A case of height and handedness

I’ve always been awed by the phenomenal success achieved by one of the most prolific film personalities (and a living legend) in India – Amitabh Bachchan (AB). Like many of my compatriots of my age, while growing up, I used to emulate his voice, behavior, and what not! Later I tried finding out, whether it is the stars or hard work or lineage, which helped him to be a celebrity – not once but twice!!

While it could be a mix of one or all of these factors, a recent post from Stephen J. Dubner indicated that 2 other factors must have been crucial:
– his height (AB’s has above-average height than most of his compatriots / competitors)
– his left handedness (even though he is ambidextrous)

Height
In a recent paper, Anne Case and Christina Paxson say that taller adults generally seemed to hold higher-status jobs, and on average earn more than others. They “earn more because they are smarter... As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome returns”.

Left-handedness
Scores of research have substantiated that left-handed people are better at everything than right-handed people. Here’s the latest, from economists Christopher S. Ruebeck, Joseph E. Harrington and Robert Moffitt. They argue that “left-handed college-educated people earn 15% more than right-handed college educated people” - especially among males. In his book Right-Hand, Left-Hand, Chris McManus of University College London argues that left-handed people have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He says that left-handers' brains are differently structured, to widen their range of abilities; the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language-centers of the brain.

A quick check of a list of famous tall men and famous left-handed people in Wikipedia was a sort of revelations for me.

I can now understand why:

1) My parents and relatives used to often hand me on air, just by holding my head at right and left – To make me taller!
2) A few of my bosses always stressed up while listening to me – I had to look down on them!
3) Many countries have left-hand-drive system – Train to produce high achievers vis-à-vis other countries!
4) Some parents encourage their children to draw/ paint by their left hand – Da Vinci was left handed!
5) It is rarer to find a left-handed person in tailoring / apparel designing – Hard to find a pair of scissors for them

Do have some more to add?

Image source : www.vedamsbooks.com

Filed under:Bachchan, Dubner, Research, Psychology, Left-handedness, Human Height

Music drives teen sex?

I’ve always been baffled by the splurge in early-teen sex and promiscuity in recent times. Often I felt that availability of too much information, could be the prime reason. While different sections of society would assign different reasons for this, a recent study claims that teen sex is encouraged by raunchy, sexual lyrics in music.

Based on telephone interviews with 1,461 participants aged 12 to 17, the study indicated that: “Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music” (See the AP article covered by CNN here; Full report appears in August issue of Pediatrics; see the text abstract and pdf here)

The study is indeed interesting. However, as Stephen Dubner rightly questions here, can we safely attribute teen sex to sexual music? I feel we should not! Raised up in a conservative family, I tend to reason out that raunchy music videos (and not raunchy lyrics) could be the real “reason why”!

Let’s take the ideal case of a pubescent teenager, who’s virtually unexposed to the semi nude models, raunchy / erotic dance numbers, and visual gyrations depicted in music videos. Let’s also assume he/she has not seen any suggestive scenes in movies, TVs, books, photos or comics. In this case would he/ she react the same way to raunchy lyrics/ music, compared to the one who has been exposed otherwise? I guess not! So it depends upon the nature of the listener.

Could it be the case that teens, who have early (and frequent) sex, are more likely to listen to music that reffirms their behaviour?. Or perhaps, taken a bit further, reasons for choosing same music by one teenager could be entirely different from that of another – e.g. one could be already engaging in sex while the latter doesn’t, and likes only the music instead?

Nevertheless, the study does attempt to empirically establish what many of us have always known:

1) Lyrics do affect your state of mind – positive or negative; otherwise lyrical poetry in music wouldn’t have existed

2) Music and Lyrics do help to leave a lasting impression; otherwise Vedic chants would’ve been long obsolete, esp. in a modern world

3) You can inspire / impress upon an entire generation to do something thru music; e.g. Beetles’, patriotic songs, etc.

4) For teens, sex is more of a fad, craze, fancy or rage - much like music, romance, fashion and style are

It would be interesting to see more amusing correlations from all you readers.

Filed under: Teens, Music, Sex, Research, Pediatrics, Dubner, Lyrics, Psychology, Behaviour, CNN

How to Hate!

