Public choice theory explains the incentives and behavior of the tens of thousands of government employees who work in the bowels of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Treasury, Office of Management and Budget, Economics and Statistics Administration, and countless other agencies who generate and massage spreadsheets day in and day out.

FORBES: Distorted Government Statistics Endanger Our Economic Health

And one of my favorites, the Volkswagen fun theory, inspired some positive social re-engineering by using play as the motivator to behavior change.

FORBES: Big Brand Gestures Make a Splash in Cannes

And, Del Genio disputes a theory that rising carbon dioxide levels would have only a slight impact on global temperatures because the theory doesn't take into account real world cloud behavior.

CNN: Clouds' role in global warming studied

"An insurer could contend that a subscription to 'Hang Gliding Monthly' is predictive of highly dangerous behavior, but I'm not buying that theory: The consumer may be getting the magazine for the pictures, " says Thomas Considine, New Jersey's commissioner of banking and insurance.

WSJ: Insurers Test Data Profiles to Identify Risky Clients