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We investigate how information about the preferences of others affects the persistence of 'bad' social norms. One view is that bad norms thrive even when people are informed of the preferences of others, since the bad norm is an equilibrium of a coordination game. The other view is based on pluralistic ignorance, in which uncertainty about others' preferences is crucial. In an experiment, we find clear support for the pluralistic ignorance perspective. In addition, the strength of social interactions is important for a bad norm to persist. These findings help in understanding the causes of such bad norms, and in designing interventions to change them.

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BackgroundWhile there is strong evidence showing the survival advantage of elite athletes, much less is known about those engaged in mind sports such as chess. This study aimed to examine the overall as well as regional survival of International Chess Grandmasters (GMs) with a reference to the general population, and compare relative survival (RS) of GMs with that of Olympic medallists (OMs).MethodsInformation on 1,208 GMs and 15,157 OMs, respectively, from 28 countries were extracted from the publicly available data sources. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the survival rates of the GMs. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to adjust the survival for region, year at risk, age at risk and sex, and to estimate the life expectancy of the GMs. The RS rate was computed by matching each GM or OM by year at risk, age at risk and sex to the life table of the country the individual represented.ResultsThe survival rates of GMs at 30 and 60 years since GM title achievement were 87% and 15%, respectively. The life expectancy of GMs at the age of 30 years (which is near the average age when they attained a GM title) was 53.6 ([95% CI]: 47.7–58.5) years, which is significantly greater than the overall weighted mean life expectancy of 45.9 years for the general population. Compared to Eastern Europe, GMs in North America (HR [95% CI]: 0.51 [0.29–0.88]) and Western Europe (HR [95% CI]: 0.53 [0.34–0.83]) had a longer lifespan. The RS analysis showed that both GMs and OMs had a significant survival advantage over the general population, and there was no statistically significant difference in the RS of GMs (RS [95% CI]: 1.14 [1.08–1.20]) compared to OMs: (RS [95% CI]: 1.09 [1.07–1.11]) at 30 years.ConclusionElite chess players live longer than the general population and have a similar survival advantage to elite competitors in physical sports.

Prior studies commonly conceptualize economic inequality as income dispersion, predominantly operationalize it through the Gini coefficient—and find inconsistent results for the relationship to subjective well-being. We draw on prior research highlighting that two income distributions can have the same Gini coefficient but differ in where inequality is concentrated, and suggest that bottom-concentrated economic inequality (i.e., the ratio of the 50th to the 10th income percentile) and top-concentrated economic inequality (i.e., the ratio of the 95th to the 50th income percentile) have opposing effects on subjective well-being. We provide empirical support using zip-code level income ratios extracted from the American Community Survey matched to individual-level subjective well-being from the Gallup U.S. Poll (N = 573,025), which also reveals that these opposing effects are stronger for higher- than lower-income individuals. Where inequality is concentrated is thus crucial to understanding how economic inequality predicts subjective well-being and other outcomes of societal importance.