Hate is a very common emotion which all of us know of. As defined in Wikipedia, it's as an emotion of intense revulsion, distaste, enmity, or antipathy for a person, thing, or phenomenon. It is interesting to note that its other cousin – love – gets all the attention from every possible quarter. You just have to see the coverage it got here, compared to “hate”.

The possible reason is perhaps obvious - as a philosopher might say “Love makes life go ahead”. However, today’s realities suggest that Hate (and not love!) perhaps drives the world. Scores and scores of news channels, newspapers, and other media vehicles depend upon the end-product of hatred, to glorify their headlines and increase sales. Millions of air-time, ink, bromides and hence dollars are spent every year to highlight hatred.

Further, in the wired world, now we see another avatar of hatred in form of websites, blogs, emails and e-newsletters. So much importance this emotion has gained since ages that today we can see many people indulging in cashing in on the phenomenon. The latest one which drew my attention is a website — which writes to any person telling them that there is someone who hates them! Just write in the name of someone you hate, pay them $5, and the job is done.

Although I’m at a loss about the benefit the hater gets by doing so, yet if by doing so he/ she gets peace, I feel there could be some interesting possibilities. Imagine…

1) millions of Lebanese paying 5 bucks each to hate the person responsible to start the recent war. This “hate contribution” could go a long way in rehabilitating their war affected brethren

2) scores of such hate services crop up in each country. In extreme cases, you can expect crimes - due to hate alone – decrease considerably

3) media reporting perhaps more stories of “love” than hate and bloodshed

4) all of us perhaps could be well progressing towards more Utopian society, where productivity increases just because the negative emotion of hate is not there anymore

An angle which is often missed about hate or hatred is that like love, it is also an extreme emotion. You cannot hate a subject / object, unless you’re completely in love with that. As a result, maybe you’ve raised some kind of expectations about that subject / object, which when unfulfilled, triggers your anti-feeling. So it would be interesting if someone thinks of making “How to Love” as their business venture.

A second take on this could be encouraging a similar venture of teaching people to be “indifferent”. If you cannot love somebody, you start loving him more (albeit negatively) when you start hating him. But by being indifferent, you kill your emotions. Discounting the risk of treading the path of “religious preaching”, I feel this could be a much evolved way to tackle “Hate” or “hatred”.

Any takers? If none, any sponsors, who’d like to fund this project?

Image taken from http://www.whotohate.com

Filed under:Psychology, Behaviour, website, Research

Script for an education revolution?

Often “free education” doesn’t accompany “free tools”. Who’d know this better than numerous poor students in my country! Often it is a case of one textbook for 3 or more students. This text book is often re-circulated among the next batch of students! Despite sustained, honest efforts from govt. and NGOs, the results are not so visible due to the vast population.

At last there seems to be a solution in sight! Freeload Press, a small startup in Minnesota, is trying to shake up the status quo in the $6 billion college textbook industry by introducing ads in textbooks – similar to what you see in magazines / academic journals (see the news article here). Initially, the publisher is offering more than 100 business titles completely free, provided the student answers a 5 minute survey.

This development might prove to be the “tipping point” for a textbook revolution, esp in developing countries. Often the funds get lost due to middlemen and other greedy parties (read politicians). With ads, there’re possibilities that the textbooks come completely free! The ads may be controlled, dependent on the age of the students. The poor students would be able to enjoy fresh / new / updated textbooks every year.

Some other implications could be:
1) Basic health and hygiene sections sponsored by related companies / firms, who could then follow up with practical activities with the students
2) Social education sponsored by companies committed towards social responsibility.
3) Anti-smoking / Anti drug-abuse messages / education could be sponsored by Cigarette / medical companies

In short, ads in textbook might empower the sponsors to do what govt. and NGOs have been trying to achieve till now. However, the moot question is: will the education departments allow this to happen?

Filed under:Advertising, Books, Education, development, revolution, Freeload Press

Sharing moments for a thriller

Have you ever recalled that day / moment of your life, which was important? I bet each one of us definitely have, at some point of time or other. Probably at a time when we’re feeling low, or recollecting our string of achievements or failures, or we’re just simply brooding.

