tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/james-madison-university-1987/articlesJames Madison University 2022-07-28T12:25:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1858412022-07-28T12:25:47Z2022-07-28T12:25:47Z‘Rage giving’: Charities can get a boost from current events, such as controversial Supreme Court rulings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473454/original/file-20220711-26-qiraph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5607%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Giving to a cause tied to nettlesome news may calm the nerves.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-is-angry-about-her-computer-news-photo/548849571?adppopup=true">Wodicka/ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When anger over everything from the killing of unarmed people of color to new restrictions on access to abortion bubbles over, many Americans act on it.</p>
<p>One avenue for someone who has gotten fed up with current events is to take part in protests, such as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/11/thousands-rally-against-gun-violence-after-mass-shootings-surge">marching for gun reform</a> in response to mass shootings. Another is by what <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Ay7ZS0cAAAAJ">nonprofit</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3qOb1RwAAAAJ&hl=en">philanthropy scholars</a> like to call “rage giving” – charitable donations motivated by strong emotions and dissatisfaction with the political climate. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/rage-giving/7D91A09D64D1514AF3C19F6690A4BD75">new book about this phenomenon</a>, we explain that people often donate to nonprofits following breaking news about events they consider to be tragic or unjust. By donating, people may feel they are addressing the wrong they want to see righted, or they can express a strong politically driven view or value. </p>
<h2>Divisive moments</h2>
<p>When news coverage grows and collective anger culminates in high-profile marches, rage givers can experience an emotional release by channeling their feelings into <a href="https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/6/22/17494052/rage-giving-trump-immigration-twitter">something they consider positive</a>.</p>
<p>Quick bursts of anger sometimes called “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/06/20/rage-giving-fuels-record-fundraising-immigrant-children/718272002/">fury triggers</a>” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12522">usually drive these gifts</a>. </p>
<p>We have found that waves of rage giving are often sparked by divisive political moments. These unexpected spikes in donations are typically fueled by extensive media coverage. </p>
<p>For example, after the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/27/1101490738/uvalde-buffalo-mass-shooting-similarities">mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo</a>, New York, <a href="https://buffalonews.com/business/local/as-donations-flow-in-after-tops-shooting-the-first-grants-are-rolling-out/article_d871d938-ddfa-11ec-99b7-238ada5cebd2.html">donations to groups that support gun violence victims</a> in both <a href="https://cftexas.org/supportuvalde">communities surged</a>.</p>
<p>And, shortly after the May 2022 leak of the <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/politics/a40218865/us-supreme-court-roe-v-wade-overturned-decision/">Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade</a>, NARAL Pro-Choice America, an organization that advocates for access to abortion, saw a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/donations-us-abortion-rights-groups-clinics-surge-after-supreme-court-leak-2022-05-04/">1,400% increase in donations within 24 hours</a>. </p>
<p>Likewise, the Brigid Alliance, a nonprofit <a href="https://theconversation.com/abortion-funds-are-in-the-spotlight-with-the-end-of-roe-v-wade-3-findings-about-what-they-do-182636">abortion fund</a> that provides financial and logistical help for people seeking abortions, saw the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/funding-increases-for-abortion-related-causes-as-rage-giving-continues">number of its donors quadruple</a> from May to July. The gifts ranged from $5 to $50,000.</p>
<h2>Growth following 2016 election</h2>
<p>Rage giving isn’t limited to guns or abortion. Nor is it new. </p>
<p>But there are many signs that the phenomenon grew ahead of, <a href="https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/6/22/17494052/rage-giving-trump-immigration-twitter">during and after</a> the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/11/05/500782887/donald-trumps-road-to-election-day">heated 2016</a> and <a href="https://afpglobal.org/news/engagement-all-rage-philanthropy-amid-crisis">2020 presidential elections</a>. Many people who were concerned about immigration, civil rights and sexual assault and harassment during those highly polarized periods sought out opportunities to give to nonprofits and political action committees as <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/11/21/rage-donate-becomes-anti-trump-balm/7t4pJvnlbfAW3A3NeItmyL/story.html">quick and easy ways to express their outrage</a>.</p>
<p>The ease and growth of online giving, <a href="https://institute.blackbaud.com/charitable-giving-report/online-giving-trends">up 42% in the three years ending in 2021</a>, makes it simpler for rage givers to express their outrage. There’s no longer a need to mail a check or make a phone call.</p>
<p>Rage giving is, to be sure, partisan in that anger and outrage can provoke political mobilization, action and higher voter turnout.</p>
<p>But nonprofits on both sides of the political and cultural divide have reaped windfalls from rage giving in recent years. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43884698">Giving to pro-gun organizations</a> like the National Rifle Association, for example, can surge when gun control measures are in the news –as is generally the case after mass shootings. </p>
<h2>More likely to be women and Democrats</h2>
<p>In 2017, we commissioned a survey that identified 520 people who said they had donated to a nonprofit of their choice after feeling <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108951036">unbridled anger during the 2016 presidential election</a>. Based on that data, we estimated that about 58% of these rage givers were women and 80% were white.</p>
<p>About 44% said they were Democrats, roughly 35% said they were Republicans and the remaining 21% identified as independent voters. Because the shares of Americans who <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx">lean toward one major political party</a> or the other is more evenly matched, we found that, at that moment in time, Democrats were more likely to donate this way than more conservative Americans.</p>
<p>When thinking about the candidates in the 2016 presidential election and the stances each candidate takes on social and environmental issues, one rage giver from North Carolina said in response to our survey, “I’m just sick about it,” she said. “We’ve got to do something.”</p>
<p>We also found the surveyed rage donors were likely to be civically engaged – through behaviors such as volunteering, voting, contacting elected officials and participating in marches and protests. Rage giving, as a form of collective action, aligns with other helping behaviors by giving a voice to the underserved and unheard.</p>
<p>More research is needed to get a clearer picture of why certain people do this. But based on what we’ve learned so far, we believe that people who engage in rage giving see philanthropy as a type of civic engagement and that their gift, along with other donations, makes a difference.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185841/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>These donors can experience an emotional release by channeling their feelings into something they consider positive.Jennifer A. Taylor, Associate Professor of Political Science, James Madison University Katrina Miller-Stevens, Associate Professor of Management, Colorado CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613332021-05-26T18:50:50Z2021-05-26T18:50:50ZWith COVID-19 cases surging, Nepal asks global community for urgent vaccine help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402673/original/file-20210525-15-1v55oas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=142%2C30%2C2660%2C1884&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A nurse treats a patient inside a COVID-19 ward of a government run hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 12, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nepal, the landlocked Himalayan country, currently has one of the highest COVID-19 viral reproduction rates in the world. <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/05/red-cross-sounds-alarm-over-nepals-covid-19-crisis">The situation is dire: reports indicate</a> Nepal has a consistently higher number of COVID-19 cases per million than India. By mid-July, new case numbers could reach 800,000, among a population of 30 million, with a <a href="https://covid19.healthdata.org/nepal?view=cumulative-deaths&tab=compare">predicted death toll of 40,000</a>. </p>
<p>Last month, Nepal’s Ministry of Health said: “<a href="https://kathmandupost.com/health/2021/04/30/nepal-health-ministry-says-situation-unmanageable-as-hospitals-run-out-beds">Since coronavirus cases have spiked beyond the capacity of the health system and hospitals have run out of beds, the situation is unmanageable</a>.” The ministry also said <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/25/covid-argentina-nepal-and-others-see-cases-rising-rapidly-like-india.html">it had no more vaccines</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/nepal">Only two per cent of Nepal’s population is fully vaccinated</a>. Nearly two million Nepalis have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, with the halt of exports of vaccines from India, most have not had access to a second dose. This shortage of vaccines in Nepal has <a href="https://covid19.mohp.gov.np/covid/englishSituationReport/60927cd76c1a9_SitRep451_COVID-19_5-05-2021_EN.pdf?fbclid=IwAR131MzmfWyZQ_JSTYd9zkFtxjpnkCRmcOrpCRcugPM6iCvSOez5yRrGS54">global epidemiological implications,</a> such as the possibility of virus mutations that could readily spread regionally and beyond.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A chart shows the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases in Nepal in May 2021." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402660/original/file-20210525-17-1odkp67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402660/original/file-20210525-17-1odkp67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402660/original/file-20210525-17-1odkp67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402660/original/file-20210525-17-1odkp67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402660/original/file-20210525-17-1odkp67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402660/original/file-20210525-17-1odkp67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402660/original/file-20210525-17-1odkp67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nepal vs. India The share of daily COVID-19 tests that are positive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/17gzUO_aSf1Svq5o5ma-_qrvXJGg8B4dC/view">Our World in Data</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As social scientists and public health practitioners familiar with Nepal’s health-care delivery and emergency response systems, we recognize that ultimately, the capacity to care for people suffering from COVID-19 in Nepal is <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/nepal-documents/novel-coronavirus/health-sector-emergency-response-plan-covid-19-endorsed-may-2020.pdf?sfvrsn=ef831f44_2">severely limited</a>, with roughly 1,500 intensive care beds and just over 800 ventilators in the country. The mountainous terrain throughout much of the country, along with a lack of infrastructure, political marginalization and poverty compound the impacts of infectious disease.</p>
<p>However, we are also familiar with Nepal’s unique grassroots public health capacities, including the ability to quickly and effectively distribute vaccines to its people. Distributing vaccines to Nepal should help mitigate the country’s exigent crisis and help to flatten the curve in South Asia. </p>
<h2>Inequalities mount</h2>
