Stephen Colbert interviews economist Tim Harford about his then-recent book, Logic of Life. Harford and Colbert discuss a number of items that people may consider irrational, but actually turn out to be rational like voting, unprotected sex, and smoking. The entire discussion focuses on the central idea of the definition of rationality.
Wedding Crashers — Free Riding
Jeremy and John are seasoned wedding crashers and they are out looking for weddings to get easy dates, open bars, and nice meals. This example of free-riding works well because none of them pay the cost of attendance and they even come up with creative tricks to not have to pay for the cash bars.
Survivor — 21 Flags
Survivor: Thailand played a unique game for an elimination challenge by having contestants remove flags until a team has the final flag. This game illustrates the concept of backward induction in game theory, by having teams think backward from the final move. Once the optimal strategy is acquired, we realize that there is a first mover’s advantage.