The lasting shock of a financial crisis

Malmendier, U. & Nagel, S., "Depression Babies: Do Macroeconomic Experiences Affect Risk-Taking?" National Bureau of Economic Research (March 2009).

What Colbert really thinks

IS STEPHEN COLBERT, the ostensibly conservative late-night pundit on Comedy Central, a conservative or a liberal? The answer may be a political Rorschach test. Researchers at Ohio State University showed a video clip of Colbert to students, most of whom are familiar with his show. Although both liberals and conservatives thought Colbert was funny, conservatives tended to think that Colbert really meant what he said, while liberals assumed that Colbert was just kidding. Moreover, after watching the clip, conservatives' opinion on the topic discussed in the clip - the military's use of embedded journalists in the Iraq war - aligned with Colbert's opinion, while liberals' opinion went the opposite way. The authors note that satire has a history of generating such divergence. For example, even though Norman Lear, the producer of the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family," assumed that viewers would see Archie Bunker as bigoted, a 1974 study found that conservatives strongly sympathized with him.

LaMarre, H. et al., "The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report," International Journal of Press/Politics (April 2009).

Losing more than a newspaper

IN CASE YOU haven't noticed, newspapers are in trouble. However, aside from concern for newspaper staff, it's easy to assume that society will do fine with just the Internet, radio, and television. A new study out of Princeton challenges this assumption. The Cincinnati Post was one of two papers covering the Cincinnati area up until the end of 2007, when it had to shut down upon the expiration of a partnership agreement with the other (more popular) newspaper in the area. Although the Post had a circulation of only 27,000 in its last year, its closure had a number of deleterious effects on Cincinnati's Kentucky suburbs, where the Post was the primary source of coverage: lower voter turnout, fewer candidates for city councils, commissions, and school boards, and easier elections for incumbents.

Schulhofer-Wohl, S. & Garrido, M., "Do Newspapers Matter? Evidence from the Closure of The Cincinnati Post," National Bureau of Economic Research (March 2009).

Green is the new luxury

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT is seen as a liberal cause, but new research suggests that it may be just as much a "limousine liberal" cause. Researchers were tipped off by surveys showing that people bought the Toyota Prius primarily because it made a personal statement, not because of environmental conservation. This led the researchers to theorize that so-called green products allow people to signal not only their altruism but their ability to afford altruism. In other words, green products are now status symbols. In several experiments, people who first read a short story that primed thoughts about status competition were then more likely to prefer a green product. However, when status was taken out of the equation - by telling people that they'd be shopping in private or that the green product was cheaper - people were actually somewhat less likely to prefer the green product. These findings imply that marketers should sell green products as a form of luxury, rather than as a form of charity.

Griskevicius, V. et al., "Going Green to Be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation," University of Minnesota (March 2009).

Why Katrina feels guilty

IT'S BEEN SAID that people adopt pets with a matching personality or even matching looks. Now you can add hurricanes to the adoption list. Psychologists at the University of Michigan examined the donation records of a Red Cross chapter in the Midwest. They found that a disproportionate number of donors to hurricane relief efforts had the same first initial as the name of the hurricane. The pattern was consistent across the most destructive Atlantic hurricanes in recent history, including Mitch, Charlie, Francis, Ivan, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. It's not clear exactly why this happens - perhaps a feeling of guilt by association - but the authors cite a New York Times article right after Katrina that quotes a girl named Katrina who, when asked why she was raising money for the relief effort, said: "I realized my name is going to go down in history as one of the biggest storms ever."

Chandler, J. et al., "In the 'I' of the Storm: Shared Initials Increase Disaster Donations," Judgment and Decision Making (June 2008).