<p>As North America and Europe return to semblances of normal life, the danger of creating and maintaining a “<a href="https://globalnews.ca/video/7870131/world-has-entered-stage-of-vaccine-apartheid-who-head-says/">vaccine apartheid</a>” is very real.</p>
<p>Vaccine apartheid refers to the idea that wealthy nations or groups get vaccines, while others do not. As World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says: “<a href="https://globalnews.ca/video/7870131/world-has-entered-stage-of-vaccine-apartheid-who-head-says/">The solution is more sharing</a>.”</p>
<p>Last week, in a positive step towards moving the needle on vaccine apartheid, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007766776/covid-vaccine-global-doses-biden.html">U.S. President Joe Biden pledged an additional 20 million vaccine doses to share with the rest of the world</a>. This is welcome news. However, Nepal has not been identified as a priority. </p>
<p>In 1816, during the global <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/smallpox-politics-and-power-in-kathmandu/">smallpox pandemic</a>, Nepal’s King, Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah, succumbed to the disease. Although at the time, Nepal, with assistance from India and Great Britain, was at the cutting-edge of global vaccine efforts, access to vaccines to protect its citizens remained elusive. </p>
<p>Today, as then, structural inequalities are exacerbated by the pandemic. Today, as then, Nepal is at the mercy of powerful global actors and faces a desperate humanitarian catastrophe.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Paramedics in white hazmat suits roll a hospital gurney with a body covered in white sheet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402671/original/file-20210525-13-9e8d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402671/original/file-20210525-13-9e8d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402671/original/file-20210525-13-9e8d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402671/original/file-20210525-13-9e8d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402671/original/file-20210525-13-9e8d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402671/original/file-20210525-13-9e8d3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402671/original/file-20210525-13-9e8d3f.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">Paramedics get ready to load dead bodies of COVID-19 victims onto an ambulance for cremation at a government run hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 12.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As in India, Nepal has experienced a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/10/hopeless-situation-oxygen-shortage-fuels-nepal-covid-crisis">shortage of oxygen</a> supplies for those who fall severely ill. The tolls of the virus roll down steep slopes of inequality impacted by <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2FBF02898100">social-structural factors</a> like ethnicity, class, caste, geography and gender that co-mingle with public health policies. Nepal acutely illustrates how these differences exacerbated by a pandemic can lead to synergistic epidemics, or “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214401">syndemics</a>.” </p>
<p>While aid in the form of cash, oxygen supply chain assistance and essential supplies for healthcare facilities are helpful, access to vaccines is paramount to stopping sickness and death.</p>
<h2>Systems ready to distribute vaccines</h2>
<p>Nepal is uniquely suited for vaccine aid. The country has demonstrated the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taab027">successful implementation</a> of a multi-sectoral COVID-19 vaccination program, in even some of its most remote regions. </p>
<p>If the Biden administration and its allies prioritize Nepal for emergency COVID-19 vaccines, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002550">there is evidence</a> that Nepal could deliver them efficiently and effectively. The country has a track record of national vaccination initiatives and a grassroots public health infrastructure capable of reaching its population, not only for infectious disease but also for <a href="https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1745-6215-12-136.pdf?site=trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com">preventative care</a> and the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.35799">management of noncommunicable disease</a>. </p>
<p>This infrastructure is neither confined to cities nor dependent on complex technologies; rather, it is anchored by people and rooted in places, cultures and languages in ways that can alleviate vaccine hesitancy and spread accurate public health knowledge. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women pictured outside in front of mountains." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402680/original/file-20210525-23-1kugmpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two Female Community Health Volunteers outside of Ringmo, Nepal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Ayers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, Nepal’s renowned 50,000-plus strong network of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/enlisting-female-health-volunteers-to-fight-covid-19/">Female Community Health Volunteers</a> is ready to travel the breadth of the country’s seven provinces, helping to reach every household in both urban and remote settings.</p>
<p>With coolers of AstraZeneca doses slung over their shoulders, well-worn sneakers and a will to serve their communities, Female Community Health Volunteers have delivered what vaccine supplies they had to the elderly and vulnerable. </p>
<p>Female Community Health Volunteers have been at the forefront of recent successful vaccine campaigns, achieving high rates of BCG, DPT, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70324-9">oral polio vaccine</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7995-3">measles-rubella</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/2046905512Y.0000000037">vitamin A supplementation</a> coverage.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An elderly man holds up a vaccine card." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402681/original/file-20210525-21-181zsql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A senior proudly displays his vaccine card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Ayers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Physical distancing recommendations, isolation and sweeping lockdown measures <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.599280">are inapplicable</a> in countries like Nepal, where many people live in close proximity and must leave the house for work and food. </p>
<p>Mobilizing, and supporting, Nepal’s community health workers to deliver vaccines, prioritizing the most heavily affected areas and moving out from there, demonstrates <a href="https://www.unicef.org/nepal/stories/getting-immunization-back-track">the need for localized approaches to pandemic control</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/without-community-health-workers-global-covid-19-response-could-fail">extraordinary network of Female Community Health Volunteers</a> is one example of the unique capacity in Nepal to deploy a well co-ordinated, robust, decentralized health-care system in service of its citizens. This type of nuanced, culturally appropriate, data-driven approach is needed if public health measures are to benefit the most vulnerable. </p>
<p>The crisis unfolding in Nepal and South Asia presents an imperative to the global community to deliver vaccine aid. It is also a call to recognize the work of grassroots, public health infrastructures in places like Nepal. This recognition can be critical to ending global health apartheid.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161333/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>The COVID-19 cases are surging in Nepal, potentially surpassing India’s reproduction rate, but the country is out of vaccines. Global aid could help with one of the worst health crises in South Asia.Katharine Rankin, Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Geography and Planning, University of TorontoDavid Citrin, Affiliate Assistant Professor, Departments of Global Health and Anthropology, University of WashingtonGalen Murton, Assistant Professor of Geographic Science, James Madison University Sienna Craig, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dartmouth CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1543182021-02-22T13:27:47Z2021-02-22T13:27:47ZBiden’s Cabinet of many women shows other world leaders that US takes gender equality seriously<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385114/original/file-20210218-19-1gd0keu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C41%2C4652%2C2891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joe Biden has more top advisers who are women than any other U.S. president. They include Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.mx/detail/fotografía-de-noticias/president-joe-biden-sits-alongside-us-vice-fotografía-de-noticias/1231065026?adppopup=true">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden’s Cabinet is the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/15/biden-will-have-more-women-his-cabinet-than-any-president-ever-other-countries-still-do-better/">most diverse in U.S. history</a>. </p>
<p>It has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/959602615/janet-yellen-confirmed-by-senate-making-history-as-first-female-treasury-secreta">five women</a>, including the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/959602615/janet-yellen-confirmed-by-senate-making-history-as-first-female-treasury-secreta">first female treasury secretary, Janet Yellen</a>, and Deb Haaland, who will <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/24/native-americans-haaland/">become the first Native American Cabinet member if confirmed</a> as interior secretary. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/02/02/963217201/pete-buttigieg-confirmed-as-transportation-secretary">first openly gay man</a> to win Senate confirmation and lead a Cabinet department. </p>
<p>Four of Biden’s 15 Cabinet nominees identify as Latino or Black. They also span generations, ranging in age from 39 to 74.</p>
<p>The composition of Biden’s Cabinet matters because <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-age-diversity-in-a-presidential-cabinet-could-affect-policies-and-programs-152940/%22%22">research shows</a> that diverse teams can provide chief executives with valuable information that ultimately produces more effective public policies. In building a Cabinet that, in his words, “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/10/biden-root-out-systemic-racism-not-just-divisive-trump-talk-column/5327631002/">looks like America</a>,” Biden also sends signals to Americans of many backgrounds: People like you determine the country’s direction. People like you can make it to the top.</p>
<p>The Biden administration’s diverse leadership may send a message to the world, too.</p>
<p>Our work on <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gove.12044">gender inclusion and Cabinet picks</a> suggests that when world leaders – particularly those in powerful countries – appoint more gender-balanced Cabinets, other world leaders may become more likely to name women for key posts.</p>
<h2>Cabinet selection</h2>
<p>In any given country, domestic factors – from how the electoral system is set up to what the executive’s relationship is with the legislature – primarily drive Cabinet selection. Generally speaking, heads of government select their Cabinet members for their expertise and to shore up support among domestic constituencies, not to gain international celebration. </p>
<p>But even controlling for domestic factors, world leaders who broadcast the idea that gender equality matters can affect the decision-making of other leaders.</p>
<p>For example, in October 2018, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made international headlines by presenting a gender-balanced Cabinet. Days later, Rwandan President Paul Kagame <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rwanda-cabinet-women-gender-balance-government-africa-ethiopia-a8592461.html">upped the number of women</a> in his own Cabinet. </p>
<p>The period between Ethiopia’s and Rwanda’s announcements was particularly quick, but such processes – where heads of government follow the lead of their neighbors – are not uncommon. Having a neighboring country with an above-average percentage of women Cabinet ministers is associated with an 8% increase in female Cabinet ministers in nearby nations, our research shows.</p>
<p>Shared membership in international organizations with strong gender equality standards, like the European Union, also seems to increase the importance leaders attach to gender. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Group photo of Spanish cabinet standing on white steps with Sanchez in middle, surrounded by a gender-diverse group" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385117/original/file-20210218-16-uera6.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">Half the Cabinet ministers appointed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Segundo_Gobierno_de_Pedro_S%C3%A1nchez_%282020-01%29.jpg">Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our analysis finds that if a country belongs to two international organizations in which 50 other members have above-average percentages of women ministers, its own percentage of women ministers rises by 1 percentage point. The same is true of countries that belong to four international organizations in which 25 other members have more female ministers than most. </p>
<p>Getting more women into government leadership has merits beyond the obvious value of gender equality. </p>
<p>Countries with more women’s political representation tend to experience less <a href="https://academic.oup.com/isq/article-abstract/49/4/695/1813634?redirectedFrom=fulltext">civil conflict</a>, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1017/S0022381610000824">international war</a> and <a href="https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature">gender-based violence</a>. </p>
<p>It’s not yet clear whether women’s representation causes these phenomena or is merely correlated with them; political scientists continue to study this question. </p>
<p>Countries that prioritize women’s equality in politics also tend to do more to protect <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world">civil liberties</a> and safeguard <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343305050688">human rights</a>. South Africa’s 1996 constitution not only steered the country away from apartheid and toward an embrace of human rights – it also institutionalized gender equality as a principle. </p>
<p>In South Africa and elsewhere, the pillars of inclusion reinforce each other. </p>
<h2>Representational messages beyond the Cabinet</h2>
<p>Biden’s Cabinet members aren’t the only group of government officials that will receive international scrutiny. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1354066116681429?casa_token=qlTRhFI2I4EAAAAA%3AeL19GK9TZwJSAJBr4F-osso94rrcjaOiTpU6I2D3phSu5pZdC-F3pOX6cWHLujSbUf4_76Of6dpgLUQ">Our research on ambassadors</a> suggests that world leaders will also pay attention to the envoys that Biden sends abroad. </p>
<p>Countries that commit to gender equality appoint more women ambassadors. Take, for example, Sweden – a vocal proponent of ensuring women’s participation in foreign affairs – and China. Almost 40% of <a href="https://ecpr.eu/Filestore/PaperProposal/8db1a913-e843-402a-ac54-cf2d4e813772.pdf">Sweden’s 103 ambassadors</a> are women, while fewer than 7% of China’s 165 ambassadors are. </p>
<p>The converse also seems to be true: Countries that prioritize gender equality receive more female ambassadors. Among the 133 governments that send ambassadors to both China and Sweden, 44 dispatch a woman to Stockholm – but only 12 dispatch a woman to Beijing.</p>
<p>Governments that are more dependent on international aid seem particularly keen to factor donor countries’ decision-making into their own political appointments. The 37 countries that the World Bank classifies as particularly <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/country/XE">deep in debt</a> – a group that includes countries like Ethiopia and Bolivia – dispatch four times more women to Washington than they do to Beijing.</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>
<p>In the short term, Biden’s attention to gender balance in his administration increases the likelihood that leaders of other countries will similarly diversify their executive staffs. </p>
<p>In the longer term, continued American commitment to gender balance could strengthen equality and peace worldwide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154318/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>Research shows that when one country – particularly a powerful one – puts more women in power, other nations tend to follow suit.John Scherpereel, Professor of Political Science, James Madison University Melinda Adams, Professor of Political Science, James Madison University Suraj Jacob, Visiting Faculty, Azim Premji UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143202019-04-01T12:52:20Z2019-04-01T12:52:20ZWhy cabinet, rather than parliament, is the centre of power for African women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266512/original/file-20190329-70989-1ev6l6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Speaker of Rwanda's Chamber of Deputies Donatille Mukabalisa on international women's day. Rwanda is a trend-setter in female representation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How do we know whether women are achieving equitable levels of political representation? For many years, scholars have focused on women’s representation in legislatures. But in many African states power is in fact concentrated in the executive branch. </p>
<p>In most African countries heads of state and cabinet ministers enjoy significant discretion over resource distribution and policy agendas. This means that it’s important to pay close attention to who holds executive posts when trying to work out the role of women in a particular country.</p>
<p>Ethiopia and <a href="https://www.apnews.com/8aee81746d6f4e2491eccb4f28c2a10d">Rwanda</a> stand out head and shoulders above other African countries. Last year both appointed cabinets with 50% women representation. This meant that they joined <a href="http://iknowpolitics.org/en/learn/knowledge-resources/data-and-statistics/gender-parity-cabinets-are-rise">eight other states</a> in the world that have achieved at least 50% women in the cabinet.</p>
<p>Rwanda and Ethiopia have also received attention for their gains in women’s legislative representation. They rank 1st and 18th in the world for <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/ClaSSif.htm">women’s representation in national parliaments</a>.</p>
<p>This makes it tempting to view women’s legislative and cabinet representation as linked or correlated. But the findings of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1554477X.2016.1152830">paper</a> we wrote with political economist Suraj Jacob suggest it’s best to avoid making this link. We found that African countries with high levels of women’s legislative representation didn’t necessarily have high levels of women’s cabinet representation.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest that even in contexts where pathways to women’s legislative representation are blocked, there can still be breakthroughs in women’s cabinet representation. Such breakthroughs can influence policies.</p>
<h2>The top 10</h2>
<p>Our study put together data on women’s cabinet representation in all African countries from 1979 to 2010. We also used the International Parliamentary Union’s data on women’s legislative representation in African countries over that period. </p>
<p>In aggregate, we found that the trends for legislators and cabinet members were relatively similar. Women’s legislative representation grew from a continent-wide average of 7.2% in 1979 to 18% in 2009. Women’s cabinet representation rose from 3.5% to 18.7% in 2009.</p>
<p>But the aggregated data masked important country-level variation.</p>
<p>For each year from 1979 and 2009, we compiled two “African top 10” lists. The first list identified the 10 countries with the highest percentages of women legislators. The second list identified the 10 countries with the highest shares of women cabinet members. We found that just four countries per year, on average, appeared on both lists.</p>
<p>The number of overlaps ranged from two to six across the 16 examined years. But updated data continue to demonstrate such misfits. In 2017, for example, just four countries – Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Namibia – appeared on both lists. The inclusion of Ethiopia, which increased women’s cabinet representation last year, would still mean that only half of the countries on the lists overlap. </p>
<p>In strong executive countries where women’s legislative gains are not matched by women’s cabinet gains, women MPs are likely to encounter serious barriers. On the other hand, women cabinet members in strong executive countries with male-dominated parliaments may be able to effect significant change.</p>
<h2>The case of Ghana</h2>
<p>Our study took a close look at trends in Ghana. The country is a laggard in women’s legislative representation. But it has achieved relatively high levels of women’s cabinet representation. We believe that women’s gains in parliament have been limited by a number of factors. These include <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25472549?seq=1%20-%20page_scan_tab_contents">the incremental change </a> from military rule to democracy as well as the legislative electoral system.</p>
<p>In spite of this, women have had a relatively strong presence in the Ghanaian cabinet. There are numerous reasons for this. Ghana’s constitution allows the president to put together cabinets from up to 49% of members who are not MPs. In addition, the country’s repeated international commitments to gender equality appear to have influenced the appointment of women cabinet ministers.</p>
<p>Ghana’s autonomous women’s movement has used these commitments to pressure presidents to include women on their executive teams.</p>
<h2>Significant policy implications</h2>
<p>Political scientists Amy Atchison and Ian Down have shown that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2202/1944-2858.1007">women’s cabinet presence matters</a>. The larger the share of ministerial seats that women control, the more likely a state is to promote policies that improve women’s lives. Atchison and Down found that this effect is stronger than the effect of women’s share of legislative seats. </p>
<p>We expect it to be stronger still in cases where executive actors dominate legislatures. In addition, the symbolic effect of observing a female defence minister directing a “<a href="https://www.africanews.com/2018/11/23/photo-ethiopia-s-female-defense-minister-stands-out-in-sea-of-generals/">sea of generals</a>” can be transformative.</p>
<p>That’s why keeping keep a close eye on women’s inclusion in the executive branch is important.</p>
<p>Recent data from across the continent show an <a href="https://www.ipu.org/news/press-releases/2017-03/new-ipu-and-un-women-map-shows-womens-representation-in-politics-stagnates">overall dip</a> in women’s cabinet representation. This suggests that while cabinet seats have substantial political upside, they may also be more tenuous than legislative seats. Women’s legislative gains are often locked in via quotas, but women’s presence in cabinets is often tied to the party in power and the leader of the government.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melinda Adams receives funding from American Political Science Association and James Madison University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Scherpereel 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>In many African states power is concentrated in the executive branch. That’s why women’s representation in cabinet matters.Melinda Adams, Professor of Political Science, James Madison University John Scherpereel, Professor of Political Science, James Madison University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/927982018-04-09T10:33:39Z2018-04-09T10:33:39ZWhy double-majors might beat you out of a job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212348/original/file-20180328-109190-ensn31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research shows double majors have a big competitive advantage in one critical area.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/employers-recruiters-holding-reviewing-bad-poor-653243275?src=-5VNpD-j2CiXCoVrA2TleQ-1-69">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two college majors are better than one. That is the conclusion that researchers are beginning to reach.</p>
<p>Prior research has already shown that students who double major <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-it-pay-to-get-a-double-major-in-college-74420">can earn more</a> than peers who majored in only one field.</p>
<p>Our study shows that <a href="http://commons.lib.jmu.edu/sls/1/">double majors fare better</a> in another way as well: They are more innovative. </p>
<p>We are education researchers with an interest in how the college experience develops students. What we found in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-017-9486-7">this research</a> is that students who double majored scored 17.4 percentile points higher on our overall innovation measure than the average student. The innovation advantage for double majors is almost three times higher than any other major, including business, engineering and math/statistics. </p>
<p>This finding held even after we controlled for a number of variables, including a family history of entrepreneurship, courses taken in college, race, gender and GPA. We even controlled for personality traits, such as being an extrovert and being open to new experiences. We also considered the institution students attended, the quality of teaching to which they were exposed and the nature of their interactions with faculty members.</p>
<p>So what does it mean to be more innovative and why does it matter?</p>
<h2>What makes a person innovative</h2>
<p>For our study, we sought to measure students’ innovation capacities. We did so using a relatively new survey instrument that enabled us to determine how institutions can help students develop their innovation capacities. These capacities include skills related to networking, persuasive communication, working on diverse teams, and risk taking. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eXGp1V5mrqU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Why majors don’t matter.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These innovative qualities matter in the job market. That’s because employers want more from college graduates than good grades. What employers really want – according to a <a href="http://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/candidate-selection/what-employers-seek-on-a-resume/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=post-with-img&utm_campaign=content">recent survey</a> – are graduates who can effectively work in diverse teams, are creative thinkers and have persuasive communication skills. In short, <a href="https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/it-takes-more-major-employer-priorities-college-learning-and">employers want innovators</a>. </p>
<p>Since innovators are in demand, it begs the question: Are graduates who double-majored more innovative because they double-majored? Or did they double-major because they were already more innovative? </p>
<p>Self-selection could be at play. To be sure, one aspect of the connection between innovation and double-majoring is related to the fact that certain students want more than any one discipline or major can provide. They want to choose, or perhaps <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/12/08/why-is-choosing-a-college-major-so-fraught-with-anxiety/?utm_term=.da36806866a6">not choose</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212349/original/file-20180328-109193-fd7h3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s unclear if students double major because they are innovative, or if doing so makes them more innovative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/colorful-direction-sign-majors-184585037?src=vyRcTJCx4WNqPjrtApErsQ-1-16">Nerthuz/shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A desire for more</h2>
<p>Perhaps double majors are the kind of students who need more than many programs offer. It could be a signal of proactive and creative choice for students who don’t fit the mold in terms of how higher education is currently delivered.</p>
<p>Double-majoring might also provide students with experiences in which students see <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0002831212437854">connections between content</a> in different courses. Additionally, taking classes required for two majors might increase <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/612677">networking with peers</a> across disciplines.</p>
<p>Does this mean that all students should double-major and employers should only hire these graduates? Probably not. </p>
<p>While certainly our data demonstrate that double-majors are the most innovative, we do not conclude that this academic pathway is always the best choice for students or industries. What we do suggest, however, is that colleges and universities help students find ways to integrate material across disciplines, interact with each other across majors, and work on teams to solve real-world problems. This could be done through existing courses or perhaps new centers and spaces dedicated to innovation on college campuses.</p>
<p>That way, even if students don’t double-major, they might still become more innovative – and more attractive to employers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew J. Mayhew receives or has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the Merrifield Family Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin S. Selznick 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>New research shows double majors beat their peers in one critical way that makes them more attractive to employers. Colleges may have to adapt to that reality to help their graduates compete.Matthew J. Mayhew, William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration, The Ohio State UniversityBenjamin S. Selznick, Assistant Professor, James Madison University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/909052018-02-02T11:28:40Z2018-02-02T11:28:40ZDoes college turn people into liberals?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204490/original/file-20180201-123840-1b69jed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new study reveals that students gain an appreciation for views across the political spectrum during their first year in college.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/218235067?src=752gdc_5-AIzafacOky1rA-2-57&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Does going to college make students into <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-mooney/does-college-make-you-lib_b_1312889.html">political liberals</a>?</p>
<p>Conservative activists have claimed that universities <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brainwashed-ben-shapiro/1100329831#/">brainwash students and indoctrinate</a> them into believing a liberal ideology. The line of reasoning goes like this: Liberal college professors tell students “what to think,” and “what to think” is that conservatives and their positions are to be dismissed. A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/02/22/an-iowa-republican-wants-universities-to-ask-prospective-professors-how-would-you-vote">state lawmaker in Iowa</a> has even suggested universities consider political affiliation in connection with hiring practices in order to balance out the distribution of political representation on the faculty.</p>
<p>Conservatives on campus feel outnumbered, given that about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/11/the-dramatic-shift-among-college-professors-thats-hurting-students-education">60 percent of faculty</a> <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/professors-and-their-politics">identify</a> <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-gross-academia-conservatives-hiring-20160520-snap-story.html">as politically liberal</a>. This imbalance supposedly <a href="https://nypost.com/2014/10/12/liberal-bias-in-academia-is-destroying-the-integrity-of-research/">hurts research</a>, stifles <a href="http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2016/12/20/liberal-professors/">open discourse</a> and impairs <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/11/the-dramatic-shift-among-college-professors-thats-hurting-students-education/?utm_term=.690e3fd9c364">overall education</a>. Missing in this debate, however, is large-scale empirical evidence on how going to college actually impacts students’ attitudes.</p>
<h2>Our findings</h2>
<p>We are a group of academics interested in understanding how people of different religious, political and philosophical views interact. We are gathering data in a national study of college students called <a href="https://www.ifyc.org/IDEALS">IDEALS</a>. </p>
<p>Although we have partnered with the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based national <a href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/300/300212534/300212534_201607_990.pdf">nonprofit</a> that partners with colleges and universities to promote interfaith cooperation, our work in this area <a href="https://www.ifyc.org/ideals/history">predates</a> the organization and serves as the <a href="https://www.ifyc.org/ideals/history">basis</a> for the current IDEALS project.</p>
<p>The IDEALS <a href="https://www.ifyc.org/ideals/history">study started following</a> students when they entered college in 2015. Data on many topics, including tracking how students’ attitudes toward liberals and conservatives changed, were then gathered from the same students during their second year of college.</p>
<p>We measured how students viewed each political group separately along four dimensions. Specifically, we asked respondents the extent to which they thought liberals and conservatives were ethical, made positive contributions to society, and were people the student had something in common with. We also asked students if they had a positive attitude toward each group. The same questions were asked at the beginning of each student’s freshman and sophomore years.</p>
<p>These four attitudes are a great place to start gathering empirical support to test whether colleges are turning students against conservatives. If faculty were “telling students what to think” and students were internalizing these ideas, we’d expect to see evidence during the students’ impressionable first year.</p>
<h2>Gains across the spectrum</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ifyc.org/ideals/firstyear">result</a>? In our nationally <a href="https://www.ifyc.org/IDEALS/information">representative sample</a> of over 7,000 undergraduates at more than <a href="https://www.ifyc.org/sites/default/files/resources/IDEALSparticipants.pdf">120 colleges</a> who answered both the first-year and sophomore questionnaire, students did demonstrate an increase in appreciative attitudes toward liberals after a year of schooling.</p>
<p>Among all students, 48 percent viewed liberals more favorably in their second year of college than when they arrived on campus. However, among the same students, 50 percent also viewed conservatives more favorably. In other words, college attendance is associated, on average, with gains in appreciating political viewpoints across the spectrum, not just favoring liberals.</p>
<p>The data show 31 percent of students did develop more negative attitudes toward conservatives. However, just about the same amount, 30 percent, developed more negative attitudes toward liberals.</p>
<p><iframe id="QIgz1" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QIgz1/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Moreover, the data show us that the most growth in appreciation happened among people who were initially least appreciative of either liberals or conservatives. In simple terms, first-year students who begin college really disliking liberals or conservatives have their attitudes soften in college.</p>
<p>Turning to institutional type, students who attend a private college had a higher initial appreciative rating of liberals than their counterparts at public universities. However, overall views changed at both private and public colleges in the same way. Appreciative attitudes toward conservatives increased between the first and second year of college at both private and public to approximately the same degree.</p>
<p>Also, students trend toward appreciating liberal ideologies – both when they first come to college and after their first year. So, while students still favor liberal ideologies over conservative ones, this gap does not widen over the first year.</p>
<h2>Exposure matters</h2>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>We don’t know the answer. However, our best guess is this finding might ultimately have little to do with faculty directly and instead relate to the climate that campuses strive to create for the expression of diverse viewpoints, political and otherwise. While students may come to college never having met someone on the political “other side,” it is hard to avoid doing so in college. One central aim of higher education is to encourage contact, debate, discussion and exposure to persuasion from different kinds of people.</p>
<p>After a year of college, in other words, it might be more challenging for students to brand all liberals or conservatives as wrongheaded when they are studying, eating and learning alongside them. These experiences might even help students appreciate others as people with diverse histories and shared interests in working toward common goals.</p>
<p>One takeaway is clear: It appears as though the first year of college is doing what it should, exposing students to experiences that teach them how to think rather than what to think.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew J. Mayhew receives or has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the Merrifield Family Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alyssa N. Rockenbach receives funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Fetzer Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky receives funding for doing statistical work on the IDEALS survey.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin S. Selznick 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>Despite claims that college turns students liberal, a new study reveals that students gain more appreciation for both liberal and conservative views during their freshman year.Matthew J. Mayhew, William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration, The Ohio State UniversityAlyssa N. Rockenbach, Professor of Higher Education, North Carolina State UniversityBenjamin S. Selznick, Assistant Professor, James Madison University Jay L. Zagorsky, Adjunct associate professor, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/662602017-01-09T01:33:23Z2017-01-09T01:33:23ZInside the coal industry’s rhetorical playbook<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149335/original/image-20161208-31375-l11o65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A political sign in West Virginia reflects the claim that the Obama administration, by developing policies to reduce carbon emission, was waging a campaign against the industry. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vicki Smith/AP Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If citizens have heard anything about the upheaval in the U.S. coal industry, it is probably the insistence that President Obama and the EPA have waged a “war on coal.” This phrase is written into President-elect Donald Trump’s energy platform, which promises to “<a href="https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/energy-independence.html">end the war on coal</a>.”</p>
<p>The often repeated slogan indexes a set of attitudes and assumptions about government regulation and environmentalism. The foremost if the belief that the (liberal, overreaching) federal government has it out for coal and the American way of life that coal supports. </p>
<p>If only the coal industry could get government and its regulations off their backs, the <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/07/20/murray-energy-ceo-coal-industry-is-virtually-destroyed.html">argument goes</a>, thousands of jobs and our economy would come <a href="http://www.countoncoal.org/2016/05/02/leading-charge-war-coal/">roaring back</a>, a pledge Trump made during his campaign while touring Appalachian coal country. After the election, Trump doubled down on this rhetoric, saying that, “On energy, I will cancel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX_KaStFT8">job-killing restrictions</a> on the production of American energy – including shale energy and clean coal – creating many millions of high-paying jobs.” </p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/cwru-sge100716.php#.V_6w-673CRI.facebook">most</a> <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/hard-truths-for-trumps-america-1473808938">analysts</a> agree that the major front in the “war on coal” lies within the market itself. Natural gas production, experiencing explosive growth thanks to the rapid expansion of hydrofracturing, has dealt <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=25392">the biggest blow</a> to King Coal and explains coal’s loss of market share for power generation.</p>
<p>Still, the “war on coal” rhetoric persists. But why? We <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137533142">investigated</a> the public communication strategies used by the industry and found some consistent patterns.</p>
<h2>Looking for a lifeline</h2>
<p>From the coal industry’s perspective, the war metaphor does capture the situation of <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137533142">an industry under siege and under pressure</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Coal production in 2016 fell to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-coal-bankruptcy-idUSKCN0XC2KQ">historic lows</a>, with a <a href="http://ieefa.org/u-s-coal-production-26-first-half-2016/">26 percent drop</a> just in the first half of the year.</p></li>
<li><p>Six publicly listed U.S. coal companies, including the iconic Peabody Energy, have <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-coal-bankruptcy-idUSKCN0XC2KQ">declared bankruptcy</a> since April 2015. </p></li>
<li><p>Advocacy group Sierra Club’s <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/coal/victories">Beyond Coal</a> campaign claims 243 coal plants have been shut down and continues to target the remaining 280. </p></li>
<li><p>Although Trump has vowed to scrap the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/clean-power-plan-existing-power-plants">Clean Power Plan</a>, the reguations would, if implemented, have outsize effect on coal-fired electricity generation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Casting the coal industry as one under siege provides important cover for industry advocates. This framing allows it to shore up government support for big technological projects such as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/science/kemper-coal-mississippi.html">“clean coal” pilot plants</a> and <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/the-plan-to-revive-big-coals-fortunes-isn-t-panning-out-cc6300b1e715#.kh4pe6xzr">coal export terminals</a>, while at the same time, it justifies the call to get “big government” out of the way by fighting environmental regulations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149337/original/image-20161208-31402-1f0x5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One rhetorical technique is to claim that coal is ‘clean,’ yet the technology to pump carbon dioxide underground is costly and still under development.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mentatmark/7722625724/in/photolist-nd3NB8-qeYgpH-qu6YB3-6aMb5v-e4wfoY-82A2L7-Pm5ppM-KRpxuA-Kz5Sak-Mkbfy-fEbP1N-d6Hs55-77uBwC-7XZH3M-6bY12i-acJK3f-cLqtzo-dhoqYt-4BU97M-KVDMGD">mentatmark/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Importantly, the coal industry’s rhetorical playbook isn’t limited to so-called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-Denial-Heads-Sand/dp/1849713367/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475001095&sr=8-1&keywords=climate+change+denial">“climate change denial”</a> – although there is clear evidence that the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding">industry has financed several organizations</a> that question the fundamentals of climate science. </p>
<p>Instead, industry campaigns reveal several other rhetorical moves that Big Coal uses to garner support from the public and, perhaps more importantly, from government agencies that could provide a lifeline to an industry in upheaval. We outline five of their most powerful moves below.</p>
<h2>1. Industrial apocalpytic</h2>
<p>Remember how, following the global financial collapse in the late 2000s, big banks claimed they needed government bailouts because they were “too big to fail”? Big coal makes a similar move when it claims the “war on coal” will lead to an economy in ruins and the collapse of the American way of life.</p>
<p>A quintessential example is “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc">If I Wanted America to Fail</a>,” a five-minute video produced by <a href="http://www.freemarketamerica.net/">Free Market America</a>, an organization whose mission is “<a href="http://www.freemarketamerica.net/about-us.html">to defend economic freedom against environmental extremism.</a>” The video circulated on websites of coal-friendly groups during the 2012 presidential primaries, and it equates environmental regulations on energy production with America’s economic failure. </p>
<p>Industrial apocalyptic arguments close off critique, shore up status quo approaches to energy policy and build the specter of environmental regulation as catastrophic.</p>
<h2>2. Corporate ventriloquism</h2>
<p>Coal also enlists a wide array of voices to speak in ways that advance its interests. We call this corporate ventriloquism. It creates the appearance of broad public support for coal and conflates support for “America” with support for coal through the use of voices ranging from local “grassroots” organizations to national campaigns. Campaigns and organizations such as <a href="http://www.friendsofcoal.org/">Friends of Coal</a>, a West Virginia-based advocacy group, and <a href="http://www.americaspower.org/">America’s Power</a>, a coal industry trade association, emphasize the monolithic support the coal industry claims to enjoy among everyday Americans. </p>
<p>Corporate ventriloquism also allows the industry to position itself as a <a href="http://www.countoncoal.org/about-us/">grassroots citizen voice</a>, blurring the line between corporation and citizen to seize a <a href="https://works.bepress.com/ronaldwaltergreene/11/">rhetorical advantage</a>. In conjunction with <a href="https://drexel.edu/%7E/media/Files/now/pdfs/Institutionalizing%20Delay%20-%20Climatic%20Change.ashx">conservative foundations</a>, <a href="http://endcoal.org/2016/03/arch-coal-funded-us-libertarian-think-tank-and-alec/">think tanks</a> and <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/republican-ags-coal-companies-epas-carbon-rule-de76ac047edf#.1szo3psr0">sympathetic public officials</a>, the coal industry can use its financial resources to circulate a neoliberal, industry-friendly message and make it appear to be a popular, “common sense” position.</p>
<h2>3. The technological shell game</h2>
<p>The industry also plays what we call a technological shell game. It misdirects audiences to prior pollution abatement efforts, such as reducing dust and acid rain, to suggest the industry is proactively addressing carbon emissions. But this story conveniently ignores both the problems with carbon capture and sequestration technologies, as well as the history of government regulation and financing needed to make environmental and public health gains.</p>
<p>For example, according to the industry-supported group America’s Power <a href="http://www.americaspower.org/about-accce/">website</a>, the coal industry is “ensuring [America’s] future is cleaner than ever before.” The website then points to two “clean coal” plants – the <a href="http://www.mississippipower.com/about-energy/plants/kemper-county-energy-facility/home.cshtml">Kemper plant</a> in Mississippi and <a href="https://www.swepco.com/info/projects/turkplant/">John W. Turk plant</a> in Arkansas – as technological solutions to the problem of climate change. Yet Kemper has been beset by <a href="http://www.powermag.com/kemper-county-igcc-costs-rise-and-delays-loom-again/">cost overruns</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/science/kemper-coal-mississippi.html?_r=0">engineering challenges</a>. Turk’s technologies make it <a href="http://news.thomasnet.com/imt/2014/01/14/can-ultrasupercritical-technology-save-coal-power">somewhat more efficient</a> than other coal-fired power plants in the U.S. – leading to slightly lower emission levels – but even these levels are <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/carbon-copy/24062015/coal-industry-lobbies-epa-power-plant-rules-emissions-carbon-capture">well above</a> the emission rates articulated in the now-threatened <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/airquality/cpptoolbox/technical-summary-for-states.pdf">Clean Power Plan</a>.</p>
<p>When the industry consistently characterizes these two plants as technological fixes to coal’s massive carbon emissions, both of which are heavily subsidized by federal investment and which perform unevenly at best, this is an example of the technological shell game.</p>
<h2>4. The hypocrite’s trap</h2>
<p>The hypocrite’s trap is a move that gets used with startling frequency against environmental activists, and especially against students advocating for fossil fuel divestment. It silences voices critical of fossil fuel use by pointing to the activist’s own fossil fuel consumption. </p>
<p>We can see this at a celebrity scale when pundits snark about actor <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/01/24/why-leo-dicaprio-is-just-another-climate-hypocrite/">Leonardo DiCaprio’s transcontinental flights</a> as a climate activist or former Vice President <a href="https://www.biggreenradicals.com/nrdcs-big-green-hypocrites/">Al Gore’s electricity bills</a>. At a smaller scale, it’s used to make activists seem naïve about their own complicity in an energy system built on fossil fuels. If you can’t make it without coal and oil, the argument goes, then you can’t say we should divest from those industries.</p>
<p>The counterargument, of course, is that we can critique conditions as they are, even if we also benefit from them. But the hypocrite’s trap is effective because it builds on common conceptions of environmental activists as idealistic dreamers, fossil fuel advocates as hard-eyed realists, and a system that can’t be changed, so why try? The trap turns activists back toward their market role as consumers and silences political dissent.</p>
<h2>5. Energy poverty/energy utopia</h2>
<p>Given the downturn in domestic markets and environmentalists’ success in branding <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/issues/dirty-energy">coal as a “dirty” source of energy</a>, the industry and its allies have attempted to build a <a href="http://www.moralcaseforfossilfuels.com/">“moral” case</a> for expanding the use of coal: its ability to create a utopic future for the world’s poor.</p>
<p>Peabody fashions an entire <a href="http://advancedenergy.peabodyenergy.com/">campaign</a> around this strategy, with images and videos that consistently positions coal as a solution to <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115001586">energy poverty</a> and the key to providing a Westernized version of the good life. Doubling down on the rhetoric of clean coal and the hypocrite’s trap, Peabody’s campaign deflects complicated questions about energy justice and climate change that will be necessary to address in an era of energy transition.</p>
<p>We don’t see these moves as limited to the coal industry – once you understand them, you’ll see them all over the place. They’re used by big industries (oil, gas, nuclear, agribusiness) that see themselves “under pressure” thanks to declining markets or proposed environmental regulations. By naming these rhetorical tools, both academics and activists will be able to do the important work of responding effectively to industry’s standard moves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pete Bsumek is affiliated with The Sierra Club as a volunteer.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jen Schneider, Jennifer Peeples, and Steve Schwarze 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>Scholars of communications pick apart the rhetoric behind the ‘war on coal’ and explain why it ultimately benefits the coal industry.Steve Schwarze, Professor, University of MontanaJennifer Peeples, Professor of Communication Studies, Utah State UniversityJen Schneider, Associate Professor in Public Policy and Administration, Boise State UniversityPete Bsumek, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, James Madison University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/491922015-11-17T11:02:30Z2015-11-17T11:02:30ZCan Tesla’s enthusiast customers help it sell the electric car for the everyperson?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101877/original/image-20151113-10407-phwe8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tesla owners with clever license plates: W/O GAS, TSLA 101, SUN ENRG, and SIN CO2.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/4452080641/in/photolist-8kjqBn-7Mq5t4-pvQ648-o1A9EC-sKEW5L-7vL8jB-5t76MG-oeHXc1-apxGhG-apxGrQ-apxG7G-o1wME7-oEUkJo-du1Saj-foi7QN-9Q4w1B-7LQ9kh">jurvetson/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’m in a parking lot in Menlo Park, California, with Tesla owner Darrell, part of my recent sojourn to the Bay Area to research the culture of electric vehicles. </p>
<p>His bright orange Roadster convertible draws admiring glances from passersby. Moments later, we are on Highway 280 winding into the Santa Cruz mountains of the San Francisco peninsula. I am startled by how quiet the car is at cruising speed, even with canvas roof panels removed. </p>
<p>Darrell remarks that every now and then, his wife tells him to “punch it.” “So I have to punch it!” With that, he mashes the accelerator and the Roadster rocks us back hard in its low-slung seats. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101943/original/image-20151115-10401-135ryp2.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"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/webmonk/14056242417/in/photolist-nq6Vac-ezVXua-5ubGnz-5eDv32-P5AzF-DiGYb-7W1cYh-v4xqbH-nWXsmN-nUs5Yi-6Ma1p7-nq6MYS-6aqomT-kLTEAx-pxumdr-fcmyry-ccdkPb-5eTnPX-3gV3mY-uQVN-eZMCMT-5MsJqJ-26mSuz-oA6hKg-edVr6K-sSNrRo-gmadck-dzWzpb-ruSyfz-fApb78-NpAri-KEDV-95mx6t-5ywswU-qeZBvn-fc7eY2-qJ1uyV-8NFnMJ-pvsLf-p2BXLy-oW8JCc-7Teekt-wLtkS-idrDu-7PYNBG-gEQ4Bj-rdqdcL-chEjh3-68GVhT-s5b5Xe">webmonk/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Darrell, we may see an idealized Tesla Motors owner, a “first user,” in sociological parlance. He met me wearing a Tesla-brand baseball cap. And his is a two-Tesla household. When not bombing around in their Roadster on weekends, he and his wife commute in their Model S. </p>
<p>Darrell spent his career working in IT administration, while enjoying the natural beauty, privilege and sense of wonder that can come with life in Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>“My life has been Disney. Disney and Tesla Motors are my two passions.”</p>
<p>In some ways, Tesla Motors is as much a dream factory as Disney. Its business model is built on the premise of the electric supercar, an automobile designed to lay to rest the perceived shortcomings of electric vehicle (EV) technology, especially unattractive styling and short range. </p>
<p>But current CEO Elon Musk has a bigger objective in mind: use sales of premium EVs to fund development of a battery electric vehicle for the everyperson. And first users like Darrell are key to this enterprise. </p>
<p>As in the case of Apple Inc, devotees of Tesla Motors strongly identify with the technology, so much so that they willingly advertise and proselytize on behalf of the company. But as Tesla expands its reach, early adopter enthusiasm may only take it so far. </p>
<h2>Betting on the Model 3</h2>
<p>In its efforts to establish itself as a contender in the highly competitive auto sector, Tesla Motors has courted the ardor of customers like Darrell, people of means with a sense of adventure and a willingness to ignore some of the bumps and scrapes that inevitably come with pioneering new technologies. </p>
<p>A key element of the company’s mystique is its ability to impart agency to the customer, a feeling of actively participating in the reshaping of history. First users bond, share information and gain a sense of empowerment through the <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/forums">Tesla Motors Forums</a>, a semi-official sounding board.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OR7c2fb_dps?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tesla has a mission – to make transportation sustainable – that fosters admiration for CEO Elon Musk and the company.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To be sure, there have been more than a few blips on the road to the <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tesla-s-elon-musk-unveils-solar-batteries-for-homes-and-small-businesses/">auto-utopian landscapes</a> sketched by Musk. In 2014, Consumer Reports breathlessly rated the Model S “<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/02/25/consumer-reports-judges-tesla-best-in-show/">best in show</a>,” brashly awarding it 103 of 100 possible points in a <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/tesla-model-s-p85d.htm">review</a> of August 2015. </p>
<p>Less than two months later, the consumer guidebook issued <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cars/tesla-reliability-doesnt-match-its-high-performance">a mea culpa of sorts</a>, giving the car a <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cars/tesla-reliability-doesnt-match-its-high-performance">below-average reliability</a> rating. Owners reported a host of problems, ranging from annoyances like poor fit and finish to more serious incidents like leaking battery cooling pumps and warped brake rotors that would be costly to fix out of warranty. </p>
<p>Yet it is no surprise that consumer satisfaction remains high. Tesla Motors offers a very generous eight-year unlimited mileage warranty for battery and drivetrain on the Model S and the new Model X SUV. And its customer service is legendary and central to the company’s construction of brand loyalty. Darrell recounted an incident in which, after blowing out two tires on his Model S on a monster pothole, Tesla technicians recovered the vehicle on a flatbed truck and repaired it within an hour.</p>
<p>Much less clear is the role of users and the sustainability of the supercar business model as Tesla Motors attempts to transition to the mass market. The company’s current inflated <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/tesla-motors-inc-tsla-has-lost-35b-value-model-x-debut-2135349">stock valuation</a> is based largely on Musk’s promise to deliver the US$35,000 200-mile <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/it_IT/forum/forums/elon-musk-says-tesla-model-3-will-cost-35000-incentives">Model 3</a>, an ostensible entry-level supercar, in 2017-2018. </p>
<p>With the Model 3 the company is targeting non-true believers, users who are socialized to the very high standards of cost effectiveness, comfort and convenience of contemporary gasoline engine technology. Such consumers are less likely to tolerate the high cost and teething troubles of EV technology that first users now accept as part of the price of owning a piece of the future. </p>
<h2>Elephant in the room</h2>
<p>The biggest question mark around affordability and the Model 3, of course, is the power plant. Battery pack cost per kilowatt-hour is the most frequently cited issue, and the effort to drive it below $200 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from its current price of upwards of <a href="http://mitei.mit.edu/news/whats-cost-got-do-it">$400/kWh</a> is <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304709904579407473494212500">often seen</a> as the most important technological objective in the project to commercialize electric automobiles. </p>
<p>But battery aging is the real elephant in the room. Because batteries have much shorter lifespans than electric motors, which can last for decades, so-called pure battery electric vehicles have hidden replacement costs that consumers may or may not be willing to shoulder. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101913/original/image-20151114-10420-19dqpxa.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">Tesla battery packs include thousands of commodity battery cells (in green). But as all laptop users know, batteries degrade over time – a potential problem for Tesla and its customers down the road.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/arnolddeleon/6251178477/in/photolist-ANeZP-5WtNRc-AN4Lz-AN5TX-65faKN-rwpd6o-bsNQ4L-rhenZi-rwoS9j-hokLfQ-6kAHnJ-aLTqbe-epNpsd-5WtLMt-epN2qG-nDMTXN-eS5XFN-nDUtaC-aHkWiZ-8EHJQ3-9ap8eq-awoVzg">arnolddeleon/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although some automakers build their own battery packs, none produce the battery cells that make up such packs except Nissan, and then only in <a href="http://europe.autonews.com/article/20141212/BLOG15/141209825/nissan-offers-rare-peek-into-battery-making">collaboration</a> with electronics giant NEC. And Nissan is currently <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/nissan-to-consider-lg-batteries-for-electric-cars-1437052009">debating</a> whether to purchase cheaper cells from LG Chem as sales of its Leaf EV wane. Parts suppliers get paid first and stand to capture a significant proportion of battery replacement revenue over the lifetime of an electric vehicle. </p>
