WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Seven Day Week, Part 2 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:07.480 Hey, are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind? 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.240 This is Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:12.399 it's Saturday. Time to go into the vault for an 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.320 older episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This episode 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.120 is part two of our series on the Seven Day Week, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:27.200 and it originally published on March five. Enjoy Welcome, Just 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.720 about to Blow your Mind production of My Heart Radio. 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:38.760 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.879 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.080 back with part two of our series on the seven 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:47.080 day Week. What is it? Where did it come from? What? 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.600 What's it doing in our brains? All right now? When 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.960 we cut off in the previous part of this series 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.720 about the week, you were talking a bit about some 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.320 sources you were reading about the history of the week, 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:03.279 where the seven day week comes from. Because obviously, you know, 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:05.040 one of the main things we talked about in the 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.400 last episode is that other major blocks that we use 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.000 for measuring times, such as the month, the year, and 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.200 the day, are all based on facts about nature, usually 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.720 about astronomy. You know, how the Earth moves, Earth moves 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:19.880 around the Sun, or how the moon moves around the Earth, 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:24.200 but the week has no such basis in physical reality. 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:29.040 It's an artificial construction, with the possible exception that some 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.880 people think there may be some underlying biological UH rhythms 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.280 that contribute to it. One hypothesis that's been offered is 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.280 the menstrual cycle or things like that, but it's hard 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.480 to know for sure. So we know at least that 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.119 the week is not based in astronomy. So where does 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.040 it come from historically? Yeah, And in that we were 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.400 getting into this idea of the market week. The time 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:57.400 it takes for vegetables or fruit to UH to travel 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.360 in from market UH, be sold in, mark it, and 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.880 then for UH the individuals who brought it there to 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.400 return then to the fields. Um. This would be just 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.840 a basic market cycle, a market week. UH. And one 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.480 of the sources that I was discussing here was um 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:17.480 Avatar Zerubaville is the seven day circle. UM, So you know, 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.280 point the author here points to the ten day market 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.640 week of ancient Southern China, various other systems as well, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.840 because again there's nothing set in stone about it taking 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.839 seven days to reach any given market anywhere in the world. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.400 It's going to vary obviously. Uh, so you have you 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.080 have different systems that were in place, the ten day system. 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.400 We also see the eight day system that emerged in 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.480 what is now Italy. This is the Etruscan system. And 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:45.800 so the Truscan system that that the name of that 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:50.239 would come from the Etruscan culture, a culture that inhabited 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:55.360 the Italian peninsula before the Roman period, right, and then 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.680 the Romans would of course inherit the Intruscan system, and 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:04.080 this eventually became the internudenum tempests, or the period between 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.240 the ninth day affairs, which Zaruberville rights involves the Roman 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.120 practice of inclusive counting, in which the last day of 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.079 one cycle is the first day of the next. So 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.800 this involves a market day held every eight days. Market 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.280 and social life revolved around this market day, and schools 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.240 and courts were closed for that day as well. It 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.000 was also a day to set work aside to go 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.240 to the baths um, and the cap limit for guests 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.280 was raised as well, so you could have more people 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.440 over on this market day. Now, the decline of the 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:41.480 eight day week, the author rights, coincided with the expansion 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.440 of Rome. It simply became too big for this system. 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.840 To logistically work anymore. Um, and you know this comes 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.120 down to the fact that a true urban economy ends 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.360 up demanding continuous commerce. But this this was interesting as well. 0:03:55.920 --> 0:04:01.480 I'm gonna read a quote from the seven Day Circle here. Quote. Coincidentally, 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.560 the astrological and Christians seven day weeks that had just 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.720 been introduced into Rome were also becoming increasingly popular. There 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.080 is evidence indicating that the Roman eight day week and 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:18.679 those two seven day cycles were used simultaneously for some time. However, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.360 the coexistence of two weekly rhythms that were entirely out 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.560 of phase with one another obviously could not be sustained 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.360 for long. One of them clearly had to give way. 