
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Freakonomics guru Steven Levitt joins us to talk about an unusual experiment – getting people to agree to make major life decisions based on the toss of a coin. Is this really good social science? And what do the results tell us about decision making and happiness? And with 365 days in the year, it feels like a huge coincidence when we meet someone with the same birthday. But you only need 23 people to have a better than even chance that two will share a birthday. This counter-intuitive result is known as the birthday paradox, and the best place to look for proof is the World Cup, where 32 squads of 23 players provide an ideal data-set. Alex Bellos crunches the numbers for us. This programme was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.
By BBC Radio 44.7
772772 ratings
Freakonomics guru Steven Levitt joins us to talk about an unusual experiment – getting people to agree to make major life decisions based on the toss of a coin. Is this really good social science? And what do the results tell us about decision making and happiness? And with 365 days in the year, it feels like a huge coincidence when we meet someone with the same birthday. But you only need 23 people to have a better than even chance that two will share a birthday. This counter-intuitive result is known as the birthday paradox, and the best place to look for proof is the World Cup, where 32 squads of 23 players provide an ideal data-set. Alex Bellos crunches the numbers for us. This programme was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.

7,913 Listeners

376 Listeners

523 Listeners

1,067 Listeners

296 Listeners

5,576 Listeners

2,113 Listeners

1,952 Listeners

38 Listeners

428 Listeners

410 Listeners

429 Listeners

756 Listeners

227 Listeners

75 Listeners

745 Listeners

346 Listeners

235 Listeners

143 Listeners

326 Listeners

3,245 Listeners

779 Listeners

73 Listeners

689 Listeners

3,858 Listeners

528 Listeners

851 Listeners

630 Listeners

394 Listeners

239 Listeners

54 Listeners

80 Listeners

96 Listeners