Several AI scientists have published an open letter calling for a ban on AI use by students.

How we remember our past can be shaped by the realities of our present. This study examines how changes to present circumstances influence retrospective reports of family income rank at age 16. While retrospective survey data can be used to assess the long-term effects of childhood conditions, present-day circumstances may “anchor” memories, causing shifts in how individuals recall and report past experiences. Using panel data from the 2006–2014 General Social Surveys (8,602 observations from 2,883 individuals in the United States), we analyze how changes in objective and subjective indicators of current social status—income, financial satisfaction, and perceived income relative to others—are associated with changes in reports of childhood income rank, and how this varies by sex and race/ethnicity. Fixed-effects models reveal no significant association between changes in income and in childhood income rank. However, changes in subjective measures of social status show contrasting effects, as increases in current financial satisfaction are associated with decreases in childhood income rank, but increases in current perceived relative income are associated with increases in childhood income rank. We argue these opposing effects follow from theories of anchoring in recall bias. We further find these effects are stronger among males but are consistent across racial/ethnic groups. This demographic heterogeneity suggests that recall bias is not evenly distributed across the population and has important implications for how different groups perceive their own pasts. Our findings further highlight the malleability of retrospective perceptions and their sensitivity to current social conditions, offering methodological insights into survey reliability and recall bias.

Summer in Berlin – the perfect time and place to explore the city, take a walk in the Görli, go skinny dipping in the Spree, attend an overcrowded, overheated conference symposium on cross-lagged pane...

Austerity is a choice. The protection of the family at the expense of other ways of living is a choice. The transfer of...

An eye-opening examination of how power—not technology—will define life with AI. AI is inescapable, from its mundane uses online to its increasingly consequential decision-making in courtrooms,…

Be careful with inference from 2x2 experiments and other cross-cutting designs

podcast about families and benefit cuts, effect of fluctuating income on stress and parenting

Their tax bill will use new reporting requirements to reduce access

Abstract. The paper studies effects of social policies on in-work poverty risks, distinguishing between measures that either intervene in labour market processes - i.e. predistribution policies - or r...

Financial insecurity destroys lives. Slashing disability benefits isn’t reform—it’s cruelty disguised as cost-saving.

This article by Aurelien Mondon explores whether the Labour government under Starmer can be considered far right

The gutting of Head Start would force vulnerable people to labor in more difficult or demeaning conditions for the benefit of the privileged.