1 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Hey, are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind? 2 00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: This is Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and 3 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:12,399 Speaker 1: it's Saturday. Time to go into the vault for an 4 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:16,320 Speaker 1: older episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This episode 5 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: is part two of our series on the Seven Day Week, 6 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: and it originally published on March five. Enjoy Welcome, Just 7 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:30,720 Speaker 1: about to Blow your Mind production of My Heart Radio. 8 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 9 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,879 Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're 10 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:44,080 Speaker 1: back with part two of our series on the seven 11 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: day Week. What is it? Where did it come from? What? 12 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:49,600 Speaker 1: What's it doing in our brains? All right now? When 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 1: we cut off in the previous part of this series 14 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: about the week, you were talking a bit about some 15 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: sources you were reading about the history of the week, 16 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:03,279 Speaker 1: where the seven day week comes from. Because obviously, you know, 17 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:05,040 Speaker 1: one of the main things we talked about in the 18 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:08,400 Speaker 1: last episode is that other major blocks that we use 19 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,000 Speaker 1: for measuring times, such as the month, the year, and 20 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: the day, are all based on facts about nature, usually 21 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: about astronomy. You know, how the Earth moves, Earth moves 22 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: around the Sun, or how the moon moves around the Earth, 23 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: but the week has no such basis in physical reality. 24 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:29,040 Speaker 1: It's an artificial construction, with the possible exception that some 25 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: people think there may be some underlying biological UH rhythms 26 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: that contribute to it. One hypothesis that's been offered is 27 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: the menstrual cycle or things like that, but it's hard 28 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: to know for sure. So we know at least that 29 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:46,119 Speaker 1: the week is not based in astronomy. So where does 30 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: it come from historically? Yeah, And in that we were 31 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: getting into this idea of the market week. The time 32 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: it takes for vegetables or fruit to UH to travel 33 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: in from market UH, be sold in, mark it, and 34 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:02,880 Speaker 1: then for UH the individuals who brought it there to 35 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: return then to the fields. Um. This would be just 36 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: a basic market cycle, a market week. UH. And one 37 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,480 Speaker 1: of the sources that I was discussing here was um 38 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: Avatar Zerubaville is the seven day circle. UM, So you know, 39 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: point the author here points to the ten day market 40 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,640 Speaker 1: week of ancient Southern China, various other systems as well, 41 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,840 Speaker 1: because again there's nothing set in stone about it taking 42 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:31,839 Speaker 1: seven days to reach any given market anywhere in the world. 43 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: It's going to vary obviously. Uh, so you have you 44 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,080 Speaker 1: have different systems that were in place, the ten day system. 45 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: We also see the eight day system that emerged in 46 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: what is now Italy. This is the Etruscan system. And 47 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:45,800 Speaker 1: so the Truscan system that that the name of that 48 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:50,239 Speaker 1: would come from the Etruscan culture, a culture that inhabited 49 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: the Italian peninsula before the Roman period, right, and then 50 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 1: the Romans would of course inherit the Intruscan system, and 51 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 1: this eventually became the internudenum tempests, or the period between 52 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:08,240 Speaker 1: the ninth day affairs, which Zaruberville rights involves the Roman 53 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:12,120 Speaker 1: practice of inclusive counting, in which the last day of 54 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:15,079 Speaker 1: one cycle is the first day of the next. So 55 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:18,800 Speaker 1: this involves a market day held every eight days. Market 56 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:22,280 Speaker 1: and social life revolved around this market day, and schools 57 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: and courts were closed for that day as well. It 58 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: was also a day to set work aside to go 59 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:31,240 Speaker 1: to the baths um, and the cap limit for guests 60 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: was raised as well, so you could have more people 61 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:37,440 Speaker 1: over on this market day. Now, the decline of the 62 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 1: eight day week, the author rights, coincided with the expansion 63 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: of Rome. It simply became too big for this system. 64 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:47,840 Speaker 1: To logistically work anymore. Um, and you know this comes 65 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,120 Speaker 1: down to the fact that a true urban economy ends 66 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:55,360 Speaker 1: up demanding continuous commerce. But this this was interesting as well. 67 00:03:55,920 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: I'm gonna read a quote from the seven Day Circle here. Quote. Coincidentally, 68 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: the astrological and Christians seven day weeks that had just 69 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: been introduced into Rome were also becoming increasingly popular. There 70 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,080 Speaker 1: is evidence indicating that the Roman eight day week and 71 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:18,679 Speaker 1: those two seven day cycles were used simultaneously for some time. However, 72 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 1: the coexistence of two weekly rhythms that were entirely out 73 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: of phase with one another obviously could not be sustained 74 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: for long. One of them clearly had to give way. 75 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: As we all know, it was the eight day week 76 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:35,880 Speaker 1: that soon disappeared from the pages of history forever. Okay, 77 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: so you're positing a time here where there exists such 78 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,640 Speaker 1: things as weeks, sort of like the weeks we imagined, 79 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: but not everybody's using the same weeks at the same time, 80 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: so they're just sort of like overlapping different systems that 81 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: different people are using, which sounds incredibly chaotic and not 82 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:56,960 Speaker 1: especially useful. Yeah, yeah, because it's it's it's hard to 83 00:04:57,200 --> 00:04:59,720 Speaker 1: exactly imagine what this would have been like, because we 84 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:02,280 Speaker 1: think the week is just set in stone, it's just 85 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 1: this this grid work that arranges our lives. But too 86 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:08,480 Speaker 1: and and then I'm tempted to try and think of it, Well, 87 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:11,240 Speaker 1: maybe would be like using both uh, you know, pounds 88 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: and uh and and and grahams or something, you know, 89 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: having to to use two different systems of measurement. But 90 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:20,279 Speaker 1: it's not quite that either, because because there's still like, 91 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,600 Speaker 1: you know, there's still a certain length to um uh 92 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: you know, to to some fencing or care at, etcetera. Um. 93 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: But but when you're dealing with with time here and 94 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:34,599 Speaker 1: you're dealing with these market cycles, it it seems like 95 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:36,480 Speaker 1: you would just you know, would just be this confusing 96 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:39,839 Speaker 1: arrangement to have these two or more overlapping systems of 97 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:43,480 Speaker 1: different different amounts of time. Well, it's a big difference, 98 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,080 Speaker 1: is that. Say, if you're converting from standard to metric, 99 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:49,360 Speaker 1: there's a fixed conversion rate. It's not like how many 100 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:53,440 Speaker 1: pints go into a leader changes every day. But if 101 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: you but if you have weeks of different numbers of 102 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: days and everybody's not on the same one, you can't 103 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: just line it up and say, oh, okay, this day 104 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,760 Speaker 1: in our cycle is the is this other day and 105 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:06,599 Speaker 1: somebody else's cycle. It would change every cycle because they're 106 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:10,840 Speaker 1: not the same numbers, right, Like imagine like thinking back 107 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: on on like TV. Uh, just like TV programs and 108 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: TV schedules like what you of NBC and CBS, um 109 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,760 Speaker 1: had not only like different schedules of what's coming out, 110 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: but they had different calendars, like different days of the week, 111 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: Like one did an eight day cycle and the other 112 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: one day to seven day cycle. Like that would be 113 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,160 Speaker 1: that would be incredibly confusing, you know, trying to figure 114 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,320 Speaker 1: out like what what is on what day and what 115 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 1: is opposite another show. It's it's it's just like again, 116 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:42,040 Speaker 1: it's it's it's interesting to try and imagine what this 117 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:45,120 Speaker 1: would have been like. But if I'm understanding zarubaval right 118 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,840 