tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/bowling-green-state-university-2553/articlesBowling Green State University2023-12-13T13:32:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195672023-12-13T13:32:25Z2023-12-13T13:32:25Z‘Good Times’: 50 years ago, Norman Lear changed TV with a show about a working-class Black family’s struggles and joys<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565080/original/file-20231212-15-wc43rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C0%2C2335%2C1605&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Esther Rolle, right, and John Amos starred in the pathbreaking 1970s Black sitcom.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-actors-john-amos-as-james-evans-sr-and-esther-news-photo/180965295?adppopup=true">Moviepix via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I loved watching <a href="https://apnews.com/article/norman-lear-died-87300f0e49b54c05803ab315dfdf9933">Norman Lear</a>’s trailblazing television shows when I was growing up in Dalzell, South Carolina, in the 1970s.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070991/">Good Times</a>,” my favorite, debuted on Feb. 8, 1974 – nearly 50 years ago. CBS aired the show about the daily struggles and triumphs of the working-class Evans family until Aug. 1, 1979. </p>
<p>Lear, who <a href="https://apnews.com/article/norman-lear-died-87300f0e49b54c05803ab315dfdf9933">died at 101 on Dec. 5, 2023</a>, forever changed sitcoms. His characters were more diverse, and their predicaments included situations that had previously been out of bounds for humorous TV programs, such as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/norman-lear-producer-sitcoms-obituary-180983380/">child abuse, unemployment and alcoholism</a>. As a result, they more accurately reflected modern life in America than their counterparts that predominated through the 1960s.</p>
<p>“Good Times” stood apart from Lear’s other successful comedies because it featured, as Lear put it, the “<a href="https://variety.com/2021/tv/spotlight/all-in-the-family-spinoffs-the-jeffersons-good-times-1234878187/">first full black family on television</a>.”</p>
<p>I have been researching “Good Times” and other <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=HhQ5hiwAAAAJ&citation_for_view=HhQ5hiwAAAAJ:5nxA0vEk-isC">shows with primarily Black casts</a> since 1989. Along the way, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for the show’s strong female characters and its many nods to Black popular culture.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The catchy ‘Good Times’ theme song emphasized both hardship and resilience.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Compelling characters</h2>
<p>“Good Times” starred actress <a href="https://digitalarchives.broward.org/digital/collection/p16146coll16/id/45/rec/12">Esther Rolle</a>. She had previously been cast as a domestic worker with the same name but in a different city in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068103/">Maude</a>,” another popular show Lear produced. “Maude” was also a spinoff – its <a href="https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/maude">main character originated</a> on “<a href="https://theconversation.com/norman-lears-70s-tv-comedies-brought-people-together-to-confront-issues-in-a-way-gen-z-would-appreciate-219375">All in the Family</a>,” Lear’s first breakthrough hit.</p>
<p>On “Good Times,” Rolle’s character, Florida Evans, was a loving wife and mother. She was married to James Evans Sr. Her hardworking and easily angered husband was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/07/archives/good-times-will-drop-male-parent-black-media-coalition-protests.html">played by John Amos until 1976</a>.</p>
<p>Their children included J.J. – James Jr. – the eldest son and a <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/05/ernie-barnes-sugar-shack-painting-good-times-marvin-gaye-1235023123/">talented painter</a>. He was played by stand-up comedian <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0907858/">Jimmie Walker</a>. The gangly young man <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544598/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-good-times">won viewers’ devotion</a> by frequently <a href="https://youtu.be/b5rKZs6HnB4">shouting “dyn-o-mite!” to express his excitement</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0822304/">Bern Nadette Stanis</a> had the role of Thelma, the middle child and only daughter. She aspired to be a doctor, and her beauty attracted many suitors her parents found unsuitable. Michael, the militant youngest son who often expressed his indignation over social justice issues starting as a young tween, was played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0141876/">Ralph Carter</a>.</p>
<p>The actress <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0238840/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">Ja'net DuBois</a> rounded out the core cast as Willona Woods, the Evans’ fashionable, sassy neighbor who was virtually another member of this boisterous and tight-knit family. Other actors rotated in and out, including a <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/janet-jackson-little-sister-good-140000791.html">very young Janet Jackson</a> cast as Willona’s adopted daughter, Penny.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Good Times’ episodes had themes that were relatable to all viewers, including sibling rivalry and conflict between parents and their older children.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Familiar folks</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/scratchin-and-survivin/9781978834835/">Black characters in “Good Times” looked and sounded real</a> to Black viewers. Also, Florida had authority in her home, just as her husband, James, did.</p>
<p>The Evans family and Willona resonated with me because they authentically presented African American culture on the small screen. Their speech, hairstyles, clothes, dance moves and music were recognizable to me as a young Black girl.</p>
<p>The cast regularly referenced Black pop culture icons, including <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/ebony-magazine/">Ebony magazine</a>, the comedian and <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/flip-wilson-1933-1998/">variety show host Flip Wilson</a>, and the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/hayes-isaac-1942-2008/">composer and musician Isaac Hayes</a>.</p>
<p>“Good Times” also made a mark because Black women had agency on and off the set. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/arts/television/norman-lear-good-times-the-jeffersons.html">Rolle openly shared her concerns</a> with Lear and other producers about the show’s direction.</p>
<p>Rolle wanted more stories that focused on the show’s female Black characters. And she got them.</p>
<p>Thelma was the first Black teenage girl and Willona was the first Black female divorcée on prime-time television. Both characters were interesting, funny and beautiful.</p>
<h2>Race’s role</h2>
<p>One way that “Good Times” differed from Lear’s other Black-cast sitcoms was the role that race played.</p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068128/">Sanford and Son</a>,” which revolved around a Los Angeles junk dealer and his adult son, and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072519/">The Jeffersons</a>,” in which the audience saw a successful Black entrepreneur and his wife “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnS9tt5yGuc">movin’ on up</a>” to a fancy Manhattan apartment, the protagonists disliked and distrusted white people. And they let everyone know it. </p>
<p>The Evans family, on the other hand, were mostly cordial and welcoming in their interactions with the white characters who infrequently appeared in “Good Times.” They also turned distant and aloof when racism intervened, as happened in the episode “<a href="https://subslikescript.com/series/Good_Times-70991/season-2/episode-23-Thelmas_Scholarship">Thelma’s Scholarship</a>.”</p>
<p>Thelma and her family are initially thrilled by the prospect of getting a full ride to a boarding school in Michigan. But they reject the opportunity in disgust when it turns out she would have become a token Black student rather than being valued for her academic achievement and potential.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Thelma beams while telling her family about her shot at a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Normal people’s problems</h2>
<p>“Good Times” also broke ground because the Evanses lived in poverty. Their fictional, cramped two-bedroom apartment was in Chicago’s very real <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/cabrini-green-homes">Cabrini-Green Homes</a>, which the <a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/12/15/cabrini-green-a-history-of-broken-promises/">city has since demolished after years of neglect</a>.</p>
<p>The hassles and heartaches tied to their housing problems often became part of the plotlines. </p>
<p>In contrast, typical TV families in the 1950s and 1960s were white, middle class and suburban. </p>
<p>These included the Nelsons in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044230/">The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet</a>,” the Andersons in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046600/">Father Knows Best</a>” and the Stones in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051267/">The Donna Reed Show</a>.” </p>
<p>The Nelsons, Andersons and Stones, however, also had some things in common with the Evans family. </p>
<p>For example, Betty Anderson in “Father Knows Best” contemplated marrying her boyfriend in the episode “Vine Covered Cottage,” as did Thelma in “Thelma’s Young Man.” Michael dealt with a bully in “<a href="https://subslikescript.com/series/Good_Times-70991/season-2/episode-24-The_Lunch_Money_Rip-Off">The Lunch Money Rip-Off</a>,” as did Bud Anderson in “<a href="https://subslikescript.com/series/Father_Knows_Best-46600/season-2/episode-29-Bud_the_Boxer">Bud, the Boxer</a>.”</p>
<p>“Good Times” showed that Black families had many of the same problems and concerns as white families.</p>
<h2>‘Good Times’ reboot</h2>
<p>I believe that “Good Times” lives on in contemporary depictions of 21st-century, urban, Black, working-class nuclear families. Netflix’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10945036/">The Upshaws</a>” is the most recent example of a two-parent, Black, working-class nuclear family with children. </p>
<p>Like Lear’s comedies, “The Upshaws” is packed with situations that would have been out of bounds before Lear redefined TV sitcoms – such as adultery and gay central characters. </p>
<p>And, as it happens, “Good Times” itself is being reincarnated.</p>
<p>“Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and NBA star Stephen Curry joined with Lear in 2020 to <a href="https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/good-times-netflix-animated-adaptation-of-70s-comedy-series-everything-we-know-so-far/">executive-produce an adult animated reboot</a>.</p>
<p>The series, slated for release in 2024 on Netflix, will follow a new generation of the Evans family 50 years after it first showed up in American living rooms. Lear will reportedly make a posthumous <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/12/norman-lear-cameo-netflix-good-times-animated-series-1235655123/">cameo appearance</a> in it.</p>
<p>I hope a new generation of viewers will find as much to revere in the new “Good Times” as I have in the old one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela M. Nelson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Norman Lear brought the first nuclear Black family to prime-time television in 1974.Angela M. Nelson, Associate Professor of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2058172023-06-02T12:42:09Z2023-06-02T12:42:09ZJudging the judges: Scandals have the potential to affect the legitimacy of judges – and possibly the federal judiciary, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529426/original/file-20230531-27-2u13q6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C22%2C4955%2C3300&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists call for ethics reform in the Supreme Court at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 2, 2023.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SenateSupremeCourtEthics/0005629d70854888a56e772d5c3fb50b/photo?Query=Clarence%20Thomas&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=909&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is no stranger to controversy. </p>
<p>In 1991, during his confirmation hearings in the Senate, Thomas faced <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/12/us/the-thomas-nomination-excerpts-from-senate-s-hearings-on-the-thomas-nomination.html">accusations of sexual harassment</a> from a former colleague and law school professor, Anita Hill. </p>
<p>More recently, Thomas’ personal relationship with a real estate billionaire, Republican donor Harlan Crow, has come under scrutiny. Crow paid for <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow">lavish vacations</a> for Thomas and his wife. Thomas and Crow had undisclosed <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus">real estate deals</a>. Crow also made <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus">tuition payments for Thomas’ grandnephew</a>.</p>
<p>Nearly all of these gifts and financial dealings <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/us/politics/supreme-court-trips-gifts-disclosures.html">were absent from Thomas’ required financial disclosure forms</a>. While there is uncertainty on the specific reporting requirements for the vacations and real estate deals, it seems likely that the tuition payments received on behalf of Thomas’ family would be subject to disclosure requirements as financial gifts. </p>
<p>These recent discoveries have prompted backlash, ranging from calls for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/26/supreme-court-ethics-reform-clarence-thomas/">ethics reform</a> to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democratic-lawmaker-ocasio-cortez-wants-us-supreme-court-justice-thomas-2023-04-09/">demands for impeachment</a>. </p>
<p>But scandal and controversy are not new to the federal courts. As political science professors, we study how scandals and other phenomena <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S104909652200138X">affect public support for the Supreme Court</a>. Prior research finds that when citizens perceive the courts as legitimate, citizens are less willing to challenge judicial decisions – even those that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/106591290505800201">individuals disagree with</a>.</p>
<p>Ultimately, scandal has a strong potential to undermine public perceptions. And as legitimacy diminishes, judges are likely to face increased public scrutiny for their policy decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older man with glasses and gray hair in a black judicial robe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529427/original/file-20230531-25-lpzyyz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been the focus of numerous recent revelations about his entanglements with a prominent and wealthy Republican donor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/associate-us-supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-poses-news-photo/1243792284?adppopup=true">Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Judicial scandals different from political scandals</h2>
<p>Beyond Thomas, other Supreme Court justices and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ethics-scandals-supreme-court-justice-spouses-1797768">their close family members</a> have recently faced allegations of wrongdoing. </p>
<p>These range from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/us/politics/brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-hearings.html">Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual assault</a> to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/neil-gorsuch-colorado-property-sale-00093579">a controversial real estate sale</a> involving Justice Neil Gorsuch.</p>
<p>Recent history is replete with instances of judicial nominees and federal judges immersed in scandal and controversy – from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/us/politics/09judge.html">taking bribes</a> to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/former-united-states-tax-court-judge-and-husband-sentenced-multi-year-tax-fraud">tax fraud</a>, from <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/local/judge-camp-sentenced-days-prison/FQhgyRbi1JD1oK28fQRGoJ/">using illicit drugs with an exotic dancer</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/prominent-appeals-court-judge-alex-kozinski-accused-of-sexual-misconduct/2017/12/08/1763e2b8-d913-11e7-a841-2066faf731ef_story.html">making court clerks watch obscene material</a>. </p>
<p>These behaviors would be a problem in any government institution. Yet, unlike democratically elected officials, all <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/about-federal-judges">U.S. Supreme Court justices and judges on the lower federal courts</a> are unelected and insulated from direct electoral repercussions. Presidents nominate Supreme Court justices and federal court judges when a vacancy emerges. Once confirmed by a majority in the Senate, these individuals cannot be removed from the bench unless they are impeached by the House of Representatives and removed by a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate.</p>
<p>Such institutional dynamics provide broad protections for federal judges, including those embroiled in scandal and controversy. Beyond the threat of impeachment and removal, no other recourse is available to sanction judges for improprieties or ethical controversies. </p>
<p>In fact, Congress has moved to impeach lower court federal judges in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/us/politics/09judge.html">only the most extreme circumstances</a>. To date, no Supreme Court justice has been impeached and removed from office, although Samuel Chase was impeached in 1801 but ultimately acquitted in the Senate.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A middle-aged man from an earlier century dressed in a black robe and with long gray hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529430/original/file-20230531-29-56uz5r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=937&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No Supreme Court justice has been impeached and removed from office, although Samuel Chase, pictured here, was impeached in 1801 but ultimately acquitted in the Senate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/engraved-portrait-of-american-jurist-delegate-to-the-news-photo/52909829?adppopup=true">Stock Montage/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Public opinion and federal court legitimacy</h2>
<p>Given this reality, scholars, pollsters and commentators focus their attention on how the public may punish judges and the courts through another means: judgments of their legitimacy.</p>
<p>Since the courts are unable to enforce their rulings – they do not have a police force or a military at their disposal – they must rely on public support to ensure broad compliance and implementation of their decisions. </p>
<p>When citizens perceive that federal courts exercise power legitimately, they are unlikely to challenge decisions they disagree with or the judges who made them. The Supreme Court historically has a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110413-030546">deep reservoir of goodwill</a> among the public. Scholarly evidence suggests that the Supreme Court uniquely benefits from what’s called a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00362.x">positivity bias</a>, which means that people tend to perceive it more positively compared to Congress and the president. </p>
<p>Yet the federal judiciary faces threats to its legitimacy across all levels, from the Supreme Court to district courts. These include political polarization, which can lead the public to see courts as blatantly partisan institutions. Political science research demonstrates that support for the Supreme Court varies depending on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12150">partisan viewpoint of survey respondents</a>. Studies also suggest that the public views the Supreme Court <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211006196">less favorably</a> when the court is perceived as politically distant from one’s own partisan preferences. Researchers also find that perceptions that the court favors liberal policies result in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912920950482">lower job approval ratings</a>.</p>
<p>What researchers have less insight on is whether the public alters its support for the judiciary in light of scandal. The potentially corrosive implications of scandal have been thrust into the limelight with the recent revelations of impropriety concerning several Supreme Court justices.</p>
<h2>Punishment for scandals</h2>
<p>Scandal holds the potential to shake the confidence and trust the American public has in its judicial institutions. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/your-honors-misdeeds-the-consequences-of-judicial-scandal-on-specific-and-diffuse-support/5CDA6C8310E01A1E1FFCF66A60C05ADD">Our research</a>, which predates the recent media reports on Thomas, looks at whether scandals meaningfully diminish citizen support for members of the judiciary, and the court as an institution. </p>
<p>Relying on multiple survey experiments, we examined the effect of varying scandals – ethical, financial and sexual – among hypothetical Supreme Court nominees and hypothetical sitting lower court judges. </p>
<p>In both cases and across scandal types, we found that the public punishes individual nominees and judges through diminished support. That is, respondents provided lower levels of job approval for a hypothetical judge who faced accusations of scandal compared to a judge who faced no such accusation. Notably, however, scandals did not harm the public’s perceptions of the federal courts’ legitimacy. </p>
<p>In other words, we found no effect of hypothetical scandal on respondents’ beliefs that courts are generally fair and should retain the right to make controversial decisions, even when a majority disagrees. This suggests that while the public holds judges associated with scandal in low regard, the negative effects of individual scandals do not permeate the institution of the courts. </p>
<p>We cannot say whether the harmful effects of scandal persist over time. Perhaps, negative impressions of individuals immersed in scandal will dissipate. Additional research is needed to examine whether a spate of scandals – involving multiple judges, with greater degrees of perceived severity – would result in a critical mass that undermines the foundations of public support for the courts as esteemed institutions. </p>
