Yule be hearing Christmas on WROR and WODS from now on

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:49:09 -0500, "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com> said:

> It may seem as though the season starts earlier each year, but if 
> that were true, by this time, we would be starting the new Christmas 
> season in January.  

Social scientists call this the "recency illusion".  People have a
tendency to dramatically underestimate how long something has been
going on, when in reality all that's changed is their level of
annoyance at it.  (You see this in particular with linguistic
prescription, where the windmills being tilted at had often been
demolished a century or more before the peevologists started
complaining.)

(Other interesting social-science phrases to impress your neighbors
with: "frequency illusion", "publication bias", and "literary bias".
All should be familiar to any reporter working a science or
public-policy beat (but aren't to anywhere near enough).

-GAWollman