clip: 動画: おヒゲの経済学

Vox がやってる YouTube チャンネルから：

• "The economics of beard popularity in the US," YouTube (Vox), March 17, 2017.

ファッションと同じく，ヒゲにも流行廃りがあるらしい．ドワイト・ロビンソンという研究者は，Illustrated London News に登場する顔写真を1842年から1972年まで追いかけてヒゲも含めて男性の顔のあり方を調べたそうな：

• Dwight E. Robinson, "Fashions in Shaving and Trimming of the Beard: The Men of the Illustrated London News, 1842-1972," American Journal of Sociology, Vol.81, No.5, 1976. 

アブストラクト：

This research note presents sample-derived measures of comparative frequencies over time (1842-1972) for changing modes in men's facial barbering. Students of the dynamics of taste have been slow to follow up A. L. Kroeber's pioneering demonstration that shifts in the comparative proportions of women's dress design over time have generally tended to follow alternating directions over long periods which are notably consisten[t] and regular in their recurrence. The remarkable similarity of the chronological patterns emerging from my measurements to those found by Kroeber strongly suggest that they are common expression of underlying conditions and sequences in social behavior. The hypothesis that stylistic changes are subject to common behavioral influences is reinforced now that the two sets of data are available for comparison.

で，おヒゲをつけた男性の割合は次のようになっていたという：

少なくとも戦後アメリカに関するかぎり，おヒゲはマイノリティだった．ただ，最近ではテック業界でヒゲがやや流行っているらしい．でも，ヒゲをたくわえた男性が増えていくと，ヒゲのかっこよさが薄れてしまうんじゃないの，というお話を紹介してる．

• Zinnia J. Janif, Robert C. Brooks,& Barnaby J. Dixson, "Negative frequency-dependent preferences and variation in male facial hair," Biology Letters, April 2014.