<p>Yet so far, our findings suggest that the latest round of scandals and controversies surrounding justices’ personal behavior will have minimal effect on eroding public support for federal courts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ali S. Masood receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Boston received funding for this research from the Bowling Green State University Office of Sponsored Programs and Research and Department of Political Science. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin J. Kassow and David Miller do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Courts have no army or police force to enforce their decisions. Their power rests on their legitimacy in the public eye. How does scandal affect that?Ali S. Masood, Assistant Professor of Politics, Oberlin College and ConservatoryBenjamin J. Kassow, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, University of North DakotaDavid Miller, Assistant Professor of Political Science, East Tennessee State UniversityJoshua Boston, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956352023-03-16T12:34:43Z2023-03-16T12:34:43ZNeighbors Ohio and Michigan are moving further apart in politics – differences in ballot access may explain why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505728/original/file-20230122-35731-uvi2qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C7%2C4970%2C3293&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Detroit during the 2022 midterm elections.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/voters-cast-their-ballots-at-a-polling-station-in-detroit-news-photo/1244697629?adppopup=true">Matthew Hatcher/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It may seem that the midterm elections are firmly behind us.</p>
<p>Pollsters are already measuring likely outcomes in <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/2024_republican_presidential_nomination-7548.html">2024 presidential matchups</a>. And announced candidates and possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/10/desantis-trump-iowa-biden-european-commission/">are taking trips to Iowa</a>, the party’s first nominating state.</p>
<p>But 2022 election results from two key states tell us a lot about how voting laws and issues on the ballot influence the way people vote. </p>
<p>At first glance, it’s not easy to understand why Michigan, a <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-current-swing-states-and-how-have-they-changed-over-time/">left-leaning swing state</a>, and Ohio, a <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/ohio-political-transformation">Republican stronghold and former swing state</a>, had such different electoral outcomes in the midterms. Their <a href="https://data.census.gov/table?g=0400000US26,39">similar demographic makeups</a> and past similar voting patterns – such as electing Republicans statewide over several election cycles – suggest they would tend to have similar results at the ballot box. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=T9fkYCIAAAAJ&hl=en">scholars of electoral politics</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tEffT2gAAAAJ&hl=en">state policy</a> in Ohio, we explored recent elections in both states and found a divergence after 2016, with Michigan voting more blue and Ohio voting more red. Our analysis suggests differences in voter registration laws and ballot initiatives may explain why these two states have taken different electoral paths. This preliminary research has not yet been peer-reviewed.</p>
<p>Between 2000 and 2012, the states had similar voting results more than half the time. But they did diverge slightly. During the period, <a href="https://www.270towin.com/states/Michigan">Michigan voters picked the Democratic presidential</a> candidate in each of the four contests. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.270towin.com/states/Ohio">in Ohio, voters went twice each for Republican</a> President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama. At the gubernatorial level, for three elections during this period – 2002, 2006 and 2010 – Michigan elected one Republican and elected and reelected one Democrat, while Ohio elected two Republicans and one Democrat.</p>
<p>In the 2016 presidential election, voters in both Michigan and Ohio chose Republican <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/michigan">candidate Donald Trump</a>. That year, there was no U.S. Senate election in Michigan, but Ohio voters returned Republican U.S. Sen. <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/portman-wins-reelection-in-ohio-230970">Rob Portman for another term</a>. And voters in both states sent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/house">more Republicans than Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives</a> and both houses of their state legislatures. </p>
<p>While the two states had been slowly moving apart for a couple of decades, they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/president">converged in the 2016 presidential election</a> for Trump. </p>
<h2>Michigan goes blue, Ohio stays red</h2>
<p>Since 2016, however, voters in the two states have followed drastically different political paths. In 2018, 2020 and 2022, Michigan voters elected Democratic <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/michigan/">candidates for governor, U.S. Senate</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/michigan">president</a> as well as a majority in <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/11/09/michigan-house-senate-democrats-election-results/69632658007/">both houses of the state legislature</a>. And they voted for ballot initiatives that <a href="https://mielections.us/election/results/2018GEN_CENR.html">legalized marijuana, reformed redistricting and legalized same-day voter registration</a>, which included straight-ticket voting, automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration and no-excuse absentee voting. They also voted to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/abortion-rights-ballot-proposals.html">modify the state constitution</a> to protect abortion and contraception rights – all policies typically supported by Democratic candidates.</p>
<p>During the same three election cycles in Ohio, residents cast their ballots for Republican candidates and policy initiatives favored by Republicans. Voters <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_2018_ballot_measures">rejected drug-related criminal justice reform</a>, approved a referendum that could <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_2022_ballot_measures">make bail more punitive</a> and affirmed that only U.S. citizens could vote in Ohio elections. <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/ohio/">Republicans actually dominated electoral politics</a> in both federal and state races, with one exception: in 2018, voters <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/ohio/">sent Democrat Sherrod Brown</a> back to the U.S. Senate.</p>
<p>Beyond that, Ohioans voted for a Republican governor, presidential candidate, all statewide executive offices, in addition to the governor, the <a href="https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/11/09/republicans-headed-for-sweep-of-ohio-supreme-court-elections/">three open seats on the state supreme court</a> and a <a href="https://www.bricker.com/insights-resources/publications/2022-general-election-update">super majority in the state legislature</a>. The U.S. Senate seat vacated by a Republican stayed in Republican control.</p>
<h2>It’s not demographics</h2>
<p>Analysts suggest that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/ohio-has-taken-different-turn-ohio-no-longer-appears-be-n1247507">Ohio is no longer a swing state because it is overwhelmingly white and working-class</a>. But, as we examined the populations, we learned demographic differences were not the reason Michigan and Ohio voters diverged politically. Data from the <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data.html">American Community Survey</a>, a demographic study from the U.S. Census Bureau, shows that these two Midwest states are remarkably similar demographically.</p>
<p>Michigan and Ohio have similar white populations, 78% and 80%, respectively; Black populations, 14% and 12%; bachelor’s degree recipients, both 18%; people over 65, both 17%; median household incomes, both $59,000 in 2020 dollars; and <a href="http://unionstats.com/">workers belonging to unions</a>, 13% and 12%. </p>
<p>But state-specific exit polls of early and 2022 Election Day <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/exit-polls/michigan/governor/0">voters in Michigan</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/exit-polls/ohio/senate/0?fbclid=IwAR2bMJXuRmSzcmSKFY1E61HrUUg-Uji9PBuMiLWxmtZJ_716x1ktdPcrAlw">Ohio show there are differences</a> in the electorate. Ohio voters were a little more likely to be male – 52% to 50% – and white, 83% to 80%, than Michigan voters.</p>
<p>Ohio voters were less likely to reside in a union household – 21% to 27% – and were much more likely to identify as Republicans, 41% to 32%. </p>
<h2>Early voter registration may play a part</h2>
<p>In 2018, Michigan approved same-day registration, <a href="https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/Home/RegisterToVote#how">which allows voters to register on Election Day</a>, and <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/09/secretary-of-state-unveils-automatic-voter-registration.html">automatic voter registration</a>, which makes voter registration automatic with driver’s license applications and renewal for those eligible. Ohio requires voters to <a href="https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/current-voting-schedule/2022-schedule/">register nearly a month prior to Election Day</a>. </p>
<p>Registration data for Michigan shows these easier methods of registration may have corresponded with <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/sos/elections/election-results-and-data">higher voter participation</a> in the state. The increase in total votes cast in Michigan, from <a href="https://mielections.us/election/results/2016GEN_CENR.html">4.8 million in 2016</a> to <a href="https://mielections.us/election/results/2016GEN_CENR.html">5.5 million in 2020</a>, suggests the 2018 registration changes had an effect. While there may be other factors related to Michigan’s increased turnout, the changes in the state’s laws suggest same-day and automatic registration played a part.</p>
<p>What’s more, there was a higher number of <a href="https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/VoterCount/Index">registered voters in Michigan</a> than <a href="https://www.ohiosos.gov/media-center/week-in-review-archive/2022-10-14/">in Ohio</a>, even though Ohio has 1.7 million more people than Michigan. And, according to the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/05/06/2021-09422/estimates-of-the-voting-age-population-for-2020">Federal Register</a>, Ohio has 1.3 million more residents of voting age than Michigan. The data also indicates Ohio historically had a larger number of registered voters than Michigan until Michigan approved same-day and automatic voter registration. </p>
<p><iframe id="rHwcm" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rHwcm/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>According to the Michigan secretary of state’s official election results, <a href="https://mielections.us/election/results/2022GEN_CENR.html">there were 4.5 million total votes</a> in the gubernatorial election, the highest office contested in 2022. Meanwhile in Ohio, the secretary of state reported <a href="https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/election-results-and-data/2022-official-election-results/">4.2 million total official votes</a> cast for governor. </p>
<h2>Issues may affect voter participation</h2>
<p>There is some indication that when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9113-1">social issues that people care about</a> are on the ballot, more people vote. In 2022, Michigan had a proposal that called for adding the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/abortion-rights-ballot-proposals.html">right to abortion and contraceptive use to the state constitution</a>. That year, according to data from the Michigan secretary of state’s office, the total number of voters in the state <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/sos/elections/election-results-and-data">was up by 159,060</a> from 2018. Ohio, though, had ballot issues in 2022 related to <a href="https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2022/09/29/issues-1-and-2-are-on-the-november-ballot--what-they-mean">setting bail for criminal defendants and prohibiting noncitizens from voting in local elections</a>. The total number of voters in <a href="https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/election-results-and-data/">Ohio dropped by 295,466</a> between 2018 and 2022.</p>
<p>Before candidates work to mobilize and persuade voters, campaigns try to influence the pool of potential voters, acting within the rules of their states. Changes in the registration rules in Michigan, along with social issues on the ballot and other factors, may have created a different electoral environment there than exists in Ohio, where none of these changes have taken place. This suggests the possibility that writing off Ohio as a noncompetitive state may be premature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Jackson is affiliated with the Bowling Green State Faculty Association (AAUP/AFT).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic D. Wells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Voters in Michigan and Ohio once voted similarly in statewide and federal elections. Now, Michigan swings blue and Ohio is red.David Jackson, Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityDominic D. Wells, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1920552022-10-31T15:31:12Z2022-10-31T15:31:12ZAccess to sports betting in the US has exploded since 2018 – and we’re just starting to learn about the effects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492141/original/file-20221027-25221-351sfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C26%2C5973%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Since 2018, more than 30 states in the U.S. have legalized sports betting.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bettting-on-sports-royalty-free-image/1131390744?phrase=sports betting&adppopup=true">Seth Love/iStock via Getty Images.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most of U.S. history, sports betting was rare.</p>
<p>Some people certainly bet on sports illegally via a bookie, or placed bets in the few places where it was legal, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/29/history-of-sports-gambling/">such as Nevada</a>. </p>
<p>However, gambling policy took a sharp turn in 2018, when <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-476_dbfi.pdf">the Supreme Court decided</a> that each state in the U.S. had the right to legalize or prohibit sports wagering as they saw fit.</p>
<p>The effects of this ruling were swift, with many states introducing legislation to legalize sports betting within months. <a href="https://www.americangaming.org/research/state-gaming-map/">Four years later</a>, more than 30 states have legalized sports betting, and many more are working to legalize it in the immediate future.</p>
<p>This wave of legalized sports betting has opened the floodgates for new gambling opportunities. Not surprisingly, many Americans <a href="https://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel/season-28/1-real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel-january-2022">have expressed concern</a> that the burgeoning access to sports wagering will create an influx of people with new gambling problems.</p>
<p>We’re <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UMwkCl8AAAAJ&hl=en">clinical psychologists</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=gCnmj3kAAAAJ&hl=en">professors</a> who research behavioral addictions such as compulsive sexual behavior disorder and gambling disorder. Recently, we’ve begun a new line of research into sports wagering in the U.S. <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2797990">Our initial findings</a> highlight how many Americans are gambling on sports, as well as the demographic most likely to do so.</p>
<h2>The many forms of sports betting</h2>
<p>Before talking about that study, it’s important to clarify what we mean when we talk about sports betting. Like most other types of gambling, it can take many different forms. <a href="https://gaming.library.unlv.edu/infographs/types_sports_betting.pdf">Traditional sports betting</a> refers to betting on the outcomes of sporting events. These bets could be placed on who wins a game, how many points the game was decided by, or the game’s total combined score.</p>
<p>Beyond the traditional form, sports betting can also involve <a href="https://insidersbettingdigest.com/esports/">betting on esports</a>, which is professional, competitive video game play. It may also involve <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/pfsports/what-are-fantasy-sports/">paid fantasy league play</a>, which refers to people “drafting” virtual teams of players and competing against other participants’ virtual teams over the course of a sports season. </p>
<p>Finally, sports betting may also involve participating in <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-rise-of-daily-fantasy-sports-will-mean-for-problem-gambling-79998">daily fantasy league play</a>. This form of betting is similar to regular fantasy leagues, but players select new teams weekly and compete week to week, rather than throughout a whole season.</p>
<h2>Young men at risk</h2>
<p>In early 2022, we embarked upon a long-term research project to study who is gambling on sports in the U.S. and how their gambling behaviors change over time. </p>
<p>We worked with the polling and data analytics firm <a href="https://today.yougov.com/about/about/?sourceid=1178109&rlid=sitelink&gclid=CjwKCAjw2OiaBhBSEiwAh2ZSP5s8MyObD6K1AVwfS6BJf2M1jGk9HGy5AaFxiG691DC8Cz3IbbjfcRoCt8wQAvD_BwE">YouGov America</a> to recruit a nationally representative sample of over 2,800 American adults. We also collected another representative sample of over 1,500 American adults who had recently bet on sports. </p>
<p>We surveyed these two samples, asking them about their sports betting behaviors and a range of other mental health concerns. We also asked about symptoms of <a href="https://www.icrg.org/press-room/media-kit/faq/what-problem-or-pathological-gambling">gambling disorder</a>, which is an addictive disorder characterized by excessive or out-of-control gambling behavior. </p>
<p>We have just published <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2797990">our first round of findings from the early stages of this work</a>.</p>
<p>In this initial paper, we tried to identify who was most likely to gamble on sports and how sports gambling related to problem gambling. Importantly, we did not just ask these people if they had “bet on sports.” We also asked about participating in fantasy sports, daily fantasy sports leagues and betting on esports. </p>
<p>In our nationally representative sample, we found that only a fraction of Americans have bet on sports recently. Although 17.2% of Americans reported having bet on sports in their lifetime, only 6.2% reported that they had done so in the past year. Similarly, only 5.9% reported participating in a paid fantasy sports league over the past year, only 4.2% reported being involved in daily fantasy sports leagues and only 4.1% reported betting on esports in the past year. </p>
<p>In short, sports betting is still a relatively rare activity in the U.S., and our data does not necessarily show increases from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021019915591">prevalence rates 20 years ago</a>.</p>
<p>But we also looked at who was most likely to bet on sports. Across all forms of sports betting, we found that younger men with college degrees and higher incomes were more likely to bet on sports than other Americans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bar patrons celebrate while watching a baseball game." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492147/original/file-20221027-29020-6wwsi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492147/original/file-20221027-29020-6wwsi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492147/original/file-20221027-29020-6wwsi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492147/original/file-20221027-29020-6wwsi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492147/original/file-20221027-29020-6wwsi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492147/original/file-20221027-29020-6wwsi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492147/original/file-20221027-29020-6wwsi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">College-educated young men with good-paying jobs is the group most likely to bet on sports.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-yankees-fans-watch-them-play-the-philadelphia-news-photo/92620216?phrase=fans%20watching%20baseball%20bar&adppopup=true">Jared Wickerham/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, we examined whether sports betting was related to symptoms of gambling disorder. Again, our results were quite clear: Traditional sports betting, daily fantasy league play, and betting on esports were all associated with much higher odds of being categorized as a moderate or high-risk gambler. </p>
<p>Simply put, these forms of sports betting are risk factors for also having problems with gambling. </p>
<h2>An eye toward the future</h2>
<p>Taken together, our findings do not necessarily suggest that sports betting is resulting in a wave of new gamblers across the country. Also, among those who do bet on sports, most seem to be doing so without ill effects. </p>
<p>Yet, sports betting is associated with symptoms of gambling disorder, which means this is a risky behavior – perhaps similar to alcohol use or other forms of gambling, like playing slot machines. Most people who engage in any of these behaviors will do so without problems. But for some people, access to sports gambling will likely result in the development of symptoms of gambling disorder. </p>
<p>As both researchers and clinicians, we are especially worried about this possibility: Any increase in people seeking help for gambling disorders could overwhelm the nation’s treatment centers, <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/treatment-for-problem-gamblers-not-a-sure-bet-1">which already find themselves overextended and underfunded</a>.</p>
