Educational Media Reviews Online

Surely you have heard of Freakonomics by now? With the belief that economics, when construed creatively, can provide new and even startling insights into human behavior, Steven D. Levitt, economics star at the University of Chicago, and Stephen J. Dubner, author and journalist, collaborated on the 2005 book, subtitled “A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.” At first blush that subtitle may seem to be a bit of a stretch—everything? However, at the rate at which Levitt and Dubner have continued to expound their premise they actually may explore everything! In addition to the book’s residency on best seller list for over two years, the authors have a popular blog, a regular column in the New York Times Magazine (the column is currently on hiatus so that they may focus on completing, you guessed it, their forthcoming book, SuperFreakonomics,), a continuing schedule of media appearances, and upcoming projects, including a fact-a-day calendar and a board game.

In addition to some exposition, there are seven main segments on the DVD, five dealing with human behavior (the pursuit of almost certainly unattainable goals, the impact of attractiveness on first impressions, the loneliness of celebrities and high achieving Black students, cheating as a response to incentive, and an explanation for altruism), as well as an analysis of the relative merit of child safety seats vs. automobile DVD players as a passenger safety measure for children after they are 2 years old, and, certainly the most controversial claim from the book, that one-third of the drop in crime in the US over the last several decades is directly attributable to the availability of legalized abortions, which reduced the number of unwanted births, a group at “tremendous risk” of becoming criminals. It is not surprising that the treatment afforded the seven segments during the program’s 40 minute running time is superficial compared to that afforded those topics that also are covered in the book. On the other hand, the program does include some rebuttal of the authors’ claims about the efficacy of child safety seats and the link between legal abortions and the drop in the crime rate – raising questions that would enhance group discussion.

Class viewing of Freakonomics with Levitt and Dubner could be an effective way of making “the dismal science” more appealing to students from junior high through community college, especially if segments were used individually to generate class discussion. Upper division college students probably would receive more benefit from reading the book, or selections from it. Originating as a segment on ABC News’s 20/20 (originally broadcast on April 14, 2006) the technical quality of the program is excellent and the format is the expected combination of interviews and news footage, with the bonus that the usually intrusive commercial cuts provide effective breaking points for discussion. Recommended.