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| Visions & Revisions |
Unconventional Wisdom
07/01/2005
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It might seem strange, but as divisive as our
discussion of this topic may seem, in the end I think it is unifying. The point
we come to is that we should try to do what we can to keep unwanted children
from growing up unwanted. Abortion, I think we can all agree, is one of the
least effective ways of doing that.
Are you concerned that either side in the abortion debate might want to use
these findings to further its agenda?
This is actually one finding that no one wants to use. There is no one who
likes the fact that abortion reduces crime. It outrages those who are pro-life.
I agree completely that if abortion is murder, then the focus on homicides that
stem from legalized abortion is ludicrous. On the other side, if you think that
a woman’s right to choose is paramount, who cares whether or not a few lives
would be saved here or there by legalized abortion. It is just not important.
Our analysis was not really about abortion at all. It was about crime, and maybe
unwantedness.
You state that “incentives are the cornerstone of modern life.” What do you
mean by that?
We mean that in our every activity, almost from birth, there is
an incentive scheme out there that rewards certain kinds of behaviors and
punishes other kinds of behaviors. There are financial incentives and moral
incentives, but it goes far beyond that. Our basic premise is that people do the
best they can to get the most they can for themselves. They do that by
responding to the incentives that are presented to them in ways that generally
make sense. If you can identify the incentives a person has, that is about as
good a baseline for predicting behavior as you are going to find.
You specifically examine the incentives that lead Chicago school teachers,
white-collar workers who eat bagels and sumo wrestlers to cheat. Based on your
findings, does everyone cheat?
I think our view of human nature is not that people are good or bad; it is
that people are sometimes good and sometimes bad. It all depends upon the
incentives they face. We find that sumo wrestlers, white-collar workers buying
bagels and elementary school teachers will all cheat sometimes. But then again,
many times they won’t cheat. What we try to do in each case is to use data that
were collected for completely different purposes to lay bare hidden behaviors in
these three groups.
In another chapter, you note the similarity between the organizational chart
of McDonald’s and that of a Chicago crack gang. Which organization operates more
efficiently?
They do have the same structure, and in fact, many of the same kids who are
selling drugs for the gang are working at McDonald’s at the same time. But I
think without question McDonald’s is the more efficient of the two. It has the
advantage of not having to carry out its activities in a clandestine
manner.
The other difference that makes the gang less efficient is that the
best way to move up in the gang is to kill your superior and take over in a
violent manner. There are more humane ways of promotion in McDonald’s that make
it a more efficient operation.
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