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:30.960 As we all know, it was the eight day week 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:35.880 that soon disappeared from the pages of history forever. Okay, 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.960 so you're positing a time here where there exists such 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.640 things as weeks, sort of like the weeks we imagined, 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.760 but not everybody's using the same weeks at the same time, 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.760 so they're just sort of like overlapping different systems that 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.080 different people are using, which sounds incredibly chaotic and not 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.960 especially useful. Yeah, yeah, because it's it's it's hard to 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.720 exactly imagine what this would have been like, because we 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.280 think the week is just set in stone, it's just 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.240 this this grid work that arranges our lives. But too 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.480 and and then I'm tempted to try and think of it, Well, 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.240 maybe would be like using both uh, you know, pounds 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.320 and uh and and and grahams or something, you know, 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.520 having to to use two different systems of measurement. But 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:20.279 it's not quite that either, because because there's still like, 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.600 you know, there's still a certain length to um uh 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:29.080 you know, to to some fencing or care at, etcetera. Um. 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.040 But but when you're dealing with with time here and 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.599 you're dealing with these market cycles, it it seems like 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.480 you would just you know, would just be this confusing 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.839 arrangement to have these two or more overlapping systems of 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.480 different different amounts of time. Well, it's a big difference, 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.080 is that. Say, if you're converting from standard to metric, 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.360 there's a fixed conversion rate. It's not like how many 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.440 pints go into a leader changes every day. But if 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.000 you but if you have weeks of different numbers of 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.000 days and everybody's not on the same one, you can't 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.200 just line it up and say, oh, okay, this day 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.760 in our cycle is the is this other day and 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.599 somebody else's cycle. It would change every cycle because they're 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:10.840 not the same numbers, right, Like imagine like thinking back 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:15.120 on on like TV. Uh, just like TV programs and 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.760 TV schedules like what you of NBC and CBS, um 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.760 had not only like different schedules of what's coming out, 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.440 but they had different calendars, like different days of the week, 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.440 Like one did an eight day cycle and the other 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.760 one day to seven day cycle. Like that would be 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.160 that would be incredibly confusing, you know, trying to figure 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.320 out like what what is on what day and what 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:39.760 is opposite another show. It's it's it's just like again, 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.040 it's it's it's interesting to try and imagine what this 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.120 would have been like. But if I'm understanding zarubaval right 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.840 in this quote, what he's saying is that, um, so 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.200 you had this original sort of eight day cycle, the 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.160 Etruscan system that was inherited by the Romans, but then 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.640 you had these other systems of seven day weeks, the 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.200 the astrological, the Roman astrological even day week, and the 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.680 Christians seven day week, which I believe would be inherited 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:09.440 at least in part from the from the Jewish Sabbath observance. Yeah. 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.520 That that all this being said, it is important to 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.480 realize that there is still a reality to a market 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.440 week cycle. In many cases, you know, you have other 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.920 four forces haven't changed what's happening with people actually bringing 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.760 in crops and in the in the economic activities surrounding 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.560 the sale of those crops. Um. Then even if you 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.960 end up adopting, say a seven day week, you can 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.560 still see these other market cycles uh, coexisting with it. 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.760 And he points to some examples of this, points out 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.640 that both Christian and Islamic use of the seven day 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:51.800 week heavily influenced the continent of Africa. But you still 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.320 see four day market cycles in parts of Africa, as 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:59.040 well as eight and sixteen day weeks as well. So 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.360 these e can amic rhythms in many cases still remain 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.960 um or even if those economic rhythms shift like they're 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:10.240 still not gonna necessarily, uh you know, conform completely to 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.600 the seven day week cycle that has been superimposed on 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.080 a region. Now, he he points to in uh, some 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.000 other week cycles that are that are pretty interesting. He points, uh, 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.280 for instance, to the nineteen day be High cycle of 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.920 social and religious activity who was introduced in eighteen forty 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.120 four by the Persian prophet uh Saeed Ali Mohammed, also 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:36.520 known as Bob b a b Uh. It's generally spelled 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.480 in English. UH. Nineteen is apparently a mystical number in 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.840 the Behigh faith. And we see that in the use 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.160 of a nineteen week year in the Behidh faith as 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.920 well as a nineteen year va head um. And then 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.480 three hundred sixty one years make a cooler shay. And 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.320 that's because nineteen times nineteen equals three d sixty one uh. 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.800 So UM, all that's interesting as well. Here's an entire 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:06.000 stem that's based on nineteen four mystical purposes UH, spiritual 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:10.120 purposes uh, similar to the the adoption of the seven 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.880 within uh. You know, the the cycle that we we 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:19.840 know and are immersed in. He also mentions that the Maya, 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.800 on the other hand, used a twenty day um unital, 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.680 which was the quote cornerstone of the entire Maya time 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.400 measuring system. UH. The Mayan and the Aztecs solar calendars 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:32.760 consisted of three hundred and sixty five days, made up 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:38.080 essentially of eighteen twenty day weeks plus five blank days. UH. 