Wednesday, January 31, 2007
do straight teeth increase happiness?
although this is an interesting idea, i'm not sure it holds water because those who do and don't get braces differ in many ways. there are likely certain kinds of parents who push getting braces and certain kinds of kids who whine until they are allowed them. there are also, potentially, certain kinds of parents and kids who just don't think it's worth it. such individuals may not be worse off later in life, whereas the group who cares would be unhappy later if denied braces. psychology has shown that your concern for others' perception of you colors all social interactions.
since circumstances between the two groups differ, this means it is difficult to measure psychological impact of bad teeth. a better study would control for such confounding variables as preference, income, and insurance. perhaps looking at individuals who wanted but couldn't get braces for some medical/income/insurance/parental reason would be a good place to start. can't we get an economist to do the study?
Labels: economics, well being
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Monday, January 29, 2007
chicago friedman memorial service audio
- introduction by robert zimmer, president of university of chicago, with a statement from alan greenspan
- vaclav klaus, president of czech republic
- leo melamed, former chairman of the chicago mercantile exchange and founding chairman of the international monetary market
- arnold harberger, economics scholar and former student
- michael walker, former director of the fraser institute and former student
- gary becker, economics scholar, nobel prize winner, and former student
"it doesn't matter who said what. what matters is what's right"
-- friedman quoted by a. harberger
Labels: economics
I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:
www.americanlegends.blogspot.com
If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.
Thanks,
David
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Tuesday, January 02, 2007
can we bury the past and still think of the future?
apparently, there aren't many anymore. these "corrective labor camps" which murdered over one million for crimes against the soviet state, are now simply things such as "just a village for miners," according to one girl. even those who lived through such horrors don't speak of it.
if freud is to be believed, some "forgetting" is natural and healthy. however, as thoughts of the future are inexorably linked to those of the past, i.e. our memories, in our brains, i wonder how this rewrite of the past is changing survivors' abilities to think about the future.
read more about the gulags here or here and, for the bookish, here.
Labels: misc. psych, neuroscience, political
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a brave new world without disgust
"modern molecular techniques will one day find a way to cure Huntington's, but along the way, work out a method to crank down or turn off our disgust response, while preserving our motor systems"hauser correctly notes that disgust is involved in many awful things such as india's caste system, war, genocide. however, involved in and responsible for can be two very different things.
moreover, disgust can be a powerful positive force as well. for example, disgust may be partially responsible for the cast system, but modern efforts to eradicate it are also motivated partially based on the exact same emotion. disgust at hunger, homelessness, and other woes motivates many individuals to do good work. perhaps we would still be motivated to enact change without this emotion, as (semi)rational humans, but would our motivation be as powerful? probably not. we should be careful in vilifying certain feelings - and proposing the permanent elimination of them - because of the actions of a few.
Labels: misc. psych, social
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I agree that it would be very difficult to really assess the psychological impact of braces. Leaving aside the relatively few people who require braces for medical reasons, it does seem that individuals (or their parents) at least intend to improve the recepient's psychological well being by improving his/her appearance.
We do know that straight smiles are considered more attractive, both independent of and as part of facial symmetry. We also know that teeth are an observational measure of health, which is an observational measure of status. It seems to me that trying to discern the psychological impact of braces alone seems rather irrelevant, as it's just a part of making oneself appear more attractive to themselves and others in the same manner as clothing. The only relevant question I can see here is one of value, which hearkens back to your plea for an economist to tackle the question. We don't typically pay the cost of braces for a new shirt -- in fact, a more complicated orthodontic procedure falls closer in price to laser eye surgery, or maybe even a boob job.
So, is permanently altering your appearance "worth" the financial cost and the inconvenience? I would say not necessarily in the case of the laser eye surgery because of the availability of substitutes such as contacts. I would also say there are mitigating factors in the case of breast augmentation -- the first that comes to mind is that breast size is not as universally regarded as important for appearance as a smile. But as for braces, I'm pretty firmly in the yes camp. Parents should be subjecting their children to braces as early as medically possible to give them the longest possible time to "recover" socially. Admittedly, it's going to be very difficult to prove the impact of braces at age 10 on social status or ability to find a mate, but I'm going to stand by my assertion for the time being.
By
Chad, at
Sat Feb 03, 11:38:00 AM
so if braces make one more symmetrical/attractive, this result also may have a little something to do with social comparisons. results may differ in the US where straight teeth are more the norm.
your comment also made me think... braces are not often the decision of the child, nor does the child pay the cost. how much weight a person puts on their appearance isn't a determining factor in getting braces. so although people are not always accurate in predicting what will improve their future happiness, it may be better to look only at individuals who chose to get braces in adulthood.
By
ns, at
Sun Feb 04, 01:07:00 AM
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