Reasonable Doubt
The Mysterious Impact of Being an Age That Ends in 9
Studies show that “nine-enders” are prone to do more ambitious and extreme things. Does the same hold for countries?
There’s something different about the number nine. We know this intuitively, right? It’s why everything on late-night infomercials is priced at $999.99 instead of a cool thou, and why a dress marked up to $39 sells better than the same dress sells at $34. It’s like there’s an urgency associated with being pushed right up against a big round number — something that makes us want to act before the ticker rolls over to zero.
Maybe I’m thinking about this because I’m facing a big birthday this year — the one that used to mean someone would buy you a mug with “Over the Hill” on it — or maybe because it’s 2019, an uneasy, uneven year that stretches out long and desolate, standing between us and the glittering promise of 2020.
Turns out there’s actually data that suggests being an age that ends in nine—29, 39, 49, 59, etc. — may lead us to do things we are less likely to do at other ages.
I first came across the concept of the “nine-ender” in Daniel Pink’s recent book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. The term was coined by…