Speaker 1: in this quote, what he's saying is that, um, so 119 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: you had this original sort of eight day cycle, the 120 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,160 Speaker 1: Etruscan system that was inherited by the Romans, but then 121 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: you had these other systems of seven day weeks, the 122 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: the astrological, the Roman astrological even day week, and the 123 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: Christians seven day week, which I believe would be inherited 124 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:09,440 Speaker 1: at least in part from the from the Jewish Sabbath observance. Yeah. 125 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: That that all this being said, it is important to 126 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: realize that there is still a reality to a market 127 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:19,440 Speaker 1: week cycle. In many cases, you know, you have other 128 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: four forces haven't changed what's happening with people actually bringing 129 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,760 Speaker 1: in crops and in the in the economic activities surrounding 130 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:31,560 Speaker 1: the sale of those crops. Um. Then even if you 131 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 1: end up adopting, say a seven day week, you can 132 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,560 Speaker 1: still see these other market cycles uh, coexisting with it. 133 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 1: And he points to some examples of this, points out 134 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:46,640 Speaker 1: that both Christian and Islamic use of the seven day 135 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:51,800 Speaker 1: week heavily influenced the continent of Africa. But you still 136 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 1: see four day market cycles in parts of Africa, as 137 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:59,040 Speaker 1: well as eight and sixteen day weeks as well. So 138 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,360 Speaker 1: these e can amic rhythms in many cases still remain 139 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: um or even if those economic rhythms shift like they're 140 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: still not gonna necessarily, uh you know, conform completely to 141 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: the seven day week cycle that has been superimposed on 142 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 1: a region. Now, he he points to in uh, some 143 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: other week cycles that are that are pretty interesting. He points, uh, 144 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: for instance, to the nineteen day be High cycle of 145 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:27,920 Speaker 1: social and religious activity who was introduced in eighteen forty 146 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:32,120 Speaker 1: four by the Persian prophet uh Saeed Ali Mohammed, also 147 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: known as Bob b a b Uh. It's generally spelled 148 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:39,480 Speaker 1: in English. UH. Nineteen is apparently a mystical number in 149 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 1: the Behigh faith. And we see that in the use 150 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 1: of a nineteen week year in the Behidh faith as 151 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:48,920 Speaker 1: well as a nineteen year va head um. And then 152 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: three hundred sixty one years make a cooler shay. And 153 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: that's because nineteen times nineteen equals three d sixty one uh. 154 00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: So UM, all that's interesting as well. Here's an entire 155 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:06,000 Speaker 1: stem that's based on nineteen four mystical purposes UH, spiritual 156 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 1: purposes uh, similar to the the adoption of the seven 157 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:14,880 Speaker 1: within uh. You know, the the cycle that we we 158 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:19,840 Speaker 1: know and are immersed in. He also mentions that the Maya, 159 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 1: on the other hand, used a twenty day um unital, 160 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,680 Speaker 1: which was the quote cornerstone of the entire Maya time 161 00:09:26,679 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: measuring system. UH. The Mayan and the Aztecs solar calendars 162 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: consisted of three hundred and sixty five days, made up 163 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:38,080 Speaker 1: essentially of eighteen twenty day weeks plus five blank days. UH. 164 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:41,160 Speaker 1: They also had a two hundred sixty day UH divination 165 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:45,560 Speaker 1: calendar year that was used exclusively for divination. There's also 166 00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:49,040 Speaker 1: a ninth century Indonesian system that he mentions that they 167 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 1: made use of both a five day market week. Six 168 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:56,200 Speaker 1: five and seven day weeks were used then to chronicle events, 169 00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:00,440 Speaker 1: and the Indonesian system had several uses, but the main function, 170 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: according to Zarubaville, was divination. UH. There were the right 171 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:07,679 Speaker 1: days to do various things, both inherently sacred things such 172 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,600 Speaker 1: as say, bearing the dead, and things that we might 173 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: think of in you know, sort of modern life as 174 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,200 Speaker 1: being mundane things like moving or starting a new business, 175 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:19,680 Speaker 1: but of course, within the confines of a given culture, 176 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: those things too may be considered highly sacred. So these 177 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:25,640 Speaker 1: are more examples of the what we talked about in 178 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: the last episode, which is that you know it it 179 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:31,520 Speaker 1: depends on how you define a week to say where 180 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 1: the week comes from. Because there's there's a history you 181 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:38,839 Speaker 1: can track of our current unbroken system of seven day cycles, 182 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:41,000 Speaker 1: but there also have been just lots of other things 183 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:44,880 Speaker 1: throughout the world throughout history that subdivided the month into 184 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 1: some number of days. But it wasn't necessarily the same 185 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: as our seven day week, right, And and I think 186 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 1: it's interesting to think about how, on on one hand, 187 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,760 Speaker 1: you have very practical, very real world considerations and arranging 188 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:00,760 Speaker 1: these days into weeks uh and and saying well, I 189 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:03,240 Speaker 1: need to know what we're calling four days from today. 190 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:04,959 Speaker 1: I need to know what we're calling eight days from 191 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,360 Speaker 1: today so that I can plan things out. But then 192 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:11,439 Speaker 1: also getting into this divination area of well, is there 193 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,400 Speaker 1: something about the day after tomorrow that makes it more 194 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: appropriate for me to do this act or this other 195 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,600 Speaker 1: act or to make a certain decision on that day. Um, 196 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:24,400 Speaker 1: And you kind of get into the sort of the 197 00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:26,800 Speaker 1: roots of divination that we've discussed on the show before, 198 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 1: where it becomes this kind of um system that you know, 199 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: you may and it certainly entails supernatural ideas about seeing 200 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 1: into the future and using imploying luck uh and uh 201 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,680 Speaker 1: and you know perhaps the uh you know, the good 202 00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:43,839 Speaker 1: will of various deities. But it also is about like 203 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: making uh, making space for decision and like helping decisions 204 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:52,680 Speaker 1: be made and and and in introducing randomness in some cases. Yeah. 205 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: Actually got me wondering about the same thing, about whether 206 00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,200 Speaker 1: a cycle of days in a week, whether that's seven 207 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:02,200 Speaker 1: days or whatever other number. Just having a named day 208 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:08,280 Speaker 1: within the cycle could aid in productivity and in spurring action, 209 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:12,760 Speaker 1: uh instead as opposed to say, defferring action forever, because 210 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:15,439 Speaker 1: if you live in a system where you don't have 211 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:18,800 Speaker 1: named days within a cycle. Again, I don't know this, 212 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: I don't have direct evidence of it, but I wonder 213 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:24,960 Speaker 1: if that's sort of just um would allow you to have, well, 214 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,320 Speaker 1: you have right now and then maybe you have a 215 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,480 Speaker 1: concept like tomorrow, and then beyond that you've just got 216 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:34,959 Speaker 1: the future. And so like it does having a named 217 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:37,880 Speaker 1: day that's, you know, a predictable number of days ahead 218 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:41,559 Speaker 1: of now allow you to plan action in a way 219 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:45,560 Speaker 1: that you're more likely to follow through on an execute. Yeah, 220 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:47,680 Speaker 1: I mean it reminds me of some studies that I've 221 00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:51,840 Speaker 1: I've seen about the importance of having deadlines just for 222 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,839 Speaker 1: productivity reasons. And I mean to a certain extent. I 223 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:58,920 Speaker 1: guess this varies depending on what one's you know, job is, 224 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: what one's industry is. But the basic seven day week 225 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:05,480 Speaker 1: kind of has a built in deadline like Friday is, 226 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:08,440 Speaker 1: at least to a certain extent, always a deadline. Like 227 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:13,320 Speaker 1: it's assuming again that you have a job where you 228 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 1: don't have to work on Saturday and Sunday, like that's 229 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: the last day of the week. So in many cases 230 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:20,439 Speaker 1: you're trying to get something done, you're trying to reach 231 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: like some level of finality, right, or at least it 232 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:27,520 Speaker 1: leans it's it