<p>For this reason, we believe it’s important to quickly identify people who are at risk of developing gambling problems. This is one of our main objectives in our ongoing study of sports wagering. By identifying who is most likely to develop a gambling problem, we hope to influence policymakers and gambling industry professionals to help introduce safeguards protecting those at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua B. Grubbs receives funding from the International Center for Responsible Gaming, the Kindbridge Research Institute, and the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio. Joshua B. Grubbs is also a member of the Problem Gambling Advisory Board for the state of Ohio.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Kraus receives funding from the International Center for Responsible Gaming, the Nevada Problem Gambling Project, and Kindbridge Research Institute. He also serves on the Advisory Committee on Problem Gambling for the state of Nevada.</span></em></p>Any increase in people seeking help for gambling disorders could overwhelm the nation’s treatment centers, which already find themselves overextended and underfunded.Joshua B. Grubbs, Associate Professor of Psychology, Bowling Green State UniversityShane Kraus, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las VegasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882302022-08-05T13:38:45Z2022-08-05T13:38:45ZThe US is revisiting its trade relations with African countries: key issues on the table<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477624/original/file-20220804-18-8qekbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Joe Biden speaks as Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Last year, the US’s Biden administration <a href="https://www.gtreview.com/news/africa/biden-eyes-up-africa-as-new-trade-market-reboots-trump-era-initiative/">announced plans</a> to increase two-way trade and investment between the US and Africa. The starting point was a revamp of the Trump-era “Prosper Africa initiative”. As American secretary of state Antony Blinken visits three African nations – South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda – Kefa Otiso and Francis Owusu provide insights into US-Africa trade relations and what’s being planned to improve them.</em></p>
<h2>What sort of trade arrangement is the US proposing?</h2>
<p>In July 2021, the Biden-Harris administration launched the <a href="https://www.prosperafrica.gov/build-together/">Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign</a>.</p>
<p>The idea was to elevate and energise the US’s commitment to trade and investment with countries across the African continent. </p>
<p>The revamped Trump strategy includes a targeted, long-term effort to connect American and African businesses with new trade and investment opportunities. </p>
<p>Key sectors being targeted are clean energy and climate smart solutions, health, and digital technology. </p>
<p>Through the initiative, the US is promising to help drive billions of dollars of investment to Africa and to work towards equitable access to the benefits of trade and investment. It also envisages harnessing the power of small businesses, especially those led by women and <a href="https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/reports/2022/2022AGOAImplementationReport.pdf">members of the African Diaspora</a>.</p>
<h2>What should a good trade pact look like?</h2>
<p>This is a difficult question to answer, given the many possible configurations of a potential trade pact. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, we offer two key elements of such a trade pact. </p>
<p>First, it should be truly multilateral unlike, for example, the prevailing US-Africa trade agreement, the <a href="https://agoa.info/about-agoa.html">African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)</a> – which is a unilateral US government policy. A truly multilateral pact would recognise African leaders as equal partners and ensure that they have an opportunity to properly engage in US-Africa trade negotiations. </p>
<p>Anything short of this would be counter-productive for one or both parties. For instance, a bad trade pact could worsen US trade deficits while for Africa, it would amount to a missed opportunity for badly needed structural economic transformation. In addition, it would force African countries to compete head-to-head with the much stronger US economy, to the disadvantage of their local businesses and industries. </p>
<p>Second, whatever agreement is reached needs to increase the capacity of African countries to trade with the US. While a US-Africa free trade agreement would be ideal, it would be unlikely to work well for many African countries. Countries with technological and economic weaknesses would easily be overwhelmed by the powerful US export machine.</p>
<p>So, instead of a free trade agreement, a beneficial pact for Africa should be designed to boost trade and investment between the US and Africa while also gradually increasing the capacity of African countries to compete globally in the production of nontraditional high-value products.</p>
<p>Although the exact details of the Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign are yet to be worked out, we are cautiously optimistic that it can live up to its promise. Unlike AGOA, it has a holistic and long-term focus. And because of the need to counteract the influence of Europe, Russia, and China, the US is likely to be more motivated to engage Africa both economically and geopolitically.</p>
<p>Africa can only get good trade pacts if it negotiates for them. African countries must therefore invest in capacity building and training for their trade negotiators as well as hiring, keeping, and empowering the right people for these roles. </p>
<h2>What arrangement is in place at the moment?</h2>
<p>The prevailing US-Africa trade agreement is the <a href="https://agoa.info/about-agoa.html">African Growth and Opportunity Act</a>. It was enacted in 2000 and is expected to expire in 2025 unless the US Congress extends it. </p>
<p>The law has been at the core of US economic policy and commercial engagement with Africa since 2000. It <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/trade/priority-issues/trade-agreements/special-trade-legislation/african-growth-and-opportunity-act">provides</a> eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the US market for over 1,800 products. This is in addition to the more than 5,000 other products that are eligible for duty-free access under the Generalised System of Preferences programme. </p>
<p>Currently, 36 countries on the continent are eligible for AGOA benefits.</p>
<h2>Has it achieved its intended purpose?</h2>
<p>To some extent, yes. The legal framework has helped to provide beneficiary countries in sub-Saharan Africa with liberal access to the US market. In addition, it has increased trade and investment ties between the US and sub-Saharan Africa. It has also created over 300,000 jobs in the region, especially in the apparel sector. As of 2021, non-oil US imports under the agreement (a major source of its job-creating value) were <a href="https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/reports/2022/2022AGOAImplementationReport.pdf">about</a> US$4.8 billion.</p>
<p>However, not all sub-Saharan African countries have benefited from AGOA and their manufacturing sectors remain weak. Most of Africa’s exports under AGOA are still dominated by apparel products. In addition, many of the AGOA beneficiaries have been foreign companies that are using Africa as a front to gain access to the US market.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-examined-20-years-of-us-kenya-trade-some-lessons-for-africa-165625">We examined 20 years of US-Kenya trade: Some lessons for Africa</a>
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<p>In 2020, President Trump and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta announced the start of negotiations for a <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/biden-dumps-uhuru-s-trade-deal-with-trump-3880308">post-AGOA</a> deal between the two countries. Trump’s administration claimed that the deal would serve as a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2020/07/29/the-us-and-kenya-launch-negotiations-on-a-free-trade-agreement-will-they-succeed/">model for other African countries</a>. </p>
<p>Conceived in the context of Trump’s preference for bilateral trade deals, the pact was to conclude within 10 months. But it did not. Otherwise, it would have given the US a replicable model for future trade deals with Africa. In the end, the expiry of Trump’s term of office scuttled the negotiations.</p>
<p>This US-Kenya pact would have been the first such bilateral deal between the US and a sub-Saharan African country. Currently, the only African country with a free trade agreement with the US is Morocco. Called the <a href="https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/morocco-fta">Morocco Free Trade Agreement</a>, it was signed in 2004. </p>
<p>In the case of Kenya, such a deal would have elevated its preferential access to the American market under AGOA to a reciprocal pact <a href="https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements">similar to those</a> that the US has with 20 other countries around the world, including Morocco. </p>
<p>In conclusion, it is important to realise that US-Africa trade relations are on a dynamic continuum that includes <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-african-growth-and-opportunity-act-agoa-looking-back-looking-forward/">Bill Clinton’s AGOA</a>, George Bush’s <a href="https://agoa.info/news/article/3693-african-global-competitiveness-initiative-will-expand-trade-hubs.html">African Global Competitiveness Initiative</a>, Barack Obama’s <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/21/fact-sheet-us-africa-cooperation-trade-and-investment-under-obama">Trade Africa</a>, Donald Trump’s <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/IF11384.pdf">Prosper Africa Initiative</a> and now Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.prosperafrica.gov/">Prosper Africa Build Together Campaign</a>. </p>
<p>These trade initiatives have enduring threads tied to larger US values and interests in Africa. Future trade pacts are therefore unlikely to deviate much from past ones even as the US strives to counteract European, Russian and Chinese influence in Africa. African states should similarly fight for their own interests in such trade engagements.</p>
<p>Two key pressures are likely to shape future US-Africa trade pacts. </p>
<p>First, should the US negotiate with individual African countries or with the continent as a whole? Secondly, should future US trade pacts with Africa be unilateral like AGOA or involve African leaders in defining their frameworks? In the light of the 2018 African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, which encompasses most of Africa, we think that future US-Africa trade deals will probably be more multilateral and comprehensive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I've received funding from The African Capacity Building Foundation to conduct a Kenya AGOA evaluation study whose conclusions are partly reflected in this piece.</span></em></p>America is seeking to reconnect with Africa through climate-smart solutions, health and digital technology.Kefa M. Otiso, Professor of Geography, Bowling Green State UniversityFrancis Owusu, Professor and the Chair of the Department of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1715762021-12-08T19:56:50Z2021-12-08T19:56:50ZMany global charities refrain from ‘poverty porn’ imagery to raise money from donors, but stereotypes still distort their pictures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434851/original/file-20211130-20-e5t3m6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C497%2C6579%2C3931&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charity fundraising materials often include stereotypical images of life in low-income countries.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/baby-girl-on-mothers-arm-reaching-towards-camera-royalty-free-image/669305740">Mlenny/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>International <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1722">nongovernmental organizations</a>, often called NGOs, and other charities often use photos that distort the everyday realities of the people in low-income countries they seek to help despite <a href="https://www.goodthingsguy.com/opinion/what-is-poverty-porn-and-why-is-it-such-a-problem/">decades of pressure</a> to stop doing that. </p>
<p>That’s what I found when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1722">I studied 320 photos</a> that 32 of the largest of these global charities operating in the U.S. used in March 2017 for fundraising.</p>
<p>A big concern is that nearly all the women pictured appear to be single, suggesting that no one who is married could deserve charitable support from afar. This imagery also implies that men in developing countries, who are generally people of color, do not take care of their families.</p>
<p>About half of the photos included only children, with girls over-represented, with no adults pictured – giving the impression that they might have been abandoned. Another 1 in 4 featured mothers with infants and other young children – and no men. In addition, 7.5% of images were of women with no men or children around. Only 4% included what appeared to be two parents belonging to the same family, </p>
<p>I found that NGOs tended to blur the background in these photographs and that the images heavily emphasized the eyes of children, especially of girls, who were usually looking at the ground. This facial expression and body language, as the sociologist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k2opPPwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jan Nederveen Pieterse</a> argues, can imply a sense of subservience toward the intended audience: potential donors in the U.S. and other high-income countries. </p>
<p>I also observed that nearly 25% of these fundraising photos featured women who were feeding their infants or visibly taking care of their children. This practice can suggest that no women in developing countries work outside their homes and that their primary job is to take care of their children. </p>
<p>These fundraising images were used on Facebook by the 32 largest NGOs doing charitable work in low-income countries.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>What may be a sincere effort to elicit sympathy distorts the reality of everyday life in developing countries.</p>
<p>Critics of this kind of imagery call it “<a href="https://www.thebautistaprojectinc.org/post/poverty-porn">poverty porn</a>.” In their view, charities select photos that make <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2152/67524">beneficiaries of charity appear to deserve pity</a>, exploiting them to solicit funds from donors.
I believe the main reason many charities still portray people in low-income countries this way is due to their acceptance of stereotypes about the people in low-income countries. It can reflect a failure to understand the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/11-top-causes-global-poverty">complicated issues that contribute to poverty</a>, such as lacking access to an education.</p>
<p>Many of these organizations, including <a href="https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/10546/620935/1/gd-oxfam-ethical-content-guidelines-240120-en.pdf">Oxfam</a>,
<a href="https://adam.amnesty.org/asset-bank/assetfile/97478.pdf">Amnesty International</a> and <a href="https://www.christianaid.org.uk/our-work/research/doing-research-ethically">Christian Aid</a>, are trying to use what they call more “ethical” imagery. </p>
<p>In the past, <a href="https://www.goodthingsguy.com/opinion/what-is-poverty-porn-and-why-is-it-such-a-problem/">poor children were often shown crying</a> or appeared to be <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/09/30/439162849/at-what-point-does-a-fundraising-ad-go-too-far">visibly suffering from malnutrition</a>. In my research, I found that photos of happy, smiling children and other <a href="https://twitter.com/Adesoafrica/status/619142972857135104">more positive images</a> are becoming much more common in these fundraising materials.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bond.org.uk/news/2017/07/the-people-in-the-pictures/%22">Save the Children</a>, a nonprofit seeking to improve child health, education and protection in low-income countries, is another example. It updated its guidelines in 2017 to ensure the informed consent and dignity of the beneficiaries. However, the charity <a href="https://twitter.com/SavetheChildren/status/1464232551325835266">still uses some images</a> that stereotype its beneficiaries to evoke pity and raise funds.</p>
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<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>As prospective donors see more of these <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/snl-brilliantly-and-hilariously-breaks-down-the-pr/">stereotypical images in</a> in fundraising appeals, do they become more biased against those living in poverty who they are being asked to help? Further research is needed to determine if that is the case.</p>
<p>[<em>Science, politics, religion or just plain interesting articles:</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-checkoutweekly">Check out The Conversation’s weekly newsletters</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abhishek Bhati does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These photos tend to oversimplify the issues that cause poverty and the suffering of poor people in low-income countries.Abhishek Bhati, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1656252021-08-16T14:25:27Z2021-08-16T14:25:27ZWe examined 20 years of US-Kenya trade: Some lessons for Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414809/original/file-20210805-23-nvhiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Export garment manufacturing workers display some of the clothes they produce during a Labour Day parade in the capital Nairobi.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Billy Mutai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya is one of the <a href="https://legacy.trade.gov/agoa/pdf/2016%20US-SSA%20Trade%20One-Pager.pdf">top five beneficiaries</a> of the US-Africa trade initiative, the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-bill/434">African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)</a>. It also had the <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/the-opportunities-are-vast-potential-us-kenya-free-trade-agreement">second-highest</a> utilisation rate in 2018 with over 70% of its US exports covered by the programme.</p>
<p>Launched in 2000, the trade pact gives sub-Saharan Africa the most liberal access to the huge US market available to any country or region with which Washington does not have a free trade agreement. The initiative has had a significant impact on stimulating Africa-US trade. <a href="https://agoa.info/data/total-trade.html">Exports</a> to the US from eligible African countries grew by over 272%, from US$22 billion in 2000 to US$82 billion in 2008.</p>
<p>Probably due to COVID-19 disruptions, exports <a href="https://agoa.info/data/total-trade.html">declined</a> to US$18.4 billion in 2020. Despite these fluctuations, Africa maintained a positive balance of trade with the US in the 2000-2020 period, thanks to <a href="https://agoa.info/data.html">AGOA eligible products</a>. As of 2017, the trade initiative had created over <a href="https://agoa.info/news/article/4576-agoa-creates-more-than-300-000-jobs-in-africa.html">300,000 jobs</a> in sub-Saharan Africa, many of which were in the <a href="https://agoa.info/about-agoa/apparel-rules-of-origin.html">apparel sector</a>.</p>
<p>We recently carried out a <a href="https://kessa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Owusu-and-Otiso.pdf">Kenya country case study</a> on the implementation of AGOA in the 2000 to 2016 period. We found that in this period, Kenya’s total exports to the US grew by $443.2 million (or 405%) from $109.4 million to $552.6 million. By 2020, the figure had risen to $569 million, with most of the country’s exports coming from <a href="https://agoa.info/profiles/kenya.html">eligible products</a>. </p>
<p>Looked at differently, in the nine years before the trade programme (1992 to 2000), Kenya’s average annual exports to the US were $101 million. In the nine years after (2002 to 2010), average annual exports to the US rose to $305 million. They rose further on average to $557 million in the 2012 to 2020 period. </p>
<p>Moreover, in contrast with the 1990s, Kenya had a positive balance of trade with the US, averaging <a href="https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c7790.html#1999">$158 million per year</a> since 2016. </p>
<p>Kenya’s exports to the US under this programme have enabled the country to build a sizeable textile and apparel export sector. As of 2016, Kenya had 111 firms in its export processing zones that produced most of its $634 million worth of exports. Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger are some of the US brands that buy Kenyan apparel and clothing products.</p>
<p>The sector employed 52,000 workers, used over $250 million in local resources and attracted in excess of $710 million in total investments. But Kenya’s apparel export sector is overwhelmingly dependent on the US market. This over-reliance on the US market should worry Kenya because it makes its apparel sector susceptible to unpredictable swings in the US market.</p>
<p>While Kenya’s non-textile exports to the US – mainly coffee, tea, nuts and cut flowers – also grew during the 2000-2016 period, their growth rate was less impressive.</p>
<p>Socially, AGOA has also helped to create jobs for marginalised groups such as women and youth. Nevertheless, we found that working in these apparel firms entailed poor working conditions, low pay, temporary work, and the sexual harassment of female workers.</p>
<p>We also found that Kenya, like many other eligible countries, is under-utilising AGOA with the near neglect of the non-texitle sectors. Whether or not the US-Africa trade programme is renewed when it expires in 2025, Kenya’s experience points to many policy implications for the country and other member countries.</p>
<h2>Trade pact objectives</h2>
<p>The African Growth and Opportunity Act was <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-bill/434">signed</a> into law by former US president Bill Clinton. Its main objectives were to diversify the region’s export production, expand trade and investment between the two destinations, and accelerate economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<p>These would be achieved in a number of ways. First, the reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers. Second, the negotiation of trade agreements. Third, the integration of the region into the global economy. Finally, the expansion of US assistance to Africa’s regional integration. </p>
<p>In many ways, its main aim was to support African economies’ ability to use the textile and apparel sectors as potential engines of industrialisation and economic growth. In this sense this mirrored the similar success in <a href="https://iap.unido.org/articles/east-asian-miracle-through-industrial-production-and-trade-lenses">South and Southeast Asia</a>. </p>
