We act concerned to prevent tickets for "driving while black." And I recently asked: Everyone I’ve ever talked to has the impression that women, especially pretty young women, are more likely to be let off with a warning. If racial bias gets people so upset, why is there little concern about this gender bias?
At least two parts of the Standard Explanation - that red cars are easier to see and appear to be moving faster due to an optical illusion - seem factually questionable to me.
The photoreceptive pigment in motion-specialized rod cells (rhodopsin) is most sensitive to the wavelengths of visible light that that the sun emits with greatest intensity. Wouldn't that make yellow cars even worse than red ones?
Putting on my PoMo-MoFo hat, the story I find myself concocting is that redness (at least to caucasians) signifies health, virility, and strength, whereas yellow carries connotations of jaundice and sickness. So the urban legend about red cars (they signify Mojo to the PoPo) persists because it's really a story about the necessity of sublimating baser urges to integrate onself into society.
Presumably the person who bought the car decided what colour of car they would like. There could well be a connection between the personality of the person who made the buying decision, and likely drives the car, and the colour of car they chose.
Put another way: If you buy a car because it projects a certain image of you, you cannot complain if it projects that image to the police, as well as everyone else.
Tickets certainly affect insurance rates.I remember that insurance companies pay attention to color because I once did an application for insurance company, and car color was one of the fields, and there were special rules for color red.Perhaps, insurance companies noticed that red cars bring statistically significant increase in tickets and are trying to automatically adjust for that
Robin, the two other sources you link seem to be much less credible. The first doesn't give any hard evidence, and the second doesn't really either. The second does mention (along with the Snopes article) that insurance companies don't account for the color of the car when deciding what to charge. That sounds like pretty strong evidence--I figure insurance companies would be very trustworthy on the matter.
The obvious difference between driving while red and driving while black is that you can change the color of your car but can't change the color of the skin. I assume that is (part of) the reason why people get much more upset about discrimination based on skin color than car color.
I wonder if the data source from Political Economy at Any Speed had car color, too. That would give you someone at GMU you could ask to check empirically whether red cars received more speeding tickets, all else being equal.
Professor Hanson, I think this is sloppy thinking. Specifically, I think you're doing induction with insufficient evidence.
It's eminently plausible that red cars are pulled over more. It's only slightly less plausible that cops have heard about this bias; that they think of themselves as being more fair than average; and that they guard against this sort of unfair behavior. Thus, you could construct a scenario where bright red cars are somewhat less likely to be pulled over for speeding, ceteris paribas.
The contributors here who seem enamoured with "The Wisdom of Crowds" may want to consider what urban legends and the prevalence of religious belief says about the trustworthiness of the "crowd's" knowledge, much less its "wisdom."
I read recently that police targeting red cars is an urban legend, not supported by statistical evidence. Unfortunately, I can't remember the source for sure.It may be John Stossel's new book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel - Why Everything You Know Is Wrong, published last year, but I can't find my copy to check.
how does u play games on it
At least two parts of the Standard Explanation - that red cars are easier to see and appear to be moving faster due to an optical illusion - seem factually questionable to me.
The photoreceptive pigment in motion-specialized rod cells (rhodopsin) is most sensitive to the wavelengths of visible light that that the sun emits with greatest intensity. Wouldn't that make yellow cars even worse than red ones?
Putting on my PoMo-MoFo hat, the story I find myself concocting is that redness (at least to caucasians) signifies health, virility, and strength, whereas yellow carries connotations of jaundice and sickness. So the urban legend about red cars (they signify Mojo to the PoPo) persists because it's really a story about the necessity of sublimating baser urges to integrate onself into society.
Presumably the person who bought the car decided what colour of car they would like. There could well be a connection between the personality of the person who made the buying decision, and likely drives the car, and the colour of car they chose.
Put another way: If you buy a car because it projects a certain image of you, you cannot complain if it projects that image to the police, as well as everyone else.
Tickets certainly affect insurance rates.I remember that insurance companies pay attention to color because I once did an application for insurance company, and car color was one of the fields, and there were special rules for color red.Perhaps, insurance companies noticed that red cars bring statistically significant increase in tickets and are trying to automatically adjust for that
Most people are born into their religions, and it says no more about them than their skin color.
Gi and pdf, insurance companies insure against accidents, not tickets. So insurance prices won't tell us about ticket rates.
Hal, people are upset about discriminating against religions, even though people choose their religions.
Robin, the two other sources you link seem to be much less credible. The first doesn't give any hard evidence, and the second doesn't really either. The second does mention (along with the Snopes article) that insurance companies don't account for the color of the car when deciding what to charge. That sounds like pretty strong evidence--I figure insurance companies would be very trustworthy on the matter.
The obvious difference between driving while red and driving while black is that you can change the color of your car but can't change the color of the skin. I assume that is (part of) the reason why people get much more upset about discrimination based on skin color than car color.
I wonder if the data source from Political Economy at Any Speed had car color, too. That would give you someone at GMU you could ask to check empirically whether red cars received more speeding tickets, all else being equal.
The insurance rates for the drivers of bright red cars are also higher, aren't they?
Professor Hanson, I think this is sloppy thinking. Specifically, I think you're doing induction with insufficient evidence.
It's eminently plausible that red cars are pulled over more. It's only slightly less plausible that cops have heard about this bias; that they think of themselves as being more fair than average; and that they guard against this sort of unfair behavior. Thus, you could construct a scenario where bright red cars are somewhat less likely to be pulled over for speeding, ceteris paribas.
The answer is we just don't know
The contributors here who seem enamoured with "The Wisdom of Crowds" may want to consider what urban legends and the prevalence of religious belief says about the trustworthiness of the "crowd's" knowledge, much less its "wisdom."
I read recently that police targeting red cars is an urban legend, not supported by statistical evidence. Unfortunately, I can't remember the source for sure.It may be John Stossel's new book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel - Why Everything You Know Is Wrong, published last year, but I can't find my copy to check.