How long have heads of state lived relative to almost heads of state? I recall several years ago hearing about https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/34077/1/543282147.pdf which finds that Nobel prize winners gained approximately two years over mere nominees. Concluding paragraph:
It might be argued that an approximately two- year gain in lifespan from winning a Nobel Prize is a small number of extra years. However, the controls here are extraordinarily successful scientists. By any usual standard, all are high-status individuals. If the idea that social status improves lifespan is truly correct, the size of the effect may in a practical sense be larger in a more normal population of people.
Tangentially regarding “I’m tired enough of copy-pasting Wikipedia links”, Wikidata is in theory a great resource for this kind of quick research, though it has a learning curve (which I am by no means far along, and haven’t used enough to progress) which includes dealing with multiple values, relationships that aren’t exactly what one wants for the question at hand, etc. For example, a naive query https://w.wiki/4pdJ for the longest lived (deceased) heads of state would need to filter out conflicting or otherwise untrustworthy dates and non-national level states to have more expected results.
For example, a naive query https://w.wiki/4pdJ for the longest lived (deceased) heads of state would need to filter out conflicting or otherwise untrustworthy dates and non-national level states to have more expected results.
That query seems to include deprecated (by Wikidata to be judged as wrong) dates of death. A better query would only look at truthy values (those values with the best rank).
How long have heads of state lived relative to almost heads of state? I recall several years ago hearing about https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/34077/1/543282147.pdf which finds that Nobel prize winners gained approximately two years over mere nominees. Concluding paragraph:
Tangentially regarding “I’m tired enough of copy-pasting Wikipedia links”, Wikidata is in theory a great resource for this kind of quick research, though it has a learning curve (which I am by no means far along, and haven’t used enough to progress) which includes dealing with multiple values, relationships that aren’t exactly what one wants for the question at hand, etc. For example, a naive query https://w.wiki/4pdJ for the longest lived (deceased) heads of state would need to filter out conflicting or otherwise untrustworthy dates and non-national level states to have more expected results.
That query seems to include deprecated (by Wikidata to be judged as wrong) dates of death. A better query would only look at truthy values (those values with the best rank).
Sure, here’s a version using truthy birth and death dates, though still very imperfect https://w.wiki/4q4Q
Good question. Unfortunately, “almost head of state” is a quite fuzzy reference class. Who would you include in this list?
In the US vice-presidents that never became president would be one reference class. Government ministers might make another good reference class.