A Separate Cycling Lane?

Money, Status, and the Ovulatory Cycle 
Kristina Durante et al.
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming

Abstract: Each month, millions of women experience an ovulatory cycle that regulates fertility. Past consumer research has found that the cycle influences women's clothing and food preferences. But we propose that the ovulatory cycle has a much broader effect on women's economic behavior. Drawing on theory in evolutionary psychology, we hypothesize that the week-long period near ovulation should boost women's desire for relative status, which should alter women's economic decisions. Findings from three studies show that near ovulation women sought positional goods to improve their social standing. Additional findings revealed that ovulation led women to seek positional goods when doing so improved relative standing compared to other women, but not compared to other men. When playing the dictator game, for example, ovulating women gave smaller offers to a woman, but not to a man. Overall, women's monthly hormonal fluctuations appear to have a substantial effect on consumer behavior by systematically altering women's positional concerns, which has important implications for marketers, consumers, and researchers.


Menstrual Cycle Effects on Attitudes toward Romantic Kissing 
Rafael Wlodarski & Robin Dunbar
Human Nature, December 2013, Pages 402-413

Abstract: Hormonal changes associated with the human menstrual cycle have been previously found to affect female mate preference, whereby women in the late follicular phase of their cycle (i.e., at higher risk of conception) prefer males displaying putative signals of underlying genetic fitness. Past research also suggests that romantic kissing is utilized in human mating contexts to assess potential mating partners. The current study examined whether women in their late follicular cycle phase place greater value on kissing at times when it might help serve mate assessment functions. Using an international online questionnaire, results showed that women in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle felt that kissing was more important at initial stages of a relationship than women in the luteal phase of their cycle. Furthermore, it was found that estimated progesterone levels were a significant negative predictor for these ratings.

Nod to the estimable Kevin Lewis

Markets in everything: South African price discrimination edition

And if you're interested in what a Kulula airlines plane looks like:

 (clic the pics for more informative images). Hat tip to Jeff Ely.

Can you hear me now?

Hat tip to GW

One size fits all

We pretty much all know that the real answer to questions of the sort "why does X occur"? is "to get the girl".

You know what I mean right? "why do birds grow elaborate feathers?", "why do rams butt heads at 30 mph?" Why do boys play football?", "why do bloggers blog?".


Now, LeBron informs us that this simple, powerful answer also applies to explaining our current global imbalances, viz:

Q: Why do the Chinese save so much?

A: To get the girl!

Episode II: The Women Strike Back

Wow. One can't condone the violence.

But sports trophy wifes are saying, "Enough!"

Elin beat Tiger like a punk.

And now Chris Henry has actually died being thrown out of a truck. Mr. Henry's fiancee was upset at him, and basically killed him. The description was that "he came out of the truck." Sure he did. Because she was swerving around and screaming at him.

Hell hath no fury.....

Markets in everything: Stepford Wife edition

Mrs. Angus and I had been debating whether Tiger's wife would leave him or stand by her man. Turns out she is planning to lease herself to him:

Elin and Tiger Woods had a prenuptial agreement, as expected. The couple is undergoing marital counseling, as you'd also expect. And now The Daily Beast is reporting that Elin Woods is renegotiating that prenup to get an immediate $5 million payout from her husband and as much as $55 million more to stay with him for two more years.

The initial prenup was worth $20 million after 10 years of marriage. However, the Chicago Sun-Times' Bill Zwecker has reported that Elin Woods will receive an immediate payment "into an account she alone controls," and that the 10-year timeframe -- which began when they married in 2004 -- has been shortened and the value increased "substantially."

The Daily Beast quotes "a lawyer familiar with the couple's negotiations" in reporting that the term of the prenup has been shortened to seven years, and that a series of staggered payments could increase the total value to $75 million.

But apparently there's also a behavioral component to all this: Elin Woods must "be a dutiful wife in showing up with him at social events and in public as if they were still the perfect couple, and sign a nondisclosure form that will prevent her from ever telling her story."

YIKES!

This pretty much negates any of the sympathy I had for Mrs. Woods, but I am surprised (guess I am naive) that Tiger's reaction to this situation is to just try to buy his way out of it.

A Prize we can believe in

Does this make it easier or harder for BHO to put more "boots on the ground" in Afghanistan?

What I like the best about the story is that President O had only been in office for TWO WEEKS when the nomination deadline for the Peace Prize arrived.

I also like Lech Walesa's take on the subject:

"So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," said former Polish President Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate.

"This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let's see if he perseveres. Let's give him time to act," Walesa said.

and by act he means???

Well as the article soberly informs us:

Still, the U.S. remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress has yet to pass a law reducing carbon emissions and there has been little significant reduction in global nuclear stockpiles since Obama took office.

Wow, who knew Norwegians were so darn wily??

Thanks for a great May

Big ups to all KPC readers, linkers, commenters, lurkers, whatever. Thanks for making May 2009 our heaviest traffic month since Angus and Mungowitz (re)joined forces and created Kids Prefer Cheese.

Friday poetry corner

Here are two short poems I composed.

The first came out accidentally in an email to Mrs. Angus this morning:

"Me dejaste plantado sin un pinche centavo"


The second while ruminating on teaching econometrics IV:

"Thomas Bayes was no fool. He made up his very own rule. When you want the answer, don't tempt fate, derive the posterior and integrate"

Markets in Everything: Canadian Style

This one is for Alex T!

"Canadians who may have become tired of being passed over as porn stars will have a new, home-grown outlet to showcase their erotic talents. Federal regulators have granted Alberta-based Real Productions approval to launch a new digital pornography channel, which promises to serve up at least 50 percent domestic content."


and here's the money quote:

"I think as Canadians there is a bit of a tiredness in seeing all American stuff," Shaun Donnelly, president of Real Productions, said during an interview on Friday.

"There is always that thrill for something that is local and you get the sense that these are people you can meet at the supermarket."

Yikes!! I don't know about where y'all live, but there's no one in my supermarket I want to see nekkid!

Would Obama really pick Biden??

According to Intrade, he's the favorite. Admittedly, no one knows their way around warm spit like Joe, but I just don't see how Obama can pick him. Obama is politics 2.0, Joe is plagiarism 101. Obama is cool, Joe is a creep.

Is Obama so succeptible to flattery (Biden famous called him "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy")?

Wasn't Biden in favor of partitioning Iraq?

I really hope Obama goes this way (gridlock, gridlock, rah, rah, rah), but I don't think so. He's not that dumb.

Santa Fe discoveries

One of me and Mrs. Angus's favorite things to do in Santa Fe is stroll through the zillions of art galleries around town. While many are stereotypical and touristy, there are some genuinely interesting artists showing their work and some excellent galleries. One local (by way of Mallorca) artist that we both liked very much is Richard Campiglio. Here is one example:



He puts plaster on panels and then paints on that. Most pieces are small and ornately framed. Kind of Michelangelo meets R. Crumb. Here's another:

I think that I shall never see.....

A whole new meaning to the phrase: Sleep it off

From our French friends comes the news that,

"An extra hour between the sheets at night might be the key to shedding excess weight and fighting obesity, according to recent research"

Yeah, that's my kind of research! Maybe Eliot Spitzer was just trying to lose weight?

Sadly, that's not actually what they are talking about:

"More sleep could be the ideal way of stabilising weight or slimming," said neuro-scientist Karine Spiegel, of France's INSERM, a public organisation dedicated to biological, medical and public health research.

It's all about the hormones, people

Two key hormones produced at night which help regulate appetite were at play, she said.

Grehlin makes people hungry, slows metabolism and decreases the body's ability to burn body fat, and leptin, a protein hormone produced by fatty tissue, regulates fat storage.

