Source
Mixed Signals
Uri Gneezy
Uri Gneezy's book on how signals and incentives shape behavior, and the central research source for both of his appearances on the podcast. Episode 151 draws on it for Costly Signaling — the tattooed-accountant framing, the Toyota Prius vs Honda hybrid case, and the social-signaling/self-signaling distinction (see Vienna Pay-What-You-Want Envelope Study). Episode 155 draws on it for Perverse Incentives (Gaming and Meaning-Change) — historical bad-tax and bad-bounty cases (window tax, Amsterdam canal houses, Vietnamese rat tails, Soviet glass factories), the Chilean bus-driver pay experiment, airline miles as a "who pays vs. who benefits" incentive design, and Gneezy's own daycare late-fee study (see Gneezy Rustichini Daycare Fine Study). Episode 175 draws on it for framing effects applied to pricing and incentive design — surcharge-vs-discount framing, loss-framed bonuses, and the Singapore taxi-driver and Amazon pay-to-quit cases.
Discussed in
- Episode 151 — 151-why-your-accountant-won-t-get-a-tattoo
- Episode 155 — 155-how-incentives-work-and-why-most-backfire
- Episode 175 — 175-why-amazon-paid-staff-5k-to-quit