You Are What You Choose: News and Reviews


	"Who buys Starbucks? Who is an early adopter? Who likes to gamble? This is the go-to book for answering these fascinating questions and many others." --Tyler Cowen, author of *Discover Your Inner Economist* "*You Are What You Choose* documents diversity in human decision-making. Demographics are important, but so are underlying qualities such as risk aversion, altruism, and loyalty. The authors develop this valuable insight with a wealth of fascinating, sometimes laugh-out-loud examples." --Philip Cook, co-author of *The Winner Take All Society* "In the world of slice-and-dice analysis of political and consumer behavior, De Marchi and Hamilton have found a new formula. This is an intriguing and important new path." --Peter D. Hart, Chairman of Peter D. Hart Research Associates "Ben Franklin would admire this book. Like *Poor Richard's Almanac, You Are What You Choose* distills a massive amount of knowledge into what will eventually be called common sense." --Sam Popkin, political consultant and author of *The Reasoning Voter* "From the last two presidential races to the marketing departments of every major company, data on individual decision-making is being used in unprecedented ways. An interesting and complementary read, *You Are What You Choose* lays out a compelling case for how six additional traits can take predictive analysis to a whole new level." --Vijay Ravindran, chief digital officer of The Washington Post Company Time How We Make Decisions Nov. 12, 2009 Jay Hamilton and Scott de Marchi have a lot in common. They are both professors at Duke University, they are roughly the same age, and they have the same number of children. And yet their consumption preferences are polar opposites. So the two professors developed a model to explain why seemingly similar people make vastly different decisions. Read more... US News & World Report Why Some People Go Green — and Others Don't: New research reveals the causes behind green consumerism November 17, 2009 Why do some people love the Toyota Prius, but others couldn't care less about driving a hybrid vehicle? Why do some of your friends spend hours trying to reduce their carbon footprint, while others wonder what's the point of even recycling? Read more... Small Business Trends Book Review: You Are What You Choose October 31, 2009 I keep thinking that it’s only a matter of time before my trips to the mall start resembling Tom Cruise’s experience in his movie Minority Report. In the movie, they use iris scan technology to identify their customer. But they haven’t quite mastered the art of engaging our hero enough to get him to actually walk into the store and buy something. Too bad the advertisers portrayed in the movie didn’t read “You are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions.” If they had, they might have made an appeal to Tom Cruise’s character that interested him, instead of just randomly inserting his name wherever it was convenient. Read more... Huffington Post When Political Ideas Have Costs November 3, 2009 Would the debate about health care reform end differently if Senators' own health care coverage were at risk? Right now talk and inaction are relatively cheap for US legislators, since their own health care plan will likely remain the same whether legislation is passed or not. Our research shows though that when political ideas have a cost, people on Capitol Hill are more likely to take action on important issues. Read more... Huffington Post Who's Likely to Stick with Obama? October 27, 2009 If President Obama were a product, what would it mean to be loyal to him? His job approval rating went from 62% in the second quarter of 2009 to 53% in the third quarter, a 9-point drop that ranks as the steepest reported decline for a newly elected President. Read more... Marginal Revolution You Are What You Choose November 6, 2009 Scott DeMarchi and James T. Hamilton have a new book out and the subtitle is The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions. I take this to be the key paragraph: It's called fast food, but your decision-making process in ordering a chicken sandwich can be incredibly complex. In the following section, we describe six core habits of mind that affect how you make decisions in all areas of your life. We call these TRAITS: Time, Risk, Altruism, Information, meToo, and Stickiness. Read more... True Slant How You Shop (or eat, or drive…) Has A Lot To Do With Your Support For The President October 28, 2009 A new book out November 12th from Duke University professors Scott de Marchi and James Hamilton makes the claim that if you study the decisions people make everyday–like how they shop, drive and eat—you can tell if they are likely to support the president, among other things. Read more... Minimum Rage Rage Book Review: You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions November 10, 2009 This scenario plays out every time the wife and I go food shopping. For this example, we’ll use peanut butter. Delicious, chunky peanut butter. Note the word chunky. Read more... EclectEcon On Buying Lottery Tickets and Insurance at the Same Time November 12, 2009 Last month I posted about the book *You Are What You Choose* by Scott de Marchi & James T. Hamilton. In that posting I invited the authors to respond to this puzzle: I know that many, many people buy lottery tickets (or gamble in other ways) and also buy insurance; i.e., people are risk averse and gamblers at the same time. I am hoping that the authors will explain this in their book (or possibly with a guest posting here). Here is the reply sent me this morning by Jay Hamilton: Read more... Blog Business World You Are What You Choose by Scott De Marchi & James Hamilton - Book review November 16, 2009 "Choice is at the crux of all social science, and it's a complicated body of research that a large number of very bright people have worked on", write Duke University political scientists and social science researchers Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton, in their highly accessible and research based book *You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions. The authors make a compelling case that what they term their TRAITS system, derived from their very extensive and groundbreaking research, is a powerful source methodology of why people make their many decisions. Read more... Sacramento Book Review* You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind that Really Determine How We Make Decisions November 9, 2009 *You Are What You Choose* is written by Duke University professors Scott De Marchi and James T. Hamilton. The authors use research to illustrate the patterns that underlie human decision making. To test their ideas, they administered subjective surveys to approximately 30,000 people, resulting in the discovery that there are six core traits that shape every decision we make. Read more (Technology Section, Page 2)...


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