Superfreakonomics

Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

Levitt, Steven D./ Dubner, Stephen J. , Harpercollins ,2010

http://search.books.com.tw/exep/prod_search.php?cat=F01&key=SuperFreakonomics
http://www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010457865


Checked out this book from the library, can't stop the reading, interesting stories........

SuperFreakonomics

Author

Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Brief Summary

As the official sequel to Freakonomics, this book retains the core analytical tool of incentive economics and expands to bigger, more global and counterintuitive subjects that rarely appear in traditional economic textbooks.

The authors use real data, field research and behavioral analysis to unpack provocative questions: why street prostitutes earn more than architects, the hidden economic logic of hurricanes and climate change, how doctors’ flawed incentives lead to unnecessary medical harm, the strange link between suicide patterns and weather, the economics of drunk walking versus drunk driving, and unexpected ways to reverse global warming.

It rejects simplistic public consensus and emotional moral judgment. Every argument is backed by statistics to expose hidden trade-offs people ignore. Unlike the first volume focusing on daily micro social phenomena, this sequel adds large-scale environmental, medical and public policy topics, with sharper, more radical proposed solutions to major societal crises.

Reading Value

1. Extend incentive analysis to global, high-stakes issues

You learn to apply cost-benefit thinking not only to small personal matters but also climate policy, healthcare systems and public safety. It lets you see how flawed reward mechanisms trigger large-scale social harm.

2. Strengthen your ability to spot hidden risks the public overlooks

The book compares overlooked hazards (such as drunk walking being far more dangerous than drunk driving) to break intuitive bias. You will stop trusting surface-level safety claims and automatically dig up hidden costs behind every risk-related debate online or in news.

3. Build a data-driven mindset for controversial global topics

Many heated debates about climate, medicine and crime rely on emotional rhetoric. This volume trains you to demand empirical evidence before taking sides, making you less susceptible to one-sided viral opinions on Facebook and social platforms.

4. Master radical, practical problem-solving logic

Instead of repeating conventional mainstream solutions to social crises, the authors design unconventional, data-backed fixes. This encourages creative thinking: you stop sticking to standard answers and search for overlooked variables to solve personal, workplace or societal problems.

5. Improve cross-disciplinary integration skills

It combines economics, climatology, medical science, criminology and psychology in one narrative. You gain a unified analytical framework to connect knowledge across separate fields, expanding your cognitive boundary.

6. Cultivate neutral, non-moralistic judgment

The book avoids labeling behaviors as “good” or “evil.” It explains human choices as responses to surrounding incentives. After reading, you view controversial groups and social events with less prejudice and more objective reasoning.

7. Complement the complete Freakonomics reading system

It fills gaps the original book left in environmental and public health domains, forming a full set of behavioral economics thinking that you can reference when analyzing daily news, industry trends and personal decision-making long-term.