Blog entries

The Comfort Food Fallacy and its Implications

Rajan Sambandam — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:37:13 +0100

During times of upheaval do people naturally choose what is familiar or don’t they? The notion of “comfort food” seems to imply that when faced with trying situations people take comfort in certain old favorites that, well, comfort them. This is conventional wisdom and as we know researchers like to question said wisdom. That is what Stacy Wood set out to do and her findings offer interesting implications for marketers.&Read More...

Mind Control

Rajan Sambandam — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:21:37 +0100

You have manipulated computers using devices such as a keyboard, mouse perhaps even a touch screen or voice commands. But have you ever done it with your thoughts or seen someone do that?

Here is a live demonstration of that very thing by Tan Le at the TED conference. Tan is a co-founder of Emotive a company that develops the technology to make this process happen. &Read More...

Time Use

Rajan Sambandam — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:26:26 +0100

As I have mentioned previously (24), the American Time Use Survey is an exhaustive survey of what people report doing at all times of the day. But it’s just that. A self-reported account of what people are doing. Another complimentary perspective is provided by the Twitter data analyzed by some researchers that shows the mood of the nation as measured by the sentiments expressed by tweets at all times of the day.

Let’s pick a topic. Any topic. How much would you say you know on that topic? More than average? How much do you think you need to learn in order to become well-versed on that topic? Not a whole lot? You just may be experiencing what is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It is a mental bias that seems to afflict people who are unskilled or not very knowledgeable. They routinely make poor decisions because their lack of competence itselfRead More...

The Art of Choosing

Rajan Sambandam — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:26:59 +0100

Several popular books have appeared over the last few years on topics related to consumers, behavior, psychology and economics. Perhaps the most popular are the ones by Malcolm Gladwell. While most use academic research liberally to make their points, relatively few have actually been written by an academic. The reasons are twofold. One, you need an academic who has done sufficient research in an area that is worthy and of interest to theRead More...

Did Agatha Christie Have Alzheimer's?

Rajan Sambandam — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:22:16 +0100

There was a fascinating news item today on NPR about the use of text mining to understand something about a person’s private life. Ian Lancashire, Professor of English at the University of Toronto used text mining to study Agatha Christie’s novels. While he has done this with other authors before he came cross something particularly interesting in Agatha Christie’s 73rd novel.

Have you ever been curious about the popularity of rental movies by neighborhood? The NY Times graphics department was and they got movie rental data from Netflix for a dozen cities. The result is this very interesting visual.

The cities are listed on the right. As you move the bar from left to right you get to see the distribRead More...

Mindful and Heartfelt Choices

Rajan Sambandam — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:39:06 +0100

How do you make choices in your life? Even simple ones like chocolate cake or fruit salad for a snack? Are you completely rational about the process, calculating the costs and benefits properly before choosing (also known as the cognitive approach)? Or are you more likely to go by feel, allowing your emotions to guide the choice (the affective approach)? Traditionally, researchers have favored the rational model, but more recently the emotionaRead More...

Up North and Down South

Rajan Sambandam — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:12:54 +0100

In casual conversation do you use terms like “Up North” and “Down South”? Why? Is north vertically higher than south? Of course not. It is just a common usage of language that we are used to, right? But does it have any consequences for behavior? Research has shown that people often make mistakes in travel related judgment, especially when estimating time and distance. Research has also shown that people associate vertiRead More...

Visual Display of Government Spending

Rajan Sambandam — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:05:53 +0100

For those interested in the visual display of information Edward Tufte is no stranger. He is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Statistics and Computer Science at Yale, but his claim to fame is expertise in displaying information. A quick visit to his website will show you the scope of his work and suffice to say he is a renowned expert. Now he is getting in the act to help the government.

This is very cool. Imagine you have a nice looking polished box perhaps the size of a refrigerator by the side of your house. It is your power supply. It can take input from your natural gas connection and generate power night and day. It could even take the power generated by your solar panel during the daytime and store it up so you can use it whenever you want. What is missing in this picture? A connection to the electrical grid!

Why Do Some Elections Get a Higher Turnout?

Rajan Sambandam — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:47:57 +0100

Conventional wisdom says that voter participation in closely contested elections is higher because of the inherent competitiveness. The logic is that people feel that their vote could be decisive in a close election and hence more turn out to vote. But is that really true? Ron Shachar has crunched the numbers from three Presidential elections using some advanced statistical analysis and says that the answer is a bit more complicated than that.Read More...

Menu Engineering

Rajan Sambandam — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:29:25 +0100

First, did you even know such a thing existed? I know of all kinds of engineering, but this was new to me. Okay, so it is not really engineering. Here people tinker with the menu in a restaurant to help maximize profits. But it is quite interesting and you often get to see the results as a restaurant customer.

Here is a nice article on the subject. If you enjoy dining out, you may want Read More...

So You Can't Figure Out Math? No Problem

Rajan Sambandam — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:16:40 +0100

Steven Strogatz is here to help you out. Strogatz is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. Every Monday he writes a column in the NY Times to explain math in very straight forward terms. Many of us have math phobias and this is a great opportunity to learn from a great mathematician and teacher. He has used his talents in other areas with public radio appearances and DVD’s aimed at helping Read More...

Polling and Reporting

Rajan Sambandam — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:07:13 +0100

From PhD Comics (stands for Piled Higher and Deeper). I especially love the interviewer in the second panel.

Saw this first on Andrew Gelman's blog.

What are the Odds?

Rajan Sambandam — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:14:26 +0100

One of the painful experiences of my life occurred in early 1991 when I was a student at SUNY in Buffalo, New York. The Buffalo Bills were in their first Super Bowl playing the New York Giants and the game was down to the last seconds. Trailing 20-19 the Bills depended on their kicker Scott Norwood to kick a 47 yard field goal to win it all. I was one of those who was crushed when the kick sailed wide right by a yard. That was perhaps their beRead More...

Movie Character Interactions

Rajan Sambandam — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:28:31 +0100

Let’s say, like me, you love movies like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Even if you don’t love them, you like them enough but find all the characters and their interactions confusing. If only there was a picture that explained all the connections, you say, it would be so much easier to follow the threads and really get into the spirit of the movies. In other words, could someone take all that data and help us visualize it? That&rRead More...

How to be More Creative

Rajan Sambandam — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:28:11 +0100

It is known that one way to become more creative is to shift one’s perspective.The best selling author of The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown, is said to hang upside down with gravity boots to help shift his perspective for the creativity needed in his novels. Travel is another helpful method for shifting perspective. There is now some new research to show that distance can be helpful in making a person more creative. But the research has an impoRead More...

What Matters Now

Rajan Sambandam — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:45:07 +0100

The marketing author and blogger Seth Godin has done something interesting. He has compiled the thoughts of many leading thinkers of the day in a book called What Matters Now. What is unique about that? Firstly, each person has contributed a mini-essay which is often well short of a page. So reading it is very easy. Secondly, there is diverse mix of people not just other marketers, so you hear an interesting variety of thoughts.

I Won't Have What She's Having

Rajan Sambandam — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:54:45 +0100

See if this sounds familiar. You and three other friends have gone to a nice restaurant for dinner. The waiter passes the menus around and you are eyeing the pork chops in some kind of fancy glazed sauce. The lamb chops sound nice too, but your preference is clearly for the pork chops. The waiter is going around the table taking orders. Your good friend who is ordering just before you goes for the pork chops. You hear that and decide to order tRead More...