Freakonomics Radio

Are You Ready for a Fresh Start? (Update)

Behavioral scientists have been exploring whether a psychological reset can lead to lasting change. In this update of a 2021 episode, we survey evidence from the London Underground, Major League Baseball, and New Year’s resolutions to look at accidental fresh starts, forced fresh starts, fresh starts that backfire — and the ones that succeed.    * SOURCES: * Katy Milkman [https://oid.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/kmilkman/], professor at the Wharton School. * Andy Byford [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Byford], former commissioner of Transport for London. * Ferdinand Rauch [https://frauch.weebly.com/], economist at the University of St. Gallen. * Hengchen Dai [https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/management-and-organizations/faculty/dai], professor at U.C.L.A.’s Anderson School of Management. * Bob Tewksbury [https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tewksbo01.shtml], former big-league pitcher.   * RESOURCES: * “A Large-Scale Experiment on New Year’s Resolutions: Approach-Oriented Goals are More Successful than Avoidance-Oriented Goals [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0234097],” by Martin Oscarsson, Per Carlbring, Gerhard Andersson, and Alexander Rozental (PLOS ONE, 2020). * “A Double-Edged Sword: How and Why Resetting Performance Metrics Affects Motivation and Performance [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749597816308056?casa_token=1Nhts7evx0sAAAAA:2iVzAW7Sf-CW03qBYZXINmoMVxhTfKOINrH7khlNrpieqvRMyogPgmX5NWkwOpyX5QY-PiQ],” by Hengchen Dai (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2018). * “The Benefits of Forced Experimentation: Striking Evidence from the London Underground Network [http://users.ox.ac.uk/~econ0360/FerdinandRauch/Tube.pdf],” by Shaun Larcom, Ferdinand Rauch, and Tim Willems (2017). * “Framing the Future: The Risks of Pre-Commitment Nudges and Potential of Fresh Start Messaging [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5353b838e4b0e68461b517cf/t/583ca5acd2b8571174b28e40/1480369581625/48-Beshears_et_al_2016.pdf],” by John Beshears, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, and Shlomo Benartzi (NBER, 2016). * “The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior [https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901],” by Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman, and Jason Riis (Management Science, 2014). * “Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundlin [https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1784]g,” by Katherine L. Milkman, Julia A. Minson, and Kevin G. M. Volpp (Management Science, 2013). * “The Resolution Solution: Longitudinal Examination of New Year’s Change Attempts [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0899328988800166],” by John C. Norcross and Dominic J.Vangarelli (Journal of Substance Abuse, 1989).   * EXTRAS: * How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/059308375X/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=freakonomic08-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=059308375X&linkId=f77de3b29d901c96a08c8404d1edc635], by Katy Milkman (2021). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are the Rich Really Less Generous Than the Poor? (Update)

A series of academic studies suggest that the wealthy are, to put it bluntly, selfish jerks. It’s an easy narrative to embrace — but is it true? As part of GiveDirectly’s “Pods Fight Poverty” campaign, we revisit a 2017 episode.   * SOURCES: * Jim Andreoni [http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~jandreon/], professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego. * Nikos Nikiforakis [https://sites.google.com/site/nnikiforakis/], professor of economics at New York University in Abu Dhabi. * Paul Piff [https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/piff/], associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine. * Jan Stoop [https://sites.google.com/view/janstoop/home], associate professor of applied economics at the Erasmus School of Economics.   * RESOURCES: * "Are the Rich More Selfish Than the Poor, or do They Just Have More Money? A Natural Field Experiment [https://www.nber.org/papers/w23229]," by James Andreoni, Nikos Nikiforakis, and Jan Stoop (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017). * "Exploring the Psychology of Wealth, 'Pernicious' Effects of Economic Inequality [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pernicious-effects-of-economic-inequality]," (PBS NewsHour, 2013). * "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function [http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976]," by Anandi Mani, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, and Jiaying Zhao (Science, 2013). * "Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior [http://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4086.full.pdf]," by Paul Piff, Daniel Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner (PNAS, 2011). * "Relative Earnings and Giving in a Real-Effort Experiment [https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.101.7.3330]," by Nisvan Erkal, Lata Gangadharan, and Nikos Nikiforakis (American Economic Review, 2011). * "Experimenter Demand Effects in Economic Experiments [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10683-009-9230-z]," by Daniel John Zizzo (Experimental Economics, 2009). * "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving [http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~jandreon/Publications/ej90.pdf]," by James Andreoni (The Economic Journal, 1990). * "Privately Provided Public Goods in a Large Economy: The Limits of Altruism [http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~jandreon/Publications/JPubE88Limits.pdf]," by James Andreoni (Journal of Public Economics, 1987). * "A Positive Model of Private Charity and Public Transfers [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/261212]," by Russell Roberts (Journal of Political Economy, 1984). * Pods Fight Poverty Campaign on Give Directly [https://www.givedirectly.org/podsfightpoverty/?ref=freakradio].   * EXTRAS: * “How to Raise Money Without Killing a Kitten [https://freakonomics.com/2013/10/10/how-to-raise-money-without-killing-a-kitten-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/],” by Freakonomics Radio (2013). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

