A Numbers Game: With Guests Linda Chang & Stephen M. Colbert

10 snips

Mar 24, 2025

Stephen M. Colbert, a keen observer of the film industry and co-host of a popular podcast, shares insights about the tumultuous relationship between DC and Marvel, highlighting how Rotten Tomatoes scores influenced fan expectations. He reveals the behind-the-scenes struggles of directors and studios in this ratings-obsessed environment. Linda Chang, a behavioral scientist, dives into 'quantification fixation,' explaining how our over-reliance on numbers can distort important decision-making. Together, they challenge listeners to look beyond digits in their choices.

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ANECDOTE

Studio Interference in DC Films

Warner Bros. pressured Zack Snyder to make his DC films lighter and funnier, deviating from his darker style.
This studio interference ultimately led to Snyder leaving Justice League, and Joss Whedon being brought in, creating a "Frankenstein's monster" of a film.

ANECDOTE

The Snyder Cut Movement

Fan outcry for the "Snyder Cut" eventually led Warner Bros. to release Snyder's original vision of Justice League.
The Snyder Cut received significantly higher Rotten Tomatoes scores than the theatrical release.

INSIGHT

Creative vs. Business Decisions

There's a disconnect between creative choices and business decisions in filmmaking.
Numbers-driven executives often clash with filmmakers' artistic visions.

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Workplaces often rely on numerical ratings for performance reviews. Election debates focus on poll numbers and approval ratings. Your watch counts your steps in a day. Numbers increasingly influence our decisions.

In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look at our very human tendency to fixate on digits even when words or graphs represent the very same information.

Stephen M. Colbert writes about movies and the film industry and shares the heated story of when the DC Extended Universe came up against some unfavorable Rotten Tomatoes scores. You'll hear about a battle of wills between a famous director, some powerful studio executives, and a legion of fans, proving that numbers don't tell the whole story.

Next, Katy speaks with Linda Chang, a behavioral scientist at the Toyota Research Institute and former MindCORE post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Katy and Linda, together with University of Chicago Professor Erika Kirgios and MIT Professor Sendhil Mullainathan, worked on the paper "Does Counting Change What Counts? Quantification Fixation Biases Decision-Making."

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The book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (CS&Co.). Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (CS&Co.) has not reviewed the book and makes no representations about its content.

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