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.160 They also had a two hundred sixty day UH divination 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:45.560 calendar year that was used exclusively for divination. There's also 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.040 a ninth century Indonesian system that he mentions that they 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.880 made use of both a five day market week. Six 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.200 five and seven day weeks were used then to chronicle events, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.440 and the Indonesian system had several uses, but the main function, 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.040 according to Zarubaville, was divination. UH. There were the right 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.679 days to do various things, both inherently sacred things such 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.600 as say, bearing the dead, and things that we might 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.360 think of in you know, sort of modern life as 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.200 being mundane things like moving or starting a new business, 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.680 but of course, within the confines of a given culture, 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.800 those things too may be considered highly sacred. So these 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.640 are more examples of the what we talked about in 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.800 the last episode, which is that you know it it 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.520 depends on how you define a week to say where 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.240 the week comes from. Because there's there's a history you 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:38.839 can track of our current unbroken system of seven day cycles, 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.000 but there also have been just lots of other things 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.880 throughout the world throughout history that subdivided the month into 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.160 some number of days. But it wasn't necessarily the same 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.400 as our seven day week, right, And and I think 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.440 it's interesting to think about how, on on one hand, 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.760 you have very practical, very real world considerations and arranging 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.760 these days into weeks uh and and saying well, I 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.240 need to know what we're calling four days from today. 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:04.959 I need to know what we're calling eight days from 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.360 today so that I can plan things out. But then 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:11.439 also getting into this divination area of well, is there 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.400 something about the day after tomorrow that makes it more 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:19.240 appropriate for me to do this act or this other 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:22.600 act or to make a certain decision on that day. Um, 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.400 And you kind of get into the sort of the 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:26.800 roots of divination that we've discussed on the show before, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.640 where it becomes this kind of um system that you know, 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.280 you may and it certainly entails supernatural ideas about seeing 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.120 into the future and using imploying luck uh and uh 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.680 and you know perhaps the uh you know, the good 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.839 will of various deities. But it also is about like 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.240 making uh, making space for decision and like helping decisions 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.680 be made and and and in introducing randomness in some cases. Yeah. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.040 Actually got me wondering about the same thing, about whether 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.200 a cycle of days in a week, whether that's seven 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.200 days or whatever other number. Just having a named day 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:08.280 within the cycle could aid in productivity and in spurring action, 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.760 uh instead as opposed to say, defferring action forever, because 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.439 if you live in a system where you don't have 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.800 named days within a cycle. Again, I don't know this, 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:20.800 I don't have direct evidence of it, but I wonder 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.960 if that's sort of just um would allow you to have, well, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.320 you have right now and then maybe you have a 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.480 concept like tomorrow, and then beyond that you've just got 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.959 the future. And so like it does having a named 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.880 day that's, you know, a predictable number of days ahead 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.559 of now allow you to plan action in a way 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.560 that you're more likely to follow through on an execute. Yeah, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:47.680 I mean it reminds me of some studies that I've 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.840 I've seen about the importance of having deadlines just for 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.839 productivity reasons. And I mean to a certain extent. I 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.920 guess this varies depending on what one's you know, job is, 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.520 what one's industry is. But the basic seven day week 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.480 kind of has a built in deadline like Friday is, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.440 at least to a certain extent, always a deadline. Like 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:13.320 it's assuming again that you have a job where you 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.800 don't have to work on Saturday and Sunday, like that's 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.400 the last day of the week. So in many cases 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.439 you're trying to get something done, you're trying to reach 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.120 like some level of finality, right, or at least it 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:27.520 leans it's it allows you to lean into that interpretation anyway. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.800 well it at least it gives you a principle on 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.200 which to organize those those timelines. I mean again, I 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.080 wonder like if we didn't have weeks and we just 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.719 you know, just worked whenever, and you were like, how 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.400 long is it gonna take me to do this? I mean, 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.240 how how long do we We would usually say I 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.240 don't know, one week, two weeks, and what would you 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.680 say that I'm gonna say, thirteen days is how long 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.280 it will take me. Yeah, there's something weird about like 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.959 a thirteen day estimate on something, right, Why why not 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.480 bump it up to fourteen days? Like it would seem 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.520 equally wrong to give a fifteen day estimate on something 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.560 like why is it taking two weeks in one day? 