657. Whose “Messiah” Is It Anyway?

All sorts of people have put their mark on Messiah, and it has been a hit for nearly 300 years. How can a single piece of music thrive in so many settings? You could say it’s because Handel really knew how to write a banger. (Part three of “Making Messiah. [https://freakonomics.com/making-messiah/]”)   * SOURCES: * Charles King [https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RiHwAAK/charles-eldon-king], political scientist at Georgetown University. * Jane Glover [https://www.jane-glover.com/biography], classical music scholar, conductor. * Katharine Hogg [https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/our-story/history/], musicologist, head librarian at the Foundling Museum. * Susannah Heschel [https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/susannah-heschel], religion professor, chair of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. * Mark Risinger [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-risinger-011b3659/], teacher at St. Bernard’s School. * Michael Marissen [https://www.swarthmore.edu/profile/michael-marissen], professor emeritus of music at Swarthmore College, author of Tainted Glory in Handel’s Messiah: The Unsettling History of the World’s Most Beloved Choral Work.   * RESOURCES: * Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah [https://amzn.to/48jWkm8], by Charles King (2024). * "Why These Christmas Songs Could Only Be Written in America [https://www.thefp.com/p/eli-lake-jews-wrote-your-favorite-christmas-songs-irving-berlin]," by Eli Lake (The Free Press, 2024). * "Reflections on Bernstein’s 1956 “Messiah [https://leonardbernstein.com/news/blog/238/reflections-on-bernsteins-1956-messiah],”" by Mark Risinger (Leonard Bernstein Office, 2022). * Handel in London: The Making of a Genius [https://amzn.to/3MSYkcJ], by Jane Glover (2018). * Tainted Glory in Handel's Messiah: The Unsettling History of the World's Most Beloved Choral Work [https://www.amazon.com/Tainted-Glory-Handels-Messiah-Unsettling/dp/0300194587], by Michael Marissen (2014). * “Handel’s Messiah [https://lnk.to/HandelMessiah],” performed by The London Symphony Orchestra (2007).   * EXTRAS: * "Making Messiah [https://freakonomics.com/making-messiah/]," series by Freakonomics Radio (2025). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Who Pays for “Messiah”?

In the 18th century, Handel relied on royal patronage. Today, it’s donors like Gary Parr who keep the music playing. In this bonus episode of our “Making Messiah” series [https://freakonomics.com/making-messiah/], Parr breaks down the economics of the New York Philharmonic.   * SOURCES: * Gary Parr [https://www.apollo.com/aboutus/leadership-and-people/gary-parr], senior managing director and on the management committee at Apollo, philanthropist.   * RESOURCES: * "A Notoriously Jinxed Concert Hall Is Reborn, Again [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/arts/music/david-geffen-hall-reopening-lincoln-center.html]," by Michael Kimmelman (New York Times, 2022). * "Apollo’s New Guy Is a Legend in Banking, a Novice in Buyouts [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-23/apollo-s-new-guy-is-a-legend-in-banking-but-a-novice-in-buyouts?embedded-checkout=true]," by Sonali Basak (Bloomberg, 2017). * “Handel’s Messiah [https://lnk.to/HandelMessiah],” performed by The London Symphony Orchestra (2007). * "Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field [https://americanorchestras.org/racial-ethnic-and-gender-diversity-in-the-orchestra-field/]," by James Doeser (League of American Orchestras). * Parr Prize for Excellence in Teaching Shakespeare [https://www.parrshakespeare.org/].   * EXTRAS: * "Making Messiah, [https://freakonomics.com/making-messiah/]" series by Freakonomics Radio (2025). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

656. How Handel Got His Mojo Back

When he wrote Messiah (in 24 days), Handel was past his prime and nearly broke. One night in Dublin changed all that. (Part two of “Making Messiah. [https://freakonomics.com/making-messiah/]”)   * SOURCES: * Charles King [https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RiHwAAK/charles-eldon-king], political scientist at Georgetown University. * Chris Scobie, curator of music, manuscripts, and archives at the British Library. * Ellen Harris [https://mta.mit.edu/person/ellen-t-harris], musicologist and professor emeritus at MIT. * Mark Risinger [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-risinger-011b3659/], teacher at St. Bernard's School. * Philip Rushforth [https://chestercathedral.com/team/philip-rushforth], organist and master of the choristers at the Chester Cathedral. * Proinnsías Ó Duinn [https://www.musicintervals.com/], conductor and music director of Our Lady's Choral Society.   * RESOURCES: * Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah [https://amzn.to/48jWkm8], by Charles King (2024). * "Arnaud du Sarrat and the international music trade in Halle and Leipzig c.1700 [https://academic.oup.com/em/article/51/3/451/7232473]," by Tomasz Górny (Early Music, 2023). * George Frideric Handel: A Life with Friends [https://amzn.to/4asLICM], by Ellen Harris (2014). * Handel (Composers Across Cultures) [https://www.amazon.com/Handel-Master-Musicians-Donald-Burrows/dp/0199737363], by Donald Burrows (2012). * "Georg Händel (1622–97): The Barber-Surgeon Father of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/096777200501300308]," by Aileen Adams and B. Hofestädt (Journal Of Medical Biography, 2005). * Handel's Messiah: A Celebration: A Richly Illustrated History of the Music and Its Eighteenth-Century Background [https://www.amazon.com/Handels-Messiah-Celebration-Richard-Luckett/dp/0156001381], by Richard Luckett (1995). * Handel's Messiah The Advent Calendar [https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/handel-s-messiah-the-advent-calendar--3261710], podcast series. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.