The Real Lesson of That Cash-for-Babies Study
Breaking news: A new study on a contentious political issue confirmed that a lot of people’s preexisting opinions were correct all along.
Perhaps I’m being a little unfair. But when The New York Times published an article about the study last week, it seemed perfectly designed to garner “I told you so”s.
The , published in the (), reported that unconditional cash transfers to poor mothers changed their infants’ brain activity. Using a method called electroencephalography, or EEG, researchers placed a special cap wired with electrodes on each 1-year-old’s head to detect electrical activity as signals were sent back and forth across their brain. Babies whose mothers received $333 a month, the study’s authors claimed, had more of the brain waves that tend to be linked to better cognitive and socio-emotional skills. Since it came from a randomized trial (not just an ), the result seemed groundbreaking, with important policy implications.
