It's all an experiment. We learn more about the inner workings of the diabolical schemes every day.
Read about this twist on the vaccine lottery. We have been familiar with "mad scientists" for a long time.
It's the 21st Century. Introducing the mad data scientist:
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Katy Milkman, a Wharton professor and co-director of the Behavior Change For Good Initiative (BCFG) at Penn, is the lead author of the study published this month in the journal Nature Human Behavior. A team of scientists at BCFG partnered with city officials to design and fund the sweepstakes, which was unique from other vaccine incentive programs that were rolling out across the country in 2021. Instead of winning free food, scholarships, gift cards, and other items, Philadelphia residents were treated to a “regret lottery” in which they were automatically entered if they lived in the city (whether or not they’d been vaccinated). They were then contacted if their name was selected and could win up to $50,000, but only if they could prove that they’d taken the shot before the drawing.
The university and the city worked to spread the news about the Philly Vax Sweepstakes through local media and social networks, with a clear message that residents of three particular randomly selected ZIP codes (one picked every two weeks) would have a 50 to 100 times greater chance than other Philadelphians of winning cash. The researchers randomly chose these three ZIP codes from among 20 with the lowest vaccination rates in the city, hoping the boost would incentivize more residents in those ZIP codes to get vaccinated. But the bigger grab at cash did nothing.
“We got an incredibly clear answer: no. It was totally useless to multiply the chances by 50 to 100 of residents in certain ZIP codes winning. We do not see a benefit of that,” Milkman told Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM.