WEBVTT - How to Win Everything: Ridiculous and Unorthodox Ways to Get the Upper Hand 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:12.000 Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio. Guess 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:13.000 what mang go with that? 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.080 Well, all right, so I was reading up this week 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.600 on strange advantages that certain people have. You know, we're 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:20.599 always trying to get a leg up on people who 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.799 super competitive, as our listeners may know. But sure, it 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.920 turns out that left handed people have a pretty distinct advantage, 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.200 like when it comes to one on one sports. So 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.400 you take boxing, tennis, fencing, even pitching a baseball if 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.920 it involves taking aim at an opponent, lefties have a 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.839 little bit of an edge. And if you look at 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.000 professional sports, the numbers actually bear this out. For instance, 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.640 back in twenty seventeen, one third of Major League Baseball 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.040 players were left handed. 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:49.120 That's kind of crazy, isn't it. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.760 Yeah, as well as twenty percent of the top ranking 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.760 boxers and twenty percent of the top ranking fencers. Meanwhile, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.320 it's a completely different story for the more team oriented 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.000 sports like basketball or football. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:02.880 So why do you think that is? Well, it ultimately 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:04.759 comes down to how rare lefties are. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:06.880 It's estimated that only ten percent of the people in 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:09.160 the world are left handed, So that means that if 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.680 you're a right handed tennis player, for example, you've probably 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.400 only ever gone up against other right handed players, and 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.840 the same is true for left handed players too. Right 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.119 like ninety percent of the world is right handed, then 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.840 left handed players are also mostly squaring off with righty's. 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.120 This was something I really didn't think about, right So 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.120 the result is that when a left handed player goes 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.800 up against the right handed one is just another day 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.160 at the office, the same old, same on. But that's 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.319 not the case for a right handed player. The right 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.559 handers don't really know what to expect, and that makes 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.319 it easier for them to be caught off guard. It 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.360 makes sense, like when you think about it. Playing baseball 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.039 as a kid, if you saw a lefty throwing to 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.360 you like it was, it just looked so strange totally. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.280 It's almost like when a boxer throws, I mean left hook, 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.160 you know, that old southpaw surprise. I don't know if 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:55.600 that's a real boxing I think. 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:57.640 It might be like boxing to me, well, just like 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.520 when you were a big boxer as a kid and 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.440 left sure, but weirdly enough, some researchers think the main 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.680 reason why left handed trade is still around today is 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.920 because it's always granted this element of surprise and comba. 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:12.760 For example, there was a study in two thousand and 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.079 five where researchers looked at the remains of primitive societies 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:18.760 and made a breakdown of how many people were left 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.520 handed and how many were right handed, And amazingly, they 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.160 found that about three percent of the population was left 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.720 handed in the more peaceful societies, but a whopping twenty 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.560 seven percent were left handed in the more warlike societies. Yeah, so, 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.359 in other words, things, if you've ever challenged a left 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.080 handed boxer, historically speaking, it probably isn't going to go 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:38.760 so well for you. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:41.880 Well, I'm not sure i'd fear that much better against 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.320 right handed boxes at safe bet. 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.160 Well, there's plenty more where that came from, because today's 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:52.080 show is all about the unusual advantages that everyday people enjoyed, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.000 from the high social standing of tall people to the 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.560 surprising success rate behind your lucky rabbits foot. There's all 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.520 sorts of ways to get the upper hand in life, 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:02.480 even if you aren't left handed. 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:03.359 So let's dive in. 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.799 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.000 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.280 friend Mangesh hot ticket and on the other side of 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.800 that soundproof glass working the soundboard with his left hand 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:40.560 today had press That is our brilliant producer, Loll. And 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.920 I should say that Lol is not, in fact left handed, 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:47.120 so this is something at least somewhat notable. So anyway, Mango, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:47.960 where do you want to start? 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.520 Yeah, and we've never faced a left handed producer before, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.840 so I actually do you want to stick with actual 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.120 sports and talking about something I had always wondered about 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.480 until this week, and that's whether or not home field 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.320 advantage is a real thing, Like does the location of 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.680 a game factor into an athlete's performance or do teams 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.040 play the same whether they're on their own turf or not. 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:09.200 What's kind of an age old question. 