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.080 Why can't it just take two weeks? That just seems 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:16.160 like trolling. Yeah, well, maybe here is a good place 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:20.240 to come back to some psychology research about the effects 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:24.000 of the week, because in the previous episode I mentioned 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.760 a psychology paper that looked into what it called mental 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.080 representations of week days. This was by Ellis at All, 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:33.600 and we talked about it in the context of the 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.440 idea that while the week is broken into different types 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.120 of days, weekends and week days, each day is also 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.880 its own distinct concept, and this paper examined this in 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.160 a number of ways. Overall, I'd say it's findings would 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.480 be not very surprising to anybody who's ever been to 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.160 school or had a full time job that was organized 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.120 on regular bank hours. But it's good to have that 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.880 information anyway, because a lot of times, you know, I 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.000 often have this thought where like, you do a study 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.800 and then the results come back and people say, like, 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.320 that's obvious. Why do you need to do a study 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.800 to know that. It's like, well, because if you if 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.760 you just go by your assumptions all the time, you're 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:14.720 actually going to turn out to be wrong a good bit, 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.680 so it's worth checking. But it did find that, for example, 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.440 people were most conscious of what day it was on 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.960 Mondays and on Fridays, as measured by reaction times when 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.720 asked to name the day, it found that people were 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.640 most likely to feel like it was the wrong day. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.360 I feel like it was a different day than it 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.800 was on days that were in the midweek, so Tuesday, Wednesday, 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.120 and Thursdays. That's also not very surprising. Those are sort 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.440 of the the middle days, the days that are you know, 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.960 easy to get lost in the shuffle. It found that 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:48.360 in terms of affective response, people really really like Fridays 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.520 and really dislike Mondays, and the other days in between 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.720 basically just kind of slope up and down between those extremes. 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.760 And of course the standard note that these responses, as 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.800 well as the ones in the um UH studies I'm 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.760 about to mention here are are primarily, I think from 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.400 industrialized societies in North America and Europe, where the seven 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.160 day work week is highly salient. I have no way 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.040 to prove it, but I strongly suspect that you would 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.120 not find these same patterns at all if you were 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:21.280 to exclusively survey populations that were less connected to this 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.960 type of of economic work cycle, for example, rural farmers 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:30.080 or hunter gatherers. But since then, I just wanted to 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.280 talk about a bunch more studies. I was looking at 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.440 about the days of the week and how we represent 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:37.320 them in our brains, how we feel about them, and 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.280 how they affect our behavior. Uh So, a couple that 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.680 I looked at had to do with people's feelings about 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:46.400 days of the week, following up on that, you know 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.560 idea from the previous study that people like Fridays, they 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.200 don't like Mondays. So one study I looked at was 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:57.040 from twenty eleven published in Psychological Reports by Charles s Irany, 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.920 Mitchell Burger, and Natalina as Latevska uh called factors affecting 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.320 the extent of Monday Blues evidence from a meta analysis. 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.120 This was a meta analysis that looked at a bunch 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.919 of samples from previous studies that tracked both mood and 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.080 days of the week and tried to see if there 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.439 were correlations. And they said they did find evidence of 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:21.160 a small but reliable quote Monday blues effect, so people 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.600 had worse moods on Mondays, but the size of the 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:29.320 effect varied greatly depending on what types of demographic groups 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.880 featured in the sample. So for contrasts, they mentioned that 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:38.040 samples focused on university students showed a large and consistent 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.920 Monday Blues effect. College students really hated Mondays, whereas samples 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.359 limited to a smaller, different cohort. The one they single 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.639 out is married men who were not students showed a 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.879 smaller effect. It was still there, but much smaller and 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.760 with greater variation between the samples. Rob, does this track 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.600 with your experience that you hated Mondays more when you 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:04.040 were like a college student or younger in general? Yeah? Yeah, 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:06.240 and it. I mean, it's it's easy to sort of 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:10.200 fall on on sort of stereotypes when thinking about this. 