Vivian Zelizer

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/05/08/through-the-roof

 

Princeton sociologist Viviana Zelizer has detailed in her book “Morals and Markets,” for a long time life insurance failed to thrive in the U.S. because people didn’t like the idea of placing a value on human life, and wives often felt as if they were betting on the deaths of their husbands. Life insurance became popular only when insurance companies stopped emphasizing it as a good investment and sold it instead as a symbolic commitment by fathers to the future well-being of their families.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/05/08/through-the-roof

 

Princeton sociologist Viviana Zelizer has detailed in her book “Morals and Markets,” for a long time life insurance failed to thrive in the U.S. because people didn’t like the idea of placing a value on human life, and wives often felt as if they were betting on the deaths of their husbands. Life insurance became popular only when insurance companies stopped emphasizing it as a good investment and sold it instead as a symbolic commitment by fathers to the future well-being of their families.