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.000 And if I had to guess, I'd say there's at 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.560 least some truth to it. I mean, I know some 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.360 sports leagues have regulations to ensure that playing fields are 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.240 mostly the same from place to place, but there's still 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.640 the psychological element of it all, Like you have to 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.240 figure players would be more at ease in the place 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:26.360 that they're used to playing. 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.359 Yeah, I mean, in a world the bathrooms, are they 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.760 the best places to get nachos? The away teams not 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:33.880 going to know any of that. But yeah, it's very, 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:34.320 very true. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.440 I love that your conception of home field advantage is 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.680 knowing where to find that the tastiest snacks. 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.920 But you're right about a home field advantage being a 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.640 real thing, and a good deal of why that is 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.760 does have to do with psychology. So first I want 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:49.760 to give a little bit of background. There have been 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.520 a bunch of studies into home field advantage over the years, 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.080 covering a wide variety of different sports, and the results 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.320 have been shockingly consistent, like the home team wins more 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.039 games away than away teams, and not by a small 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.800 margin either. In twenty ten, a psychologist named Jeremy Jamison 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.480 put together a review of all the different home field 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.360 advantage studies out there, and based on the combined data, 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:12.840 it concluded that a home team will win roughly sixty 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.200 percent of all its games its places. It's a little 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:16.640 bit higher than I would have guessed. 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.440 So what's actually fueling that advantage, like you said, has 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:20.680 something to do with the psychology of. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:22.800 The players, that's right. So part of it goes back 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.240 to what you allude to earlier, like the player's familiarity 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.080 with where they're playing kind of feeling at ease in 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.320 this environment. It tends to contribute a lot to the 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.000 home field advantage. In fact, according to one study, if 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.760 a team moves into a new home stadium, it'll have 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.520 a weaker home field advantage until the players get acclimated 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.160 to the new space. Oh that's interesting. 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.280 So you're feeling at home in your home field at 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:43.799 some point. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.160 So what else is a factor? The next one is 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.240 something I know we can both relate to, and that's 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.359 travel fatigue. Like I don't travel as much as you do, 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.400 but it can get pretty exhausting trying to adjust to 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.400 new cities and time zones and all the while taking 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.640 meetings and missing home. But you know, imagine all of that, 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.120 except in between flights, you play hours and hours of 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.919 tackle football in front of like thousands of screaming fans. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.840 Like jet lag suddenly becomes like a million times more tiring. 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.320 Yeah, yeah, I do kind of want somebody to tackle 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:17.000 you before our next movie, just to see for ourselves, Like. 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:17.960 Yeah, we gotta live by example here. 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.200 But all right, so you're saying there's a link between 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.600 how far a team travels and how well they play 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:24.680 against the home team. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.440 Competitors. Yeah, it seems like the farther a team has 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.480 to travel, the bigger the advantage for the home team, 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:31.960 and the last factor at play kind of goes along 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.279 with that travel component, because the other downside for the 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:36.640 way team is that it can't bring its fan base along. 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.480 Like a crowd's behavior has a major impact on how 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:41.520 all the players perform. You and I know this from 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:43.960 going to Duke and having that whole advantage there. But 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.679 you know, at an away game, most of the people 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:48.479 in the crowd will be rooting for the home team. 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.400 Yeah yeah, and that obviously gives the home team a 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.240 little morale boost, but I imagine it also deflates the 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.839 away team, like it can't be a great feeling to 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.400 hear a stadium full of people cheering for the other guy. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.520 Or again. But you know, all the stuff we've mentioned, 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.320 the crowd, the field, the travel time, all of that 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.960 factors into the psychological state of the players, and that 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.760 positive mindset is really the biggest contributor to home field advantage. 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.480 If all the players are feeling motivated and upbeat about 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:16.600 the conditions of the game, that's likely to show up 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:17.400 in their performance. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.920 Yeah, I mean, it makes sense, but I'm still wondering, 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.040 like if this advantage is the same from sport to sport. 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:24.840 Like I know you said that studies have looked at 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.200 a wide range of different sports, but were some sports 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.240 better for the home team than others or was it 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.440 always pretty much the same degree of advantage? 