For my news writing class, I read a book on behavioral economics titled, Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely. It explained how individuals will often make irrational decisions because of seemingly insignificant factors. For example, Ariely, argued that people often don't know how to value goods and, consequently, will choose an item whose price is at the midpoint of all the others. He illustrated how restaurants can persuade diners to spend more by adding a few exceptionally expensive items to the menu not necessarily to sell but, instead, to increase the value of the median priced dish.
Following the themes presented in his book I created my own predictably irrational experiment. Here it is.
Students at the Stern School of Business are taught the
basics of economics, including monetary policy. Therefore I chose this group to test my hypothesis of
whether people who are generally knowledgeable about a policy proposal (in this
case a switch to the gold standard) will alter their opinion if they are told that it is supported by a
highly respected individual.
Over two days I questioned 40 Stern students in and around
the Kaufman Management Center on the topic of the gold standard. I chose this theme because it generally
maintains little support amongst business people and economists and,
consequently, my first round of questioning would provide a baseline with
plenty of room for change in opinion.
As it turned out, that is what happened. The first day I asked twenty people at
random the following question.
“Should the US revert back to the gold standard, that is should every dollar be backed by a specific amount of gold?”
“Should the US revert back to the gold standard, that is should every dollar be backed by a specific amount of gold?”