allows you to lean into that interpretation anyway. Yeah, yeah, 233 00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: well it at least it gives you a principle on 234 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,200 Speaker 1: which to organize those those timelines. I mean again, I 235 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,080 Speaker 1: wonder like if we didn't have weeks and we just 236 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:39,719 Speaker 1: you know, just worked whenever, and you were like, how 237 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:41,400 Speaker 1: long is it gonna take me to do this? I mean, 238 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:43,240 Speaker 1: how how long do we We would usually say I 239 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:46,240 Speaker 1: don't know, one week, two weeks, and what would you 240 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:48,680 Speaker 1: say that I'm gonna say, thirteen days is how long 241 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: it will take me. Yeah, there's something weird about like 242 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:54,959 Speaker 1: a thirteen day estimate on something, right, Why why not 243 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 1: bump it up to fourteen days? Like it would seem 244 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,520 Speaker 1: equally wrong to give a fifteen day estimate on something 245 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:04,560 Speaker 1: like why is it taking two weeks in one day? 246 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:07,080 Speaker 1: Why can't it just take two weeks? That just seems 247 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:16,160 Speaker 1: like trolling. Yeah, well, maybe here is a good place 248 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:20,240 Speaker 1: to come back to some psychology research about the effects 249 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:24,000 Speaker 1: of the week, because in the previous episode I mentioned 250 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:27,760 Speaker 1: a psychology paper that looked into what it called mental 251 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:31,080 Speaker 1: representations of week days. This was by Ellis at All, 252 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:33,600 Speaker 1: and we talked about it in the context of the 253 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: idea that while the week is broken into different types 254 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:40,120 Speaker 1: of days, weekends and week days, each day is also 255 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: its own distinct concept, and this paper examined this in 256 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: a number of ways. Overall, I'd say it's findings would 257 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: be not very surprising to anybody who's ever been to 258 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,160 Speaker 1: school or had a full time job that was organized 259 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:56,120 Speaker 1: on regular bank hours. But it's good to have that 260 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,880 Speaker 1: information anyway, because a lot of times, you know, I 261 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,000 Speaker 1: often have this thought where like, you do a study 262 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:04,800 Speaker 1: and then the results come back and people say, like, 263 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 1: that's obvious. Why do you need to do a study 264 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: to know that. It's like, well, because if you if 265 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:12,760 Speaker 1: you just go by your assumptions all the time, you're 266 00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 1: actually going to turn out to be wrong a good bit, 267 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:18,680 Speaker 1: so it's worth checking. But it did find that, for example, 268 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:21,440 Speaker 1: people were most conscious of what day it was on 269 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 1: Mondays and on Fridays, as measured by reaction times when 270 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:27,720 Speaker 1: asked to name the day, it found that people were 271 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,640 Speaker 1: most likely to feel like it was the wrong day. 272 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:32,360 Speaker 1: I feel like it was a different day than it 273 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,800 Speaker 1: was on days that were in the midweek, so Tuesday, Wednesday, 274 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: and Thursdays. That's also not very surprising. Those are sort 275 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:41,440 Speaker 1: of the the middle days, the days that are you know, 276 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: easy to get lost in the shuffle. It found that 277 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,360 Speaker 1: in terms of affective response, people really really like Fridays 278 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: and really dislike Mondays, and the other days in between 279 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:55,720 Speaker 1: basically just kind of slope up and down between those extremes. 280 00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,760 Speaker 1: And of course the standard note that these responses, as 281 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,800 Speaker 1: well as the ones in the um UH studies I'm 282 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:04,760 Speaker 1: about to mention here are are primarily, I think from 283 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 1: industrialized societies in North America and Europe, where the seven 284 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: day work week is highly salient. I have no way 285 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 1: to prove it, but I strongly suspect that you would 286 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: not find these same patterns at all if you were 287 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:21,280 Speaker 1: to exclusively survey populations that were less connected to this 288 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:25,960 Speaker 1: type of of economic work cycle, for example, rural farmers 289 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:30,080 Speaker 1: or hunter gatherers. But since then, I just wanted to 290 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:32,280 Speaker 1: talk about a bunch more studies. I was looking at 291 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 1: about the days of the week and how we represent 292 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:37,320 Speaker 1: them in our brains, how we feel about them, and 293 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:41,280 Speaker 1: how they affect our behavior. Uh So, a couple that 294 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: I looked at had to do with people's feelings about 295 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 1: days of the week, following up on that, you know 296 00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 1: idea from the previous study that people like Fridays, they 297 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:52,200 Speaker 1: don't like Mondays. So one study I looked at was 298 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: from twenty eleven published in Psychological Reports by Charles s Irany, 299 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:01,920 Speaker 1: Mitchell Burger, and Natalina as Latevska uh called factors affecting 300 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:05,320 Speaker 1: the extent of Monday Blues evidence from a meta analysis. 301 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,120 Speaker 1: This was a meta analysis that looked at a bunch 302 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,919 Speaker 1: of samples from previous studies that tracked both mood and 303 00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 1: days of the week and tried to see if there 304 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:17,439 Speaker 1: were correlations. And they said they did find evidence of 305 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,160 Speaker 1: a small but reliable quote Monday blues effect, so people 306 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,600 Speaker 1: had worse moods on Mondays, but the size of the 307 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:29,320 Speaker 1: effect varied greatly depending on what types of demographic groups 308 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:32,880 Speaker 1: featured in the sample. So for contrasts, they mentioned that 309 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:38,040 Speaker 1: samples focused on university students showed a large and consistent 310 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:42,920 Speaker 1: Monday Blues effect. College students really hated Mondays, whereas samples 311 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:46,359 Speaker 1: limited to a smaller, different cohort. The one they single 312 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:49,639 Speaker 1: out is married men who were not students showed a 313 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,879 Speaker 1: smaller effect. It was still there, but much smaller and 314 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 1: with greater variation between the samples. Rob, does this track 315 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 1: with your experience that you hated Mondays more when you 316 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:04,040 Speaker 1: were like a college student or younger in general? Yeah? Yeah, 317 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:06,240 Speaker 1: and it. I mean, it's it's easy to sort of 318 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:10,200 Speaker 1: fall on on sort of stereotypes when thinking about this. 319 00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:12,239 Speaker 1: You know, you think of like the college student is 320 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,960 Speaker 1: is out partying all weekend and then open and they've 321 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,679 Speaker 1: got to go to class Monday morning, and uh and 322 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 1: the married adult is maybe not partying all weekend. Um yeah, 323 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: I um, I don't. I don't think I ever remembered 324 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:30,840 Speaker 1: necessarily just hating Mondays. But if I if I didn't 325 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: like my job, then I was probably adverse to to 326 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:37,440 Speaker 1: going back on Monday to work there. I feel like nowadays, though, 327 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:41,480 Speaker 1: like Monday I really don't have a problem with in 328 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:43,800 Speaker 1: large part because I feel like I'm actually well rested 329 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:48,639 Speaker 1: on a Monday, whereas I'm i'm less' not that I'm 330 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:51,199 Speaker 1: i'm like losing a lot of sleep, but during the 331 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: course of the week, I feel like I kind of 332 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:55,440 Speaker 1: steadily lose a little bit of sleep towards the end, 333 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:58,840 Speaker 1: so that Fridays I'm a little more worn out. Um, 334 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: and then I catch up on my leap over the 335 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:02,880 Speaker 1: weekend and by Monday, I'm good to go. Yeah, that's 336 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:05,760 Speaker 1: something I think might be underappreciated, especially when it gets 337 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:08,800 Speaker 1: to a study will look at in a minute on 338 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:12,440 Speaker 1: on on behavior the the effects of cumulative fatigue over 339 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:14,680 Speaker 1: the course of week days. I think that that is 340 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 1: a very good idea. But okay, So so that was 341 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,359 Speaker 1: that one study. Another one I looked at was by Stone, Schneider, 342 00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:24,480 Speaker 1: and Harder, published in twenty twelve in the Journal of 343 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:28,399 Speaker 1: Positive Psychology. This one used a huge telephone survey with 344 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:32,640 Speaker 1: like hundreds of thousands of participants, tested for demographic variables 345 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 1: and how people felt about different days of the week. 346 