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:34.920 Yeah, so I wondered about that too, and it seems 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.600 like it really does vary depending on the sport. For example, 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.400 there's a sports author named John Boas who took three 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.800 years worth of win and lost data and he took 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.400 it from four different pro leagues, so hockey, baseball, football, 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.280 and basketball. Then he extrapolated how each of the different 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.360 win counts would have been affected if the teams had 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.560 played all of their games at home, so like no 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.640 away games at all. And what he found was that 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.600 the NHL teams and MLB teams would have experienced the 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.240 small boost from the home field advantage of all the leagues. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.440 They would have won each a little shy of I 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.960 guess five and a half percent more games than they 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.400 actually did, which is still nothing to sneeze at, particularly 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.200 if you got money riding on those games. But the 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.880 NFL teams would have seen the second biggest boost about 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:17.640 six point four percent, and then NBA teams would have 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:19.760 seen the biggest boost by far if they had played 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:21.800 all of their games at home for a three year period, 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:23.960 they would have won ten percent more games than they 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:24.440 actually do. 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.239 You know, I think about this in football. I feel 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.520 like it makes sense because you think about the intensity 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.040 of the cheering when the offense is trying to call 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.840 plays or whatever, like whatever they do in that scenario, right, 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:38.600 and it's hard for them to hear each other, and 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.920 it seems like you could get them rattled. But do 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.160 we know why the advantage would be so much greater 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.320 for NBA teams, Well. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:47.599 We don't, but I guess one of the things that 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.400 Bos pointed out was that the playing dimensions of a 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.600 basketball court don't really vary like they do in other 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.080 sports such as baseball. And on top of that, like 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.040 NBA games are all played inside, so weather is never 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.680 a factory. So, in other words, the home, crowd and 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.040 travel factors are still in play for NBA teams, but 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.600 the environmental factor might not play as large a role 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.040 in the player's mindsets as it does in baseball or 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.680 even football. Huh, all right, well, believe it or not. 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.720 Home field advantage isn't the only kind of location based 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.400 benefit in the sports world. There's also something I was 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.600 reading about this week called small town advantage, and the 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:22.719 gist of this is that people who grew up in 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.800 a small town, say like fifty thousand people or under, 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.880 they will have a higher chance of becoming a professional 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.880 athlete than someone for a more populated city or a town. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.160 This is something I've not seen before, and the numbers 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.400 behind this are actually pretty remarkable. So there was this 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:40.560 twenty seventeen article in Pacific Standard that only about twenty 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:42.920 five percent of the US population lives in a town 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:47.040 with under fifty thousand people. Yet despite that, nearly half 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:51.120 of all NFL and PGA players are from towns that size, 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.720 and the same trend is present to a slightly lesser 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:56.640 degree in other sports too. I think it's like forty 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.200 percent of NHL players somewhere around that same stat or 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:04.240 Major League Baseball players come from towns fewer than fifty thousand, 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.400 and for the NBA, I think it's twenty eight percent, 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:08.360 so pretty interesting. 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.040 That's pretty crazy, especially since you think the opposite would 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.160 be true, right, like the larger cities would have access 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:17.560 to more equipment, maybe more competition, and more opportunities for 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:18.679 players to be discovered. 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.199 Yeah, I mean, the truth is, it's tough to pinpoint 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.560 why small towns make such great incubators for pro athletes. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:26.880 I mean, it could be there's something unique about the 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.320 atmosphere of small towns that make it particularly conducive to 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.320 athletic development. The close knit community spirit, or the level 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.600 of importance that rural areas tend to place on sports. Maybe, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.400 but whatever first got the trend rolling, it's kind of 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.880 become a self perpetuating cycle at this point. 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:44.600 Oh what do you mean by that? 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.559 Well, small town residents tend to know how many legends 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.240 their areas have produced, like Bojacks. I mean, how many 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.880 times a day do I remind you that Bo Jackson 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.320 chain from the Birmingham area, right, you know, to Wayne Gretzky. 0:10:57.440 --> 0:10:59.040 And that makes the dream of making it to the 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.679 big league seem all the more attainable for the next 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:02.720 crop of players. 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:04.319 And it is something that makes sense. 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.040 So if somebody grew up in your neighborhood and you 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.520 see them turn pro, then it stands the reason that 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:10.400 maybe you could too. 