Skip to content

Archive

Data stories

Original analysis, told plainly and shown honestly.

Attention Behaviour Decision-making Design Economics Fairness Happiness Ideas Institutions Loss aversion Markets Nudges Psychology Rationality Risk

Reason, by the numbers

Before we try to fix people, it is worth understanding what they are for.

By Alina Petrova21 May 20256 min read

Pale pink blossom on thin branches in front of a raw concrete wall

Measuring status, one receipt at a time

What feels like a preference is often just a default nobody questioned.

By Alina Petrova16 Apr 202514 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

Certainty, by the numbers

The cost is obvious, the benefit is diffuse, and so the benefit loses.

By Alina Petrova19 Feb 20258 min read

A lone figure climbing a pale stone staircase towards an arched window filled with light

The shape of the round number

The cost is obvious, the benefit is diffuse, and so the benefit loses.

By Alina Petrova29 Jan 20257 min read

Illustration of a bare tree over a faint grid, overlaid with rust-red, pale blue and black-spotted circles

The shape of the free sample

The story we tell afterwards is tidier than the choice we made at the time.

By Alina Petrova3 Dec 202412 min read

What 26,000 baskets say about reason

A small decision, repeated daily, is a life. Nobody designs it that way.

By Alina Petrova31 Oct 202410 min read

Pale pink blossom on thin branches in front of a raw concrete wall

The shape of the honest mistake

It looks like a flaw in the person. Mostly it is a feature of the situation.

By Alina Petrova25 Sept 20245 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

Ideas worth reading. Every week.

Essays, data and ideas on economics, rationality and why we do what we do.

No spam. Just thoughtful ideas.