David Leonhardt and Justin Wolfers Write the Smartest, Bravest Thing Ever Printed by the New York Times

E. Basilion
2 min readJan 4, 2021

--

Busting the Myth That We Need “Quantity Time” at Work and Only “Quality Time” at Home

And then there is the academic∕journalist industrial complex. This group is known for publishing and reporting studies supporting the quality∕quantity mix-up, regardless of the rigor with which the studies were conducted. In March of 2015, one such study, which concluded that time spent doing hands-on parenting had little impact on child outcomes, was widely reported by major outlets such as the Washington Post, The Guardian and NBC News. The study was pulled only after Justin Wolfers of the New York Times decided to take a closer look, determining that poor data made the study’s conclusion essentially a nonfinding.[1]

In a follow-up, David Leonhardt shed some light on what we had just witnessed:

But the notion that time doesn’t matter for parenting makes almost exactly as much sense as the notion that time doesn’t matter for, say, journalism. Do you think a reporter who spends an hour on the beat will usually produce as good a story as someone who spends 10? And we shouldn’t let academics off the hook here, either. They have the same ingrained bias as we journalists do.[2]

That’s right. The people doing the studies and writing the stories are parents who are also stuck. They need this mix-up as much as the rest of us.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/upshot/yes-your-time-as-a-parent-does-make-a-difference.html?rref=upshot

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/upshot/upshot-letter-our-anti-parenting-bias.html

Excerpt from Acho/Basilion “Empathy Deficit Disorder: Healing from Our Mix-Ups about Work, Home, and Sex.” https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/empathy-deficit-disorder-jacqueline-a-acho/1130323450?ean=9781732436404

--

--

E. Basilion
E. Basilion

Written by E. Basilion

I say the quiet thing aloud.

No responses yet