HW 9 - Freakonomics Response

In Freakonomics the authors address the issue of correlation versus causation in the way they would talk about how your name could cause people to judge you.  In the movie they did a test where they sent out job applications to companies using the most common white name which is Jake and the most common black name which I believe they said was Tyron.  What they found out was that the person with the name Jake was 33% more likely to get the job then the person with the name Tyron.  This in a way showed that since Jake was more of white person name the companies chose him over Tyron which is more of a black persons name.  This represents correlation versus causation because it is showing that they chose the person with the White sounding name and judged the person with the black sounding name.  So in a way the movie does prove that some correlation is causation.

The sources of evidence that the Freakonomics authors rely on is surveys I think.  I think this because in the movie when they went around asking people about names for black and white people that was all the evidence that they really used.  This is innovative because it really gives people a different way of thinking and really makes them wonder about these types of things.  I think that they could have used a more efficient way of getting evidence but it was good to see normal peoples responses to their questions.

I agree with the statement Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social practices.  I agree because it really shows that you cant tell much about someone unless you look into it.  For example with the sumo wrestler part of the movie.  They talked about how the sumo trainer had one of his sumo wresters killed and the police said he died of natural causes and there was no need for a autopsy.  But the mans father insisted that they did and they found out what really happened.  This just shows that until you look into the matter you wont really know the truth about the situation no matter how weird it is.