<p>Accordingly, most established automakers have <a href="http://www.iea.org/evi/Global-EV-Outlook-2015-Update_1page.pdf">more of an incentive to develop hybrid electrics</a>, which require smaller and less costly powerpacks than battery-only EVs and are, hence, a less risky financial proposition. </p>
<h2>Aura of infallibility</h2>
<p>But price isn’t the only thing Tesla needs to get right with the Model 3. Even if Tesla Motors successfully produces the automobile at scale, it is questionable whether the company will be able to sustain its high standard of customer service, which is costly. </p>
<p>By some estimates, Tesla is already losing more than <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/10/us-teslamotors-cash-insight-idUSKCN0QE0DC20150810">$4,000 per car</a>. A $7,500 federal tax credit for purchases of new plug-in EVs is available only for <a href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/taxevb.shtml">200,000</a> units per manufacturer, and Tesla has produced around 90,000 copies of the Model S to date. </p>
<p>In fostering the mythos of a super electric vehicle, Musk generated the hype and investment needed to sustain his company in its fledgling years. And yet, in pursuing automobile perfection, Tesla Motors has made itself a hostage to the fortunes of entropy. The optics of aging and deteriorating supercars will doubtless detract from the aura of infallibility that the company has so carefully cultivated.</p>
<p>The Model S incarnated the goal of reconciling environmental sustainability with comfort, style and convenience, becoming a potent symbol of liberal lifestyle values. For the romantic, well-heeled idealist, much could be forgiven with a goal so laudable. </p>
<p>But for average, non-first users, the unknowns of electric automobiles – and of aging batteries above all – will test their willingness to march in the vanguard of the revolution in sustainable automobility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew N Eisler 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>As electric vehicle fans, Tesla’s customers are a key cog in the company’s marketing machine. How much pull will they have as Tesla makes the Model 3 for a broader – and tougher – crowd?Matthew N Eisler, Visiting Assistant Professor of Integrated Science and Technology, James Madison University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/429862015-06-12T19:29:22Z2015-06-12T19:29:22ZBlame sugar? We’ve been doing that for over 100 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84751/original/image-20150611-11424-uku1dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sugar has always been vilified. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-233628199/stock-photo-sugar-bad-face.html?src=oTgXQvsQ0vQ2nZEEmTyyJw-1-0">Sugar cubes via www.shutterstock.com. </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After a successful soda tax was passed in 2014 in Berkeley, California, copycat laws are being proposed across the US, often with the support of nutritionists, medical professionals and a <a href="http://grist.org/politics/soda-taxes-bubbling-up-all-over/">majority of the voting public</a>. In 2015, the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics <a href="http://illinoisaap.org/2015/05/140-physicians-from-state%E2%80%99s-leading-pediatric-health-organization-endorse-the-healthy-eating-and-active-living-heal-act/">endorsed</a> an act that would use a tax on sugary drinks.</p>
<p>Research has implicated sugar (meaning both table sugar and high fructose corn syrup) in the rising obesity rate and in health conditions like Type 2 Diabetes. Some researchers, including Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist from the University of California San Francisco, have described sugar as toxic. While we know that Americans are consuming a lot more sugar <a href="http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf">now</a> than they have in the past, we don’t know at what amount it goes from being a sweet treat to something dangerous. Nor do we know how much of that danger is due to sugar’s unique effects, as opposed to its being a contributor to excessive caloric intake.</p>
<p>Lustig’s criticisms, detailed in his bestseller <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Chance-Beating-Against-Processed/dp/0142180432/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HNNY94WYSEA8CE4N8H9">Fat Chance</a> and the documentary <a href="https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/does-the-movie-fed-up-make-sense/">Fed Up</a>, can verge on apocalyptic. Sugar is “evil,” “toxic” and “poisonous.” His preferred analogies are tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, heroin and morphine. Soda is “a fructose delivery vehicle, similar to cigarettes.” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html">Journalists</a>, <a href="http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/09/12/berkeley-is-talking-about-sugar-and-the-conversation-isnt-sweet/">policymakers</a> and food activists have become devoted followers, and they support his call to regulate sugar “like alcohol and tobacco.”</p>
<p>But this furor over sugar isn’t anything new. Crusaders have been warning about the evil effects of sugar for hundreds of years, with no positive effect on our health. And isn’t that the goal of this kind of rhetoric? Without attending to this history of bias and failed rhetoric, we may be doomed to continue repeating it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84753/original/image-20150611-11424-a0kxib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84753/original/image-20150611-11424-a0kxib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84753/original/image-20150611-11424-a0kxib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84753/original/image-20150611-11424-a0kxib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84753/original/image-20150611-11424-a0kxib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84753/original/image-20150611-11424-a0kxib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84753/original/image-20150611-11424-a0kxib.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">Toxic?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-107192183/stock-photo-white-organic-cane-sugar-against-a-background.html?src=lvCA9qa_6hY8qdjOkIzhbA-1-61">Sugar and spoon via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Casting a dietary villain – sugar takes center stage</h2>
<p>Social history – too often ignored by science – reveals a consistent pattern of irrational beliefs about sugar. In 1974, pediatrician William Crook wrote a letter to a medical journal in which he named cane sugar “<a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/54/5/656.1.full.pdf+html">a leading cause of hyperactivity</a>” (what we now call ADHD). This truism has been so persistent that it was immortalized on an Old Navy “<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/426012445975482229/">Let’s Blame the Sugar</a>” T-shirt for babies. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0272735886900346">Researchers debated</a> <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/54/5/656.1.short">Crook’s claim</a> for decades. The scientific consensus now? According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd-the-basics-qf-16-3572/index.shtml">more research discounts this idea than supports it</a>.” They cite one study as a possible explanation for the myth’s persistence, in which “mothers who thought their children had gotten sugar rated them as more hyperactive […] compared to mothers who thought their children received aspartame.” It was belief about sugar’s ill effects that biased the mothers’ perception.</p>
<p>Going back further in time, the demonization of sugar gets increasingly absurd. In 1968, holistic lifestyle crusader Jerome Irving Rodale – founder of health and wellness behemoth Rodale Inc – wrote <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Health-Sugar-Criminal-Mind/dp/B000E1RPBC">Natural Health, Sugar, and the Criminal Mind</a>, the thesis of which is evident from the title. Murder; domestic violence; the rise of Nazi Germany: blame sugar! </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84906/original/image-20150612-1471-1xub9yg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Death serves soda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=FLTZRAL1WooC&pg=PT63&lpg=PT63&dq=death+serves+a+soda+wendy+woloson&source=bl&ots=cR6ofy3M9u&sig=1cBGRPyaGAUG98nVIxKohWcFepY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI5IWd89iKxgIVRJINCh3ZOwBT#v=onepage&q=death%20serves%20a%20soda%20wendy%20woloson&f=false">Wendy Woloson via Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The scapegoating of sugar dates to at least to the 18th century, when people lived in mortal fear of sexuality. British author Jonas Hanway blamed sugar for creating “fantastic desires and bad habits in which nature has no part” – and it’s not hard to guess what he meant. Children, he warned, were particularly susceptible to sugar’s detrimental effects, which also included “scurvy [and] weak nerves.” </p>
<p>Romanticizing “unprocessed” sweeteners also has historical antecedents. In 1852, physician James Redfield claimed that each stage of sugar processing was a “stage in the down-hill course of deception and mockery, of cowardice, cruelty, and degradation.” Animals that lived on honey were courageous and careful, “as, for example, the bee, the humming-bird, and the bear,” while those that preferred sugar were deficient in virtue, “as, for example, the housefly [and] the ant that lives in the sugar-bowl.”</p>
<p>Nor is it new to demonize sugar by associating it with drugs and alcohol. In the 19th century, temperance advocates spoke of sugar as a gateway drug, and a taste for sweets was thought to foreshadow deadlier habits. That’s what happened to Henry Haycroft, the fictional protagonist of an <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=FLTZRAL1WooC&printsec=frontcover&dq=woloson+sugar&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI0YuT08OIxgIVyBysCh3iIgCK#v=onepage&q=toddy&f=false">1843 temperance tale</a>, who eats “the sugar out of the bottom of his father’s toddy-glass,” before graduating to real drinks of sweet peppermint cordial. Redfield himself warned that “the use of sugar is the stepping-stone to intemperance.” </p>
<p>It’s hard not to be a little skeptical when you know your history. I’ve had a number of people ask me about a recent article called “<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/health/3-ways-sugar-kills-your-libido-118212496472.html">Three Ways Sugar Kills Your Libido</a>.” In response, I point them to nutritionist John Harvey Kellogg (yes, <em>that</em> Kellogg), who in 1881 argued that “candie … excite the genital organs.” Sugar stimulated animal appetites, went the scientific logic of the day, so it led to hypersexuality. It seems we’ve come full circle when it comes to sugar and libido.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84757/original/image-20150611-11437-1xodd8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84757/original/image-20150611-11437-1xodd8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84757/original/image-20150611-11437-1xodd8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84757/original/image-20150611-11437-1xodd8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84757/original/image-20150611-11437-1xodd8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84757/original/image-20150611-11437-1xodd8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/84757/original/image-20150611-11437-1xodd8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonizing sugar may not help people eat better.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-160886558/stock-photo-sugar-background-sweet-food-ingredient-with-a-close-up-of-a-pile-of-delicious-white-lumps-of-cubes.html?src=NXXwtuchaMBqAI3slH7n6g-1-94">Sugar cubes via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>We need to talk about sugar, but not like this</h2>
<p>Anti-sugar advocates like Lustig have adopted a fire-and-brimstone approach: Demonize a macronutrient. Tell people they should consider removing sugar and sugary foods from their pantries, that it is toxic, that we need to regulate it like cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs of abuse. Remember his analogies to cocaine and heroin. </p>