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.920 Yeah, you know, I used to live in Greenville, North Carolina, 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.720 and Kinston was right next door, and the number of 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.400 star basketball players and football players that will come out 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.120 of is pretty remarkable. Yeah, but not Bo Jackson, No, 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.480 not or Wayne Gretzky. Right, But you know, there's one 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.559 more sports advantage I wanted to talk about, and that's 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.240 the fact that being short can actually give players a 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.320 big advantage in soccer. It's it's funny, but one of 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.640 our friends kids learned from his doctor that he might 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.120 be you know, six foot or whatever like these projections, 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.520 and he was totally depressed because he would He was 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.000 hoping you'd be like five seven like Messi or five eight, 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.720 which is just funny to think about, especially for someone 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:51.360 like me. But you know, it's kind of counterintuitive since 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.520 bigger is usually better when it comes to sports. But 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.320 in the case of soccer, being tall is only helpful 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.600 if you're a defender or a goalie. For the other 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.560 positions like forwards and midfielders, the edge goes to the 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.920 shorter players. So why is that the main reason is 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.839 that shorter players tend to have better control of their limbs, 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.360 which allows them to change direction faster than a tall 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.720 player could. That kind of nimbleness really keeps defenders on 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:15.840 their toes and makes it harder to box in a 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.240 short opponent or to anticipate their movements. But that's not 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.840 the only advantage, you know. According to the Atlantic, studies 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.199 have shown that tall players are called for fouls more 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.640 frequently than shorter players. Huh. That could just be that 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.880 the referees are associating height with aggression, or maybe the 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.680 longer limbs are more visible. But you know, I'm not 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.400 sure exactly what the reason is, but but tall folks 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:36.600 definitely get carded more. 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.720 Yeah, and I know in other sports like basketball, it's 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.080 obviously an advantage overall to be tall, But it is 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.240 also interesting to watch. You know, when you used to 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.400 watch guys like Shack play and they could just get 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:49.680 hammered all day long and nobody would call. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.800 Them a lot of times. But Iverson will pull someone 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:52.720 down and get called. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.760 For it exactly exactly. It's so bizarre to look at 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.000 these stats, but you know, it's interesting to see how 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.880 different levels of influence people can have over these advantages. 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.920 Like with home field advantage, it kind of comes down 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.800 to the player's mindset and how they respond to things 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.160 outside their control. And with the small town advantage, like 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.040 that's something people could actually seek out if they were 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.560 so inclined, Like if you had a young kid that 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:18.880 wants to be a pro football player, you could move 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.800 to a small town and theoretically they could reap the 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.480 advantage of that. But now we're getting into stuff like 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.559 height and the social stigma surrounding height, and those are 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:29.880 things that nobody really has much say in. 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.280 You know, Yeah, that seems like a good distinction to make, 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.079 and why don't we check out some of those advantages 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:50.480 right after this break? And then. 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.200 You're listening to part time Genius and we're talking about 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.720 some of the lesser known advantages that certain groups of 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.640 people enjoy. And since we closed out the last segment 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:58.680 with a short person perk, I think it's. 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.319 Only fair we balance it out and go for one 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.440 for the tall people out there. So here we go. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.880 Tall people make more money than short people. That's it, 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:07.520 end of story. 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:09.719 So I hate this already, but I feel like you 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.120 need to explain a little bit well. 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.120 According to a twenty fifteen study published in the Journal 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.960 of Human Capital, salary rates trend upward right along with 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.400 height in most Western countries, so much so that if 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.120 one employee is four or five inches taller than another, 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.920 the taller person would make anywhere between nine and fifteen 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.800 percent more than this shorter whoa imagine being a seven fetter. 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.080 It would be so rich. But put another way, an 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.120 extra inch of height could be worth as much as 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:40.200 eight hundred dollars per year in additional earnings. Match that 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.200 to inflation rates, Track it over thirty years, and you're 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.280 looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars. 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.840 In extra income just for being tall. So I guess, 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.840 setting aside the sheer injustice of this all, I'm curious 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.040 to hear what's driving this because I feel like this 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.040 would have made sense like centuries ago, right when was 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.560 the jobs relied on on size or strength or whatever. 