How we describe the directionality of an effect affects how we think about it. Andrew Gelman complains that the recent paper by Dalton Conley and Emily Rauscher does this. It’s called, “The Effect of Daughters on Partisanship and Social Attitudes Toward Women.” And the news headlines were things like, “Does Having Daughters Make You More Republican?” Ross Douthat called it “The Daughter Theory.”
But of course the finding could just as well be described as the effect of sons on making people more liberal.
In this case it’s a great example of boys being the norm and girls being difference. But there are plenty of examples of when we describe an effect as if its opposite doesn’t exist. Here are three:
The marriage premium. This usually refers to married men earning more than single men. But it is just as much a penalty for being single as it…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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