It's common knowledge that, on average, educated people live longer than less-educated people. But now a team of researchers says that even if you yourself are a high school dropout, you can reduce your chance of dying merely by living in a neighborhood with lots of educated people:
There are several reasons this might be true:
- Educated neighborhoods have better access to health care.
- Educated neighborhoods have less air pollution.
- Educated neighborhoods have less crime.
- Healthy people are more likely to move into educated neighborhoods.
None of these turn out to be the case. They have only a slight influence on mortality.
It turns out nearly the entire effect is due to two things: less smoking and less obesity. Of these, smoking has by far the biggest impact. The authors suggest two reasons for this: (a) highly educated areas are more likely to support things like smoking bans in the workplace, and (b) they have stronger social norms against smoking.
More educated areas may be more likely to support legislation and regulations aimed at improving health. For example, this may include tobacco control policies such as tobacco taxes, clean indoor air laws, and workplace smoking bans.
....A second theory is that area human capital drives peer effects, leading to the development of different social norms in high and low human capital areas. For instance, the proximity of more educated individuals undertaking healthy behaviors may encourage individuals across the education distribution to undertake healthy behaviors themselves.
The moral is clear: if you want to live a long time, don't smoke and don't get too overweight. But I suppose you already knew that.
Maybe it's no longer cool, but I never lived with more smokers around than when I went to a top college. All the prep school grads smoked. Shocked me coming from a high school where only the potential drop outs smoked.
US Dollar 2,000 in a Single Online Day Due to its position, the United qc02 States offers a plethora of opportunities for those seeking employment. With so many options accessible, it might be difficult to know where to start. You may choose the ideal online housekeeping strategy with the help vz-20 of this post.
Begin here>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://expertise02improved.blogspot.com/
They smoked, but like half a pack total while clubbing on Friday and Saturday nights and three cigarettes at brunch on Sunday. Then they quit in their ‘20s or ‘30s.
And in my personal experience it is an urban/rural divide, too.
Relatively few people smoke in urban SoCal. Visit family in rural Washington State, and the smell of tobacco smoke on most in the local grocery store lingers and lingers.
And in the other direction? What effect does the high-school dropout have on the better-educated people living around her?
High status people don't imitate low status people if they can avoid it, unless they're doing it ironically or are teenagers trying to annoy their parents.
Selection effect? Non-smokers of any educational level are perhaps more likely to move into an area that has restrictions on smoking.
Private country clubs are pretty accommodating to smokers (cigars) in upscale areas.
Living in NY most of my life I don’t have any visibility on this, but isn’t indoor smoking pretty much banned everywhere ?
One big exception are Indian Gaming, err. Casinos. Sovereign land and all that. Although I have read that some are going non smoking.
re smoking nowadays vs 1974
There's a still shot on IMDB from the 1974 movie "The Conversation" starring Gene Hackman. He's in a public restroom with his surveillance equipment, next to a toilet bowl. On the stall divider are two rolls of toilet paper, one ashtray, and a bottle opener (!). Life was sure different back then.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/mediaviewer/rm2688142336/
My mom was watching an old black-and-white TV show the other day where two guys where casually drinking and smoking nonstop while having a conversation. According to her, people did that constantly when she was a kid in the 1950s.
Maybe the residents of the more educated areas do less 'stupid shit' as well.
I have long suspected that media is part of the reason for the life expectancy gap between college educated and less educated. The college educated read outlets like the New York Times with science-based guidance on how to live a healthy life, whereas the kind of outlets that less educated people consume are full of fad diets, miracle cures, and like nonsense. If your neighbors are college educated, you're more likely to get some good advice about health even if you are not well educated yourself.