"We have shown that less sleep (two four-hour nights) caused an 18 percent loss of appetite-cutting leptin and a 28 percent increase of appetite-causing grehlin," she said.

Such hormonal changes made people hungry for foods heavy in fats and sugars such as chips, biscuits, cakes and peanuts, she added.

INSERM?? Grehlin?

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" (or Pretty in Pink)

Tiger Woods beware: Its the dawning of the age of.... well, this guy!



(and, no we didn't photoshop that photo)

Britain's Ian Poulter has, despite no PGA tour victories ever, announced that this year "Only I can challenge Tiger's supremacy"

Go on sir!

"Don't get me wrong, I really respect every professional golfer, but I know I haven't played to my full potential and when that happens, it will be just me and Tiger."

The Englishman, asked by the magazine to predict the winner of the first major of the season at the U.S. Masters in April, replied: "Put Tiger down for that one".

For the year's second major at the U.S. Open, he said: "You can put me down for that one".

Besides dissing all other pro golfers including the 21 others with higher world rankings than himself, Ian took a special shot at Ole Lefty (Phil Mickelson):

"Tiger is one in 10 million. "He is extraordinary. If you look at the rankings he is almost two and a half times better than the guy in second place."

Nicely done sir, Kudos to you.

UPDATE: Now, probably after seeing this blogpost, Mr. Poulter is (like Charles Barkely in his "autobiography"), claiming that he's been misunderstood, "The whole answer to the question has been taken out of context," he said.

Kudos hereby retracted sir for not having the onions to stick with what you said and take the heat.

Angus goes to the Movies

Mrs. Angus and I weekended in Dallas. Caught a Mavs game and saw a few movies. Against my inclination, but on the strength of its Golden Globe for best picture, one of them was "Atonement".

Holy Crap people. What a stinker! I was going all mystery science theatre on it, embarrassing Mrs. Angus. Let me be specific. The plot makes no sense, driven as it is by a string of impossibly unlikely coincidences and everything is melodramatically signaled well in advance of it's actual occurrence. Apparently torn between a happy or sad ending the filmmakers delivered both!! The movie is best viewed as a Monty Python-esque send up of British people. Everyone is a cliche. The foppish rich lads, the genius and perfect servant's son, the evil little girl, the hospital matron, the cockney soldier.

The half hearted attempts to show the horrors of war are basically laugh out loud funny for their surrealistic pomposity. No one seems real and there is nothing that makes you care or emotionally invest in any outcome, whether it be happy or sad.

Brainwashed!

I just realized that the gubmint has been pulling the wool over my eyes. Found out in the New York Times of all places, where Stephanie Coontz asks why the State is in the marriage business. And that is a very good question indeed; sad that I never questioned it before.

From the article it seems like the US States got into the marriage business for reasons of racism/eugenics:

The American colonies officially required marriages to be registered, but until the mid-19th century, state supreme courts routinely ruled that public cohabitation was sufficient evidence of a valid marriage. By the later part of that century, however, the United States began to nullify common-law marriages and exert more control over who was allowed to marry.

By the 1920s, 38 states prohibited whites from marrying blacks, “mulattos,” Japanese, Chinese, Indians, “Mongolians,” “Malays” or Filipinos. Twelve states would not issue a marriage license if one partner was a drunk, an addict or a “mental defect.” Eighteen states set barriers to remarriage after divorce.

and now it's all about control; you can't get your "benefits" if you don't have the government papers.

As Nancy Polikoff, an American University law professor, argues, the marriage license no longer draws reasonable dividing lines regarding which adult obligations and rights merit state protection. A woman married to a man for just nine months gets Social Security survivor’s benefits when he dies. But a woman living for 19 years with a man to whom she isn’t married is left without government support, even if her presence helped him hold down a full-time job and pay Social Security taxes. A newly married wife or husband can take leave from work to care for a spouse, or sue for a partner’s wrongful death. But unmarried couples typically cannot, no matter how long they have pooled their resources and how faithfully they have kept their commitments.