<p>But before we ransack our kitchens to rid them of ketchup and jam, it’s worth pausing to heed a warning from Stanford epidemiologist John PA Ioannidis. In his seminal 2007 article, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124">Why Most Published Research Findings Are False</a>, Ioannidis helps explain the endless flipflopping on nutritional guidelines. “For many current scientific fields,” he writes, “claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias.”</p>
<p>Real science, as Ioannidis reminds us, is slow and humble. Only time will tell if the current level of sugar alarmism is warranted, or if many years from now the comparison of sugar to cocaine will look a bit ridiculous. Should that be the case, governments and policymakers will be in the unenviable position of backtracking on yet another dietary guideline, further undermining the public’s trust in science as an enterprise. The research on sugar might be right – but our history of bias shows that we have a tendency to jump the gun on sugar due to moral furor. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that excessive sugar consumption is safe, nor that we should accept sugar’s role in our national diet. Caloric excess is often due to sugary treats, and companies market sugary foods rapaciously to children. So how do we address these problems?</p>
<p>Telling people “don’t eat that” doesn’t seem to have had a huge effect in the past. When Americans were told to fear fat, fat consumption dropped only slightly, while consumption of carbohydrates increased. Between <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5304a3.htm">1971 and 2000</a>, average daily calories from fat decreased by a mere 46 calories, while carbohydrate consumption increased by 240 calories. At the other extreme, some took the recommendation to limit fat and turned it into a prohibition, just as paranoia about fructose is now fueling a <a href="https://www.bulletproofexec.com/start-the-bulletproof-diet/">taboo on eating fruit</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps extremism, not sugar, is the real enemy. If that’s the case, the best approach to fixing our culinary culture doesn’t involve demonization or government regulation, strategies that promote dichotomous thinking – clean or unclean, toxic or safe – which <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UMfH764f3dAC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=binge-eating+forbidden+foods&source=bl&ots=xl95TvbYZT&sig=qxLx6kMnC3MPOehPsnLi6sOzugw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CF0Q6AEwB2oVChMI4LGpj7yIxgIVhwmsCh3iHgAJ#v=onepage&q=binge-eating%20forbidden%20foods&f=false">experts warn may contribute to eating disorders</a> like binge-eating and orthorexia, while having marginal positive effects on overall public health. </p>
<p>There are other strategies available. We could recognize that a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666399902441">healthy attitude toward food</a> needn’t involve worrying about which foods are healthy. We could focus on making convenience food fresher, more diverse, and more affordable, because not everyone has a local farmers’ market, or money to shop there, or time to cook, or a backyard garden in which to grow heirloom vegetables. </p>
<p>We could also strive to make home cooking more feasible by funding community cooking classes and reintroducing home economics. Culinary students – children and adults alike – could learn to prepare and appreciate delicious meals without feeling coerced, guilty or frightened. And they would do so in kitchens equipped, as all good kitchens are, with sugar.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Levinovitz 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>Crusaders have been warning about the evil effects of sugar for hundreds of years,
with no positive effect on our health.Alan Levinovitz, Assistant Professor of Religion, James Madison University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/420772015-05-20T10:07:35Z2015-05-20T10:07:35ZThe curse of Frankenstein: how archetypal myths shape the way people think about science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82298/original/image-20150519-30551-66qvf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the real villain in Frankenstein the scientist who created him, or the people who refused to understand him? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-107343878/stock-photo-united-kingdom-circa-a-stamp-printed-in-great-britain-shows-the-curse-of-frankenstein.html?src=t3aNML1CeS9KmjHioOH3jg-1-1">Stamp via www.shutterstock.com. </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“One doesn’t expect Dr Frankenstein to show up in a wool sweater,” <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986022,00.html">wrote</a> political commentator Charles Krauthammer, ominously, in the March 1997 issue of Time magazine. He was referring to British scientist Dr Ian Wilmut, who eight months earlier had successfully created Dolly, the world’s most famous sheep, by cloning her from another adult sheep’s cell.</p>
<p>Krauthammer’s criticism was unsparing. “This was not supposed to happen,” he insisted. Dolly was “a cataclysmic” creature. But PPL Therapeutics, the company responsible for funding the science behind Dolly, was undeterred, and four years later produced five cloned female pigs. Again, the news provoked outrage. Lisa Lange, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, echoed Krauthammer <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=20000315&id=EdQzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yugFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5529,1558628&hl=en">when she dismissed</a> justifications of cloning: “There’s always a reason given to validate these Frankenstein-like experiments.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82261/original/image-20150519-30538-jjzm24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&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="caption">Frontispiece to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein published by Colburn and Bentley, London 1831.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFrankenstein_engraved.jpg">By Theodor von Holst via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Invoking Mary Shelley’s myth of Frankenstein is standard fare in arguments over controversial science. In 1992, Boston College English professor Paul Lewis coined the term “Frankenfood” in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/13/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-8-13-00-on-language-franken.html">a letter to the New York Times</a> that argued for stricter FDA regulation of genetically modified foods. “If they want to sell us Frankenfood,” he wrote, “perhaps it’s time to gather the villagers, light some torches and head to the castle.” Dr William Davis, author of the bestselling book Wheat Belly, refers to modern strains of wheat as “frankenwheat,” and then blames them for nearly every chronic illness imaginable. And 19 years before Dolly, in-vitro fertilization pioneer Dr Patrick Steptoe tried to preempt such criticism when he defended his role in the birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first “test-tube” baby. “I am not a wizard or a Frankenstein,” <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-23/news/mn-1905_1_patrick-steptoe">he pleaded</a>.</p>
<p>Steptoe was wise to dissociate himself from Frankenstein. Research suggests that story archetypes – encoded in powerful, culturally pervasive myths – may play a crucial role in how people process new information. In their studies of jury verdicts, for instance, psychologists Nancy Pennington and Reid Hastie <a href="http://conium.org/%7Emaccoun/LP_PenningtonHastie1992.pdf">found that</a> jurors made decisions, in part, by fitting the evidence into previously defined narrative structures. </p>
<p>The persuasive power of these structures has led Rutgers law professor Ruth Anne Robbins to argue that attorneys should represent their clients as “<a href="http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol29/iss4/1/">archetypal heroes</a>” (her example of choice is from another modern myth, Harry Potter). Heroes are more likely to be perceived sympathetically, while villains – Dr Frankenstein and Dr Steptoe alike – will be perceived as criminals, independent of the evidence.</p>
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<span class="caption">Adam and Eve.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALucas_Cranach_d._%C3%84._001.jpg">Lucas Cranach the Elder, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Indeed, myths appear to lead consistently away from the truth, not toward it. Researchers from the University of Oregon have found that pairing statistics with narratives detracts from accurate evaluations of risk. And in a 2014 British <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089177">study of vaccination intentions</a>, subjects exposed to the powerful narrative archetype of a conspiracy – complete with “secret acts of powerful, malevolent forces” – were more likely to fear vaccines, despite access to evidence of vaccine safety.</p>
<p>The Frankenstein myth is particularly potent, since it recapitulates elements of the world’s most famous myth. Temptation leads Adam and Eve, like Dr Frankenstein, to acquire forbidden knowledge, which results in a cataclysmic fall from grace. </p>
<p>The potency of this narrative – the sinful knowledge seeker who departs from nature – worries New York University bioethicist Arthur Caplan, who believes it can shut down rational, nuanced dialogue. He told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You have to be very careful about deploying these powerful myths. There’s no reason to believe that technology, in general, is inherently dangerous or out of control. Not only that, Frankenstein can narrow our focus to biological and reproductive science. Other technologies, weaponized satellites and military technology, those don’t attract the same kind of criticism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People don’t just live by archetypal myths – they are <em>constituted</em> by them. Group identity, from religion to politics to race, depends on an investment in the truth of a few indispensable stories, which in turn serve as shorthand justifications of one’s preferred moral and social order. “When you tell a story about your client, you pick a storyline that people can identify with,” Robbins explains of her approach. This helps explain why mythically justified beliefs are so resistant to evidence: changing them means changing oneself. </p>
<p>The biasing power of myth is disconcerting, but it also points to a potential solution. If, in some cases, narrative can trump scientific evidence, perhaps literary criticism can come to the rescue. </p>
<p>Take the myth of Frankenstein. As Krauthammer, Lewis, and Davis tell it, genetically modified organisms are dangerous, unnatural and disgusting, and those who oppose them are the archetypal heroes. The villains are foolish, power-hungry scientists like Wilmut and Steptoe, whose unchecked hubris threatens to plunge mankind into darkness.</p>
<p>In the original tale, however, Dr Frankenstein’s creation is no monster, but rather a kind, gentle Creature. Tragically, the Creature soon learns to fear humans, who, terrified by his appearance, drive him away with stones and never come to understand his true identity.</p>
<p>The real villain in Shelley’s story is neither Dr Frankenstein nor his creation – it is the intolerant, torch-wielding villagers. Only after experiencing their cruelty does the Creature become a monster, exacting revenge on those who refused to give him a chance. This is the real myth, the original myth, and it suggests a radically different moral and social order than the more familiar version. If we embrace it, maybe the evidence about controversial science will start to tell a different story.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Levinovitz 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>Critics of controversial science like GMOs and cloning often invoke the myth of Frankenstein to highlight the dangers of new technology. But these critics may overlook the moral of Shelley’s story.Alan Levinovitz, Assistant Professor of Religion, James Madison University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.