Freakonomics about social studies
Aug. 9th, 2005 12:54 pmHis graduate advisor promptly sent Venkatesh into the field. His assignment: to visit Chicago’s poorest black neighborhoods with a clipboard and a seventy-question, multiple-choice survey. This was the first question on the survey:
How do you feel about being black and poor?
1. Very bad
2. Bad
3. Neither bad nor good
4. Somewhat good
5. Very good
As Venkatesh would later tell his university colleagues, he realized that the multiple-choice answers A through E were insufficient. In reality, he now knew, the answers should have looked like this:
1. Very bad
2. Bad
3. Neither bad nor good
4. Somewhat good
5. Very good
6. Fuck you
How do you feel about being black and poor?
1. Very bad
2. Bad
3. Neither bad nor good
4. Somewhat good
5. Very good
As Venkatesh would later tell his university colleagues, he realized that the multiple-choice answers A through E were insufficient. In reality, he now knew, the answers should have looked like this:
1. Very bad
2. Bad
3. Neither bad nor good
4. Somewhat good
5. Very good
6. Fuck you