Identity Selection and the Social Construction of Birthdays

Frontiers in Psychology

Curtis D. Hardin¹  Mitsuru Shimizu²  Tracy DeHart³  Brett W. Pelham⁴  H. Anna Han⁵  William von Hippel⁶ 

[1] Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, United States;Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, United States;Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States;Montgomery College, Germantown, MD, United States;National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States;School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia;

关键词: self;    magical thinking;    basking in reflected glory;    identity;    superstition;    birth;    holidays;    birthdays;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.693776

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY