Opinion Science #91: Being a Social Science Maverick with Sendhil Mullainathan
9 snips
Mar 11, 2024 
Sendhil Mullainathan, a Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and co-founder of Ideas42, dives into pressing issues like racial bias in hiring practices. He discusses landmark findings from his research that show stark disparities in job callbacks based solely on race. The conversation also touches on the challenges of integrating AI with social sciences, highlighting the need for accurate data representation. Mullainathan advocates for innovative methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches to better understand human behavior and tackle societal issues.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Datification and Bias
- Translating real-world problems into datasets for AI is crucial, yet poorly understood.
- This "datification" process is where biases emerge, not in the algorithms themselves.
Finding Anomalies
- Find anomalies—things that clash with what you’re learning.
- Resolve the tension between the anomaly and the learned concept to understand it more deeply.
Thaler's Advice
- Richard Thaler advised Sendhil Mullainathan against focusing on behavioral economics during his PhD.
- Thaler emphasized establishing oneself within a traditional economics field first.
