I found four of the findings surprising (because they were either non-obvious, or a bit strange/implausible—education generally makes you more resilient, and why would black people want to hang out with racists who learned the wrong handling lessons, and while being discriminated against makes you less confident to ask for a promotion, you are likely to want it more until you see this working out badly for group members), but I 100 % bought the Southerners dealing better with the heat, and am deeply baffled that they did not.
You’d expect them to have a better biological resistance through prior hardening, more awareness of the danger, and more importantly, more knowledge on what to do.
When we had a heat wave in Northern Europe, we had immense loss of life, despite the fact that such temperatures are regularly exceeded in other countries without such consequences—because people had no idea that heat was dangerous, or how to deal with it. They had no AC installed. They did not know whether to keep windows open or closed. They did not adjust their water and salt intake. They had no adequate clothing. They had an imperfect understanding of ventilation and shade. They did not recognise signs of heat stroke or low blood pressure. They weren’t concerned for babies and elderly people. They did not own sun screen. Their work hours were set to work through lunch time. Etc. etc. Even if I were more scared of the tropical heat as a Northener, I would still bet on Southeners doing much better.
Then again, maybe the high humidity turned it into an environment that acted differently than expected, so that the people learning about a new environment learned the right lessons, while those who thought it was familiar already were mal-adapted in some ways, so it evened out?
Same.
I found four of the findings surprising (because they were either non-obvious, or a bit strange/implausible—education generally makes you more resilient, and why would black people want to hang out with racists who learned the wrong handling lessons, and while being discriminated against makes you less confident to ask for a promotion, you are likely to want it more until you see this working out badly for group members), but I 100 % bought the Southerners dealing better with the heat, and am deeply baffled that they did not.
You’d expect them to have a better biological resistance through prior hardening, more awareness of the danger, and more importantly, more knowledge on what to do.
When we had a heat wave in Northern Europe, we had immense loss of life, despite the fact that such temperatures are regularly exceeded in other countries without such consequences—because people had no idea that heat was dangerous, or how to deal with it. They had no AC installed. They did not know whether to keep windows open or closed. They did not adjust their water and salt intake. They had no adequate clothing. They had an imperfect understanding of ventilation and shade. They did not recognise signs of heat stroke or low blood pressure. They weren’t concerned for babies and elderly people. They did not own sun screen. Their work hours were set to work through lunch time. Etc. etc. Even if I were more scared of the tropical heat as a Northener, I would still bet on Southeners doing much better.
Then again, maybe the high humidity turned it into an environment that acted differently than expected, so that the people learning about a new environment learned the right lessons, while those who thought it was familiar already were mal-adapted in some ways, so it evened out?