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He and economists Marta Golin found a "strong relationship" between worry about automation and intentions to join a union, retrain or switch occupations, preference for taxation and government handouts, populist attitudes and voting intentions.

Dr Rauh has found that while workers are overly optimistic about the probability of receiving a job offer conditional on any search, they perceive the marginal return to additional search hours as positive but comparably low.

“In other words, they are more hopeful than they should be about successfully gaining their next role each time they hunt for a job.” he says. “Meanwhile, they think there is not that much more to be gained from spending a lot more time hunting for a job, than there probably is.”

“The difference in marriage rates between black and white Americans is striking,” says Dr Christopher Rauh. “The bleak labour market prospects of black men and the considerable risk of being incarcerated go a long way in explaining why so many black women are unmarried.”