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.920 But it seems strange that the trend would continue in 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.200 an era of like the desk job. Right, Yeah, like 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:09.000 maybe someone who's taller can reach the high shelf in 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.120 the break room or something that's advantage. Height doesn't really 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:13.600 help with Excel sheets. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.040 Well, it doesn't make a lot of sense on paper. 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.640 And you know, one theory is that employers aren't paying 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.120 strictly based on height. Instead, it's that taller people are 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.520 landing higher paying jobs because their height lends them to 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:29.600 more self confidence or better social skills, which allows them 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.840 to climb the pay ladder faster. Anyway, if you're angling 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.400 for a raise at work, adding some lists to your 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:36.840 shoes might actually help. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.440 So think about that. I'm sure that's how Tom Cruise 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.880 got that big payday. So, sticking with our theme of 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.400 things that are beyond our control, here's another bombshell. I 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:50.200 bet you never would have guessed their advantages to being attractive. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.200 What you don't say, mango? Come on. So what's funny 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.240 about this is that even scientists benefit from this. So, 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.640 according to new research from the University of Essex and 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.400 the Universe of Cambridge, the way that a scientist looks 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.200 affects the level of interest in their work and their 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:09.000 perceived credibility. As one of the psychologists behind the study explained, 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.560 this is true because quote people partly treat science communication 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.240 as a form of entertainment, where emotional impact and the 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.480 aesthetic appeal are desirable qualities. 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.680 Wow, it's weird to think society might buy into an 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.160 argument that the world is flat or some other ridiculous 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.440 argument like if this scientist is just attractive enough. 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.240 It sounds a little like that thirty Rock episode where 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.440 John Hem becomes a doctor and a Tennyson's writer, and 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:34.840 like he's horrible at all these things, but people keep 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.560 getting in the past because he's so handsome. But I 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.120 actually clarified this with Gabe because I was thinking the 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:42.640 same thing you were, and the link here between attractiveness 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.120 and credibility isn't quite what you were thinking. So over 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.960 the course of six studies, researchers were able to show 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.560 that scientists who appear competent, moral, and attractive are more 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.600 likely to garner interest in their work, which isn't a surprise, right, right, 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.160 But then the researchers continued writing, quote, the scientists who 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:03.920 appear and moral but who are relatively unattractive create a 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.680 stronger impression of doing high quality research. 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:08.639 So just to get this right, so the public is 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.200 more likely to pay attention to the research of an 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.040 attractive scientist, but less likely to believe what they're saying. 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.359 Like, is that right? Yeah, they're basically like Serno de 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.680 Burger racking right. But basically, the next time the public 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.480 needs to be informed about a scientific breakthrough, it's probably 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.439 best to pair scientists to give a presentation, like an 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.479 attractive one to win the audience's approval, and you know, 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.960 an ugly one to give it credibility, right, the old 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.600 Watson and Krik will what they call it, I think, 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.800 so I have no idea for that's interesting though. 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:39.960 Well, since we're on the subject of scientists, have you 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.280 ever noticed how we tend to refer to the male 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.800 ones by their surnames, but we call female scientists by 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.320 their full names, Like Darwin is just Darwin. But have 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.200 you ever heard anyone just say Curi, like it's always 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:52.879 Marie Curie. 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:54.760 Right, I know it's just making a joke about Watson 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.840 and Krik, but like I know Rosalind Franklin's full name, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:17:59.440 but I know one of them is James, but I 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:00.080 don't know which one. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.520 Yeah, I mean, there's actually even a name for this bias. 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.800 It's called surname bias. So basically, when we hear someone 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.240 called by their surname, it tends to improve our perception 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.960 of them. Maybe it makes them seem more important or 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.119 dignified in our minds, maybe stronger or more imminent or 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.879 something like that. But the main problem with this is 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.600 that we don't wield that surname bias fairly so. According 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.720 to a string of recent studies, on average, and regardless 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.520 of gender, people are twice as likely to refer to 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.600 men by their surnames than they are women. And those 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.560 findings hold true across a lot of different professions, whether 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.959 it's politics, science, literature, Like the list goes on. 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.080 So how exactly does this advantage play on in real life? 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.640