Revisiting the Autism “Epidemic”
Anyone who cares about autism, and particularly the supposed spike in autism in recent years, would do well to read this very informative, cogent, and non-hysterical OpEd by Paul T….
Anyone who cares about autism, and particularly the supposed spike in autism in recent years, would do well to read this very informative, cogent, and non-hysterical OpEd by Paul T….
…autism, and this leads them to seek out a diagnosis of autism for their kids. They have the same kids, it is just that TV makes them believe that their…
…devoted to the frequency of autism. Because the term autism covers such a wide spectrum of diagnoses, even pinning down the simplest questions like “how much has autism risen?” or…
…autism has a strong genetic component (see e.g., Rimland (1964) and Folstein and Rutter (1977)). So one explanation for our autism results is that at least for some children diagnosed…
Here’s a very accessible and nicely written article by Simon Baron-Cohen, the eminent autism researcher at Cambridge University, explaining his “assortive mating” theory of the condition. It doesn’t go deep…
The higher rates of diagnosed autism among the wealthy has long been thought to be a result of higher rates of diagnosis (or “diagnostic?ascertainment bias”) – i.e., wealthier families having…
After Slate wrote about an economics paper alleging a link between TV and autism, I blogged my skepticism regarding the claim. I haven’t seen or heard anything since that time…
Here’s the story. Our previous posts about autism can be found here and here and here….
Dubner and Levitt talk about circadian rhythms, gay marriage, autism, and whether “pay what you want” is everything it’s cracked up to be.
Can you quantify emotional intelligence? Who should you hire — someone smart, or someone good with people? And how did Angie do on an online emotional intelligence test?…
Humans have been having kids forever, so why are modern parents so bewildered? The economist Emily Oster marshals the evidence on the most contentious topics — breastfeeding and sleep training,…
Jane McGonigal designed a game to help herself recover from a traumatic brain injury — and she thinks playing games can help us all lead our best lives….
Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an astonishing 10,000 research papers were retracted. We talk to whistleblowers, reformers, and a…
…the Internet, by a long shot … right? Wrong. Stockpickr.com takes a brief look at the stocks of companies working on treatment or cure of autism. (Hat tips: James Altucher)…
…(e.g. bipolar disorder, ADHD), and not enough time spent actually fixing the behaviors. That made me appreciate economics. 2) I’ve long wondered whether the “explosion” in autism is truly an…
The Boston Globe profiles market-design man Al Roth. Why we use food coloring. Autism treatments that work — and don’t. From the BPS Research Digest: “People who are more aware…
As the long-running debate continues over whether childhood vaccines cause autism, Yale professor Dan M. Kahan (who has appeared on Freakonomics Radio) takes a look at people’s attitudes toward vaccination….
…Shoe Bombs 3. Vaccines Cause Autism 4. Immigrants 5. Bloggers 6. SARS, Mad Cow, Bird Flu 7. Web Predators 8. Teen Oral Sex Epidemic 9. Anthrax 10. Globalization One could…
Naturalist Sy Montgomery explains how she learned to be social from a pig, discovered octopuses have souls, and came to love a killer that will never love her back.
There’s a nasty secret about hot-button topics like global warming — knowledge is not always power.
Are those travelers on their laptops just showing off? Why does V8 taste better at 35,000 feet? And why won’t Angela chat with her seatmate?…
A year ago, nobody was taking Andrew Yang very seriously. Now he is America’s favorite entrepre-nerd, with a candidacy that keeps gaining momentum. This episode includes our Jan. 2019 conversation…
Influenza kills, but you’d never know it by how few of us get the vaccine.
In the American Dream sweepstakes, Andrew Yang was a pretty big winner. But for every winner, he came to realize, there are thousands upon thousands of losers — a “war…
