From APM American Public Media and WNYC This is for economics radio on marketplace. Here's the host of marketplace high risk dog Time now for a little bit of freakin on the trade out that moment in the broadcast every couple of weeks where we talk to Stephen Under the co-author of the books and the blog of the same name. It is the hidden side of everything down. How are you?
Hi, I'm great. Thank you. Happy to be well that thank you to you as well today big news the baseball Hall of Fame voting was announced I don't know if you caught that of course and a grand total of zero people were elected to the whole Now are you surprised I was a little bit surprised. It's the first time since 1996 In fact, you know all the talk was about the fact that because the steroid age is happening now and guys like Clemens and bonds who deserve to be in But won't be all oh wait a minute.
Are we gonna have to have that conversation? You think they deserve to be in? All right, that's all I have in that conversation. That's another conversation But the argument was that because those guys are not gonna get elected that it would free up a little bit more space potentially But as it turns out nobody got in and I got to tell you yeah This is what I'm here to talk about today This is bad news if you get nominated to a Hall of Fame and don't get in not only do you not get in but I hate to tell you this guy You actually might die a little bit sound cuz goes why why why?
Well, there's a growing body research that looks at the relationship between what we call status generally and life expectancy Okay, so the economist David Becker he looked at Hall of Fame data baseball Hall of Fame He found that while a player who gets elected to the Hall of Fame doesn't necessarily outlive the average baseball player He does live a couple years longer than a player who gets nominated for the Hall of Fame But year after year gets rejected here's David Becker So this seems to suggest us that it's really the story that getting close but not winning is what's really bad for health Which we think is potentially a really profound point about the nature of status competition more broadly in our society So actually it's not an honor just to be nominated, right? That's exactly right which is appropriate to talk about since tomorrow is the nominations for the Academy Awards I'll be announced and there's also an Oscar effect Donald Redelmeyer who's a medical professor at the University of Toronto He has done research and now argues that Oscar winners outlive their peers and here's his best guess as to why that is Once you really got an Uncontestable measure of your own peer approval all of the subsequent You know nasty reviews or setbacks or rejections just do not seem nearly as aggravating Roll off your back and in turn that makes you much more resilient. Absolutely now Kail let me say this longevity research is pretty complex some researchers are unpersuaded But the more fields you look at the more plausible it seems that a status boost is good for your health and perhaps more convincingly That getting close to the mountaintop but never quite reaching it that's a real setback The economist Andrew Oswald looked at this phenomenon among 50 years worth of Nobel Prize winners We do find the prize you can expect. Okay, but hold on I mean that's great 18 more months, but when you win the Nobel Prize you get like a million dollars How do you know it's not just being rich makes you live longer?
Yeah, that's a good question So that's one of the first problems that a researcher has in this kind of research Which is to isolate a particular effect in this case status and isolate that from other factors like money So they use a mathematical model that will control for other differences in this case Oswald found that the money was not a factor in the Nobel winners longevity It was he says the winning itself I know the name on the other doesn't well I was I was going for myself here. I'm not going to win a Nobel Prize for getting to the Hall of Fame We're winning Oscar right? Hope never say never hi. Yeah, you're right.
You know most of us will that's not going to happen We did therefore go looking for something that might help anybody if they want to live a little bit longer And you know what Kai we actually found something all right. Hey brother. What do you got? annuities so these are the things that people buy Yeah, it's a this financial instrument you buy and it pays off a set amount each year But only as long as you stay alive So it's like a longevity lot all right and research shows that people who buy annuities tend to live longer and not just because They're the kind of people that have the money to buy annuities to start with it's apparently that little extra incentive of the annuity payout That keeps people going so you know, maybe those are all the famelas who just want to stock up on the annuities this week Any little bit helps I guess even under freckinomics.com is the website.
We'll see you in a couple of weeks. Thanks very much Hey podcast listeners coming up on our next episode. Let's say that you want to write a book about Winston Churchill first step Get your checkbook I use 3,872 words of Winston Churchill's in the book and that cost me 950 pounds which is roughly 40 cents a word who owns the words that come out of your mouth That's next time on freakinomics radio