<p>Much of the growth in exports to the US from Kenya and other non-oil exporting countries has come from the textile and apparel sector. There is a relatively tepid response from other sectors of the economy. These countries can make better use of the US trade initiative by not so heavily basing their exports on only a few of the <a href="https://agoa.info/about-agoa/products.html">thousands</a> of eligible products.</p>
<h2>Lessons for Africa</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://kessa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Owusu-and-Otiso.pdf">study</a>, we found a number of policy gaps in Kenya that are relevant for other African countries. For example, the trade opportunities are largely driven by US trade policy rather than by the region’s competitive advantage. Also, the US dominates the terms and conditions of the pact’s renewal. In our view, eligible countries like Kenya should look beyond US-Africa programme and diversify their markets accordingly. </p>
<p>Second, to make the most of their apparel exports to the US and to capture new global markets, the African countries should ensure that their apparel industries are globally competitive. They should have a good supply of the inputs and infrastructure they need to thrive. Improvements in transport infrastructure, for instance, would speed up and reduce costs of moving inputs in and finished goods out.</p>
<p>Third, the vast majority of Kenya’s export processing zone investments are foreign-owned. There is also a huge pay gap between Kenyan and foreign workers due to the cadre of jobs and skills possessed by these two types of workers. Thus, there is a need for capacity building to produce a critical mass of professionals who can lead the country’s textile and agro-processing industries to maximise their gains from current and future trade opportunities.</p>
<p>Countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region should also strengthen their regulatory frameworks. These include mechanisms for enforcement of laws regarding labour and other forms of human rights protections envisaged under the US-Africa trade pact. This would ensure that women and youth workers in Kenya’s export-led enterprises are protected and enabled to benefit from this trade programme.</p>
<p>These countries should also create a favourable export policy environment which is globally competitive to attract substantial manufacturing investments to the region. In Kenya, this is currently undermined by high levels of corruption and mismanagement. There is also a fair amount of political instability mostly driven by the country’s ethnic-driven and hyper-competitive elections especially at the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/us-kenya-relations-kenya-election-al-shabab-645512">presidential level</a>. </p>
<p>The country now has a new devolved government structure that promises to contribute to a more tranquil national political environment. But Kenya needs to do more to hold credible elections, and, perhaps, dilute its presidential powers which drive its overly competitive, acrimonious, and perennially destabilising elections.</p>
<p>Finally, Kenya and other African countries should strengthen their trade negotiation ability to make the most of new international trade deals. In today’s world, the difference between winning and losing in trade substantially comes down to one’s ability to negotiate good trade deals. Therefore, African countries must not only invest in high quality capacity building training for their trade negotiators, but they must also hire, keep, and empower the right people for these roles. </p>
<p>Kenya is in the middle of negotiating a free trade agreement with the US, the first such agreement between the US and a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-29/u-s-keen-to-complete-free-trade-talks-with-kenya-blinken-says">sub-Saharan African economy</a>. If it succeeds, <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/the-opportunities-are-vast-potential-us-kenya-free-trade-agreement">it would be the most important trade development in the region since the enactment of the AGOA in 2000</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The original research for this work was funded by the African Capacity Building Foundation (contract ACBF/EOI/054/c/17/NRF), </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The original research for this work was funded by the African Capacity Building Foundation (contract ACBF/EOI/054/c/17/NRF).</span></em></p>The US-Africa trade pact has had a significant impact on stimulating export trade – but African countries have not realised its full potential.Francis Owusu, Professor and the Chair of the Department of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State UniversityKefa M. Otiso, Professor of Geography, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1575432021-03-20T18:50:36Z2021-03-20T18:50:36Z‘Sex addiction’ isn’t a justification for killing, or really an addiction – it reflects a person’s own moral misgivings about sex<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390700/original/file-20210320-23-16gloky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C62%2C2298%2C1438&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Feeling 'addicted to sex' has more to do with one's values than frequency of behavior.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sex-shop-signs-at-night-royalty-free-image/471048321">Terraxplorer/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A 21-year-old white man is alleged to have entered three different spas in the greater Atlanta area on March 16 and shot dead eight people, six of whom were Asian women. The following day, Cherokee County sheriff’s officials announced what the suspect blamed as a possible motive for the killings: sex addiction.</p>
<p>The alleged shooter has been described as a devoutly conservative <a href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-georgia-coronavirus-pandemic-84ea109933ce05dba5c61022f9b1d41f">evangelical Christian</a> who had, according to numerous reports, been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/18/sex-addiction-atlanta-shooting-long/#click=https://t.co/kEK5FmaDqr">struggling to control</a> his sexual behaviors. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/17/atlanta-spa-shootings-live-updates/?itid=lk_inline_manual_3">Law enforcement officials</a> said the suspect claimed to have been dealing with a sex addiction and ultimately killed as a way to “eliminate” the “temptation” he felt these women posed.</p>
<p>I am a researcher who specializes in <a href="https://www.joshuagrubbsphd.com">behavioral addictions</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gCnmj3kAAAAJ&hl=en">specifically sexual addictions</a>. A lot of my research has focused on how religion interacts with sexual behaviors and feelings of addiction. Over the past decade, my research has found that religion and sexual addiction are deeply intertwined.</p>
<h2>Clinicians don’t diagnose ‘sex addiction’</h2>
<p>Right now, there is no diagnosis of “sex addiction” in <a href="https://www.appi.org/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders_DSM-5_Fifth_Edition">any diagnostic manual</a> that psychologists consult when working with patients. It’s not a recognized disorder in the mental health community. This may come as a surprise to some, as many people do believe that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000228">sex can be addictive</a>.</p>
<p>Without terming the problem an addiction, mental health practitioners do, of course, recognize that out-of-control sexual behaviors can be a real problem for individuals. Recently, the <a href="https://www.thefix.com/compulsive-sexual-behavior-">World Health Organization announced</a> that the latest edition of its “<a href="https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases">International Classification of Diseases</a>” will include a new diagnosis of compulsive sexual behavior disorder.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="neon signs for a sex shop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390701/original/file-20210320-15-fszc79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whatever the label, compulsive sexual behavior can be a problem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/neon-lights-pigalle-paris-royalty-free-image/157169264">Dutchy/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>This new diagnosis is officially an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20499">impulse control disorder</a> rather than an addiction, but it does cover people with excessive or compulsive sexual behaviors that most members of the public would consider addiction. Any number of behaviors could qualify for this diagnosis, ranging from excessive pornography use and masturbation to cruising for casual sex to soliciting sex workers. The key feature of the diagnosis is not the specific sexual behavior itself, but how out of control it has become in a person’s life and how much difficulty or impairment it causes.</p>
<p>Compulsive sexual behavior disorder is the only diagnosis in over 55,000 total diagnoses in the WHO manual to include a special caveat. At the very end of the disorder’s description, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101925">there’s a note</a> cautioning that “distress that is entirely related to moral judgments and disapproval about sexual impulses, urges, or behaviors is not enough to meet this requirement.”</p>
<p>In other words, feeling distressed about behaving in sexual ways that you find morally wrong is not sufficient for a diagnosis of this new disorder. That’s a very important caveat because, based on my research, it’s moral distress about sex behaviors that commonly triggers people to believe they have a sex addiction. </p>
<h2>What feeds a self-diagnosis of ‘sex addiction’?</h2>
<p>In the U.S. in particular, many studies have clearly shown that more religious people, people from more strict religious backgrounds and people who morally disapprove of their own sexual behaviors are much more likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1248-x">interpret those behaviors as an addiction</a>.</p>
<p>What’s surprising is there’s also a lot of evidence that these same people are actually less likely to do things like watch pornography or have sex outside of marital relationships. My colleagues and I have found that more religiously devout people simultaneously report <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702620922966">less use of pornography while also reporting greater addiction to pornography</a>. </p>
<p>It seems that conservative moral beliefs about sexuality, particularly those associated with conservative religiosity, lead some people to interpret behaviors like even occasionally watching porn as signs of an addiction.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I call this disconnect between beliefs and behavior “moral incongruence.” It turns out to be a powerful predictor of whether someone thinks they have a sex addiction.</p>
<p><iframe id="gFOuR" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gFOuR/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In fact, we’ve now shown in two studies that used nationally representative samples that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702620922966">religiosity</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000501">moral disapproval of pornography</a> amplify the links between pornography viewing and feelings of addiction to pornography. For people who do not find pornography morally objectionable or who are nonreligious, there is virtually no link between how much pornography they view and whether they believe themselves to be addicted to it. Yet, for people who are very religious or who find pornography viewing to be especially wrong, even small amounts of pornography use are linked to self-reported feelings of addiction.</p>
<h2>Internal turmoil doesn’t predict violence</h2>
<p>To be clear, the distress that people may feel when they fall short of their morals is undoubtedly real and profound. However, much of this distress is likely the result of guilt and shame rather than a true addiction.</p>
<p>In the case of the Georgia shooter, there is simply not yet enough information to determine whether he had an out-of-control pattern of sexual behavior, whether he was morally distressed over his behavior, or whether it was both. Frankly, those distinctions are not that important to understanding what happened.</p>
<p>Compulsive sexual behavior disorder and moral incongruence are both real problems that can lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1295013">relationship conflict</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000114">depression, anxiety</a> and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1248-x">consequences</a>. But they are not excuses for violence, murder or hate crimes – nothing is. If <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.4468">recent estimates</a> are correct, there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.134">millions of Americans</a> who are concerned that their sexual behaviors might be out of control. </p>
<p>Yet the Atlanta suspect chose to do something that these millions of other Americans have not, allegedly targeting and killing women he viewed as “a temptation.” This choice on his part is not in any way attributable to whether he had a sexual addiction, whether he felt moral incongruence about his sexual behaviors or whether he was having a bad day.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua B. Grubbs receives funding from the National Institute for Civil Discourse and the Charles Koch Foundation.</span></em></p>‘Sex addiction’ isn’t a diagnosable disorder, but the turmoil religious men feel over the disconnect between their sexual values and behavior can lead to real psychological distress.Joshua B. Grubbs, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1519022020-12-17T13:24:22Z2020-12-17T13:24:22ZUS nonprofits raised $2.5 billion on Giving Tuesday in 2020<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374907/original/file-20201214-17-15y7q9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C362%2C5180%2C3138&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quarterback Patrick Mahomes gave $5,000 to the Dick's Sporting Goods Sports Matter program on Giving on Tuesday in 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DICKSSportingGoodsHolidayShoppingEventGivingTuesday/0773bb7537554590a73c5d41f7d3aaeb/photo?Query=%22giving%20tuesday%22&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=69&currentItemNo=9">Colin Braley/AP Images for DICK'S Sporting Goods</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374928/original/file-20201214-19-1yhkq0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Some 35 million Americans gave a total of <a href="http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/givingtuesday-2020-raises-an-estimated-2.47-billion-in-u.s">US$2.5 billon on Giving Tuesday</a> to causes of all kinds, including $808 million in donations made online. </p>
<p>Donations increased overall by 25% from the total raised during this event in 2019 – the first year when the campaign began to calculate donations made offline, such as by sending a check or giving cash, in addition to online contributions.</p>
<p>This good news came as a relief to some of the nonprofit leaders who had voiced concerns that <a href="https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/insights/how-donors-plan-to-approach-giving-at-2020-year-end.html">donors who had given more than usual</a> throughout 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic distress might avoid this yearly show of support for charities. For example, an earlier event, <a href="http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/givingtuesdaynow-raised-503-million-online-for-covid-19-relief">#GivingTuesdayNow</a>, raised more than $503 million in May for pandemic relief. </p>
<p>Giving Tuesday happens on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which fell on Dec. 1 in 2020. </p>
<p><iframe id="I6bKF" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/I6bKF/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Giving Tuesday was <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21727010/giving-tuesday-explained-charity-nonprofits">launched in 2012</a> by the 92nd Street Y in New York City and the United Nations Foundation. It has grown into a global generosity movement spanning not just the <a href="https://www.givingtuesday.org/givingtuesday-across-us">United States</a> but more than <a href="https://www.givingtuesday.org/global">70 other countries</a>.</p>
<p>A dozen nations, including Chile, Ghana and Ireland, had their <a href="https://hq.givingtuesday.org/after-year-of-global-crisis-millions-respond-with-massive-swell-of-generosity-and-shared-humanity-on-givingtuesday-2020/">first Giving Tuesday campaigns</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>Theoretically, it costs nothing to raise donations online using social media. However, that’s not necessarily true in practice. <a href="https://theconversation.com/posting-on-facebook-is-helping-nonprofits-of-all-sizes-raise-money-122002">Research I conducted with a colleague</a> suggests that groups with a larger social media presence tend to get more donations in online giving days.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abhishek Bhati does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even after donors boosted their charitable giving at other times of the year, people donated 25% more than in 2019 through the annual campaign.Abhishek Bhati, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1490932020-11-19T14:33:17Z2020-11-19T14:33:17ZHope and religion in a time of crisis: evidence from Colombia and South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369568/original/file-20201116-13-1ujqbp4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Strict lock-down regulations, that have been implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, have broad implications for well-being. In many countries, businesses and other kinds of operations had to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-53640249">adjust or close</a>. <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/coronavirus-unemployment-jobs-work-impact-g7-pandemic/">Unemployment rates</a> rose and economic activity slowed dramatically.</p>
<p>Alongside concerns about financial security, stay-at-home orders have disrupted daily routines and physically isolated citizens from people and places that were part of their everyday lives. These conditions have led to much <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7151415/">psychological distress</a> around the world. However, people who live in countries where conditions were already challenging before the pandemic could be particularly hard hit.</p>
<p>Social and behavioural science research into people’s experiences and behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic has mostly been done in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.08.001">settings</a> where resources are more widely available to support the well-being of local residents. Less is known about how the public health crisis has affected people living in vulnerable contexts where the negative effects of the pandemic could be magnified.</p>
<p>We conducted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344367394_Hope_and_Well-being_in_Vulnerable_Contexts_During_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_Does_Religious_Coping_Matter/link/5f6ce42b92851c14bc9487c1/download">studies</a> in Colombia and South Africa to identify mechanisms that might help buffer the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on well-being. Specifically, we looked at the roles of hope and religious coping in supporting well-being for people observing stringent lockdown regulations.</p>
<p>What we found could be useful to providers of psychological services who are supporting people during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<h2>Hope and religion</h2>
<p>In the field of positive psychology, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-17270-001">hope</a> is a character strength that refers to a person’s capacity to find ways to reach their goals. It includes the belief or confidence that one has about his or her ability to achieve those goals. Hope may be a trait – a tendency of an individual to be hopeful – and a state – a current feeling of hopefulness. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259011332030002X">Research</a> with over 12,000 participants has shown that hope can have positive effects on multiple areas of human flourishing. It is related to better psychological well-being, physical health, life satisfaction, and purpose in life, as well as lower risk of cancer, fewer sleep problems, and reduced risk of all-cause mortality. </p>
<p>Another key concept we used in our study was <a href="https://www.guilford.com/books/The-Psychology-of-Religion-and-Coping/Kenneth-Pargament/9781572306646/reviews">religious coping</a>. This refers to a way in which people respond to stress by drawing from religious resources. Positive religious coping has been associated with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1359105304045366">improved well-being</a> and personal growth amid <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1388152">life stressors</a>.</p>
<p>But not all forms of religious coping are positive. Negative religious coping (spiritual struggles) reflects a less secure relation to the sacred, an ominous view of the world, and struggles with the self and others. It is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000124">negative aspects of well-being</a> among people facing stressful situations.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-religion-inspires-the-nigerian-diaspora-to-develop-africa-146089">How religion inspires the Nigerian diaspora to develop Africa</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344367394_Hope_and_Well-being_in_Vulnerable_Contexts_During_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_Does_Religious_Coping_Matter">study</a>, we found consistent evidence that higher levels of hope (both trait and state variants) and positive religious coping were linked with higher levels of well-being. Higher levels of negative religious coping were associated with worse well-being. Although well-being was highest when levels of hope were high, the association between hope and well-being was contingent on levels of religious coping. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344367394_Hope_and_Well-being_in_Vulnerable_Contexts_During_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_Does_Religious_Coping_Matter">found</a> that when hope was in short supply, well-being tended to be higher when:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>people dealt with stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic by drawing on their relationship with the sacred, and</p></li>
