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1 Dec, 5 tweets, 3 min read
A thread of cool papers showing odd unintended consequences of generally good ideas, starting with the fact that car seats saved lives, but also discouraged families from having more than 2 children, since they couldn't fit more than 2 seats in a car! 1/n
When smoking bans are implemented in bars and restaurants, smokers drink more instead, leading to 4% more fatal drunk driving accidents in areas where there a lot of smokers. (Though benefits of smoking bans likely outweigh costs) 2/n
Pokemon Go led to far more deaths than Grand Theft Auto. In fact, violent video games (and movies) decrease crime because people stay in to play, rather than going out where there might be issues. 3/n
The Sicilian Mafia grew out of the attempts to cure scurvy... 4/n
Being able to shop from your phone is good for brands, but has unintended consequences for their uniqueness. Once-distinctive logos are being eroded to look similar and boring and sans-serif-y so they can be read on small screens. Images from @JoRoan & @OHnoTypeCo 5/n ImageImage

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More from @emollick

Ethan Mollick Profile picture
4 Dec
Avoid jerks; civility wins in organizations. If you're civil, your coworkers are 59% more likely to share info, employees work 71% harder, and health and well-being receive boosts, too! This study is a great summary of the research, with tips for leaders. assets.yukonarchives.ca/Porath_Does_Ci… ImageImage
Plus, firing toxic workers helps more than hiring more superstars in a study of 58,000 service workers.
🌟A top 1% superstar increased performance by $5,300
💀A toxic worker costs $12,800 in extra turnover alone.
Three questions help screen for toxicity: insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/hire-a… Image
Of course, this screen doesn't work for innovators. But that doesn't tolerating jerks. Bad behavior spreads. Look at teammates of steroid user/star player Jose Conseco. After working with him they had "mysterious" performance boosts that vanished after drug testing was mandatory. ImageImage
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
28 Nov
Researchers left 17,000 wallets on the streets of 355 cities, some empty, some with money. Contrary to the predictions of economists, people everywhere were more likely to return wallets with money in them. But rates did vary from country to country. science.sciencemag.org/content/365/64…
The researchers argue that people are more likely to return wallets with money because they don’t like to feel like thieves, something backed up by a second experiment where they added even more money (the “BigMoney” condition in the graph) to some of the wallets.
As for some of the differences between countries, the researchers explored it in an appendix. Though the analysis was weak (it was posthoc & based on correlations with lots of confounds), it suggested that universal education & democratic institutions are linked to civic honesty.
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
27 Nov
It is 2020, and it is time to talk about the thing on everyone's mind: destroying the moon.

There was actually a US plan to nuke the moon (Carl Sagan was involved) in the Cold War: Project A119. But the US decided to do the Apollo Program instead. 1/3 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A… Image
Sadly, actually blowing up the moon is outside of humanity's reach, it would require 600M of the biggest nuclear bombs ever built & Saturn Vs to launch them

So how about just writing on the moon. It is hard to do with nukes, requiring 1M warheads & 3,000 Saturn Vs per letter 2/3 Image
Better to launch asphalt and paint the moon- just 2,000 Saturn Vs per letter. To write "hello" you would need 10,000 rockets, (~$1B each in today's dollars). So, around $10 trillion, give or take, only 1/8 of the yearly gross world product. Good deal! 3/3 canmom.tumblr.com/post/863420496… Image
Read 4 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
25 Nov
As we grapple with social media & other new tech, it is worth knowing Historian Kranzberg's 6 Laws of Technology, in a 🧵:
1st Law: “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral” - many problems occur when benign technologies are used at scale. Think DDT (or Facebook)
2nd law: “Invention is the mother of necessity” - new technologies, as they scale, require their own suites of innovations. Self driving cars have pushed development of new sensors, phones ever better cameras, etc. This is a good rule for entrepreneurs looking for new markets.
3rd law - “Technology comes in packages, big and small” Technology is all about systems, you can’t study individual things in isolation. One issue with blockchain is that it doesn’t fit well into the social, organizational, and technical systems that it is supposed to replace.
Read 7 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
20 Nov
So chess is having a moment thanks to the Queen’s Gambit (see the chart from @DataIsBeautiful). It is also a subject of a lot of social science research. So, a thread of findings on ♟that tell us things about intelligence, luck, and how we learn 1/n Image
First, chess is often viewed as a game that makes players smarter at other tasks, but the research shows that isn’t true. You don’t need to learn chess unless you want to learn chess! 2/
Chess is really a game of skill, much more so than any other commonly played game, the best player usually wins. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
18 Nov
A paper I think about all the time: In an experiment where people are asked to sit quietly for 15 minutes & enjoy their thoughts or else self-administer 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀, 2/3 of men and 1/4 of women choose to shock themselves. erinwestgate.com/uploads/7/6/4/…
Also if you haven’t read the fine print over the graph...
Everyone in the experiment had already had a chance to be shocked, so it wasn’t new to them & they knew it hurt. The experiment is covered more in this neat summary of the research on thinking for pleasure - why it’s good, and why we hate it. nickbuttrick.com/files/Advances…
Read 4 tweets

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