Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics

Economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner, in chapter 1 of the book Freakonomics, published in 2005 addresses the topic of the human reliance on incentives and argues that economic, social, and moral incentives drive everything humans do. Levitt and Dubner supports their claim by using imagery, first by employing analogies to illustrate their point about incentives in order for their readers to easily understand the concepts ; second by utilizing anecdotes to further simplify those concepts in understandable stories ; and finally by applying similes to make shorter and simpler comparisons when needed. The authors’ overall purpose is to explain the different incentives in order to help the reader understand the impact of incentives on daily actions. Levitt and Dubner assert a factual tone in order to appeal to their audience’s previous perspectives on how integral incentives are to human behavior.