Again, I’d bet that none of us perhaps thought of ever writing down these important moments / days of your life. The reason: we all have steered ourselves away from that habit of “writing” diaries. A second reason could be that as we grow and mature to become a cog in the wheel of life, we tend to give lesser and lesser time to remember those days / moments, till we are ready to make the last journey.

Perhaps this is where the www has come to the rescue to some extent. Blogging has replaced the good old habit of personal diary keeping, albeit making it more public. And now BBC has gone a step further, starting a site where you can record and share memories of the important days in your life. It also gives information about events which have taken place on any day since 1st Jan 1900, and on many dates before that. You can also see what happened on any day ever since.

I feel this could really be a "swiss bank" type of deposit which your grand and great grand children can re-live - if he / she wants to.

However, what started me thinking is this: would this online journal replace the more formal way of creating “reality” tales previously covered thru the so-called “true story” books / novels? Imagine a situation when you have 500+ readers posting different feelings or situations of any particular day, which is otherwise well known / reported, e.g 9/11. You could have the starting chapters of a real-life thriller. Should this happen, would all these contributors be paid royalties?

The idea itself doesn’t seem to be new (although the execution is): Reader’s Digest used to carry similar stories from its readers (not sure if they still do!). I guess this is part of a growing trend towards “user generated” content that the media world is talking about. See examples here and here.

Filed under:BBC, TheTimeWhen, Blogging, Journal, Readers'Digest, CNN, Exchange, Media

Blink, and you’re a bestseller!

I’ve always liked the way Americans are used to going deep into the subject, and making a fortune out of their endeavour.

Recently one hypothesis has gained this all American privilege of being the subject of deep diagnosis. Most of us know it as “intuition” or “gut-feel”, which a person develops in any field of work or life in general. The American author, New York Times staff writer and former science reporter Malcolm Gladwell has gone deep into this subject and re-named it as “BLINK” – the power of thinking without thinking. He even wrote a book on the same name.

The theory or technique proposed after his deep analysis is nothing new perhaps for many of my compatriots and my forefathers. They have / had this in their blood anyways, perhaps because of their inherited powers - usually abused as “mystic”. Further, the book itself has not given any specific techniques to improve your gut-feel, or any ways of learning “thin-slicing”.

However it is interesting to note the way this author presents anecdotes after anecdotes to prove his technique/ hypothesis. The result? The book has become an international bestseller.

Imagine what would happen if one of my able compatriots start following the American way of going deep down into a subject, and start producing similar books? I could think of very many subjects that are known, used, abused, but not properly written about – e.g. Conning, Psychic face-reading, Politics, Sorcery, Romancing, etc. etc.

Any takers? If none, any sponsors, who’d like to fund this project for me?

Filed under:Books, Blink, Bestseller, Malcolm Gladwell, Psychology, Intuition, Research

Son or a Daughter?

I always knew there’s some kind of scary behind-the-scene reasons for an otherwise “God wished” probability of having a son or daughter!

A new study published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology by Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, argues that good-looking parents are 36% more likely to have a baby daughter as their first child than a baby son. Though entirely based on American sample, it could very well indicate that beauty is the reason behind having a son or a daughter!

As might be suggested from this news article, if you are NOT considered “beautiful” or “attractive”, chances are that it’s because of your large frame, strength and aggression, which are considered as “male traits”. Therefore if you and your partner are not “beautiful” or “attractive”, you’re more likely to have a son. Similarly, since “beauty” is a “female trait”, you’re more likely to have a daughter, if both you and your partner are “beautiful”.

Dr Kanazawa’s early studies indicated that people with “male brains” - e.g. scientists, mathematicians and engineers, big and tall parents and violent fathers – are more likely to have sons. Conversely, people with "female brains" - e.g. social workers, kindergarten teachers, nurses etc. – are more likely to have daughters.

The answers this study generates could be quite interesting:
1) Years after graduation, we used to often ask ourselves – “what made that beauty queen (read ex crush / infatuation!) marry a chimpanzee?” Maybe because it’s just that she wanted to increase her probability of having a son!!!
2) Two good looking, madly-in-love individuals, often had a daughter as their love-child.
3) Many of my compatriots perhaps would be more careful while choosing partners – especially if he / she has conservative parents who believe that sons take the dynasties forward - daughters do not!
4) Career choice could also be made early in life, based on your preference to have a son or a daughter in future

It would be interesting to see reader’s contributions in this regard.

