Every FreakOnomics article maps to one of six recurring themes. Each is a different way of asking the same question: what is the hidden structure beneath the surface?
How real people deviate from the rational-actor model — and what those deviations are worth to anyone designing a choice environment. Covers prospect theory, loss aversion, anchoring, and the zero-price effect.
3 articles →
The structural reasons markets behave strangely — asymmetric information, captive audiences, auction dynamics, and the difference between price and value.
2 articles →
Reading data honestly — base rates, survivorship bias, the charts that mislead, and the numbers that look meaningful but aren't. Coming soon, with visualizations throughout.
2 articles →
How defaults, auction design, and regulation quietly engineer the choices available to entire populations. Choice architecture at the scale of nations.
2 articles →
The hidden economics of buffets, tipping, Black Friday, and airport water — the everyday transactions that carry surprising structural logic.
4 articles →
The systematic errors — sunk costs, the winner's curse, game-theoretic traps — that compound over a lifetime. How to see them and what to do about them.
2 articles →