![]() SEXTON: Psychologists have defined competitive altruism as a sort of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses type concept but applied to pro-social behavior, or efforts to make society better. Today? There’s still plenty of conspicuous consumption - but the Sextons noted a trend that updates the old model: that is, not showing off your flashy car or flashy jewelry, but showing off your environmental bona fides by, say, driving a car that’s plainly a hybrid. More and more Americans were growing rich - and it became important to show off that wealth. Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase more than 100 years ago. But I certainly have a shot at it.Īs economists, the Sextons know all about signaling theory, particularly the behavior known as conspicuous consumption. So, that’s by no means … by no means have I made it yet. SEXTON: Yes, I ended 2010 as the third American in the Olympics points rankings, and we get to take three people. here at Berkeley, I’m also training for the London Olympics as a triathlete.ĭUBNER: How good are you? Like, when you say training for the Olympics, that means that there’s reasonable expectation that you might actually be there? SEXTON: Yes, in addition to trying to finish up my Ph.D. Steve Sexton has a somewhat less sedentary hobby. SEXTON: We like to joke that we have a family plan to become a one-family consulting firm, kind of like the Partridge Family for economics.Īlison Sexton worked briefly for the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis. All of our friends couldn’t wait to come over to dinner with us.Ī. SEXTON: Oh, it was very exciting as you might imagine. And guess what their parents do? Yep: economists. student at the University of Minnesota studying health and information economics.ĭUBNER All right, so I’m a little suspicious, you share a last name, are you related to each other perhaps? Berkeley studying agricultural and resource economics.Īlison SEXTON: I’m Alison Sexton. If you don’t realize that people are trying to manage their image, you miss out on a lot of what’s going on.Īll right, so here’s our question for today: For people who lean green, how much value do they place on being seen leaning green? ![]() Trying to understand, business, trying to understand jobs, school, even medicine. HANSON: There’s a big world of interesting things to look at and managing our appearance is actually a lot of what we humans do. It could be about showing your concern, showing your loyalty, showing your attention.ĭUBNER: No offense to you or your fellow economists, but why are you guys looking at this? This seems - don’t you have other, more economics-themed problems? Why have you guys gotten involved in this, and maybe even gotten good at figuring out signaling? ![]() So, it’s not so much about showing off your ability to be really smart or to be well dressed or to be athletic. So more generally, signaling is about managing your image it’s about keeping in mind that other people are watching you and interpreting you. Robin HANSON: Signaling theory is another way of talking about showing off. But there’s this idea that they call “signaling theory.” Here’s Robin Hanson of George Mason University. Now, this might not sound like something that economists study. In this episode, the car is called a “Pious.” A little bit like a … Prius, maybe? The message is clear: helping the planet is nice but being seen helping the planet is really nice. That’s from the TV show South Park, poking fun at how some people get a little bit sanctimonious when they start driving a hybrid car. I just – I just couldn’t sit back and be part of destroying the earth anymore. Those “I am not a plastic bag” reusable shopping bags. But, while it may not always be easy being green, these days it’s certainly attractive. Whether his little windmill had anything to do with it – tough to say. You will note that David Cameron did get elected Prime Minister of the U.K. So actually, these windmills cost energy. ![]() Indeed, there’s a fantastic example from the British physicist David MacKay, who points to building-top windmills in Japan that actually have little electric motors in them to keep them spinning around, because otherwise they would look really stupid on top of the building and not actually moving. These little windmills, especially in an urban environment, where you don’t get a consistent flow of wind, they generate an incredibly small amount of energy. ![]() But you need a really, really big windmill in a really windy location to be efficient. HARFORD: Now it turns out wind power can be pretty effective. He’s an economist and author who lives in Oxford, England. When he was leader of the opposition - he was trying to get elected - he wanted to convince people that he was a soft, caring guy, and he installed a little windmill on his house. Tim HARFORD: The British Prime Minister, David Cameron. ![]()
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