Filed under:Research, Society, Behaviour, Dr. Kanazawa, Traits, Son, Daughter, Psychology

Omni-Expert?

I just came across an article by Stephen Colbert in Wired magazine. He's supposed to be one of the funniest comedians who conduct the hit show The Colbert Report in Comedy Central. It is called How to be an Expert on Anything.

The article reminds me of my graduation days when we used to explore "unconventional wisdom" to see if any of them could be used to stand out in the crowd. I'm reproducing the points with my own comments, on this post. Interestingly, back in the 80's we used to apply at least some of these points to the so called well known "experts", and found them mysteriously being true.

Here are the 11 points:

Pick a field that can't be verified
This could be anything, ranging from Scientology to Scentology (I'm sure there must be something of that sort!!). My favorite, back in the 80's was "Phacology" - the art of making an impression among the pseudo socializers. Idea was simple: Just start talking calmly and patiently, with much style and panache, about an adventure, a project or a long lost theory, which none of your listeners is supposed to have any prior experience / interest. The word was derived from local slang "Phankna" meaning “throw" - you can guess what!

Choose a subject that's actually secret
This is a bit difficult and would go against the one above. In this case you really need to be smart and knowledgeable. However, you can really make the subject a part and parcel of your "Phacology"

Get your own entry in an encyclopedia
In the 80's this was not possible. However today, it is very much! Just spend a day on the Wikipedia.com site. Rest you'll realize easily.

Use the word "zeitgeist" as often as possible
However, make sure you know the actual meaning of the word. I discovered "chutzpah" and used it very often and long after realized the actual meaning was quite different than my application.

Be sure to use lots of abbreviations and acronyms
The quickest way to achieve this is to create your own. BTW (i.e. By the Way), AUS (are you sure), JLT (Just Like That), etc, have all been started like that! The best acronym vocabulary I gained by being with the IIM / Ad world / Yippee crowd. Today chats and IMs are best harvesting grounds for acronyms and abbreviations.

Speak from the balls, not from the diaphragm
Well whenever I tried this, I seem to have lost big time! But the best part of this is that my chances improved for a bigger risk next time. The thumb-rule I learnt was: "Speak from the balls; but be careful of your arse". Believe me; if you cover up your arse before speaking from the balls, you really gain a lot.... (I'm still learning...)

Don't be afraid to make things up
My profession has taught me to be an expert at doing this... sometimes with funny outcomes. However, one of the best things I observed and learned from one of my colleagues is that by pre-analyzing the situation, and expecting outcomes in advance, it is always better to make your peers and colleagues feel that you're losing. However, actually you may be planning the "lose-out" to show that you're really capable to "come back"

Don't limit yourself to current knowledge
Of course no body stops you from assuming things - positively or disastrously. I feel this is a classic way to make an impression with your bosses and peers when you have performed badly... you can always say that the visible result is a short-term loss, but a long-term gain, as you had foreseen the future!!!

Get an honorary PhD
I'm not sure whether any famous university will give you one... However, you can try getting one from "non-famous" ones, selling them the idea that by doing so, you can make them famous!!

Make a habit of name-dropping
My friend uses it a lot... you need to be very very interested in the "named" person's life. I've found it very useful to make myself look "informed", sometimes with hilarious outcome - the names I dropped and supposed to be the ones the others know, happened to be entirely different persons!!!

Be famous. It helps
You need to look at some of the developing economies and their developing leaders, to learn this. Also, I feel being famous could go hand in hand with being notorious. After all Oscar couldn't have been wrong: "One day I'll be famous. If not I'll be notorious". Therefore go ahead to get noticed - famously or infamously.

Sure, my thoughts are little on the wild side. However I feel Colbert’s is a first original unofficial attempt to document contemporary wisdom.

Filed under:Management, Stephen Colbert, Behaviour, Society, Culture, Self Development, Survival, Business