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No Stupid Questions

42. How Does When You Are Born Affect Who You Are?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.63.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Also: how did Angela do with her no-sugar challenge?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

See the sights of the city with the new Toyota Igo Cross.

0:04.1

Tawler, bolder and cheaper to run with up to 58.8 miles per gallon.

0:09.4

No wonder it's the Sunday Times motoring awards 2022 City Small Car of the Year.

0:14.5

Whichever way you look at it, you'll stand out in the new Toyota Igo Cross.

0:19.2

Drive tall and book a test drive today.

0:21.7

Funiloconomy based on comparing the 58.8 MPG of Toyota Igo Cross versus seven comparable vehicles,

0:26.4

and PG based on test conditions and they vary. See Toyota, Toyota UK for details.

0:32.5

I do not believe you. That is not possibly true.

0:36.7

I'm Antelda Dukworth. I'm Stephen Dubner. And you're listening to no stupid questions.

0:42.4

Today on the show, how does when you are born affect who you are?

0:46.8

I'm going to have a kid now because it's a lucky year. Also, how did Angela do with her no sugar

0:53.2

in the morning coffee challenge? The more cream, the better? Half and half became whole or maybe

0:58.2

one and a half. Stephen, we got an email from somebody named Ali Caladine. And I would like to

1:06.6

read it to you. Please. Angela and Stephen, does when you are born affect who you are?

1:12.4

In my econometrics class, we're talking about instrumental variables. And one thing that has come

1:17.2

up is that while you may think that the time of year someone is born is a great random variable

1:22.6

that can be used to make more robust estimates. It turns out that when in the year you are born

1:27.6

is actually correlated with things like parents income or mental health outcomes.

1:33.8

Is it true that people born at different times of the year are different? Does this mean

1:37.8

horoscopes are in fact valid? Thanks, Ali Caladine. So the way I would think about this is there

1:45.4

at least two major dimensions. One is that the time of year you're born or more broadly the year

1:53.0

you're born and what's going on in the world then may have some natural ish effect. But then there's

...

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