<li><p>they experienced less tension, conflict, and struggles in their religious faith.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>As discussed in another <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345766796_Transcending_Place_Attachment_Disruptions_During_A_Public_Health_Crisis_Spiritual_Struggles_Resilience_and_Transformation">study</a>, religious tensions or struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic could come from various sources. For example, the lockdown in South Africa deprived people of access to places of worship and their broader religious communities and social environments. This disruption to people’s lives may have strained spiritual connection with the divine. It also thwarted opportunities for people to engage in faith-based activities in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345766796_Transcending_Place_Attachment_Disruptions_During_A_Public_Health_Crisis_Spiritual_Struggles_Resilience_and_Transformation">places</a> that typically served to promote well-being.</p>
<h2>What should be done</h2>
<p>Clinicians and providers of psychological services should be alert to how religion can be a potential resource – as well as a source of potential struggle – for people.</p>
<p>More generally, we should consider research findings on hope – and the role of religion – when discussing how to flourish amid the COVID-19 pandemic. These resources could also be used to promote well-being in the aftermath of the public health crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hope and religion can be important coping resources for people during strict lockdowns - but also a source of struggle.Victor Counted, Research Fellow, Western Sydney UniversityKenneth Pargament, Bowling Green State UniversityRichard G. Cowden, Research Associate, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1478912020-10-20T12:18:55Z2020-10-20T12:18:55ZPrejudice against people with darker skin may make donors less generous<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363727/original/file-20201015-21-hoco3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C155%2C3946%2C2335&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People in Zambia gather while awaiting food distribution in January 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-await-for-a-food-distribution-organized-by-news-photo/1200189344">Guillem Sartorio/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>U.S. donors are inclined to give less generously to charities in developing countries when they believe those funds will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-020-00277-8">help people with darker skin</a>.</p>
<p>That’s what I found out when I measured the implicit skin-tone bias of 750 people who completed an online survey. The donors who harbored more implicit bias against darker skin were less likely to give more than US$10 to the charity than those who were less prejudiced.</p>
<h2>How I did my work</h2>
<p>I recruited the participants through a virtual labor market known as <a href="https://www.mturk.com/worker">Amazon MTurk</a>. They were asked about their age, income and education, and other characteristics. Then I assessed their <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-society-teaches-everyone-to-be-racist-but-you-can-rewrite-subconscious-stereotypes-141676">bias toward light skin or dark skin</a> by relying on a variant of the <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">Implicit Association Test</a>, a common <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2011.02.004">research tool</a> for this purpose. Finally, I asked how much money they are likely to give to people living in developing countries. Participants responded <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/likert-scale.html">using a scale</a> that included an option to give none at all and ranges of under $10, $10 to $100, more than $100 but less than $1,000, and more than $1,000.</p>
<p>As I explained in an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-020-00277-8">article in Voluntas</a>, an academic journal, the participants who were more biased against people with dark skin were more inclined to give a smaller amount of money than the others.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Prior research has suggested that donors are more likely to give to people perceived as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1979.tb02716.x">innocent victims</a>,” such as crying children or a single mother. A common explanation for this is that these images foster feelings of guilt and sympathy.</p>
<p>But many scholars and nonprofit leaders criticize the use of images intended to elicit pity. This kind of “<a href="https://newint.org/features/2014/12/01/development-pornography/">poverty porn</a>,” they argue, can strip human dignity from the people who appear to be begging donors for help in photos and videos.</p>
<p>Also, this imagery conveys an incomplete or distorted picture. For example, not all children in developing countries constantly cry. And not all women who live in poverty are single. It is possible to be poor but happy within a family anchored by a stable marriage and yet deserving of charitable support from people who are living in more fortunate circumstances.</p>
<p>My study adds evidence that relying on stereotypical images for charitable fundraising can prove counterproductive if they discourage giving to international charities at higher levels. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Further research is needed to determine how nonprofits can accurately represent the people who will benefit from charitable giving without stereotyping them. </p>
<p>I plan to conduct a series of experiments where participants will see different images of beneficiaries selected from the sample of images used by charities and record if images increase their explicit and implicit biases against people of color. </p>
<p>Building on my <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1542">previous work</a> with philanthropy scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F0rg8fYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Angela M. Eikenberry</a>, I also plan to enhance the understanding of how the people who benefit from charitable donations might want to be portrayed by the charities that raise these funds. In addition, I will interview donors and fundraisers to learn more about how they assess the worthiness of individual beneficiaries in low-income countries.</p>
<p>I believe that gathering insights from fundraisers, donors and people who benefit from charitable dollars will enhance what experts understand about how this kind of fundraising works.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abhishek Bhati does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Using a common tool for measuring subconscious stereotypes, a scholar assessed how bias against dark skin can influence an inclination to support a charity serving people in low-income countries.Abhishek Bhati, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1312992020-05-28T16:56:29Z2020-05-28T16:56:29ZSmart cars, smart cities, why not smart Great Lakes?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338065/original/file-20200527-20237-1oog01l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C8%2C1479%2C1111&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Buoys and underwater probes can measure water quality, like this one outside of Cleveland, Ohio. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ed Verhamme, LimnoTech)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Smart home controllers, like Google’s Nest Hub, are changing how we manage our home environments. Self-driving cars promise to revolutionize the transportation sector. Smart, connected communities are popping up around the globe, integrating intelligent technologies between the natural and built environments. </p>
<p>Efforts to monitor our natural environment have followed suit. Increasingly, we rely on autonomous monitoring of air to inform us of allergens and pollutants that affect our health. Why not do the same for our waterways?</p>
<p>Human activities exacerbated by climate change have had huge impacts on Lake Erie and its watershed. Warm water temperatures, increased rainfall and fertilizer and manure run-off from agricultural fields fuel summer algal blooms that pose a danger to fish, wildlife and people while <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568988319300915">harming the economies of coastal communities</a>.</p>
<p>With autonomous sensors transmitting data in real time about the conditions of the shallowest of the Great Lakes, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00731">Smart Lake Erie pilot project</a> will provide drinking water utilities with an early warning system for harmful algal blooms that can lead to public health crises. Eventually, this ambitious cross-border venture could lead to a <a href="https://www.glos.us/smartgreatlakes/">Smart Great Lakes initiative</a>. </p>
<h2>Innovation spurred by crisis</h2>
<p>As recently as 15 years ago, only a handful of sensors were deployed in Lake Erie. These measured weather and water quality data such as temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen. But the data were stored on the device itself and downloaded periodically between May and October, meaning that there was no way for the public, utilities or governments to react to potentially dangerous changes in the lake’s environmental conditions. </p>
<p>Scientists at the <a href="https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/">Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory</a>, part of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), advanced autonomous sensing with the rollout of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2007EO280001">Real-Time Coastal Observation Network (ReCON)</a> in 2005. ReCON-networked buoys deployed throughout the Great Lakes system provide real-time data about episodic events such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.4031/002533208786842471">incursions of low-oxygen water into municipal water intakes</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337735/original/file-20200526-106828-nh5bjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337735/original/file-20200526-106828-nh5bjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337735/original/file-20200526-106828-nh5bjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337735/original/file-20200526-106828-nh5bjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337735/original/file-20200526-106828-nh5bjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337735/original/file-20200526-106828-nh5bjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337735/original/file-20200526-106828-nh5bjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An algal bloom covers Lake Erie near the water intake crib for Toledo, Ohio, in August 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A 2014 water crisis in Toledo, Ohio, spurred the next wave of innovation. In early August 2014, residents were warned not to drink or use their tap water due to a harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie, which left more than 400,000 residents without access to safe drinking water. </p>
<p>In response, a flotilla of more than 20 water quality sondes were deployed through Ohio waters. The instruments included sensors for phycocyanin, the pigment diagnostic of the toxin-producing cyanobacteria that was responsible for the water crisis. Many of the instruments are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2016.01.003">deployed near municipal water intakes</a>, providing water utilities with an early warning system for cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/great-lakes-waters-at-risk-from-buried-contaminants-and-new-threats-128992">Great Lakes waters at risk from buried contaminants and new threats</a>
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<p>The <a href="http://habs.glos.us/map/">Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS)</a> has made moves to broaden the impact of these efforts by integrating instruments so that they provide real-time data to scientists, water utilities and the public. Some sensors now measure changes in nitrogen and phosphorus, which can stimulate harmful algal blooms, and water flows, which help scientists understand where these blooms may move. With its partners, GLOS is developing an early warning system that will even send a text message about water quality to your smartphone.</p>
<p>Events like <a href="https://eriehack.io/">Erie Hack</a> and the Internet of H2O have produced smart lake technologies, including an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/opfl.1050">automated nutrient monitor</a> that transmits data to <a href="https://www.h2ometrics.com/">H2Ometrics, a cloud-based data analytics platform</a>, and is currently being piloted in Sandusky Bay. </p>
<h2>Dead zones</h2>
<p>Environment and Climate Change Canada has maintained a handful of autonomous sensors in Lake Erie for several decades. Yet momentum in Canada recently amped up through the <a href="https://raeon.org/">Real-time Aquatic Ecosystem Observation Network (RAEON)</a>, an initiative led by the University of Windsor. </p>
<p>Last summer, RAEON rolled out a series of buoys near Pelee Island, on the Canadian side of the western end of Lake Erie. The sensors provide real-time data to the GLOS network on incursions of low-oxygen water (hypoxia) from the lake’s central basin.</p>
<p>Water containing two milligrams or less of dissolved oxygen per litre of water is considered hypoxic. Zones of hypoxia are considered degraded habitat for aquatic life and can result in poor water quality to consumers. </p>
<p>The data from RAEON sensors will be used to refine <a href="https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/HABs_and_Hypoxia/hypoxiaWarningSystem.html">predictive models of Lake Erie hypoxia</a> used by water utilities and fisheries.</p>
<p>In the future, the system might automatically respond when predetermined thresholds are exceeded. The data the sensor networks produce can also help with the development and assessment of environmental restoration. </p>
<h2>Ontario remains vulnerable</h2>
<p>The value of having such a network in place is now more apparent than ever as we deal with the wide-ranging implications of the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmp2003762">COVID-19 pandemic</a>. While municipalities, along with federal, state and provincial agencies, continue to ensure the safety of our drinking water, <a href="https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/03/great-lakes-delay-research-coronavirus-covid-19/">environmental monitoring initiatives are on hold</a>. </p>
<p>For example, scientists typically begin surveillance programs in the Great Lakes and their connecting waterways as early as April. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0380133018302302">These samples help validate the satellite data</a> on the expanse of harmful algal blooms in western Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. An array of autonomous instruments would offer continuous monitoring during times like now. </p>
<p>But realizing this vision of intelligent water management in Lake Erie and its watershed is expensive. The initiative is supported with <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00731">US$2 million</a> as part of the NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System Ocean Technology Transition program in the U.S. But there is no dedicated support for Great Lakes initiatives in Canada. </p>
<p>Canadians will benefit from the U.S. investment in lake-based sensors, but it doesn’t enhance the infrastructure that is critically needed in Canadian waters. Indeed, these gaps in coverage <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10110430">leave water utilities in Ontario vulnerable to the toxins from harmful algal blooms</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Michael Lee McKay receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>George S Bullerjahn receives funding from the US National Science Foundation (award OCE-1840715) and the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (project PO1ES028939-01). </span></em></p>A networked array of sensors could warn drinking water utilities in real time of harmful algal blooms and prevent public health crises.Robert Michael McKay, Executive Director and Professor, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of WindsorGeorge S Bullerjahn, Distinguished Research Professor and Director, Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1349722020-04-08T12:12:27Z2020-04-08T12:12:27ZPorn use is up, thanks to the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325768/original/file-20200406-103690-wfdr52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Self-isolation can be boring and lonely.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jtTjrKLvhDw">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic is affecting almost all aspects of daily life. <a href="https://theconversation.com/fleeing-from-the-coronavirus-is-dangerous-for-you-the-people-you-encounter-along-the-way-and-wherever-you-end-up-133995">Travel</a> is down; <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-high-will-unemployment-go-during-the-great-depression-1-in-4-americans-were-out-of-work-135508">jobless claims are up</a>; and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/06/small-business-loan-coronavirus-sba/">small businesses</a> are struggling. </p>
<p>But not all businesses are experiencing a downturn. The world’s largest pornography website, Pornhub, has reported <a href="https://www.pornhub.com/insights/coronavirus-update">large increases</a> in traffic – for instance, seeing an 18% jump over normal numbers after making its premium content <a href="https://hiphopwired.com/848109/pornhub-premium-free-coronavirus">free for 30 days</a> for people who agree to stay home and wash their hands frequently. In many regions, these spikes in use have occurred immediately after social distancing measures have been implemented. </p>
<p>Why are people viewing more pornography? <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gCnmj3kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I’m a professor of clinical psychology</a> who researches pornography use. Based on a <a href="https://www.joshuagrubbsphd.com">decade of work</a> in this area, I have some ideas about this surge in online pornography’s popularity and how it might affect users in the long run. </p>
<h2>What’s the point of pornography?</h2>
<p>People use pornography for a variety of reasons, but the most common reason is quite obvious: pleasure.</p>
<p>In 2019, my colleagues and I published a review of over 130 scientific studies of pornography use and motivation. We found that the most common reason people report for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2019.1584045">why they view pornography is sexual arousal</a>. Research is abundantly clear that the majority of time that pornography is used, it is used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1532488">as a part</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9452-8">of masturbation</a>.</p>
<p>Knowing that people use pornography to masturbate doesn’t explain a great deal about why they might be using more pornography now. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I found that there are several additional reasons people might use pornography. For example, greater levels of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1191597">psychological distress often predict higher levels</a> of pornography use. People <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2017.1321601">feeling lonely</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2156869317728373">depressed</a> often report greater desire to seek out pornography; many people report using pornography to cope with feelings of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2011.607047">stress, anxiety or negative emotions</a>.</p>
<p>In short, people often turn to pornography when they are feeling bad, because pornography (and masturbation) likely offer a temporary relief from those feelings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325773/original/file-20200406-196131-1yeznfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boredom can be a big driver to online pornography.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Pe4gh8a8mBY">niklas_hamann/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Psychology researchers also know that people use porn <a href="http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd3191">more when they are bored</a>. I suspect this relationship between pornography use and boredom is quite likely one of those exponential functions that’s been in the news so much in recent weeks. It’s not just that more boredom predicts greater pornography use – extreme boredom predicts even higher levels of use. The more bored someone is, the more likely they are to report wanting to view pornography.</p>
<h2>Is more pornography now a problem later?</h2>
<p>The spread of the coronavirus and social distancing measures meant to help contain it have led to increases in <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-loneliness-of-the-social-distancer-triggers-brain-cravings-akin-to-hunger/">social isolation</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-could-lead-to-an-epidemic-of-clinical-depression-and-the-health-care-system-isnt-ready-for-that-either-134528">loneliness</a> and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/why-your-mental-health-may-be-suffering-in-the-covid-19-pandemic">stress</a> – so increases in pornography use make sense.</p>
<p>But are there likely to be negative effects down the road?</p>
<p>Already, numerous <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/03/how-big-porn-is-making-the-coronavirus-crisis-even-worse/">anti-pornography</a> activists have expressed grave concerns about these increases in use, with many groups providing resources for <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/online-anti-porn-ministry-getting-increased-interest-from-churches-due-to-coronavirus-shutdowns.html">fighting those rises</a>. </p>
<p>As a scientist, however, I’m skeptical of blanket claims that increased use right now will translate to widespread negative outcomes such as <a href="https://talentrecap.com/agts-terry-crews-open-up-about-his-porn-addiction-and-how-it-rewired-his-brain/">addiction</a> or sexual dysfunction. Like most aspects of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, there are probably not enough data yet for researchers to make definitive predictions, but past studies do provide some ideas.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0783-6">most consumers</a> do not report any problems in their lives as a result of pornography use. Among people who use pornography frequently – even every day – a large percentage report <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.01.007">no problems from that use</a>.</p>
