All 45 Uses

factor
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Freakonomics
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There was another factor, meanwhile, that had greatly contributed to the massive crime drop of the 1990s.†
p. 3.7

factor = thing that affects a result or outcome
It was, among other factors, the reality that the pool of potential criminals had dramatically shrunk.†
p. 5.1 *

factors = things that affect a result or outcome
A correlation simply means that a relationship exists between two factors—let's call them X and Y—but it tells you nothing about the direction of that relationship.†
p. 8.8
It's possible that X causes Y; it's also possible that Y causes X; and it may be that X and Y are both being caused by some other factor, Z. Think about this correlation: cities with a lot of murders also tend to have a lot of police officers.†
p. 8.9

factor = thing that affects a result or outcome
What happens when the whistle-blowers' corroborating evidence is factored into the analysis of the match data?
p. 43.5 *

factored = considered (for affect on a result or outcome)
Weather, for instance, is a major factor.†
p. 48.4

factor = thing that affects a result or outcome
If a young black man answers a lot of questions correctly but is voted off early, discrimination would seem to be a factor.†
p. 75.9
This theory rapidly became an article of faith because it appealed to the factors that, according to John Kenneth Galbraith, most contribute to the formation of conventional wisdom: the ease with which an idea may be understood and the degree to which it affects our personal well-being.†
p. 126.7

factors = things that affect a result or outcome
These two factors—childhood poverty and a single-parent household—are among the strongest predictors that a child will have a criminal future.†
p. 139.1
This correlation exists even when controlling for a variety of factors that influence crime: a state's level of incarceration, number of police, and its economic situation.†
p. 141.5
The second person, believing that a woman's right to an abortion trumps any other factor, would likely argue that no number of fetuses can equal even one newborn.†
p. 144.7

factor = thing that affects a result or outcome
Their thinking goes like this: since I control the car, I am the one keeping myself safe; since I have no control of the airplane, I am at the mercy of myriad external factors.†
p. 151.1

factors = things that affect a result or outcome
Just as important as the control factor is what Peter Sandman calls the dread factor.†
p. 152.3

factor = thing that affects a result or outcome
Just as important as the control factor is what Peter Sandman calls the dread factor.†
p. 152.3
Perhaps more interestingly, the data do a nice job of answering the question that every parent—black, white, and otherwise—wants to ask: what are the factors that do and do not affect a child's performance in the early school years?†
p. 162.5

factors = things that affect a result or outcome
It tends to be cold outside when it snows; those two factors are positively correlated.†
p. 163.5
X can cause Y; Y can cause X; or it may be that some other factor is causing both X and Y. A regression alone can't tell you whether it snows because its cold, whether it's cold because it snows, or if the two just happen to go together.†
p. 164.9

factor = thing that affects a result or outcome
So those factors are correlated, and that's nice to know.†
p. 165.2

factors = things that affect a result or outcome
But higher test scores are correlated with many other factors as well.†
p. 165.2
It also means that whatever gap remains can be linked to a handful of readily identifiable factors.†
p. 166.3
For instance, once all other factors are controlled for, it is clear that students from rural areas tend to do worse than average.†
p. 168.2
Knowing what you now know about regression analysis, conventional wisdom, and the art of parenting, consider the following list of sixteen factors.†
p. 168.6
According to the ECLS data, eight of the factors show a strong correlation—positive or negative—with test scores.†
p. 168.6
Now for the final pair of factors: MATTERS: The child has many books in his home.†
p. 175.1
Using regression analysis to control for other factors that might influence life trajectories, it was then possible to measure the impact of a single factor—in this case, a woman's first name—on her educational, income, and health outcomes.†
p. 191.4
Using regression analysis to control for other factors that might influence life trajectories, it was then possible to measure the impact of a single factor—in this case, a woman's first name—on her educational, income, and health outcomes.†
p. 191.5

factor = thing that affects a result or outcome
It comprises an extraordinarily powerful and flexible set of tools that can reliably assess a thicket of information to determine the effect of any one factor, or even the whole effect.†
p. 12.1
He has come to believe that morale is a big factor—that an office is more honest when the employees like their boss and their work.†
p. 48.9
A player's trivia-answering ability is presumably the only worthwhile factor to consider; race, gender, and age wouldn't seem to matter.†
p. 75.3
This is one of four meaningful factors that determine a wage.†
p. 103.5
The delicate balance between these factors helps explain why, for instance, the typical prostitute earns more than the typical architect.†
p. 103.6
In retrospect, it is clear that one of the major factors pushing this trend was WHERE HAVE ALL THE CRIMINALS GONE?†
p. 120.9
Because a gun raises a complex set of issues that change according to one factor: whose hand happens to be holding the gun.†
p. 130.2
All told, the crash of the crack market accounted for roughly 15 percent of the crime drop of the 1990s—a substantial factor, to be sure, though it should be noted that crack was responsible for far more than 15 percent of the crime increase of the 1980s.†
p. 135.4
Another study has shown that low maternal education is the single most powerful factor leading to criminality.†
p. 139.3
In other words, the very factors that drove millions of American women to have an abortion also seemed to predict that their children, had they been born, would have led unhappy and possibly criminal lives.†
p. 139.3
One factor to look for would be a correlation between each state's abortion rate and its crime rate.†
p. 141.3
To discover that abortion was one of the greatest crime-lowering factors in American history is, needless to say, jarring.†
p. 142.2
This is due in part to the familiarity factor.†
p. 152.9
From this jumble, he must determine which factors are correlated and which are not.†
p. 164.1
What we really want to do is measure two children who are alike in every way except one—in this case, the number of books in their homes—and see if that one factor makes a difference in their school performance.†
p. 165.4
Here now are the eight factors that are strongly correlated with test scores: The child has highly educated parents.†
p. 169.4
Consider again the eight ECLS factors that are correlated with school test scores: The child has highly educated parents.†
p. 176.9
And the eight factors that are not: The child's family is intact.†
p. 177.3
The data, covering more than sixteen million births, included standard items such as name, gender, race, birthweight, and the parents' marital status, as well as more telling factors about the parents: their zip code (which indicates socioeconomic status and a neighborhood's racial composition), their means of paying the hospital bill (again, an economic indicator), and their level of education.†
p. 185.5

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Definitions:

(1) (factor as in: It was the deciding factor.)
something that affects a result or outcome

You also may encounter x-factor or x factor--meaning "the most important thing that influences a result or outcome."
(2) (factor as in: factor it into your thinking)
include consideration of
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
There are many specialized meanings in fields such as mathematics, business, finance, biology, and grammar.

factor in Freakonomics (Auto-generated)

factor
in
Freakonomics
(Auto-generated)