More Numbers Every Day: How Data, Stats and Figures Control Our Lives and How to Set Ourselves Free

Society’s mania for enumerating every aspect of life is making people confused, stressed out, and unethical, according to this intriguing study. Behavioral economists Dahlen and Thorbjørnsen draw on their own research to investigate the psychological effects of numbers, with astonishing results. People are inclined to think of low numbers when moving backward and high numbers when moving forward; adding “randomly assigned grades” to online dating profiles influences whom one swipes right on; and the spurious authoritativeness of numbers makes people accept ridiculous claims, like a fake scientific report trumpeted by news organizations in 2002 that “the last blond would probably be born in Finland in the year 2202.” Worse, the authors contend, numbers stimulate a cold, self-centered rationality that warps moral character: seeing and handling money generates an “asshole effect” that makes people feel confident, strong, and less concerned with helping others, and people who monitor health data and social media likes are more open to cheating and stealing. Written in lucid, skillfully translated prose that puts the science into philosophical perspective, this shines a fascinating light on the modern-day obsession with numerical quantity over quality. (Mar.)