Centives

While left-handed people were once persecuted, today they are thought to have extraordinary capabilities. Every post-Cold War American President except for one has, for example, been left-handed. And even though left-handed people only make up 10% of the population they make up 25% of math professors at MIT. Allison Schrager, however, points to research that indicates that left-handed people aren’t particularly exceptional:

• Left-handed individuals are more likely to have a lower level of cognitive skills – debunking the idea that they’re mad geniuses.
• Left-handed people earn 6% less than right-handed people, and are less likely to have a college degree.
• Left-handed people are also more likely to have learning disabilities and behavioural issues.
• This is because there are two types of left-handed people. Those who were born with the left-handed gene, and those who are “environmental lefties”.
• Infants in utero who experience trauma or whose mothers experience stress are more likely to be left-handed. These individuals are known as environmental lefties.
• Once environmental lefties are controlled for it turns out that there is little difference in cognitive ability or earnings between right and left-handed people.
• Thus there is no difference between those who are right and left-handed for genetic reasons. But those who are left-handed for trauma related reasons have difficulties – as would, presumably, right-handed people who had suffered trauma.

Read more about the background of the research, who conducted it, and more of its findings over here.

Source: Quartz

Deni Kirkova wrote about a hotel made just for fans of Instagram:

• Guests who have more than 10,000 Instagram followers get to stay at the hotel free of charge for one night.
• They can win an additional night by submitting the winning entry to the hotel’s monthly photo competition.
• A giant digital photo frame in the lobby shows a slideshow of guest Instagram images.
• There is a special place to snap ‘selfies’.
• The hotel is called 1888 – the year that Kodak launched the first modern camera.
• There is free wifi throughout the hotel, guests are provided with a tablet for personal use, and, of course, every floor “has a view”

Find out how much a stay at the hotel costs, where it’s located, what the rooms look like over here.

Source: Daily Mail

Via: Taxi

Tim Fernholz hates cash – though our requests for him to send us his have gone unanswered. Here’s his rationale:

• Cash encourages robbery – since stealing that is more or less untraceable while stolen credit cards will eventually be tracked. About $500 million in cash is robbed each year.
• Cash also spreads disease through all the different people that handle it.
• People lose 5.6 hours a year trying to withdraw cash – and spend $8 billion in ATM fees in the process.
• Cash hurts poor people the most since they use it the most and have to pay the most to withdraw and manage it.
• Businesses have to sort cash and securely transport it to banks. This costs $40 billion a year – or 1% of total revenues.
• Since cash is difficult to trace the government loses up to $500 billion in tax revenue each year. It also spends $1.5 billion printing and distributing currency.
• Ultimately the use of cash costs each household, on average, $1,739 in the United States.

Check out the effects that cash has on monetary policy, how European governments are cracking down on cash and more over here.

Source: Quartz

American Presidents normally give televised speeches either from the Oval Office, or – as is often the case with the current President – in the cross hall. Brendan Greeley talked about some of the considerations that go into determining where the speech should be given:

• Presidents normally deliver bad news from the Oval Office. This is to indicate that they’re hard at work in the office, trying to resolve the issue.
• When a President gives a speech from the office, the cameras usually turn on to find the President sitting there. They were waiting for you.
• In contrast when giving speeches from the cross hall the cameras turn on to an empty hallway – and then the President walks out to the cameras. You are waiting for the President.
• The cross hall also allows the President to speak from a podium with a microphone rather than a mike at the chest. This allows viewers to catch background noises such as the room tone and the echo of the hall. It creates the atmosphere of a public appearance.
• President Obama, in particular, seems to like to present from the cross hall – possibly because he likes to gesticulate while he speaks and that’s difficult to do while sitting at a desk

Read more about Presidents who preferred set pieces, the first ever televised address, and what Sorkin might have to do with all of this over here.

Source: Businessweek

Daniel Luzer wrote about the importance of the wives of dictators:

• Research indicates that for a dictator to stay in power they need three things: legitimacy, co-optation, and repression. Losing any one of them can be fatal.
• The right wife can secure legitimacy since they can act as a mother figure of the state and lead the dictator’s fan club.
• Wives can also ensure co-optation – unlike the men in power, the wives usually come from political or military backgrounds, and they can use their history to secure the support of those opposed to their regime.
• Bashar al-Assad’s wife (pictured above), for example, was an investment banker, helping to secure the support of western economies, and was often seen helping young children, shoring up support for her husband in Syria. She was fairly successful for a while.

Read about the glamorous wives of various dictators and their lifestyles over here.

Source: Pacific Standard

Norway takes the money it earns from its oil exports and invests it into a sovereign fund. Matthew Price looked at the problem of having too much money:

• $1 billion a week is put into the fund as a result of profits and taxes from the oil and gas industry.
• This money can’t just be given to consumers or pumped into the economy since that would drive inflation.
• The oil fund owns around 1% of the world’s shares – and 2% of Europe’s publicly traded companies.
• It considers the social impact of the companies that it invests in…and this may have driven some companies to end child labour.

Read more about the fund, the plans to break it up into smaller pieces, and why it is proud of its investments in Facebook over here.

Source: BBC

Your internet habits could determine whether or not you get a loan writes Katie Lobosco:

• Humans are actually pretty good at knowing who is trustworthy and reliable in their community. So financial institutions have an incentive to tap into their judgment when determining whether or not to offer a loan.
• One startup ties into a user’s Facebook, eBay, and Amazon accounts and figures out how likely they are to default on a loan.
• Even information such as how an online form is filled out is helpful. If all-caps or lower case letters are used by an applicant, they are a greater credit risk.
• Reading about the loan that an individual is about to sign up for is also generally a good sign.
• Location data which shows if you’re filling out a form from work or from home can also be factored in.

Read more about the companies driving innovation in this space, what this means for individuals, and how reliable the metrics are over here. And check out an earlier article about how lenders are using social media to assess borrowers over here.

Source: CNN

Search for an image of hikers and they’re invariably white points out Ryan Kearney. Why?

• You’d think hiking would be cheap, but it’s actually pretty expensive and minorities are usually poorer than white Americans. Backpacks and tents cost a lot and people have to fly or drive to their hiking destination.
• Not to mention the time costs. If you’re working two jobs you probably don’t have the time to explore the wilderness.
• For rich minority individuals camping might remind them too much of a difficult past that they were lucky to escape. Their idea of vacation thus involves relaxing at a seaside resort.
• The Outdoor Industry Association, for its part, is somewhat concerned about the lack of minority groups who enjoy the outdoors since they’re making up an increasing share of the population.

Read more here.

Source: The New Republic

Michael Todd looked at some of the effects of living next to a strip club:

• Unsurprisingly, strip clubs lower property values
• While it is disputed a significant number of experts believe that strip clubs increase the incidence of crime
• This is likely because criminals are attracted to the perfect victims. Inebriated people with a lot of cash who probably won’t want to call the police for fear of others finding out where they were

Read more here.

Source: Pacific Standard

Via: Freakonomics

Khadeeja Safdar writes that entrepreneurs probably aren’t who you think they are:

• According to one study entrepreneurs were almost three times more likely to engage in dangerous behaviours in their youth such as shoplifting, drug dealing, and assault among others.
• They were also more likely to score well on aptitude tests, have good self-esteem, and come from high earning two parent families.
• Thus success in business seems to be driven by a delicate combination of rule-breaking, intelligence, and upbringing.
• Unfortunately these same qualities can lead to downfall – these individuals often have a gambling mentality that causes them to lose any fortune they build up.

Read more about why entrepreneurship is a lucrative career path, the methodology of the study and more over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal