Mark Dolliver's Takes: A Bed in the Basement?

Classical economists view consumers as rational actors who systematically try to maximize their own advantage. This helps explain why economic forecasts are often wrong. Marketers tend to be shrewder in realizing that people are chronically irrational. To what extent do consumers indulge their oddball superstitions? A USA Today/Gallup poll gives an intriguing glimpse, asking adults how they would react if given a room on the 13th floor when checking into a hotel. Overall, 13 percent said they’d be bothered by it, while 87 percent said they wouldn’t be.