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reading freakonomics right now, one thing that i think is very poor about the chapter is his reliance on something resembling rational choice theory. he assumes that humans - even criminals and other deviants - respond to incentives with full understanding of the reasons for their actions, and that they gather all available info on potential outcomes and analyze it rationally. little or no mention of other influences on human behavior, such as culture, mass media, biology, social structure, etc.

his citations are also woefully inadequate, and poorly organized. i have written undergraduate term papers with more thorough references.

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Isn't it basically a footnote of economics that people often don't act rationally, but assuming rationality creates the most accurate predictive models?