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:39,440 Speaker 1: They found, again unsurprisingly, a strong preference for weekends. People 347 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:44,040 Speaker 1: really really love Fridays. They like weekends. Uh. This study 348 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:48,560 Speaker 1: found weaker evidence that people really hate Mondays. Uh. It 349 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:51,960 Speaker 1: was it was a more reduced Monday blues effect, but 350 00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:54,760 Speaker 1: they did find some variations. This one also found that 351 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 1: day of the week effects on mood in general were 352 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: more pronounced in younger p bowl generally, and the day 353 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,000 Speaker 1: of the week had less effect on mood for older 354 00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:08,439 Speaker 1: people and especially retired people. So that might not be 355 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,720 Speaker 1: surprising because I think a lot of these day of 356 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:13,719 Speaker 1: the week effects probably have to do with when you 357 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 1: have to go to work. UH. They found no differences 358 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 1: on the basis of gender or on the basis of 359 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,600 Speaker 1: the presence of a romantic partner. Now, it does seem 360 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:26,000 Speaker 1: strange that there wouldn't be much emphasis put on Wednesday, though, 361 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,120 Speaker 1: because it seems like, like Wednesday is hump Day, right, 362 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:31,520 Speaker 1: Like Wednesday is the day where you may, uh, you know, 363 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,600 Speaker 1: feel the satisfaction of knowing that the the you're you're 364 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,960 Speaker 1: halfway there, You're you're more than halfway there. You are 365 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:40,399 Speaker 1: over the hump and headed in towards that Friday that 366 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: you're looking forward to. You want scientific confirmation of hump day, 367 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,919 Speaker 1: hump day confirmed. It's like if hump Day is I 368 00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:48,960 Speaker 1: mean this kind of we come into our assumptions, right, 369 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:51,520 Speaker 1: I have these assumptions about hump days. But if those 370 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:53,840 Speaker 1: assumptions are not borne out in UH, in the data 371 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,480 Speaker 1: then then maybe it's just like it's a silly notion. Anyway, Well, 372 00:20:57,480 --> 00:20:59,720 Speaker 1: there may be some ways in which hump day is 373 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: a alien effect, but it just kind of gets lost 374 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:04,960 Speaker 1: in the noise of this this big study with a 375 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,639 Speaker 1: bunch of other things going on. Maybe it doesn't show up, 376 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,280 Speaker 1: just fades into the noise when you're asking people, how 377 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:12,800 Speaker 1: do you feel about today, about this day of the week, 378 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:15,240 Speaker 1: or how do you feel today on the day that 379 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: I'm asking you this as opposed to other more targeted 380 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,879 Speaker 1: questions that may pull out the hump day nous of 381 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:25,040 Speaker 1: hump day, maybe questions about like optimism about the future 382 00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:29,480 Speaker 1: or something. Now you could ask another question. Again, we've 383 00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 1: been talking about, well what's obvious or what we would 384 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,119 Speaker 1: just assume, But here's another question. Seems like it has 385 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:37,400 Speaker 1: an obvious answer. Why do people seem to like weekends 386 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:39,880 Speaker 1: so much more than week days? I think I think 387 00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:42,320 Speaker 1: both common intuition as well as some of the data 388 00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:44,920 Speaker 1: we've looked at already would tell us it's because people 389 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,840 Speaker 1: like being off work. Uh. Though interestingly, of course, not 390 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: everybody's work hours conformed to the standard Monday to Friday 391 00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:55,040 Speaker 1: nine to five, and some people and some people also, 392 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:56,760 Speaker 1: you know, even if they do conform to that, really 393 00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,280 Speaker 1: enjoy their work. But at least at the population level, 394 00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:01,679 Speaker 1: this effect shows up strongly anyway. So I don't know 395 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,880 Speaker 1: if you know people who are restaurant servers whose busiest 396 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:06,840 Speaker 1: work is on the weekends or something like that, if 397 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 1: they're just not enough of them to balance out the 398 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: survey data, or maybe somehow even though it's their busy 399 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:15,920 Speaker 1: work times, they that they prefer weekends as well. I 400 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:18,159 Speaker 1: don't know. I I haven't found data on that. But 401 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:21,399 Speaker 1: this question of what causes people to enjoy weekends the 402 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:25,520 Speaker 1: most has also been analyzed in some psychology research, sometimes 403 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,160 Speaker 1: referred to as the weekend effect. And I was looking 404 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:31,960 Speaker 1: at a study from ten in the Journal of Social 405 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:37,119 Speaker 1: and Clinical Psychology by Ryan Bernstein and Brown called weekends 406 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,200 Speaker 1: work and well being psychological needs satisfactions in the day 407 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:44,080 Speaker 1: of the week effects on mood, vitality, and physical symptoms. UH. 408 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:47,160 Speaker 1: This held true for all different kinds of jobs, no 409 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:50,440 Speaker 1: matter you know what kind of work you had. In general, 410 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: on average, people like weekends better than week days and uh, 411 00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:59,160 Speaker 1: and not just like them better like that, they reported, say, 412 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:04,240 Speaker 1: fewer physical aches and pains on the weekends and reported 413 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,679 Speaker 1: feeling that this I thought this was really interesting. People 414 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,800 Speaker 1: reported that they generally felt more quote competent on weekends 415 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,320 Speaker 1: than week days. You might assume the opposite would be true, 416 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:17,000 Speaker 1: that people feel like, Okay, I'm competent in my job, 417 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:20,600 Speaker 1: so I'm competent on week days, but no, people felt 418 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,879 Speaker 1: competent on the weekends. Maybe that's just because I don't know, 419 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,040 Speaker 1: jobs are overwhelming, or because the nature of work is 420 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:30,000 Speaker 1: often such that it interferes with your ability to do 421 00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:32,160 Speaker 1: your job as well as you could be doing it. 422 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,000 Speaker 1: But anyway, this study looked at different factors that could 423 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 1: be influencing why people have such a strong preference for weekends, 424 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,800 Speaker 1: and the researchers concluded that the most important factors were 425 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,320 Speaker 1: probably two. One of them is the ability to spend 426 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,359 Speaker 1: quality time with friends and family with loved ones, and 427 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,440 Speaker 1: the other is the freedom to choose one's own activities. 428 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:56,120 Speaker 1: People like self determination in what activities they engage in. 429 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,320 Speaker 1: So you might imagine a scenario where somebody is off 430 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:01,159 Speaker 1: work for the weekend. They don't have to go to 431 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,400 Speaker 1: their job, but they don't get to spend quality time 432 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,159 Speaker 1: with loved ones, and their time is taken up with 433 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 1: some kind of obligatory activity that they don't choose themselves, 434 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:12,639 Speaker 1: and in that case, it might not actually feel like 435 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:14,680 Speaker 1: a weekend at all. It might be just as bad 436 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,840 Speaker 1: as work or worse. I know, I have this experience. 437 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,399 Speaker 1: I can get really down about like a weekend that 438 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 1: is just jammed up with unwanted obligatory activities. Yeah yeah, 439 00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:30,320 Speaker 1: I mean, I know for my own part, there are 440 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: things like, for instance, listening to music. I might I 441 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,119 Speaker 1: almost certainly listen to music more on my own during 442 00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,880 Speaker 1: the work week, uh, just because I'm plugged in more 443 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,120 Speaker 1: or and in some cases are released in the past. 444 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,760 Speaker 1: You know, I've I've been commuting and so there will 445 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,560 Speaker 1: be more sort of designated media time during the commute, 446 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:51,320 Speaker 1: and then on the weekends you don't have that. So 447 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,359 Speaker 1: not not not that that necessarily pushes weekend good or bad, 448 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: but it certainly gives it a slightly different flavor. There 449 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,280 Speaker 1: there are things that the weekend and not offer that 450 00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:05,160 Speaker 1: the that the normal week days do. Yeah, yeah, totally. So, 451 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,840 Speaker 1: I don't know, the ability to determine one's own activities 452 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,359 Speaker 1: and the ability to spend quality time with loved ones 453 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,679 Speaker 1: whenever that happens. It seems like those are are major 454 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 1: factors that increase people's feeling of well being along multiple axes. Um. 455 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 1: But it just so happens that those things, on average 456 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,639 Speaker 1: happened the most on weekends for people. But you know, 457 