Can you pay people to develop good habits?
oks like the answer might be yes: Can incentives be effective when trying to encourage the development of good habits? We investigate the effect of paying people a non-trivial amount of money to attend an exercise facility a number of times during a one-month period. In two separate studies, we find that doing so leads to a large and significant increase in the average post-intervention attendance level relative to the control group. This result is entirely driven by the impact…
1 min read
An easy way to lower your cholesterol that’s a lot of fun:
ss more: Affection exchange theory and previous research suggest that affectionate behavior has stress-ameliorating effects. On this basis, we hypothesized that increasing affectionate behavior would effect improvements in physical and psychological conditions known to be exacerbated by stress. This study tested this proposition by examining the effects of increased romantic kissing on blood lipids, perceived stress, depression, and relationship satisfaction. Fifty-two healthy adults who were in marital or cohabiting romantic relationships provided self-report data for psychological outcomes and blood samples…
1 min read
Do blondes have more fun?
can't be sure about fun, but female blondes do make more money: This study contributes to the economics literature that links physical characteristics to labour market outcomes, by investigating the influence of hair colour on women's own wages and also their spouse's wages. Using U.S. panel data, we find that blonde women receive large wage premiums. Source: "Physical appearance and wages: Do blondes have more fun" from Economics Letters Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.…
1 min read
Everybody hates commuting. Why do we do it?
nny, I'd been planning to do a bit on commuting for a while. Yesterday I saw Jonah Lehrer's excellent post on the subject and figured now might be a good time. As he and David Brooks both note, commuting dramatically and negatively affects happiness. I agree. Everyone hates commuting. Even sex offenders hate commuting. Married women have a pretty dramatic relationship with commuting -- it stops them from working: These points were confirmed when Black and his coauthors examined Census data…
3 minutes
Drink too much? Smoke too much? Wanna clean up your act? Have a daughter, not a son.
ttle is known about why some human beings make risky life-choices. This paper provides evidence that people's health decisions and addictive actions are influenced by the gender of their children. Having a daughter leads individuals -- in micro data from Great Britain and the United States -- to reduce their smoking, drinking, and drug-taking. The paper's results are consistent with the hypothesis that human beings "self-medicate‟ when under stress. Source: "The Effects of Daughters on Health Choices and Risk Behaviour"…
2 minutes
How to quickly and easily become a better person
end more time out in nature: Four studies examined the effects of nature on valuing intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations. Intrinsic aspirations reflected prosocial and other-focused value orientations, and extrinsic aspirations predicted self-focused value orientations. Participants immersed in natural environments reported higher valuing of intrinsic aspirations and lower valuing of extrinsic aspirations, whereas those immersed in non-natural environments reported increased valuing of extrinsic aspirations and no change of intrinsic aspirations. Three studies explored experiences of nature relatedness and autonomy as underlying…
1 min read
Here’s How The Season Of Your Birth Affects Your Future Health And Success
, I'm not talking about astrology. (If you're a regular reader of this blog you can guess what my feelings on astrology might be.) This connection is indirect and has to do with who has babies when: Research has found that season of birth is associated with later health and professional outcomes; what drives this association remains unclear. In this paper we consider a new explanation: that children born at different times in the year are conceived by women with…
3 minutes
Is retirement lethal?
eviously I've posted on how retirement is correlated with cognitive decline. The proof keeps on rolling in: We investigate the relationship between aging, cognitive abilities and retirement using the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a longitudinal survey that offers the possibility of comparing several European countries using nationally representative samples of the population aged 50+. We use a version of the model proposed by Grossman (1972) as a guide for our empirical specification of the age-profile…
3 minutes
