXPANDED ACTIVITY

The list below contains 6 key factors associated with thinking like a Freak. Before you learn about each of the factors by reading the book, write down what you think each of these statements means.

1. Be willing to say, "I don't know." 2. Ignore boundaries. 3. Think like a child. 4. Incentivize people, but don't manipulate them. 5. Get your garden to weed itself. 6. When facing a tough decision, flip a coin. After you finish reading the book, return to the list and modify your statements based on what you learned. Summarize how your thinking about problem solving has changed as a result of reading this book.

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1 CHAPTER ONE WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THINK LIKE A FREAK? CHAPTER SUMMARY

We are faced with questions everyday: Some are relatively easy to answer while others are complex and seemingly unanswerable. Problems that linger are typically challenging to answer. If they were easy problems, they would already be solved! Regardless of the size and complexity of a problem or task ahead of you, this book offers some advice on how to think!

Let's explore what it means to "think like a Freak." In many ways, thinking like a Freak encourages you to question everything, including things you already "know" to be true and even the very question you are asking. Scores of research studies have demonstrated that conventional wisdom is often wrong: just because people state something emphatically or believe it to be true; doesn't make it true. Similarly, just because two events are temporally related does not mean that one event or behavior caused the other event or behavior; correlation does not equal causality.

Thinking like a Freak involves approaching problems and issues from different angles with different expectations and without preconceptions and predetermined limitations. To do so, we need to rely on data to understand how the world works, learn how incentives impact behavior, understand how resources are allocated, and explore obstacles to those resources.

Sounds easy, right? If it is so easy and simple, why do so few people think like a Freak?

Well, humans are funny that way. Our biases influence our thoughts and behaviors so that we seek out evidence that confirms what we already think is true and discounts information that doesn't.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Given what you learned in this chapter, how would you describe what it means to "think Like a Freak"? Do you think like a Freak? Why or why not? Would you encourage others to think like a Freak? Why or why not?

2. If "Thinking Like a Freak" is so easy and simple, why do so few people think like a Freak?

3. Using the soccer example from Chapter 1, if you were taking a penalty kick, explain your strategy for kicking the ball. Does your explanation make sense to someone who is thinking like a Freak? Why or why not?

4. When faced with a problem, do people tend to act to support the greater good or focus more on private benefit? Why?

5. Where do people get their biases and "knowledge"? How do our interactions with family and friends reinforce our biases and "knowledge"?

6. Describe the economic approach. Do you tend to approach problems using this approach? Why or why not?

7. Imagine that you were charged with reducing the use of disposable plastic water bottles that Americans use. How would you use utilize the economic approach to solve this problem?

8. Why is it important to understand the role of specific incentives when trying to solve a problem?

9. People often do not want to challenge others' ideas, even if they have evidence that the ideas are incorrect, because it would be uncomfortable. Americans, more than others, tend to support the notion that people can have their own ideas. Why do you think this is the case?

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1

ACTIVITIES

1. Take a quick poll of your friends' and family members' position on one of the following current issues: global

warming, vaccination, abortion, gun control, prayer in school or car seats. How many have the same "answer"

or opinion? Did you observe any trends, consistencies or inconsistencies? Are your opinions similar or different

from your family and friends? Did you avoid picking any of these issues because of the strong opinions that

your family and friends have on these issues? Why do you think you did this?

2. In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias (or confirmatory bias) is a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. Provide an example when you engaged in this type of thinking and when you did not fall into the "trap" of confirmation bias. Now, think about these two situations, why do you think you fell into the "trap" of confirmation bias in one of the situations and not the other one? What factors influenced your thinking?

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2 CHAPTER TWO THE THREE HARDEST WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CHAPTER SUMMARY

"I don't know" are the hardest three words for adults to say. Why does it matter that people have trouble admitting that they don't know something?

If you already know the answer, you won't continue to look for an answer. Until you can admit what you don't yet know, it's nearly impossible to learn what you need to know, which can be a problem!

Our thinking about issues and problems is often influenced by our biases and our "moral compass," the internal thinking about the difference between right and wrong. Our moral compass can overshadow our understanding of the issue or problem at hand by convincing us that the answers are obvious. In a sense, assuming there is a clear distinction between right and wrong can prevent you from learning more about the issue because you think you already know it all!

Thinking like a Freak provides an approach to problem solving that minimizes the influence of biases and moral compasses. Thinking like a Freak involves answering questions, trying out new ideas, being open to feedback, and challenging prevailing orthodoxies partly because it results in more productive and creative answers to seemingly unanswerable questions. It is a little less scary to say "I don't know" if you follow that statement with "but maybe I can find out!"

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Explain Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous quote: "Everyone's entitled to their own opinion but not to their own fact." How did you respond to this quote? Did you agree with it? Why or why not?

2. Describe the findings from the global survey research that examined people's thoughts about whether or not the devil really exists. What evidence is presented to support the assertion that political or religious views influence people's beliefs about whether the devil really exists?

3. Why do Levitt and Dubner want you to "put away your moral compass"? How do you think your best friend would react if you encouraged her to put away her moral compass? How would you respond?

4. Explain the "no one left to blame" theory of suicide. What evidence supports this theory and what evidence does not? Have your biases or moral compass influenced your interpretation of the research?

5. Explain how an experiment would have helped the multinational retailer better understand the impact of the investment in US advertising.

6. Why do Levitt and Dubner encourage people to conduct experiments to help solve problems?

7. Provide some examples of issues/problems where a "true" experiment could not be conducted. Be sure to explain the reasons for your answer. If a true experiment couldn't be conducted, how could thinking like a Freak still help?

8. Explain the wine experiment. What made this an experiment? What were the findings?

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ACTIVITIES

1. Problems that we face today, such as climate change, terrorism, and mass shootings cannot be answered

by simply assembling facts; they require judgment, intuition, and an educated guess about how thing will

ultimately turn out. Thus, to address complex problems, we need to make educated predictions based on sci-

entifically verified facts. If everyone has access to the same scientifically verified facts, everyone should come

up with the same solution, right? Why or why not?

2. To highlight the influence that political views can have on people's opinions, list a couple of your opinions that may be sculpted by your political views. Next, talk with at least two people who have a different political affiliation than you. Are their opinions on those same issues similar to yours or different? Reflect on the role that political affiliation has on yours' and others' opinions? Summarize your experience with these conversations.

3. Given the tendency to want to protect our own reputation, people often perceive that the cost of saying "I don't know" is higher than the cost of being wrong--at least for the individual. Imagine that you are the CEO of a large corporation. Outline a strategy that you would use to counteract this tendency in your business.

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