<p>Some research, though, does find links between pornography use and potentially concerning outcomes. For example, for men, pornography use is often linked with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12108">lower levels of sexual satisfaction</a>, but the current evidence doesn’t untangle whether men use pornography more when they are dealing with sexual dissatisfaction or if men using pornography more leads to more sexual dissatisfaction.</p>
<p>For women, the results are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12108">even more unclear</a>. Some studies have actually found that pornography use is associated with more sexual satisfaction, whereas others have found that it is not associated with sexual satisfaction at all. </p>
<p>Studies related to pornography use and mental health have found that hours spent using pornography do not necessarily cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000114">depression, anxiety, stress or anger over time</a>. The same holds for sexual dysfunctions. Although there are cases of people who state that pornography led them to experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/bs6030017">erectile dysfunction</a>, large-scale studies have repeatedly found that mere pornography use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2018.11.004">does not predict erectile dysfunction over time</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325778/original/file-20200406-180021-7l6emy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cooped up alone, people are looking for distraction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jZi0Ih47EDY">Siavash Ghanbari/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A distraction at a boring, anxious time</h2>
<p>There is certainly evidence that some people who use pornography also report having mental health concerns or sexual problems in their lives; so far, though, the evidence linking pornography to those things does not appear to be causal.</p>
<p>In short, porn does not seem to be causing widespread problems, and it is probably offering people a distraction from the boredom and stress of current events. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that, prior to COVID-19, 17 states introduced or passed legislation calling pornography use a public health crisis, public health professionals have argued that it <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305498">really is not one</a>, and I tend to agree. COVID-19, on the other hand, certainly is a public health crisis.</p>
<p>Although humanity has survived countless pandemics over the ages, the current one is the first to occur in the digital age. As disruptive as the coronavirus has been, for many people, opportunities for entertainment and distraction remain greater than they have been at any other point in history. </p>
<p>When social distancing measures are lifted and people are once again permitted to safely spend time with friends, strangers and potential sexual partners, I would expect that pornography use will return to pre-COVID-19 levels. For most users, pornography is probably just another distraction – one that might actually help “flatten the curve” by keeping people safely occupied and socially distanced. Combined with the fact that many people are isolating alone, pornography may provide a low-risk sexual outlet that does not cause people to risk their own safety or the safety of others. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua B. Grubbs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Online pornography is one business that’s booming during the coronavirus pandemic. A psychology researcher explains its pull and whether there are likely to be longer-term effects of this surge in use.Joshua B. Grubbs, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1284932020-01-14T13:48:32Z2020-01-14T13:48:32ZThink twice before shouting your virtues online – moral grandstanding is toxic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309740/original/file-20200113-103966-8jqgsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C122%2C1528%2C929&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Those who are the loudest in their morality may not be the most moral among us.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/man-gets-on-soapbox-gives-passionate-1522386923">RTRO/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an era of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/topics/political-polarization/">bitter partisanship</a>, political infighting and ostracization of those with unpopular views, Americans actually agree on one thing: 85% say political discourse has <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2019/06/19/public-highly-critical-of-state-of-political-discourse-in-the-u-s/">gotten worse</a> over the last several years, according to Pew Research. </p>
<p>The polarization plays out everywhere in society, from private <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/1020.abstract?casa_token=Yb133_AzCpMAAAAA:ZMcbATlk9eAcLsb2E9fao5vWNeyHOIk9FrD3lp90VfABSuLotEGksH6dYkof1oG_g8bLbPraifH6bw">holiday gatherings</a> to very public <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0213-3">conversations on social media</a>, where debate is particularly toxic and aggressive. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=gCnmj3kAAAAJ&hl=en">psychologists like myself</a>, who study human behavior, this widespread nastiness is both a social problem and a research opportunity. My colleagues and I have zeroed in on one specific aspect that might help explain America’s dysfunctional discourse: moral grandstanding. </p>
<h2>Moral grandstanding</h2>
<p>The term may be unfamiliar, but most people have experienced <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/papa.12075">moral grandstanding</a>. </p>
<p>Examples of moral grandstanding include when a friend makes grand and extreme proclamations on Twitter about their deepest held values regarding climate change, for instance, and when a campaigning politician makes bold – but clearly untrue – ideological claims about immigration. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309744/original/file-20200113-103954-11y4tzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309744/original/file-20200113-103954-11y4tzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309744/original/file-20200113-103954-11y4tzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309744/original/file-20200113-103954-11y4tzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309744/original/file-20200113-103954-11y4tzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309744/original/file-20200113-103954-11y4tzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309744/original/file-20200113-103954-11y4tzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Moral grandstanders shout their values. They may not live them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Philosophers coined the phrase to describe the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/grandstanding-9780190900151?cc=us&lang=en&">abuse of so-called “moral talk”</a> – an <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00382019">umbrella term</a> encompassing all conversations humans have about our politics, beliefs, values and morals. </p>
<p>Usually, people engage in moral talk to learn from, connect with or <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/grandstanding-9780190900151">persuade</a> someone else. They might say of their decision not to eat any animal products, for example, “I am vegan for environmental and animal rights reasons.” </p>
<p>Moral grandstanding occurs when people use moral talk, instead, to promote themselves or seek status. So a moral grandstander might say, “I am vegan because it is the only moral decision. If you care about the planet, you can’t eat animal products.”</p>
<p>For moral grandstanders, conversation is a means to an end – not a free exchange of ideas. </p>
<p>A desire for respect from our peers is <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2015-11715-001.html">normal in humans</a>, as are the desires for safety, love and belonging. <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/1943-03751-001.pdf">Social scientists</a> have traced the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513800000714">evolutionary origins</a> of status seeking to prehistoric times.</p>
<p>Moral grandstanding, however, is a special kind of status seeking. It implies that someone is using conversations about important or controversial topics solely to get attention or impress others. </p>
<h2>Severed ties and broken relationships</h2>
<p>Just because someone touts their virtues – whether on Twitter or in conversation – does not mean they are morally superior to everyone else. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223749">recently published study</a> conducted with a team of other psychologists and philosophers, we asked 6,000 Americans a series of questions about who and why they share their deepest moral and political beliefs with. People who reported sharing beliefs to gain respect, admiration or status were identified as grandstanders.</p>
<p>Almost everyone indicated they had some history of grandstanding, but only a few – 2% to 5% – indicated they primarily used their moral talk to promote themselves.</p>
<p>We found that moral grandstanders were more likely to experience discord in their personal lives. People who reported grandstanding more often also reported more experiences arguing with loved ones and severing ties with friends or family members over political or moral disagreements.</p>
<p>People who indicated using their deepest held beliefs to boost their own status in real life also reported more toxic social media behaviors, picking fights over politics on Facebook, for example, and berating strangers on Twitter for having the “wrong” opinions. </p>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/grandstanding-9780190900151?cc=us&lang=en&">Philosophical accounts of grandstanding</a> strongly suggest that moral grandstanders behave less morally than other people in other ways, too. They are more likely to rudely call others out for not being virtuous enough, systematically disparage entire groups of people and hijack important conversations to serve their own purposes. </p>
<p>When the natural human desire for respect leads people to seek status in situations when they would be better served by listening, it seems, this behavior can drive friends, family and communities apart. </p>
<h2>Other reasons for discord</h2>
<p>The rise of moral grandstanding isn’t the only reason discourse in the United States has taken a turn for the worse. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309726/original/file-20200113-103959-183igx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C5%2C3983%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309726/original/file-20200113-103959-183igx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309726/original/file-20200113-103959-183igx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309726/original/file-20200113-103959-183igx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309726/original/file-20200113-103959-183igx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309726/original/file-20200113-103959-183igx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309726/original/file-20200113-103959-183igx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Moral talk can be abused.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Politics have grown extraordinarily <a href="https://academic.oup.com/poq/article/80/S1/272/2223255">polarized</a>, which is both a cause and effect of social polarization. Politically active people feel <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034">more animosity</a> and <a href="https://democracy.psu.edu/research/mood-of-the-nation-poll-1/americans-not-only-divided-but-baffled-by-what-motivates-their-opponents">less trust</a> toward “the other side” than they have in generations. </p>
<p>Social media itself seems to <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/pz9g6">accelerate conflict</a>, creating <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-social-media-fires-peoples-passions-and-builds-extremist-divisions-86909">echo chambers</a> of likeminded people that are galvanized against others and driving <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0213-3">cycles of outrage</a> that quickly escalate and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661318302638?via%3Dihub">stifle public participation</a> in important conversations. </p>
<p>So ending moral grandstanding won’t magically fix the public debate in the United States. But tamping it down would lead the country in a more productive direction.</p>
<h2>How to handle moral grandstanding</h2>
<p>Consider assessing your own conversation style, reflecting about what you say to others and why. When you enter into contentious territory with someone who differs in opinion, ask whether you’re doing so because you’re genuinely interested in communicating and connecting with your fellow human – or are you just trying to score points?</p>
<p>Thinking honestly about your engagement on social media – ground zero for moral grandstanding – is particularly important. </p>
<p>Do you post controversial material just for likes and retweets? Do you share social media posts of people you disagree with just to publicly mock them? Do you find yourself trying to one-up the good deeds of someone else to make yourself look good to people whose respect you crave? </p>
<p>If so, then you may be a moral grandstander. </p>
<p>If not, you can still fight moral grandstanding by recognizing and dissuading these behaviors in others. Given that moral grandstanders crave status, respect and esteem from others, depriving them of the attention they seek is probably the best deterrent.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua B. Grubbs receives funding from the National Institute for Civil Discourse and the Charles Koch Foundation. </span></em></p>People who act holier than thou aren’t necessarily better than the rest of us. In fact, their moral grandstanding may be driving society apart.Joshua B. Grubbs, Assistant Professor, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1220022019-09-30T11:24:15Z2019-09-30T11:24:15ZPosting on Facebook is helping nonprofits of all sizes raise money<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294241/original/file-20190925-51405-z1czqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More and more fundraising happens online.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/giving-money-online-closeup-keyboard-teal-523765876">karen roach/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Online giving, donations for charities made <a href="https://www.blackbaud.com/newsroom/article/2019/02/20/blackbaud-institute-releases-2018-charitable-giving-report">through websites and apps</a>, is growing quickly. It rose 17% between 2016 and 2018 to over US$34 billion. Some 8.5% of <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-giving-lost-some-ground-in-2018-amid-tax-changes-and-stock-market-losses-118892">all U.S. charitable donations</a>, including grants from foundations and gifts from people and companies, are made through websites <a href="https://outreach.com/blog/best-church-online-giving-platforms/">and apps</a>. </p>
<p>While researching what works best in fundraising in the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=heN16qUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">United States</a> and the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TaR1F1QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">United Kingdom</a>, we have become intrigued by the proliferation of <a href="https://www.nptechforgood.com/2018/12/03/2019-cause-awareness-giving-day-calendar-for-nonprofits/">giving days</a> – typically 24-hour-long online <a href="https://www.givegab.com/blog/what-is-a-giving-day/">fundraising campaigns</a>.</p>
<p>Among other things, we want to see whether heavily <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0899764019868849">using social media</a> platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were able to help nonprofits raise more money from more people during giving days.</p>
<p><iframe id="Szm4A" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Szm4A/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Giving days</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.givingtuesday.org/blog/2018/11/givingtuesday-2018-surpasses-billion-dollars-online-donations-its-inception-most">Giving Tuesday</a>, which is held on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/26/18098840/when-is-giving-tuesday">originated in 2012</a>. A wide array of nonprofits have raised an estimated total of $1 billion for everything from <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/giving-tuesday-where-donate-100000949.html">Alzheimer’s research to the Sierra Club</a> through this event in its first six years.</p>
<p>Others include Seattle’s <a href="https://www.givebig2019.org/">GiveBig</a>, which raised $11.4 million in 2019 and campaigns to raise money for specific schools. For example, <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2019/Q2/purdue-day-of-giving-leaps-to-41.6-million,-reaches-six-year-total-of-146.9-million.html">Purdue University</a> raised $41.6 million on its 2019 giving day in April and has amassed a total of nearly $150 million through these events over the past six years.</p>
<p>Many communities and specific causes, have created their own smaller-scale <a href="https://www.givegab.com/blog/what-is-a-giving-day/">giving days</a>.</p>
<p>For example, since 2013 <a href="https://www.omaha.com/news/metro/million-is-raised-during--hour-omaha-gives-charity-drive/article_36a1654a-a806-521f-8989-293aaff28b67.html">Omaha Gives</a> in Nebraska has raised a total of more than $50 million supporting more than <a href="https://www.omahagives.org/nonprofits">1,000 local nonprofits</a>. The organizations that take part in this campaign range from small animal and environment groups with annual budgets of less than $100,000 to large nonprofits with annual budgets of $100 million or more.</p>
<p>A recent study one of us co-authored looked into <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334573425_Growth_of_Community_Based_Giving_Days_in_the_United_States_The_Landscape_and_Effects">what motivates the donors</a> who take part in giving days. Its findings indicate that these people tend to be emotionally connected to the places where they live now and where they have spent time in the past.</p>
<p>We believe that this same emotional connection, along with nostalgia, explains the rise of giving days at colleges and universities. According to a recent survey conducted by <a href="https://www.case.org/">Council for Advancement and Support of Education</a>, 8% of the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Giving-Days-Gain-Traction-in/243953">alumni from 140 participating schools</a> donated on university giving days in 2017.</p>
<p>In 2018, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, raised $1.5 million in its third annual <a href="https://www.givetomiamioh.org/s/916/16/interior-flah.aspx?sid=916&gid=1&calcid=21723&calpgid=276&pgid=14683&crid=0">#MoveinMiami</a> giving day.</p>
<p>Other countries like <a href="https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2019/09/push-to-bring-giving-tuesday-to-australia-steps-up/">Australia</a> and developing countries such as <a href="https://daanutsav.org/">India</a> are emulating this model now. </p>
<h2>Social media</h2>
<p>Because giving days are relatively new, there’s little research about them. Hardly any scholars have looked into the role social media plays when they’re underway.</p>
<p>For our study, which we published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0899764019868849">Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly</a>, an academic journal, we collected up to a year’s worth of Facebook data for each of the 704 nonprofits that participated in Omaha’s 2015 giving day – a good example of these campaigns.</p>
<p>We took into account the number of likes on an organization’s Facebook page, the number of its posts referring to the Omaha Gives campaign and the number of times these posts were shared. We also obtained data on the size of these groups, information about their purpose – such as animal welfare or helping the poor – and how long they had been around.</p>
<p>Once we pooled all this data, evidence emerged that using social media tends to make nonprofits better at online fundraising.</p>
<p>For instance, we observed that a 10% increase in the number of likes on organizations’ Facebook page is associated with a 1% increase in the number of donations it gets. Similarly, we saw that a 10% increase in the number of Facebook posts a nonprofit made in the year before the Omaha Gives day in 2015 was associated with it raising 2.6% more money during that campaign.</p>
<h2>Size makes a difference</h2>
<p>Many fundraisers and nonprofit professionals see social media as an easy and perhaps cheap way to <a href="https://good360.org/blog-posts/7-ways-to-leverage-social-media-for-nonprofit-fundraising/">solicit donations</a>. We have heard the belief expressed that it has the potential to help organizations that operate on yearly budgets of up to $250,000, which can’t afford to advertise on radio or TV, to ratchet up their spending.</p>
<p>But we found that an organization’s size plays a major role in online fundraising. Omaha’s largest nonprofits, which have budgets of $1 million or more, raised three times as much money from three times as many donors than organizations with small budgets of less than $250,000, regardless of how frequently they used Facebook, which we used as a proxy for all social media.</p>
<p>That is, it doesn’t look like small organizations are likely to raise enough money to get much bigger just through being adept at using social media. We believe that because large organizations have larger budgets, they can afford to do a better job with their online fundraising campaigns and do more social media outreach.</p>
<p>In short, it does look like using social media can help nonprofits raise more money on giving days and that organizations of all sizes can expect the same proportional increase in donations when they use social media. </p>
<p>As most of the organizations in our sample were already using Facebook, we were unable to compare their fundraising performance to nonprofits that solely relied on more traditional outreach methods, such as mailings and phone calls. </p>