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.239 You know, you think of like the college student is 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.960 is out partying all weekend and then open and they've 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.679 got to go to class Monday morning, and uh and 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:24.359 the married adult is maybe not partying all weekend. Um yeah, 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:28.000 I um, I don't. I don't think I ever remembered 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.840 necessarily just hating Mondays. But if I if I didn't 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.639 like my job, then I was probably adverse to to 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.440 going back on Monday to work there. I feel like nowadays, though, 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.480 like Monday I really don't have a problem with in 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:43.800 large part because I feel like I'm actually well rested 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:48.639 on a Monday, whereas I'm i'm less' not that I'm 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.199 i'm like losing a lot of sleep, but during the 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.080 course of the week, I feel like I kind of 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.440 steadily lose a little bit of sleep towards the end, 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.840 so that Fridays I'm a little more worn out. Um, 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:00.480 and then I catch up on my leap over the 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.880 weekend and by Monday, I'm good to go. Yeah, that's 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.760 something I think might be underappreciated, especially when it gets 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.800 to a study will look at in a minute on 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.440 on on behavior the the effects of cumulative fatigue over 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:14.680 the course of week days. I think that that is 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.560 a very good idea. But okay, So so that was 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.359 that one study. Another one I looked at was by Stone, Schneider, 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.480 and Harder, published in twenty twelve in the Journal of 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.399 Positive Psychology. This one used a huge telephone survey with 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.640 like hundreds of thousands of participants, tested for demographic variables 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:34.840 and how people felt about different days of the week. 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:39.440 They found, again unsurprisingly, a strong preference for weekends. People 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.040 really really love Fridays. They like weekends. Uh. This study 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.560 found weaker evidence that people really hate Mondays. Uh. It 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.960 was it was a more reduced Monday blues effect, but 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.760 they did find some variations. This one also found that 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.960 day of the week effects on mood in general were 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.040 more pronounced in younger p bowl generally, and the day 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.000 of the week had less effect on mood for older 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.439 people and especially retired people. So that might not be 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.720 surprising because I think a lot of these day of 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:13.719 the week effects probably have to do with when you 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.760 have to go to work. UH. They found no differences 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.359 on the basis of gender or on the basis of 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.600 the presence of a romantic partner. Now, it does seem 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:26.000 strange that there wouldn't be much emphasis put on Wednesday, though, 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.120 because it seems like, like Wednesday is hump Day, right, 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.520 Like Wednesday is the day where you may, uh, you know, 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.600 feel the satisfaction of knowing that the the you're you're 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.960 halfway there, You're you're more than halfway there. You are 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:40.399 over the hump and headed in towards that Friday that 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:44.040 you're looking forward to. You want scientific confirmation of hump day, 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.919 hump day confirmed. It's like if hump Day is I 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:48.960 mean this kind of we come into our assumptions, right, 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.520 I have these assumptions about hump days. But if those 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:53.840 assumptions are not borne out in UH, in the data 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.480 then then maybe it's just like it's a silly notion. Anyway, Well, 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.720 there may be some ways in which hump day is 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.280 a alien effect, but it just kind of gets lost 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:04.960 in the noise of this this big study with a 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.639 bunch of other things going on. Maybe it doesn't show up, 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.280 just fades into the noise when you're asking people, how 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:12.800 do you feel about today, about this day of the week, 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.240 or how do you feel today on the day that 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.280 I'm asking you this as opposed to other more targeted 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.879 questions that may pull out the hump day nous of 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:25.040 hump day, maybe questions about like optimism about the future 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:29.480 or something. Now you could ask another question. Again, we've 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:31.840 been talking about, well what's obvious or what we would 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:34.119 just assume, But here's another question. Seems like it has 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.400 an obvious answer. Why do people seem to like weekends 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.880 so much more than week days? I think I think 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:42.320 both common intuition as well as some of the data 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:44.920 we've looked at already would tell us it's because people 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.840 like being off work. Uh. Though interestingly, of course, not 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.080 everybody's work hours conformed to the standard Monday to Friday 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.040 nine to five, and some people and some people also, 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:56.760 you know, even if they do conform to that, really 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:59.280 enjoy their work. But at least at the population level, 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.679 this effect shows up strongly anyway. So I don't know 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.880 if you know people who are restaurant servers whose busiest 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:06.840 work is on the weekends or something like that, if 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:09.800 they're just not enough of them to balance out the 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.840 survey data, or maybe somehow even though it's their busy 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:15.920 work times, they that they prefer weekends as well. I 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:18.159 don't know. I I haven't found data on that. But 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.399