1:00PM
Trickle down. Many of us when we hear that phrase will think of trickle down economics, a belief proposed by, I’m not sure, maybe Reagan, in the 1980s about how money with the rich people will flow to the poor people— or money at the top will trickle down to the bottom just as water at the top of a mountain trickles down through streams and rivers.
While I personally don’t believe that trickle down economics works that well—as one billionaire said, just because they have $1 billion doesn’t mean they buy millions of pairs of jeans—I do believe that trickle down effects work in general.
There are many scientists who study what they call “trickle effects.” Trickle down, trickle up, trickle out, trickle in, and other variations. I believe the definition is that a trickle effect studies not how I impact you, but how my impacting you impacts another person—the third party in the chain. For more information on the actual definition and research people have conducted, I strongly recommend you read about trickle effects.
I find them fascinating. One researcher talked about how if I’m obese, then something like my friends are 50% more likely to obese, and their friends are even 25% more likely to be obese, and it may continue to their friends as well. So my behaviors can spread not just to my friends, but can trickle down to the friends of my friends, and the friends of the friends of my friends.
I think we’re seeing that effect very tangibly these days: if I get infected with COVID-19, I’m likely to infect my family and friends; if my family and friends get infected by me, they’re likely to infect their family and friends; so on and so forth. With that in mind, if I choose the opposite, to do my best to protect my own health, I am also protecting the health of people downstream.
My wearing of a mask is yes to protect the people in front of me, but also to protect the people they may interact with. If I cough and give it to the clerk at the supermarket and that person goes home and gives it to their spouse who has a compromised immune system, my action may have led to that person’s death.
I wonder how the trickle effect scientists are feeling and doing these days. I wonder if they feel excited, in a strange way, that their concepts may be starting to be easier to grasp, easier to see in action.
I know that it’s hard for me to remember these trickle effects and yet when I do, it helps me so much.
1:10PM
