Overcoming Bias

Share this post

Jobs Explain Lots

www.overcomingbias.com

Discover more from Overcoming Bias

This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
Over 11,000 subscribers
Continue reading
Sign in

Jobs Explain Lots

Robin Hanson
Sep 27, 2010
Share this post

Jobs Explain Lots

www.overcomingbias.com
11
Share

Different people do different things; why? When we look features of individuals to explain their differing individual behavior, there are a few favorites: age, gender, race, income, education, IQ, and personality-type. Some people look at location, such as zipcode or nation. But it seems to me that one’s job (i.e., occupation) is a neglected strong predictor of many interesting things. For example:

  • A few days ago I blogged on a recent study of how jobs predict the chances of divorce. Job risk-ratios range over about a factor of two, after controlling for age, gender, race, and income.

  • I start my health econ class with this ’99 study of how jobs predict death rates. Job risk-ratios range over about a factor of two, after controlling for age, gender, race, income, and education. (Key chart below the fold.)

  • A February analysis found occupation strongly predicts the direction of political contributions, and an ’07 study said academic discipline strongly predicts professor political affiliation. This page of aneqdotes suggests that jobs often predict political affiliations well.

More generally, I’d love to see a factor analysis seeking the few strongest job factors that can simultaneously predict variations in divorce, mortality, political affiliation, and whatever else interesting one can throw into the mix. Seems like a great project for a data-oriented grad student.OK, here’s how death rates vary with jobs:

JobDeath
Share this post

Jobs Explain Lots

www.overcomingbias.com
11
Share
11 Comments
Share this discussion

Jobs Explain Lots

www.overcomingbias.com
Overcoming Bias Commenter
May 15

Nanonymous,

You could not be farther from the truth. :-)

I'm a married (with 2 kids) hotel night auditor classical liberal/libertarian.

Naturally, I would like to make a change in the job department.

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
Overcoming Bias Commenter
May 15

@Troy Camplin: OK, I'll bite.

I think that someone with these credentials is likely to be non-married science writer/journalist leaning heavily Left.

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
9 more comments...
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Robin Hanson
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing