Using Peer Pressure : To Work Against Our inflating standards of material enoughness (interview with professor and author robert h. Frank)
Robert H. Frank (@econnaturalist) is a Professor of Management and Economics at Cornell University, an Economic View columnist for the New York Times, and the author of many books, including his latest, Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work.
In this podcast episode, Robert sheds light on what this current crisis reveals about our economic inequities; why it's important to distinguish between absolute and relative poverty, as well as absolute and relative wealth; how we can leverage the power of peer pressure in our favor to get the changes we wish to create; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Robert and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by Mission to Earth by NYADO
“The most important explanation for what people do is not the kind of people they are, their traits of character, nor their personality, but the social situations in which they find themselves.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological balance, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes.
On how peer pressure has inflated our social standards of material adequacy:
“Context creates a strong sense of what's appropriate for you to wear, what's appropriate for you to be doing, and what's appropriate for you to own or drive—that's an incredibly powerful force. It's normal and it's natural.
You shouldn't think you're a bad person if you're subject to those kinds of influences. That context shapes every evaluation we make…
Our income gains [over the past decades] have been going mostly to the top—that has led them to build bigger houses. Those in the middle don't seem to mind… but then there's a group that socializes with the group at the top that [then feel the need to build bigger houses, and a group under them that get influenced by them.] And it cascades all the way down the income level.
As a result of that, the people in the middle are now buying houses that are 50% bigger than the ones they bought in 1980, and much more than 50% more expensive, even though they don't have higher hourly wages now than they did then. How can they afford it? The answer is: they can't! They're overextended.
Well, maybe the best advice is they should suck it up and not buy bigger houses, but that ignores how we affect one another’s’ abilities to achieve basic goals…"
On recognizing the differences between absolute and relative poverty:
"There's always been an argument about whether poverty is an absolute or a relative phenomenon. The answer is: It's both. If you don't have enough food and enough heat, you're not going to survive. So, absolute living standards do matter.
And we know that life expectancy is longer today than it was a hundred years ago precisely because we have more absolute income now than we did then. We can afford the kind of research that has extended the average life span.
But inescapably, a big swath of the things you feel you need is determined but what others have."
On the impacts of peer pressure:
"All psychologists have been in unanimous agreement for more than a century that the most important explanation for what people do is not the kind of people they are, their traits of character, nor their personality, but the social situations in which they find themselves.
So if you're worried, your daughter will become a smoker, it doesn't help you at all to know that she's a science fiction buff or that she is good at math or that she's a sports fan—none of that predicts anything about her risk.
What you need to know is the proportion of her friends who smoke, because that's a huge effect. If that proportion goes from 20% to 30%, she becomes 25% more likely to become or remain a smoker."
Final words of wisdom:
“Hang in there. It's a fight worth fighting. We can all make progress towards the solutions that are going to make a difference for us.”
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