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:30,560 Speaker 1: individual mileage may vary. But but while the previous results 458 00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:32,880 Speaker 1: might be pretty obvious, you could also imagine that there 459 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:35,919 Speaker 1: could be other effects of the seven day week on 460 00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:41,240 Speaker 1: human psychology and particularly on behavior. Now, again, these would 461 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,879 Speaker 1: be highly dependent on a person's economic and cultural surroundings, because, 462 00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,480 Speaker 1: as we talked about in the last episode, basically all 463 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,840 Speaker 1: the evidence indicates that the seven day week is is 464 00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,800 Speaker 1: not a fact of nature, but but a mental technology, 465 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,159 Speaker 1: something we have created. So it will depend on what 466 00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,639 Speaker 1: kind of week you use and what the week is 467 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:00,240 Speaker 1: used for in the place where you live. A couple 468 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:02,919 Speaker 1: of random examples that have been observed over the years 469 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: that I wanted to point out. So one is the 470 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,840 Speaker 1: question of does the stock market behave differently depending on 471 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:13,560 Speaker 1: what day of the week it is other factors being equal. Uh, 472 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,679 Speaker 1: this one doesn't seem totally clear. It looks to me 473 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,920 Speaker 1: like some studies looking into this have found a correlation. 474 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:23,359 Speaker 1: Others have have not or have argued that the correlations 475 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,560 Speaker 1: that have been found can be explained away. Um. But 476 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,080 Speaker 1: just as one example of of a study that did 477 00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,639 Speaker 1: find a correlation and said it couldn't be explained away, 478 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:36,080 Speaker 1: there was Gibbons and Hess from the Journal of Business 479 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,639 Speaker 1: in ninety one. The article was titled Day of the 480 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,680 Speaker 1: Week effects and Asset Returns, and this found against prediction 481 00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 1: that expected returns for stocks and bills on Mondays were 482 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:50,199 Speaker 1: lower than for other days of the week, or perhaps 483 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,560 Speaker 1: sometimes even negative. And they were just like, we don't 484 00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,320 Speaker 1: know how to explain this, We don't know of what 485 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: factor would would explain this. Another example I found in 486 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:03,640 Speaker 1: a pay or by Ellis and Jenkins published in UH 487 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,480 Speaker 1: plus one in twelve. I know for many years I've 488 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:09,879 Speaker 1: been calling this journal p l O S one A 489 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,040 Speaker 1: lot of people say that way, but I just read 490 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:15,359 Speaker 1: an article saying that the pronunciation, of course that stands 491 00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:18,679 Speaker 1: for Public Library of Science. But so it is an acronym. 492 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,680 Speaker 1: But but they say plas rhyming with floss. So from 493 00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,359 Speaker 1: now on I'm gonna try to remember to floss like 494 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:28,159 Speaker 1: plas plas instead of p L O S. Yeah, but 495 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:32,000 Speaker 1: how about plos Sometimes it's kind of since we have 496 00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:34,919 Speaker 1: like often a capital P lower case L O than 497 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:40,080 Speaker 1: capital S, it seems like that would be possos. I 498 00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:41,600 Speaker 1: know now that I've said it, I'm gonna get it 499 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,399 Speaker 1: wrong in the future and looks stupid. Plus plus plus 500 00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:48,120 Speaker 1: like floss okay, so plus one. Uh. The The article 501 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:51,800 Speaker 1: was titled weekday effects Attendance Rate for Medical Appointments large 502 00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:55,760 Speaker 1: Scale Data Analysis and Implications. This study examined over four 503 00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:59,720 Speaker 1: point five million hospital appointment records from Scotland between two 504 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: thousand and eight in two thousand ten and it definitely 505 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 1: found a trend. They found that the did not attend 506 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:10,800 Speaker 1: rate was quote highest for Mondays eleven percent and lowest 507 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:15,760 Speaker 1: for Friday's nine point seven and decreased monotonically over the week. 508 00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:17,600 Speaker 1: So it went down over the week until it got 509 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,879 Speaker 1: to the lowest on Fridays. And in keeping with the trend, 510 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:23,560 Speaker 1: we've we've seen a few times here that there may 511 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:27,200 Speaker 1: be a day of week effects difference by age. The 512 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:30,679 Speaker 1: study found that the pattern was steeper for younger age 513 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,680 Speaker 1: groups than for older ones. Well you know it's it's 514 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,479 Speaker 1: one is tempted to fall back on stereotypes there as 515 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,000 Speaker 1: well and say well, maybe younger people are less concerned 516 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: about about health matters versus older people. But that's those 517 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,440 Speaker 1: are generalities and I'm not sure if we can really 518 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,880 Speaker 1: lean too heavily on those. But why would that affect 519 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:52,480 Speaker 1: today of the week. I mean it would still it 520 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: would mean that younger people are less concerned about health 521 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 1: matters maybe on Mondays Tuesdays, and so they get more 522 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 1: concerned as those on they've been partying all weekend. I 523 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,360 Speaker 1: guess I don't know, but I know that that even 524 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,520 Speaker 1: as a as an adult, um, I uh, there have 525 00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:11,680 Speaker 1: been times where I reached Sunday and then I say, 526 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,560 Speaker 1: I look at the calendars, like, all right, what's coming 527 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: up this week? What did I what did I you know, 528 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:19,040 Speaker 1: put in the books for the week ahead, And then 529 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:21,560 Speaker 1: I'll say, oh, I have a dental appointment on Monday, 530 00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,000 Speaker 1: and I and there might be a temptation to want 531 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,480 Speaker 1: to rearrange that just because you know the nature of 532 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:30,640 Speaker 1: the Monday is that you know, maybe you're not maybe 533 00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:32,760 Speaker 1: you're not excited about Monday, or maybe you are excited 534 00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: about actually getting some work done on on Monday, kicking 535 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,040 Speaker 1: the week off right, and it doesn't feel appropriate maybe 536 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,200 Speaker 1: to then spend an hour or more somewhere else, even 537 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:43,960 Speaker 1: if it is something important like a medical appointment. I 538 00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 1: know exactly what you're talking about. Man, When you know 539 00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,160 Speaker 1: you're scheduling six months out at the dentist or something, 540 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,960 Speaker 1: and you're like, uh, yeah, Monday, that sounds good, and 541 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,600 Speaker 1: then it's that Sunday and you're like, oh, no, I 542 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:57,480 Speaker 1: can do this. Yeah, I should have put it on 543 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:08,120 Speaker 1: a Thursday. The two examples I was just talking about 544 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,680 Speaker 1: of possible weekly fluctuations in human behavior with the stock 545 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: markets and with missed appointments missed medical appointments. Those were 546 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 1: both mentioned in the background of a paper from which 547 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,360 Speaker 1: I want to talk about because I found it interesting 548 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:28,600 Speaker 1: and this paper experimentally explored a unifying concept that might 549 00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:33,440 Speaker 1: explain a number of weekly changes in behavior patterns, and 550 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:38,080 Speaker 1: that explanation would be in risk tolerance. So this paper 551 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,520 Speaker 1: is by Jet G. Sanders and Rob Jenkins published in 552 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:48,200 Speaker 1: Plus one called Weekly Fluctuations and Risk Tolerance and Voting Behavior. 553 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,280 Speaker 1: And so the authors of this paper point out several 554 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: observed trends in human behavior across days of the week, 555 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:57,640 Speaker 1: including the two I mentioned a minute ago, with stocks 556 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:00,240 Speaker 1: and and medical appointments. But they also point out things 557 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,080 Speaker 1: as serious as rates of attempted suicide. There are there 558 00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:06,080 Speaker 1: are uh, you know, you can observe trends throughout the 559 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 1: week in all kinds of human behaviors. But they argue 560 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,480 Speaker 1: that despite these observations, there has not yet been a 561 00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: unified psychological explanation for them. There's not one, uh explanation 562 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,280 Speaker 1: that people have been able to give yet it would say, 563 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:23,680 Speaker 1: here's why we're observing these trends. And in this paper, 564 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,680 Speaker 1: the author's hypothesized that one psychological factor which could influence 565 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,680 Speaker 1: a wide range of behaviors by fluctuating throughout the week 566 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,840 Speaker 1: is risk tolerance. Now, they did multiple studies to look 567 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:36,440 Speaker 1: at this, but the first one that was like a 568 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:39,680 Speaker 1: direct lab study I thought was interesting because it involved 569 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,520 Speaker 1: a computer game that is designed to measure risk tolerance, 570 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,720 Speaker 1: and this is called the BART test. BART is an acronym. 