SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitiutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt (2009, Hardcover)

Synopsis
In 2005, eccentric economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner freaked out everyone with their mega-bestselling publishing phenom FREAKONOMICS, wherein they mapped the startling connection between the Roe v. Wade decision and the plummeting crime rate of the 1990s and showed the shared motives of sumo wrestlers and bagel thieves. This even freakier follow-up is filled with more unexpected answers to inquiries that no one else dares to address, as Levitt and Dubner continue to lucidly illuminate the hidden relations between seemingly disparate people and events. They combine their innovative intellects to analyze a range of fascinating social statistics in order to reveal the underlying patterns of behavior which are hidden in the charts and graphs. Why does chemotherapy continue to be routinely prescribed, despite its deleterious effects? What can capuchin monkeys teach us about our spending habits? What's the connection between prostitutes and Santa Claus (ho-ho-ho)? The astonishing answers to these questions and many, many more can only be found in SUPERFREAKONOMICS.

Key Details
Author:	Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Language:	English
Publisher:	William Morrow & Co
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	0060889578
ISBN-13:	9780060889579

Size
Length:	270 pages
Height:	9.3 in
Width:	6.3 in
Thickness:	1 in
Weight:	15.4 oz

Publisher's Note

The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.

Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What's more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary?

SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as:

• How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa?
• Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands?
• How much good do car seats do?
• What's the best way to catch a terrorist?
• Did TV cause a rise in crime?
• What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common?
• Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness?
• Can eating kangaroo save the planet?
• Which adds more value: a pimp or a Realtor?

Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is ? good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky.

Freakonomics has been imitated many times over ? but only now, with SuperFreakonomics, has it met its match.