<p>We didn’t answer a related question: Does taking advantage of social media to fundraise merely engage people who already support your cause or does it attract new donors? But scholars are already tackling this important issue, and <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.15195/v3.a11">emerging findings</a> suggest that nonprofits need to spend heavily on social media before those efforts generate new donors.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Because large organizations have bigger budgets, they can more easily afford to excel at online fundraising through social media.Abhishek Bhati, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityDiarmuid McDonnell, Third Sector Research Centre Research Fellow, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1026702018-09-10T15:12:22Z2018-09-10T15:12:22ZLessons from cities that plan for their rivers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235391/original/file-20180907-90562-j57ngp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Akaki river runs through central Addis Ababa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Magnus Franklin/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In Nairobi, Kenya, the government is destroying buildings constructed on riparian land in a bid to mitigate the impact of floods. This is just one example of a growing African city that hasn’t adequately protected its rivers. Kefa Otiso spoke to Jessica Kavonic, an expert in helping local governments in sub-Saharan Africa on mainstream natural assets – like rivers – into policy and planning.</em></p>
<p><strong>Why is it important to protect urban rivers?</strong></p>
<p>Most of the oldest cities in the world developed around rivers because they played a major role in sustaining the city itself. Rivers provide water, support natural processes – like flood prevention – and provide habitats for plants and animals. These are important to the city, plants for example have a cooling effect, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/heat-islands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands">helping</a> to lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade and releasing moisture into the air. They also manage floods as most of the plants species that grow on river banks absorb a lot of water, reducing flood energy which is a threat to people and buildings.</p>
<p>Rivers also help to connect communities, create opportunities for recreation and bring people together. But we’ve observed that over time the explicit value of rivers has been ignored or overlooked by many people and policy makers. </p>
<p>One example is the Cheonggyecheon river in Seoul, South Korea. In the 1940s, the river became <a href="https://inhabitat.com/how-the-cheonggyecheon-river-urban-design-restored-the-green-heart-of-seoul/">heavily polluted</a> and because of the health risks was eventually paved over for sanitation reasons and an elevated freeway built over it. But following a massive government effort, it was restored and today is an oasis in a concrete jungle —- <a href="https://inhabitat.com/how-the-cheonggyecheon-river-urban-design-restored-the-green-heart-of-seoul/">a boost</a> to local biodiversity and economic development. </p>
<p><strong>In the cities you’ve worked in, did urban planning take major rivers into account?</strong></p>
<p>As part of our Urban Natural Assets from Africa: Rivers for Life project, currently being implemented by <a href="https://iclei.org/en/Home.html">ICLEI Africa</a>, the cities we are working with are; Lilongwe (Malawi), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Entebbe and Kampala (Uganda).</p>
<p>In all of these cities, the major rivers were definitely accounted for in land use plans with various guiding policies that regulate activities within and near rivers. For example, Malawi’s 1969 Water Resources Management Act <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269600030_Analysis_of_water_governance_in_Malawi_Towards_a_favourable_enabling_environment">stipulates that</a> riverine areas act as buffer zones and should be protected.</p>
<p><strong>What are the predominant challenges when it comes to rivers and planning cities?</strong></p>
<p>Planning for rivers is one thing, but implementation is another. With the immense urbanisation and growth rate of our project cities, enforcing and regulating laws is a major challenge for them. </p>
<p><a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/772611510199652447/pdf/Project-Information-Document-Integrated-Safeguards-Data-Sheet-Lilongwe-Water-and-Sanitation-Project-P163794-Sequence-No-00.pdf">For instance</a>, the Lilongwe river in Malawi is suffering due to rapid population growth and a delegation of responsibilities which has led to encroachment, in the form of cultivation and infrastructure development. </p>
<p>Africa is the world’s most rapidly urbanising continent. Some estimates suggest that <a href="http://cbobook.org/index.php?r=1&width=1366">there will be</a> a 700% increase in urban land cover between 2000 and 2030. How this plays out on the ground will be daunting. The abuse of rivers is one area of concern. And that’s happening already. </p>
<p>As local governments struggle to keep up with the high levels of urbanisation, many rivers have become dumping grounds for waste. For example, the majority of Ethiopian industry is located in Addis Ababa, <a href="https://www.omicsonline.org/open-%20access/contamination-of-rivers-and-water-reservoirs-in-and-around-%20addisababa-city-and-actions-to-combat-it.php?aid=88578">with a</a> considerable number based close to rivers. In the absence of an alternative and environmental enforcement, they have become prone to discharging waste into the waterways. </p>
<p>Riverbanks and flood plains have also become ideal locations for settlements and urban agriculture, particularly in dry seasons. But as a result they get more pollution and siltation and their natural ability to buffer floods is compromised. </p>
<p>Another challenge is in the planning itself. Traditional approaches rely on mass land acquisition and centralised planning – which are not aligned with the current realities of African cities, given resource constraints and resistance from impacted landholders. Urbanisation is also happening at such a rate that land use change is occurring faster than city councils can plan. </p>
<p>New ways of thinking are needed which deal with the realities. For example, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-018-0611-0">urban tinkering</a> which tries to work with what is already on the ground to minimise risks and vulnerabilities, rather than create an entirely new plan for an area.</p>
<p><strong>What solutions do other countries offer in addressing these?</strong></p>
<p>Our project tries to introduce a new way of thinking so that local governments see rivers as a tool in planning and use them to guide city decision-making. To support this, we developed a guideline on how sub-Saharan African cities can plan for their rivers. Including; dealing with river degradation, how to move from mainstreaming to implementation and best practice in mainstreaming.</p>
<p>Addis Ababa is a leading African city addressing this. There’s now a city government office solely dedicated to river restoration with a budget attached. <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/201711210654.html">Last year</a> they embarked on a project to transform a river area, extending over four kilometres, into ponds, walkways and parks.</p>
<p>Many other cities are implementing pilot projects on river banks aimed at restoring natural buffer zones. In Lilongwe, a revitalisation pilot project <a href="https://cbc.iclei.org/river-revitalisation-lilongwe-malawi/">is being</a> rolled out near two riverside food markets. This includes; raising awareness and training women in composting organic waste. </p>
<p>In others, they’ve involved communities on guiding plans and policies —- which is key.</p>
<p><strong>What are the three things Nairobi needs to do now?</strong></p>
<p>Many African cities face the same challenges that Kenya does – not having the capacity to ensure policies are properly implemented and regulated. </p>
<p>But planning for rivers is less about the products produced and more about the processes followed – like creating space for dialogue. Land use planners and environmentalists need to be brought together so they can figure out alternative ways of working together.</p>
<p>Communities in risk zones should also be involved. These interactions sometimes offer much more beneficial, and longer term, results.</p>
<p>Finally, it’s important to note that the scale of challenges facing cities is far bigger than local government and requires involvement from all spheres of government and all “influencers of development”, like the private sector and affected communities. </p>
<p><em>Jessica Kavonic is project manager of the Urban Natural Assets from Africa: Rivers for Life project which is currently being implemented by the African Secretariat of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kefa M. Otiso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Planning for rivers is one thing, but implementation is another as urbanisation and population growth increases.Kefa M. Otiso, Professor of Geography, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1002552018-07-24T14:19:55Z2018-07-24T14:19:55ZEvictions in Nairobi: why the city has a problem and what can be done to fix it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229001/original/file-20180724-194134-p0suzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">About 250,000 people live in Kibera slum in Nairobi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Authentic travel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A new road in Nairobi, Kenya, is <a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2018/07/amnesty-international-condemns-demolitions-at-kibera/">set to</a> displace up to 30,000 Kibera slum residents. The bulldozers moved in the early hours of the morning as authorities pressed ahead with a controversial decision to force people out. Kefa Otiso explains why forced evictions are so prevalent in Nairobi, and what can be done to prevent them.</em></p>
<p><strong>Why do forced evictions happen in Nairobi?</strong></p>
<p>They happen for lots of reasons. But the mains ones are ambitious development plans, the <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/markets/Upper-Hill-land-most-costly-as-prices-in-Nairobi-up-535pc/539552-2606680-17si7r/index.html">high cost</a> of land, an acute <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kenya-housing/slum-violence-inspires-kenyans-to-tackle-huge-housing-shortage-idUKKBN14I007">shortage</a> of affordable housing, and a lack of land rights. </p>
<p>Evictions happen when people fail to pay loans or rent, or when they illegally occupy public or private land. They also result from land ownership disputes – though some of these are criminally engineered through irregular or corrupt land deals. </p>
<p>But probably the most visible cases of forced eviction happen when the government reclaims land for public uses like road construction. This problem is not unique to Nairobi; <a href="http://www.citymayors.com/society/africa_evictions.html">it is prevalent</a> in many other African cities.</p>
<p>The exact number of evictions in Nairobi isn’t known. But they’re quite common in the city as <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/kenya/we-are-rubbish-country-forced-evictions-nairobi-kenya">widely reported</a> in the press. They shouldn’t be so prevalent. The 2010 constitution <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-landrights-factbox/factbox-four-landmark-court-rulings-in-kenyas-battle-over-forced-eviction-idUSKCN12A0PW">protects</a> individual rights, and should reduce incidents of forced evictions in the city. But poor citizen awareness, high legal costs, a history of unequal land access, poor planning, high levels of corruption and inefficient land markets all mean that evictions keep happening. </p>
<p><strong>Are all the evictions legal?</strong></p>
<p>No. Some are legal, others are illegal. </p>
<p>Legal evictions use warnings and court orders to enforce the decision, which is carried out by armed police and bulldozers. In the cases of illegal evictions, especially those involving corrupt land deals, such niceties are a luxury. Evictions have <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001278438/opinion-forcible-evictions-are-inexcusable">been known</a> to happen in the middle of the night, carried out by hired thugs, often with wanton destruction of property and attacks on the occupants. </p>
<p>These types of forceful evictions, whether legal or illegal, are typical in the city’s slum areas. They <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2013/03/kenya-ive-witnessed-a-million-and-one-forced-evictions/">mostly happen</a> unannounced in morning raids, when residents are either asleep or at work and are therefore less likely to resist. The <a href="https://africafeeds.com/2018/07/23/kenyan-slum-demolished-displacing-thousands/">latest raid</a> also happened in the early hours of the morning. </p>
<p><strong>What impact do they have?</strong></p>
<p>By forcing people out of their homes and denying them their right to due legal process, forced evictions exact a huge negative impact on people’s socioeconomic welfare. They often lose their belongings and potential livelihoods without compensation, and don’t have any other place to live. </p>
<p>Forced evictions also undermine local and national development by destroying accumulated social and economic networks and property. Thus, displaced people often have to start and rebuild their lives from scratch in new locations. </p>
<p><strong>What is the government failing to do?</strong></p>
<p>Kenya is still dealing with the lingering effects of nearly 70 years of British colonial rule which laid the foundation of many of Nairobi’s ongoing social and economic problems, including forced evictions. </p>
<p>The colonial government purposely under-invested in housing for indigenous Kenyans by claiming that Africans were best suited for rural life. In reality, this was a ploy to ensure adequate supply of cheap African labour to European commercial farms in Kenya’s former “White Highlands.” </p>
<p>Moreover, the colonial government restricted African access to Nairobi and implemented other race-based policies which prioritised European and Asian access to the city’s land and other economic resources. As a result the majority of the African population settled in unsafe areas. These became the precursor of many modern slum and squatter settlements that are vulnerable to forced evictions. </p>
<p>While independence legally changed many of these policies, their legacy still remains – not least because the city’s postcolonial governments have retained many of the colonial era’s urban management tools, including forced evictions. </p>
<p>These policies undermined African investment in their settlements because they came to see the city as a temporary place to live. Other African communities, like the Nubian population, recruited from Sudan by the British army for the Africa Rifles regiment, were purposefully settled on public land – which comprises part of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/04/kenya.nubian.discrimination/index.html">modern day Kibera slum</a>. But because neither the British nor independent Kenya gave the Nubians a title deed for the land until 2017, and even then <a href="https://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/news/uhuru-issues-nubians-title-deed-288-acres-kibra-land/">it was only</a> for a small portion of the original land, the Nubians continue to remain stateless and landless for much of their history in Nairobi. </p>
<p>Consequently, they have long been unable to develop their area or stop the growth of the slum that now surrounds them. They, and other Kibera residents, have as a result endured <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/press-releases/after-long-struggle-kenyas-nubian-minority-secures-land-rights">many forced evictions</a>.</p>
<p>Today, Nairobi is in many ways still a city that has an elitist orientation that mostly benefits its relatively small middle and upper class elites. While these elites often live in gated estates, <a href="http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4a3660e82.pdf">most of</a> the city’s population is concentrated in cramped slum and squatter settlements that lack even basic services and utilities. </p>
<p><strong>Are there lessons that can be learnt from other countries?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, there are many. </p>
<p>First, Kenya needs to complete the creation of its national <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-04/04/c_137086253.htm">digital land</a> registry. This will increase transparency and efficiency of the city’s land market, decrease corrupt land deals and reduce forced evictions by lowering the number of land disputes. </p>
<p>Second, more needs to be done to make the 2010 Constitution a reality. For instance, citizens need to be better informed of their rights and responsibilities. </p>
<p>Third, recreate Kenya’s municipal governments which, under the 2010 Constitution, were replaced by County Governments. The municipal structure was similar to the US’s system for running urban areas and is potentially more effective at managing the country’s urban areas and creating more housing.</p>
<p>Fourth, make more use of the urban planning and management experience of international actors – like the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, which is fortuitously headquartered in Nairobi. </p>
<p>Finally, Nairobi <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9493.00130">needs to</a> make its political economy more inclusive, implement proper land reform, domesticate its municipal planning and related by–laws, and create a proactive slum and squatter settlements policy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kefa Otiso previously received funding from the University of Minnesota and the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct the doctoral fieldwork research on Nairobi's slum and squatter settlements that is the basis of some of the opinions expressed in this article. These opinions are not necessarily those of the University of Minnesota or the Rockefeller Foundation.</span></em></p>Kenya needs to complete its national digital land registry to increase transparency and efficiency of the city’s land.Kefa M. Otiso, Professor of Geography, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/890152018-01-29T11:28:38Z2018-01-29T11:28:38ZWhy don’t STEM majors vote as much as others?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202874/original/file-20180122-182962-1fz6jmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">college voters</span> </figcaption></figure><p>There’s no shortage of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2015/article/stem-crisis-or-stem-surplus-yes-and-yes.htm">talk</a> about the need to get more students to go into STEM majors. But a growing body of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tea.21203/abstract">research</a>, including our own at the <a href="https://idhe.tufts.edu">Institute for Democracy and Higher Education</a> at Tufts University, <a href="https://idhe.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/NSLVE%20Report%202012-2016-092117%5B3%5D.pdf">indicates</a> there might also be a need to get more STEM majors to go to the polls. </p>
<p>An analysis that we conducted shows that college students studying STEM disciplines — that is, science, technology, engineering and mathematics — were among the least likely to vote. The analysis was based on enrollment and voting records of nearly 2 million undergraduate students at four-year colleges. Voting is only one measure of civic engagement, but it is an important one, as evidenced in <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/2/16795804/elections-2018-midterms-consequences">what’s at stake</a> for the November 2018 midterm elections. U.S. higher education’s purpose has long been <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED292362">viewed</a> as not only vocational training but preparation for citizenry. This includes voting and participation in government and policymaking. Voting also provides a tangible way to measure students’ belief that people and systems are interconnected and that they can play a part in shaping their communities. These are <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Making_Their_Own_Way.html?id=Z90M3rlRxbgC">key</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Common_Fire.html?id=z2mdCh7A53YC">goals</a> that higher education tries to foster.</p>
<p>STEM students appear less interested in other forms of political and civic engagement, too. One study found that students who took more science and engineering courses were less likely to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npt8c.6?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">participate in politics</a> by donating money to a campaign or attending a political meeting. Another found that engineering majors were <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ir.110/abstract">less committed</a> to social activism than their non-STEM peers. <a href="http://sencer.net/">Initiatives</a> have sprung up to remedy this through science <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/odi.12534/abstract">curricula</a>, <a href="http://sencer.net/model-courses/">teaching</a> and <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/translational/peph/currentissue/lists/1_16/communityengaged_research_and_citizen_science_two_similar_but_distinct_research_approaches.cfm">new approaches to research</a>.</p>
<p>It may well be the case that STEM education needs a “<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/education/2014/11/could-science-education-use-a-civic-engagement-makeover/">civic engagement makeover</a>.” However, our study of undergraduate college student voting points to other reasons — perhaps in addition to the educational experience — that explain students’ low interest in civic affairs. As researchers who examine the impact of attending college on students, we believe that a combination of academic experiences and student characteristics shapes student civic behavior, including voting. For our study, we tried to focus on figuring out how much student characteristics, such as gender and age, account for voter turnout differences by major. </p>
<p>Unraveling the relationship between voting and undergraduate major is a tricky task. It may be that faculty in some academic fields of study tend to do a better job than others with embedding a civic perspective and emphasizing the importance of political participation, and this contributes to higher turnout among students in these majors. Or students’ voting behavior may be explained more by who they are when they arrive at college and less by their course of study.</p>
<p>Students who are already civic-minded may be drawn to civic-oriented majors such as education or political science. And <a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/resources/genderdiff.pdf">women</a> — <a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/resources/genderdiff.pdf">known</a> to vote at higher rates — may be drawn to particular fields such as education or <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/cipdetail.aspx?y=55&cipid=88742">health professions</a>, perhaps due to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12147-017-9195-8">cultural norms</a> pushing them toward fields considered appropriate for women.</p>
