Pelham Brett W, DeHart Tracy, Shimizu Mitsuru, Hardin Curtis D, Han H Anna, von Hippel William
Montgomery College, Germantown, MD, United States.
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Oct 26;12:693776. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.693776. eCollection 2021.
We argue that rather than being a wholly random event, birthdays are sometimes selected by parents. We further argue that such effects have changed over time and are the result of important psychological processes. Long ago, U.S. American parents greatly overclaimed holidays as their children's birthdays. These effects were larger for more important holidays, and they grew smaller as births moved to hospitals and became officially documented. These effects were exaggerated for ethnic groups that deeply valued specific holidays. Parents also overclaimed well-liked calendar days and avoided disliked calendar days as their children's birthdays. However, after birthday selection effects virtually disappeared in the 1950s and 1960s, they reappeared after the emergence of labor induction and planned cesarean birth. For example, there are many fewer modern U.S. births than would be expected on Christmas Day. In addition, modern parents appear to use birth medicalization to avoid undesirable birthdays (Friday the 13th). We argue that basking in reflect glory, ethnic identity processes, and superstitions such as magical thinking all play a role in birthday selection effects. Discussion focuses on the power of social identity in day-to-day judgment and decision-making.
我们认为，生日并非完全是随机事件，有时是由父母选择的。我们进一步认为，这种影响会随时间变化，是重要心理过程的结果。很久以前，美国家长常常虚报孩子的生日为节假日。对于更重要的节日，这种影响更大，随着孩子出生转移到医院并正式记录在案，这种影响逐渐变小。对于非常重视特定节日的族群，这种影响被夸大了。家长们还会虚报孩子生日为受欢迎的日历日，避免选择不受欢迎的日历日。然而，在20世纪50年代和60年代生日选择效应几乎消失后，随着引产和计划剖宫产的出现，这种效应又重新出现了。例如，现代美国圣诞节出生的婴儿比预期的要少得多。此外，现代家长似乎利用生育医疗化来避免不理想的生日（13号星期五）。我们认为，沾光、族群认同过程以及诸如魔法思维等迷信观念在生日选择效应中都起到了作用。讨论聚焦于社会认同在日常判断和决策中的影响力。