571 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:52,600 Speaker 1: It stands for Balloon Analog Risk Task And as with 572 00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:55,200 Speaker 1: a lot of these psychological tools, is so the BART 573 00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:58,040 Speaker 1: is really designed to try to reduce or eliminate the 574 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:01,960 Speaker 1: influence of other variables to get as close as possible 575 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 1: to testing just the factor in question, in this case, 576 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,880 Speaker 1: risk tolerance and the test works like this. Okay, so 577 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 1: rob you imagine you sit down at a computer and 578 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: you've been told in advance that you're gonna play a 579 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,080 Speaker 1: computer game that will lead to a variable cash payout 580 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:20,080 Speaker 1: at the end. You're gonna get some money by playing 581 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,640 Speaker 1: this game, but the money depends on your performance, and 582 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,200 Speaker 1: so the game works like this. In the game, you 583 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: have a series of twenty balloons that you get to 584 00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,720 Speaker 1: inflate one at a time. So you start on the 585 00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:35,680 Speaker 1: first balloon and you press a button I think space 586 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: bar to inflate this cartoon balloon. And every time you 587 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,720 Speaker 1: press the button there is a money value contained in 588 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,719 Speaker 1: the balloon that goes up, so say it's increasing by 589 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,640 Speaker 1: a penny every time you hit the space bar, So 590 00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:52,200 Speaker 1: you're hitting the space you're increasing your payout. But as 591 00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 1: you keep inflating the balloon, you get closer and closer 592 00:32:55,760 --> 00:33:00,080 Speaker 1: to some randomized point where the balloon will pop. And 593 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 1: if you reach that point in the balloon pops, you 594 00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,080 Speaker 1: lose all the money you've earned so far, it all 595 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:08,720 Speaker 1: goes away. So what you're trying to do is inflated 596 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,920 Speaker 1: as much as you can without it popping, and then 597 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,600 Speaker 1: get and then you're going to do something called banking it, 598 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:16,479 Speaker 1: which means you say, Okay, I'm done with this balloon. 599 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:18,800 Speaker 1: I'm not going to inflate it anymore. I'll just take 600 00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:22,200 Speaker 1: whatever money is in there now. Yeah, and there's similar 601 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,440 Speaker 1: I've seen some stills of what these, uh the simple 602 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:26,920 Speaker 1: games tend to look like. And they tend to be 603 00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:29,760 Speaker 1: very simple because it's not about believing that you're looking 604 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 1: at a balloon. It's about like the basic risk, like 605 00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:34,000 Speaker 1: do do I risk it now? Do I risk it now? 606 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:36,560 Speaker 1: But you you find a similar mechanic in some games 607 00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 1: as well, where there'll be something on the line and 608 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:41,680 Speaker 1: do you keep pushing it, do you keep holding or 609 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: do you go ahead and cash out? It's the basic 610 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:46,040 Speaker 1: double down principle. Yeah, and so I think, yeah, a 611 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: game like this is a is a pretty good attempt 612 00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:52,240 Speaker 1: to isolate risk tolerance as as its own variable like that, 613 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,560 Speaker 1: there's that's pretty much directly what it's testing. There's not 614 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:57,800 Speaker 1: a lot else that you could imagine is going into this. 615 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: So every single moment of the game, you can either 616 00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: gamble by inflating the balloon more, potentially increasing your ultimate payout, 617 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:08,160 Speaker 1: but also risking losing everything. You've you've gotten on this 618 00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:10,839 Speaker 1: balloon so far, or you can bank it and and 619 00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:14,239 Speaker 1: keep that money start the next balloon. The obvious correlation 620 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,040 Speaker 1: is that people with a lower risk tolerance at the 621 00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,160 Speaker 1: time they're playing the game will tend to bank balloons 622 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:23,880 Speaker 1: earlier and protect the gains they've already made, whereas people 623 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,720 Speaker 1: with a higher risk tolerance while they're playing the game 624 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,440 Speaker 1: will tend to keep inflating to make the payouts bigger, 625 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:32,839 Speaker 1: you know, with the increased risk of losing the whole pot. 626 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,920 Speaker 1: And of course, you know, risk tolerance is going to 627 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:40,440 Speaker 1: vary to some degree by by like fixed personality traits, 628 00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:42,920 Speaker 1: like some people are just more risk tolerant than other 629 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 1: people across the board. But then it's also going to 630 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 1: vary moment to moment by but within a person. So 631 00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:52,400 Speaker 1: a person might have a generally high, low, or average 632 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,200 Speaker 1: risk tolerance, but other factors I don't know. Maybe if 633 00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:58,400 Speaker 1: you give somebody a few alcoholic beverages, their risk tolerance 634 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,440 Speaker 1: probably goes up. This is why casinos like to give 635 00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: people free drinks. And apparently the Bart test has has 636 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,040 Speaker 1: been shown to predict real world risk taking in domains 637 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:11,719 Speaker 1: like health and economics, so it seems like this is 638 00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:14,160 Speaker 1: probably a pretty good test. People who take more risks 639 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,160 Speaker 1: in the game also take more risks in real life. 640 00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:19,560 Speaker 1: So in this study they played this game with a 641 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,040 Speaker 1: number of controls in place to try to isolate day 642 00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: of the week as the only relevant difference. Now a 643 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:28,080 Speaker 1: caveat the sample size on the study was not huge. 644 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,080 Speaker 1: It was twenty five players across five sessions each, so 645 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,239 Speaker 1: a total of a hundred and twenty five barts um. 646 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,000 Speaker 1: So I wouldn't put too much confidence on this result 647 00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,840 Speaker 1: until I see it confirmed in follow ups. But the 648 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,320 Speaker 1: study did find an effect, and it was an interesting 649 00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:46,560 Speaker 1: one one that is not exactly what I would have predicted. Because, Rob, 650 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:50,080 Speaker 1: if you had to guess in terms of risk tolerance 651 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:53,360 Speaker 1: fluctuations during the week, what what would you guess the 652 00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,680 Speaker 1: day that one would take the most risks, the most 653 00:35:56,719 --> 00:35:59,759 Speaker 1: and the least. I would say most on Friday, least 654 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,279 Speaker 1: on my day. I would guess exactly the same thing. 655 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,000 Speaker 1: I would think that people are most risk tolerant on 656 00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:08,120 Speaker 1: Friday and Saturday. Those are the YOLO days, that's canonical, 657 00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: and people would probably mean the most risk risk averse 658 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:13,880 Speaker 1: on Mondays. You know, that's like the hunker down and 659 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,840 Speaker 1: get through this day. But strangely, this is not exactly 660 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:20,880 Speaker 1: what the researchers found that. It's there's some partial overlap 661 00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:23,480 Speaker 1: with what we just guessed. So, first of all, they 662 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 1: did not test on weekends. We don't have data on 663 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,120 Speaker 1: Saturdays and Sundays. They were just testing variations between week days, 664 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,480 Speaker 1: and they found that risk tolerance people are willing to 665 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:35,400 Speaker 1: take the most risks to inflate the balloons the most 666 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:42,160 Speaker 1: on Fridays and Mondays. But then after Mondays, risk tolerance 667 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:47,720 Speaker 1: went down, and then it reached its lowest average on Thursdays. 