June 20, 2008, 10:21 am
Quiz time: Which of the following would save more fuel?
a) Replacing a compact car that gets 34 miles a gallon with a hybrid that gets 54 m.p.g.
b) Replacing from an S.U.V. that gets 18 m.p.g. with a sedan that gets 28 m.p.g.
c) Both changes save the same amount of fuel.
The correct answer is b. In fact, going from 18 m.p.g. to 28 m.p.g. saves more than twice as much fuel as going from 34 m.p.g. to 54 m.p.g. (198 gallons vs. 94 gallons), according to two management professors from Duke University.
Richard Larrick and Jack Soll ran a series of experiments to show that the current standard of miles per gallon leads consumers to believe that fuel consumption is reduced at an even rate as efficiency improves. But that’s not the case.
“Miles per gallon is misleading and can play tricks on our intuitions,” Prof. Soll said in a press release, which also links to an interactive quiz.