<h2>Which majors vote the most?</h2>
<p>Using data from the <a href="https://idhe.tufts.edu/nslve">National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement</a>, we found that — at least at the undergraduate level — education majors vote at the highest rate, followed by health professions, humanities, social sciences, STEM and business majors. </p>
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<p>We also know that among the group of 2 million students we analyzed, STEM students tend to be younger and male while students in the health professions tend to be older and female. In our sample, 82 percent of health professions majors are women, and 60 percent of STEM students are men. The average ages of STEM and health professions majors are 22 and 25, respectively. Age and gender are <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Voice_of_the_People.html?id=_BkVAQAAIAAJ">correlated</a> with voting, so what would college students’ voting rates be if we removed these factors from the equation? </p>
<p>Once we account for age and gender, education majors were still most likely to vote and business majors were still the least likely to vote. Social science and humanities students’ predicted voting rates remain largely unchanged from their actual turnout rates. But for STEM students, the predicted probability of voting after accounting for age and gender goes up 2 percentage points. For students in the health professions, the prediction goes down by over 3 percentage points.</p>
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<p>What does this all mean? For one, it confirms the important role of student characteristics in explaining voting behavior, at least in part. In other words, one reason why voting rates in STEM fields are lower than other disciplines is because STEM majors include more men and younger students who are less likely to vote. It also means that when we talk about differences in civic and political engagement by college major, it is important to consider who is enrolled in those majors.</p>
<h2>The role of race and ethnicity</h2>
<p>In addition to age and gender, race and ethnicity help explain who votes within certain fields of study. Although STEM majors overall had lower turnout than humanities students by nearly 4 percentage points, the picture looks different for Asian women voters. Asian women in STEM majors actually voted at a higher rate than Asian women in humanities, 38.2 percent versus 33.0 percent. Business majors’ turnout was lower than social science majors by about 4 percentage points, but not when it came to black women. Black women business majors voted at a higher rate than black women social science majors, 54.6 percent versus 52.8 percent.</p>
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<p>What’s the takeaway? Even though there are notable overall voting trends by major, it is important to look at factors beyond just the majors to understand the reasons why. Other factors, such as student age, gender, race and ethnicity can reveal surprises and provide a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between a student’s major and voting. This research can make the work that educators are already doing to improve civic health and the common good more precise and informed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89015/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>IDHE has received funding from the Foundation for Civic Leadership and the Rapaport Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hyun Kyoung Ro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new analysis shows STEM majors tend to vote less than others. But researchers say the relationship between a college major and voter turnout is not necessarily cause and effect.Inger Bergom, Senior Researcher, Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts UniversityHyun Kyoung Ro, Assistant Professor, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/787292017-06-20T01:34:33Z2017-06-20T01:34:33ZWhy there are costs to moral outrage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174231/original/file-20170616-512-ek2kze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What exactly is outrage?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/los-angelescalifornia-january-21-2017-historic-561855349">Philip Pilosian/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Americans are morally outraged that U.S. President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/james-comey-fired-fbi.html">fired</a> former FBI Director James Comey, who had been investigating possible links between Trump’s election campaign and the Russian government. Many others are angry that Comey <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/comey-accuses-trump-lying-fbi-47933407">accused</a> President Trump of lying about the FBI. Still others are mad that Trump then <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40224371">accused</a> Comey of lying under oath before Congress.</p>
<p>Soon something else will stoke people’s moral outrage. A look at any partisan news source or social media site will show people expressing <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/angry-politics-americans-addicted-101735">maximum anger</a> at all hours of the day. </p>
<p>What explains all of this outrage? </p>
<p>The world isn’t really getting worse. But people have incentives to act like it is. New technologies give virtually anyone, at any given moment, a platform to express anger. These new ways of communication, from Twitter to Facebook, allow anyone to express outrage at the newest <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/sports/football/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-49ers-stand.html">political dust-up</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/arts/music/katy-perry-witness-interview.html">celebrity gaffe</a>. And by expressing anger in this way, people are able to communicate something <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/most-people-consider-themselves-to-be-morally-superior/">about themselves</a> – that they are morally sensitive, that they care about injustice – so much so that they are willing to accept the cost of being upset to show it.</p>
<p>Sometimes, however, outrage can be misplaced or excessive, and when it is, this can have bad consequences for a healthy public discourse. </p>
<h2>Outrage and moral grandstanding</h2>
<p>As moral philosophers, we are interested in how we should speak to one another about controversial and difficult moral and political issues.</p>
<p>Even the most casual observation reveals that some people don’t treat public discourse with the respect it deserves. They don’t treat moral discourse as a way to collaboratively identify problems and ways to fix them. Rather, they treat it as a way to show off how moral they are. </p>
<p>In fact, many people appear to use outrage in exactly this way. These displays of outrage are part of a larger phenomenon called “moral grandstanding,” something we explored in a recent <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/papa.12075/abstract">paper</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174233/original/file-20170616-1205-z6km3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174233/original/file-20170616-1205-z6km3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174233/original/file-20170616-1205-z6km3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174233/original/file-20170616-1205-z6km3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174233/original/file-20170616-1205-z6km3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174233/original/file-20170616-1205-z6km3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174233/original/file-20170616-1205-z6km3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Do people use outrage to show how moral they are?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/86853232?src=PyaxoJmdu_e1JGU0ZVjkwQ-1-45&size=medium_jpg">www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Here is the basic idea. Grandstanders use talk about justice, rights or morality in general to show that they are good people. Grandstanders want others to think that they care more about justice, or empathize more deeply with the poor, or more clearly understand the plight of the factory worker than the average person. Some are more modest, and just want to show that they are on the right side of history. For grandstanders, moral and political discourse is a vanity project.</p>
<p>Most people – including the authors of this piece – have been guilty of grandstanding at one time or another, and for understandable reasons. <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550616673878?legid=spspp%253B1948550616673878v1&patientinform-links=yes">Research</a> shows that individuals tend to regard themselves as morally superior to others: they think they care more about justice, or empathize more deeply with victims of wrongdoing, or have greater moral insight than the average person. When it comes to morality, people tend to give themselves pretty good reviews. </p>
<p>Furthermore, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254734042_Impression_Management_A_Literature_Review_and_Two-Component_Model">research</a> suggests that people want others to think they are moral paragons, too. And so they grandstand. </p>
<p>Grandstanding takes <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/moral-grandstanding-theres-a-lot-of-it-about-all-of-it-bad">many forms</a>. In their quest to impress others, grandstanders pile on in cases of public shaming, announce that anyone who disagrees with them about a difficult matter is obviously wrong, or make extreme and implausible claims.</p>
<p>People can also grandstand by expressing outrage. What exactly is outrage? Political scientist <a href="http://as.tufts.edu/politicalscience/people/faculty/berry">Jeffrey Berry</a> and sociologist <a href="http://as.tufts.edu/sociology/people/faculty/sobieraj">Sarah Sobieraj</a> provide a helpful characterization in their book on political opinion media, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-outrage-industry-9780199928972">“The Outrage Industry.”</a> Outrage speech, they say, is “distinctly emotional, partial, antagonistic, and opinion-based.” </p>
<p>Outrage can be a form of grandstanding because expressing outrage, whether sincere or feigned, is a way of showing how much you care about morality. According to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00254.x/abstract">research</a> by psychologist <a href="http://lskitka.people.uic.edu/">Linda Skitka</a>, people with strong moral convictions about an issue are more likely to have strong emotional responses when discussing them. </p>
<p>The use of anger to show just how serious you are about morality is familiar one. In 2014, for instance, President Barack Obama wore a tan suit during a press conference where he discussed the threat of the Islamic State. Representative Peter King was <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/president-obama-peter-king-tan-suit-rant">outraged</a>, saying of Obama’s wardrobe choice, “There’s no way any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday.” King’s response signaled that he would not tolerate any moral lapse from Obama, no matter how trivial. </p>
<p>If you want to show people how much you care about being morally upright, outrage will often do the trick. Because strong emotional responses are correlated with moral convictions, people think they can display their moral commitment by showing that they are outraged. </p>
<p>In fact, the more outraged, the better. If you are the angriest, you must be especially good. As Berry and Sobieraj say, “Outrage trades in hyperbole.” </p>
<h2>The costs of outrage</h2>
<p>In and of itself, outrage may not be all that bad. Expressions of anger can be very effective at identifying bad things in the world and motivating us to address them. But to use outrage effectively, we must protect it. Otherwise, when anger could be used to help people see that something is wrong, displays of outrage will just sound like more of the same.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174232/original/file-20170616-14532-15sv08q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174232/original/file-20170616-14532-15sv08q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174232/original/file-20170616-14532-15sv08q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174232/original/file-20170616-14532-15sv08q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174232/original/file-20170616-14532-15sv08q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174232/original/file-20170616-14532-15sv08q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174232/original/file-20170616-14532-15sv08q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Moral anger comes with costs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bristol-uk-february-4-2017-through-586748381?src=42VaPVAbBY9DY_hLb4_TFQ-4-21">1000 Words/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The problem with grandstanders is that they don’t protect anger; they abuse it. For grandstanders, just about anything can be cause for outrage. From <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/us/oberlin-takes-culture-war-to-the-dining-hall.html">Chinese food</a>, to wearing the wrong-colored <a href="http://www.latimes.com/fashion/alltherage/la-ig-obama-tan-suit-stop-freaking-out-20140828-story.html">suit</a>, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/arts/delta-airline-trump-public-theater-julius-caesar.html">Shakespeare</a> in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/06/12/delta-pulled-funding-from-a-trump-esque-julius-caesar-but-not-for-an-obama-like-version-in-2012/?utm_term=.fa37f8627f0c">Park</a>, anything can be used to display one’s moral purity. </p>
<p>But there is good reason not to use anger this way. Indiscriminate outrage dilutes its power to identify particularly bad things. By contrast, expressing anger selectively protects it as a way to signal significant injustice. There is also evidence that exposure to outrage discourse <a href="http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/roots-and-impact-outrage-mongering-us-political-opinion-media">tends</a> to undermine tolerance of others and promote misunderstanding about political issues. Displaying and consuming lots of moral anger comes with costs. </p>
<p>People are faced with a choice, then. They can grab all the attention they can get by grandstanding about how outraged they are. In doing so they risk rendering their anger ineffective at identifying injustice. Or they can keep their outrage in reserve for when it might actually accomplish some moral good.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78729/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandon Warmke's work on the paper "Moral Grandstanding" (Philosophy & Public Affairs, 2016), which is the background for this piece, was funded in part by a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Tosi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When outrage is misplaced or excessive, it can have negative consequences for a healthy public discourse.Justin Tosi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer, University of MichiganBrandon Warmke, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/668922016-10-21T21:18:40Z2016-10-21T21:18:40ZWhat Ted Nugent and Demi Lovato can do for Trump and Clinton<p>Celebrity involvement in presidential politics in 2016 has deviated from tradition in one big way.</p>
<p>Donald Trump cruised to the Republican nomination on the strength of his own celebrity status. He parlayed his celebrity status, insult-comic debate skills and Twitter tirades into an estimated US$2 billion worth of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html">free media</a>.</p>
<p>In contrast, Ronald Reagan, the most successful entertainment celebrity to make the transition to elected office, took a more incremental path to the presidency. Trump has never sought experience in public service or political leadership. Instead, he has primarily relied on reality TV notoriety and media savvy to make the transition directly from celebrity to major party presidential nominee.</p>
<p>But my research on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Entertainment-Politics-Influence-Political-Socialization/dp/1433106434">celebrities</a> and <a href="http://hij.sagepub.com/content/10/3/80.abstract">politics</a> shows that celebrity endorsements of presidential candidates are intended to achieve a number of objectives that Trump may or may not be pulling off on his own.</p>
<h2>Celebrities in 2016</h2>
<p>Celebrity endorsements may help energize supporters and help the candidate raise money. They may assist candidates with demographic and political constituencies that have been out of reach. And, of course, candidates hope that celebrities will persuade voters to support them.</p>
<p>In past elections, probably the most significant example of a celebrity aiding a candidate in raising money and getting votes was Oprah Winfrey. She supported Barack Obama during his 2008 primary contest with Hillary Clinton. Scholars Graig Garthwaite and Tim Moore <a href="http://www.stat.columbia.edu/%7Egelman/stuff_for_blog/celebrityendorsements_garthwaitemoore.pdf">estimate</a> that Winfrey’s endorsement generated more than one million votes for Obama. </p>
<p>The star-studded <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801197.html">fundraiser</a> she hosted at her mansion in 2007 raised more than $3 million for Obama’s campaign.</p>
<p>During the 2016 Democratic primary campaign, Bernie Sanders <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/23/killer-mike-is-bernie-sanders-s-unofficial-campaign-adviser.html">touted</a> the endorsement of African-American rapper and producer Killer Mike as he tried to woo young African-Americans. Likewise, Hillary Clinton used the endorsements of pop star <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/politics/hillary-clinton-demi-lovato-young-women-voters/">Demi Lovato</a> and actor <a href="http://time.com/4306966/lena-dunham-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/">Lena Dunham</a>, as well as other young celebrities, to attract millennial women. </p>
<p>But how effective have these celebrity endorsements been? The endorsement of one African-American rap artist couldn’t solve Sanders’ disconnect with black voters, especially against a candidate who’s spent years working with the African-American community. And, despite her young celebrity endorsers, many millennial <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/22/hillary-clinton-women-millennials/">women were skeptical</a> of Clinton’s ability to represent their generation.</p>
<p>A-listers have been almost completely absent from the Trump campaign. He garnered early support from actors Scott Baio and Kirstie Alley, rocker Ted Nugent, reality TV star Willie Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” and athletes Richie Incognito, Pete Rose and Mike Tyson. Nugent appeared in a campaign video, and Baio and Robertson spoke at the Republican convention. Yet, no celebrities have been overtly visible in Trump’s post-convention campaign.</p>
<p>Trump wanted showbiz pizzazz in his <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/18/media/rnc-celebrities/">campaign</a>. But celebrities may have weighed the ramifications of publicly aligning with him, and decided to stay away. It appears that some who once backed Trump, such as <a href="http://people.com/politics/kirstie-alley-not-endorsing-donald-trump/">Kirstie Alley</a>, have reconsidered. For some, not supporting Trump may be a strategic career decision to protect their reputation and future economic viability.</p>
<h2>Measuring celebrity impact</h2>
<p>In October 2015, my colleague Melissa Miller and I surveyed 804 Ohio general election likely voters. We asked them whether a particular celebrity endorsement would make them “more likely” or “less likely” to support a candidate. Celebrities who have made current or past endorsements, or who have been politically active in other ways, were chosen to be studied. By subtracting the percentage who responded they would be “less likely” to support a celebrity-endorsed candidate from the “more likely” percentage, we are able to calculate a simple measure of the net effect of the endorsement.</p>
<p>None of the celebrities showed a net positive effect, and four of them showed double-digit net negative effects.</p>
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<p>Given that the margin of error is 3.5, differences of seven points or more may be significant.</p>
<p>Celebrity endorsements work best when the celebrity is well-known and well-liked by the potential voter. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Entertainment-Politics-Influence-Political-Socialization/dp/1433106434">Celebrity</a> endorsements in the 2016 presidential contest appear to be no exception. </p>
<p>For instance, country star Trace Adkins, who won Donald Trump’s All-Star Celebrity Apprentice and supported Mitt Romney and John McCain, is a net drag on a presidential candidate of 8.5 percentage points among all likely voters. However, among those who say country music is their favorite, this flips to a net positive of 7.3 points. Adkins has not formally endorsed a candidate in 2016, although publicly he has spoken positively about securing the U.S. southern border, one of Trump’s favorite issues.</p>
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<p>Ted Nugent endorsed Donald Trump in May 2016 and is a 13.4 point drag overall. However, among those sympathetic to the Tea Party, he is a 14.1 point net positive. A Nugent endorsement may hurt Trump with the overall electorate, given the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRsW6Rikd0c">controversial</a> things he has said in the past about President Obama and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv5HJkp5sY0">Hillary Clinton</a>. Recently, Nugent appeared in an eight-minute video for Trump, but it is unclear if the ad ran anywhere except online.</p>
<p>Oprah Winfrey endorsed Hillary Clinton in June 2016 and is a 5.2 point drain among voters overall. However, among African-Americans she is a net positive of 20.7 points. Clinton may be well-advised to deploy Winfrey to increase African-American voter turnout in the remaining weeks of the campaign.</p>
<p>In the 2016 election cycle, Hillary Clinton has pursued the more traditional path of using celebrities to connect with key constituencies and bring glamour and vitality to her campaign, while Donald Trump has slashed out an entirely new course. We’ll know who was more successful in a few weeks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Jackson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When a celebrity runs for president, do celebrity endorsements matter? A survey of likely voters shows how tricky it can be to mix celebrity and politics.David Jackson, Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.