668 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:50,319 Speaker 1: So that was a hum moment for me. I I 669 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:52,880 Speaker 1: don't know, like Thursdays, they're supposed to sort of blend 670 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:56,040 Speaker 1: in with the other midweek days. They're very similar to 671 00:36:56,080 --> 00:37:00,520 Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Why would people be the most call aucious, 672 00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:05,399 Speaker 1: the most averse to taking risks on Thursdays? I mean, 673 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,320 Speaker 1: maybe it comes down to just sort of the finish 674 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,600 Speaker 1: line view of the calendar week, where it's like, all right, 675 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,399 Speaker 1: on Thursday, Uh, you know, I'm over the hump, I'm 676 00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:16,120 Speaker 1: coming in towards the finish. I I need to actually 677 00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,399 Speaker 1: get some stuff done today. I need to I don't 678 00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,320 Speaker 1: need to take a bunch of risks. Uh. Tomorrow, maybe 679 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,440 Speaker 1: when the finish line is in sight, I'll feel risk here, 680 00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:27,200 Speaker 1: But today is all business. That's just a guess. I 681 00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:29,600 Speaker 1: don't know. I think there might be something to that. 682 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,640 Speaker 1: I mean, we can talk about a few options here, 683 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,400 Speaker 1: I guess. First, let's talk about what the authors themselves 684 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,759 Speaker 1: offer as as their preferred explanation. Um. So, for one thing, 685 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,520 Speaker 1: they hypothesize in their introduction that if risk tolerance varies 686 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,919 Speaker 1: throughout the week, it might be related to mood, since 687 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:49,080 Speaker 1: previous studies have found that mood has an influence on 688 00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:52,760 Speaker 1: decision making. And I thought this part was also strange 689 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:57,360 Speaker 1: because the link between mood and risk tolerance is counterintuitive 690 00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:01,240 Speaker 1: to me. But they cite multiple studies existing research showing 691 00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 1: that on average, people are more risk tolerance it will 692 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:11,120 Speaker 1: take more risks when experiencing certain negative moods, such as sadness. 693 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,440 Speaker 1: So apparently people experiencing sadness are more likely to inflate 694 00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:19,440 Speaker 1: the balloon higher take more risks, whereas people experiencing happiness 695 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:23,480 Speaker 1: are more likely to be cautious and risk averse. This 696 00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:25,880 Speaker 1: is another thing that's kind of the opposite of what 697 00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,040 Speaker 1: I would have guessed from a gut feeling, though in 698 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:31,759 Speaker 1: looking at the research they cite, I guess it sort 699 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,440 Speaker 1: of makes sense maybe that, like feelings of sadness or 700 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,120 Speaker 1: despair can lead to a a what what do I 701 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,200 Speaker 1: have to lose? Kind of thinking? Right, right, And if 702 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:43,319 Speaker 1: you're optimistic, you're like, well, why should I be taking 703 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,400 Speaker 1: a risk Tomorrow's Friday? Yeah, I think this balloon, Yeah 704 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 1: it's fine. So so that's kind of surprising already. But anyway, 705 00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:54,960 Speaker 1: this fact would partially match the results they found in 706 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:58,160 Speaker 1: the balloon game, because okay, you assume people are generally 707 00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:00,680 Speaker 1: in the worst mood on Monday. A lot of studies 708 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:03,720 Speaker 1: have found that, and then their mood gets gradually better 709 00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,080 Speaker 1: throughout the week and then gets to its highest point 710 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,600 Speaker 1: on Friday. This would track with their finding that people 711 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 1: take the most risks on Mondays and then get more 712 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:15,920 Speaker 1: and more cautious up to Thursday. Though then on Friday 713 00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:19,960 Speaker 1: that correlation breaks because if the same pattern held, people 714 00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:22,920 Speaker 1: should actually be the most cautious on Fridays of the 715 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,279 Speaker 1: lowest risk tolerance on Friday's because that's when they're in 716 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,239 Speaker 1: the best mood. But that's not what happens, Friday looks 717 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,200 Speaker 1: more kind of like the Yolo day that you and 718 00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:34,000 Speaker 1: I would have guessed. It's it's on par with Mondays 719 00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,520 Speaker 1: in terms of having high risk tolerance. So the authors 720 00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:41,279 Speaker 1: explained this by saying, quote, the Friday recovery suggests that 721 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:45,799 Speaker 1: risk tolerance may track prospective mood more closely than it 722 00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:49,880 Speaker 1: tracts current mood. On this account, risk tolerance is lowest 723 00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,560 Speaker 1: on Thursday because that is when the most rewarding part 724 00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,719 Speaker 1: of the week is imminent. When gain is expected, changes 725 00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:01,680 Speaker 1: resisted risk aversion, When losses expect did, change is welcomed 726 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:06,480 Speaker 1: risk tolerance. And I don't know on this. I'm kind 727 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,680 Speaker 1: of halfway there on that explanation that that makes a 728 00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:11,280 Speaker 1: certain kind of sense to me. But then again, isn't 729 00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:17,200 Speaker 1: Friday already the highest mood because of prospective analysis? Like 730 00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:22,400 Speaker 1: Friday itself is prospective happiness. People who work jobs with 731 00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:24,919 Speaker 1: Monday to Friday schedules still have to go to work 732 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:28,120 Speaker 1: on Friday. But we love Friday's because we are thinking 733 00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:31,640 Speaker 1: about the weekend being ahead of us. Yeah, yeah, I mean, 734 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:34,239 Speaker 1: and unless it creeps even further back in the week here, 735 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:38,239 Speaker 1: and like so basically you're, uh, your most optimistic on 736 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:41,360 Speaker 1: Thursday because it's about to be Friday. And then of 737 00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:45,479 Speaker 1: course when it's actually Friday, maybe there are some realizations that, well, 738 00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:50,279 Speaker 1: you know, Friday is just another day and it's it's 739 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,000 Speaker 1: nothing magical about it. Maybe. Yeah, I don't know. I 740 00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,840 Speaker 1: think this is curious. I would say if more people 741 00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,760 Speaker 1: test the same thing, if the same pattern the authors 742 00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: found here holds up in other studies, I would wonder 743 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: if it's indicative of a multi variable input, Like maybe 744 00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:09,799 Speaker 1: improving mood explains decreasing risk tolerance throughout the week, but 745 00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,480 Speaker 1: then when Friday comes, some other psychological influence takes over. 746 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:15,440 Speaker 1: I don't know what that would be, but it's sort 747 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:20,680 Speaker 1: of overwhelms the effective mood on risk tolerance. But but yeah, 748 00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:24,319 Speaker 1: I I don't know. Yeah, I mean it's sometimes it's 749 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:26,799 Speaker 1: it's hard for humans to live in the moment. Like 750 00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:30,239 Speaker 1: a I think about like the ramp up to Halloween. 751 00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:33,560 Speaker 1: You spend all of October moving towards Halloween and getting 752 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,719 Speaker 1: into the Halloween spirit and all. Sometimes I've found that 753 00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,520 Speaker 1: when it's actually Halloween, it's still a lot of fun, 754 00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:44,080 Speaker 1: but there's also the the the you know, the sadness 755 00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,239 Speaker 1: that Halloween is about to be over. That that that 756 00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:48,920 Speaker 1: there's going to be the sharp cut off, and now 757 00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:51,880 Speaker 1: it's November, and now all these other factors are in play. 758 00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:54,799 Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're talking about there. With two 759 00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:58,320 Speaker 1: October files here, I feel like I get the most 760 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,840 Speaker 1: pleasure in like the first two weeks of October because 761 00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 1: then it's like there's so much October still ahead of us. Yeah. 762 00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:07,080 Speaker 1: But and then again, I don't know if this really 763 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:11,359 Speaker 1: this can really relate to the week by week experience, 764 00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:14,560 Speaker 1: but yeah, I don't know. Now. Another interesting thing that 765 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:17,400 Speaker 1: goes along with his I was reading a short article 766 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:20,960 Speaker 1: by one of the authors of this study, uh Rob Jenkins, 767 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,560 Speaker 1: and he also said that the same pattern was born 768 00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:29,879 Speaker 1: out in analyzes of historical chess games. That they they 769 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:34,280 Speaker 1: had done an analysis of big archives of chess games 770 00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,840 Speaker 1: and try to quantify risky moves within those games and 771 00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:39,920 Speaker 1: then correlate that with what day of the week the 772 00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,160 Speaker 1: games took place on, and they found they say, they 773 00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:46,560 Speaker 1: found the same thing that uh moves got uh more 774 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:50,160 Speaker 1: and more cautious on the on the trend from Monday 775 00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:53,200 Speaker 1: to Thursday, so you know, riskier moves on Monday and 776 00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:57,000 Speaker 1: then Thursday, very conservative playing and then Friday suddenly risky 777 00:42:57,040 --> 00:43:00,000 Speaker 1: moves again. So that was not a part of this paper. 778 00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:02,800 Speaker 1: That was just something i'd read the author talking about. 