Freakonomics on the benefits of being specific
I just finished Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. On pages 73-75 they analyze the correlation of words in real-estate ads with the selling price of a house:
Listed below are ten terms commonly used in real-estate ads. Five of them have a strong positive correlation to the ultimate sales price and five have a strong negative correlation. Guess which are which:
- Fantastic
- Granite
- Spacious
- State-of-the-art
- !
- Corian
- Charming
- Maple
- Great Neighborhood
- Gourmet
Can you discern which five terms correlated to a higher sales price and which five correlated to a lower one?
The answer: granite, state-of-the-art, Corona, maple, and gourmet fetch higher sales prices, whereas fantastic, spacious, !, charming, and great neighborhood correlate to the lower ones.
What do those terms have in common? The ones that lead to higher prices are specific–there is no doubt about what most of those phrases mean. As for the lower-priced ones, well “!” is subject to a lot of interpretation.
Whether it’s in a real-estate ad, a resume, or a proposal, specificity pays.
Tags: Freakonomics, Real estate, Stephen Dubner, Steven Levitt, Word choice
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