779 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:06,480 Speaker 1: But within this same paper, the authors also looked at 780 00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:09,440 Speaker 1: how days of the week correlated with the voting preferences 781 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:12,640 Speaker 1: as expressed in opinion polls on a couple of big 782 00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:16,320 Speaker 1: issues in UM in UK politics in recent years Scottish 783 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,680 Speaker 1: independence and bregsit And from the moment, I think I'm 784 00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:21,799 Speaker 1: not going to focus on that because I feel like 785 00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:25,399 Speaker 1: those kinds of issues have they're so noisy with real 786 00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:27,920 Speaker 1: world data and so full of variables that are hard 787 00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:30,880 Speaker 1: to control for uh. And of course the authors are 788 00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:33,239 Speaker 1: aware of this, they make note of it, but I 789 00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:36,239 Speaker 1: feel like that that may be harder to fix on 790 00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:39,320 Speaker 1: day of the week effects and and things like risk aversion, 791 00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: because especially when you're looking at something like a big 792 00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:46,520 Speaker 1: contentious political issue, like a huge part of political rhetoric 793 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,520 Speaker 1: is specifically aimed at manipulating how people frame political and 794 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:54,160 Speaker 1: voting choices in terms of risks. So it's hard to 795 00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:57,200 Speaker 1: pick one side of a political issue and say, well, 796 00:43:57,239 --> 00:43:59,800 Speaker 1: this is the one that's the more risk averse option, 797 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,360 Speaker 1: and the other one is the one that's more risk tolerant, 798 00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:04,799 Speaker 1: because there may be lots of cases where voters on 799 00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:08,600 Speaker 1: opposite sides of an issue in roughly equal proportions both 800 00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:11,479 Speaker 1: believe their side to be the less risky one. Yeah, 801 00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:13,920 Speaker 1: it's going to debend on on what sort of media 802 00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:18,279 Speaker 1: you're consuming. One side is going to frame this is 803 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:20,560 Speaker 1: the obviously the risky choice, and the other side is 804 00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:22,200 Speaker 1: going to say, no, this is the this is the 805 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:26,080 Speaker 1: risk adverse choice. Though they point out something interesting that 806 00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:29,040 Speaker 1: does rely on a couple of conditionals. So if if 807 00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:31,239 Speaker 1: they're finding is indeed true, if it is borne out 808 00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:34,439 Speaker 1: that people's risk tolerance on average fluctuates throughout the week, 809 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,960 Speaker 1: and if it's true that there are consistent patterns that 810 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:41,920 Speaker 1: show up in populations, such as Thursday being consistently the 811 00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,839 Speaker 1: most cautious day, the most risk averse day, then what 812 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:49,440 Speaker 1: day you hold elections or referenda on could actually affect 813 00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:52,480 Speaker 1: the outcome, which I think is interesting. But another thing 814 00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:54,319 Speaker 1: I was thinking about in the light of these assessments 815 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:56,680 Speaker 1: of risk aversion is coming back to your idea of 816 00:44:57,560 --> 00:44:59,959 Speaker 1: the effect of week days being an effect of CUMU 817 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,399 Speaker 1: a live fatigue. I mean, I wonder how that would 818 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,440 Speaker 1: play into risk tolerance as expressed throughout the week. Does like, Okay, 819 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:11,120 Speaker 1: could it be that being progressively more tired as you 820 00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:14,279 Speaker 1: go through the week and getting to Thursday, you've you've 821 00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:16,680 Speaker 1: most likely had the most nights in a row where 822 00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:18,960 Speaker 1: you didn't get as much sleep as you wanted, where 823 00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:21,239 Speaker 1: you were trying to pack things in and get through 824 00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:25,120 Speaker 1: the days that came before. Could that somehow express itself 825 00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:27,160 Speaker 1: in terms of what kind of risks you're willing to 826 00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:29,880 Speaker 1: take by Thursday? And then maybe some kind of mood 827 00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:34,080 Speaker 1: effect takes over on Friday that overwhelms that fatigue, right, 828 00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:38,600 Speaker 1: And then likewise, if if, if you're more prone to 829 00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:41,400 Speaker 1: lose sleep over the weekend, would you have have this 830 00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:45,279 Speaker 1: sort of scenario playing out, you know, moving into Monday 831 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:46,800 Speaker 1: where yeah, you didn't you didn't get a lot of 832 00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,040 Speaker 1: sleep last night and the night before, uh, and here 833 00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,759 Speaker 1: you are catching up. Another question I have is I 834 00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:57,879 Speaker 1: wonder about interactions between between risk aversion as expressed over 835 00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:01,520 Speaker 1: different days of the week and our feeling of freedom 836 00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:04,520 Speaker 1: about what we get to do on on each day 837 00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:07,600 Speaker 1: of the week. So, like, how is your risk aversion 838 00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:11,319 Speaker 1: affected by it being a day where that is full 839 00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:13,360 Speaker 1: of tasks that are not really up to you you 840 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:16,279 Speaker 1: just have to do them, versus on a day where 841 00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:19,359 Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want. Yeah. Yeah, I mean 842 00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:21,920 Speaker 1: I can imagine a scenario in which, yeah, you haven't 843 00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:24,480 Speaker 1: really had much in the way of choice, So now 844 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:27,120 Speaker 1: I have the choice to take a risk. Well, maybe 845 00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:28,840 Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it. I don't know. It kind of 846 00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:31,160 Speaker 1: comes back to the where we're talking about, though, is 847 00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:33,880 Speaker 1: that there seems like there's a fair amount of noise 848 00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:36,600 Speaker 1: in any of these considerations, and and so much just 849 00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,879 Speaker 1: room for subjective interpretation. You know, it's just gonna vary 850 00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:45,520 Speaker 1: so much depending on what an individual's life structure happens 851 00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:47,799 Speaker 1: to be. Right, So if the pattern holds up, I 852 00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:50,719 Speaker 1: do think that's really interesting with this Thursday thing, But 853 00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:55,239 Speaker 1: I'm not convinced of any particular explanation yet. Yeah, but 854 00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:57,200 Speaker 1: this does just make me want to, like, I don't know, 855 00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:01,000 Speaker 1: do Bart tests on myself all, you know, all the 856 00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:03,400 Speaker 1: time figure out what's what's going on in my brain. 857 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:05,960 Speaker 1: I guess it's hard to. I don't know. I guess 858 00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:08,480 Speaker 1: knowing what I'm testing for would affects the outcome, so 859 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,839 Speaker 1: I can't really do that. But I want to bart myself. Well, 860 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:14,719 Speaker 1: there's gotta be a good pin and paper kind of 861 00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:17,520 Speaker 1: BART scenario you can use. Well, I'd still know that 862 00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:19,920 Speaker 1: I was taking the test, and I couldn't, like, you know, 863 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:22,839 Speaker 1: do it blinded. But yeah, in any case, I do 864 00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:26,000 Speaker 1: hope that risk tolerance researchers use bart as a verb. 865 00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:28,680 Speaker 1: But the way we have been doing I barted. I 866 00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:32,839 Speaker 1: barted twenty five participants today. You know, I haven't had 867 00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:36,120 Speaker 1: a chance to really research this, but it looks like 868 00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:40,080 Speaker 1: there there are a few um balloon analog risk task 869 00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,759 Speaker 1: tests BART tests that you can find online. Uh, though 870 00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:45,560 Speaker 1: I will warn you that the one I clicked on 871 00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:47,880 Speaker 1: it had some really loud sound effects. I don't know 872 00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:52,080 Speaker 1: that we really need alloud air hissing sound effect every 873 00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:54,399 Speaker 1: time I pump up the money balloon, So it only 874 00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:59,000 Speaker 1: works if it's deafening pops, pops and pumps. Okay, I 875 00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:00,799 Speaker 1: think maybe we've got a called this episode here and 876 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:04,200 Speaker 1: then come back later this week. That's right, we'll have 877 00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,160 Speaker 1: more to discuss about the seven day week. We'll get 878 00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,000 Speaker 1: into some more and probably some expected territory concerning more 879 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:15,400 Speaker 1: historical data, will probably get into some unexpected areas. As 880 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,799 Speaker 1: well concerning the seven day week period. Obviously, we'd love 881 00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:21,640 Speaker 1: to hear from everyone. In the meantime, we've already been 882 00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:24,319 Speaker 1: hearing from a number of people about these episodes, so 883 00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:28,360 Speaker 1: keep it coming. Will remind you that our core episodes 884 00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:31,760 Speaker 1: of Stuff to Blow Your Mind published on two season Thursdays. Monday, 885 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:35,520 Speaker 1: we do listener mail Wednesday as a short form artifact episode, 886 00:48:35,520 --> 00:48:38,120 Speaker 1: and on Friday that's our time to do Weird How Cinema, 887 00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:40,440 Speaker 1: where we set aside most serious concerns and just focus 888 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:43,000 Speaker 1: on a strange film. Huge thanks as always to our 889 00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:46,440 Speaker 1: excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like 890 00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:48,520 Speaker 1: to get in touch with us with feedback on this 891 00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:51,040 Speaker 1: episode or any other to suggest topic for the future, 892 00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:53,719 Speaker 1: just to say hello, you can email us at contact 893 00:48:53,760 --> 00:49:03,680 Speaker 1: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to 894 00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:06,200 Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For 895 00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:08,480 Speaker 1: more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart 896 00:49:08,560 --> 00:49:11,279 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listening to your 897 00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:23,839 Speaker 1: favorite shows