tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-missouri-kansas-city-1928/articlesThe University of Missouri-Kansas City2023-09-11T06:53:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2118882023-09-11T06:53:14Z2023-09-11T06:53:14ZWacana adu tinju Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg: indikasi adanya kecemasan terhadap maskulinitas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543594/original/file-20230816-17-330xso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C26%2C5838%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dua ponsel pintar, satu menampilkan akun Threads milik Mark Zuckerberg dan satu lagi menampilkan akun X milik Elon Musk.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/meta-and-threads-app-from-elon-musk-vs-mark-zuckerberg-seen-news-photo/1583887287?adppopup=true">Jonathan Raa/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Masih ingat wacana adu tinju antara CEO Meta Mark Zuckerberg dan CEO Tesla Elon Musk?</p>
<p>Wacana tersebut tampaknya memang <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/mark-zuckerberg-cancels-cage-fight-elon-musk-meta-threads-tesla/">tidak akan benar-benar terjadi</a>. Namun, jika keduanya benar-benar bertarung, ini akan memberikan makna baru pada istilah “<em>tech bro</em>”.</p>
<p>Kedua miliarder ini juga pernah berselisih di masa lalu terkait kepentingan bisnis: Uji coba peluncuran roket SpaceX pada tahun 2016 yang dilakukan oleh Musk <a href="https://time.com/4476416/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-rocket-explosion-satellite/">telah menghancurkan</a> satelit senilai US$200 juta (Rp 3 triliun) milik Zuckerberg. </p>
<p>Pada 2022, Musk mengatakan bahwa Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/15/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-sun-king-louis-xiv">seharusnya tidak mendominasi media sosial</a>, lalu mendorong orang-orang untuk meninggalkan Facebook, platform media sosial milik Meta. </p>
<p>Meta juga baru-baru ini meluncurkan platform Threads, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meta-launches-twitter-competitor-threads-as-zuckerberg-and-musk-rivalry-intensifies">yang langsung bersaing</a> dengan X (sebelumnya dikenal sebagai Twitter) milik Musk.</p>
<p>Pola saling mengancam untuk mengalahkan satu sama lain merupakan bentuk persaingan yang baru–dan bukan hal aneh–bagi kedua orang ini. Sempat <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/ufc/musk-zuckerberg-fight-colosseum-ufc-b2390844.html">ada kabar</a> bahwa pertarungan adu tinju itu akan berlangsung di Colosseum Roma, tempat para gladiator pernah bertarung secara mengerikan sampai mati, dan akan disiarkan secara langsung.</p>
<p>Demi <a href="https://gladiator.fandom.com/wiki/Maximus_Decimus_Meridius">Maximus</a>, apa yang sedang terjadi sebenarnya?</p>
<p>Musk dan Zuckerberg berusaha membingkai wacana pertarungan itu sebagai peristiwa yang hanya akan sekali terjadi dalam generasi mereka. Namun, secara tidak langsung, keduanya telah menempatkan diri di antara barisan laki-laki dengan posisi publik dan politik yang “memamerkan kekuatan fisik demi meningkatkan status”.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=E4xQpIgAAAAJ&hl=en">Sebagai seorang peneliti gender</a>, saya melihat bagaimana pertarungan ini–sebut saja “unjuk kegagahan”–cenderung menunjukkan adanya krisis maskulinitas.</p>
<h2>Uang tidak bisa membeli kegagahan</h2>
<p>Penampilan dua miliarder kulit putih kaya raya bertarung akan menjadi hal yang langka. Lalu apa yang akan didapat oleh Musk dan Zuckerberg dari pertarungan ini? </p>
<p>Scott Melzer dalam studinya tentang klub-klub perkelahian, “<a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/manhood-impossible/9780813584911">Manhood Impossible</a>” (kejantanan yang mustahil), menyebutkan bahwa secara budaya, berkelahi kerap dikaitkan dengan maskulinitas. Budaya Amerika Serikat (AS) merayakan kekerasan laki-laki dalam konteks-konteks yang dianggap tepat. </p>
<p>Melzer menjelaskan bahwa bagi laki-laki kulit putih dari kelas profesional, berkelahi dapat membuat mereka merasa telah melewati ujian kedewasaan dan memenuhi persyaratan budaya untuk menjadi kuat. Perkelahian membantu mereka membuktikan pada diri mereka sendiri bahwa mereka adalah “laki-laki sejati”, meskipun tangan mereka lembut dan terawat.</p>
<p>Bagi saya, cara Musk dan Zuckerberg yang menantang satu sama lain menunjukkan adanya maskulinitas yang putus asa dari dua kutu buku teknologi berkantong tebal ini. Mereka bilang uang tidak bisa membeli kebahagiaan. Mungkin uang juga tidak bisa membeli kegagahan. </p>
<p>Kris Paap, penulis “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801472862/working-construction/#bookTabs=1">Working Construction</a>”, menjelaskan bahwa laki-laki yang tidak berani mengambil risiko sering dianggap lemah dan banci oleh teman-temannya. Sebaliknya, laki-laki yang mempertaruhkan kesehatan dan kesejahteraannya, membuktikan adanya keberanian mereka untuk mendapatkan rasa hormat dari rekan-rekannya. </p>
<p>Ini terutama terjadi pada laki-laki kelas pekerja. Namun, para politikus juga sebenarnya sama saja, mereka ikut unjuk kehebatan fisik agar dikagumi, dan memberikan pengaruh politik. Hanya saja mereka mengenakan sarung tangan.</p>
<p>Pada 2012, sebelum menjadi Perdana Menteri Kanada, Justin Trudeau <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12067">bertanding tinju</a> melawan Senator Patrick Brazeau. Trudeau, yang merupakan anggota Parlemen Kanada dan berasal dari keluarga kerajaan dan dinasti politik, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/02/god-save-justin-trudeau-film-boxing-canada-patrick-brazeau">menyatakan sebelum pertandingan</a> bahwa ia “ditempatkan di planet ini untuk melakukan ini … Saya bertarung, dan saya menang.”</p>
<p>Setelah keluar sebagai pemenang, citra Trudeau sebagai <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-a-nepotism-baby.html">bayi nepo</a> (dianggap mampu duduk di kursi kekuasaan berkat hubungan kekerabatan, bukan kemampuan) langsung menguap. Tiga tahun kemudian, dia menjadi PM, mengikuti <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figures/pierre-trudeau">jejak ayahnya</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sampul komik menggambarkan laki-laki tersenyum duduk di pojok ring mengenakan sarung tinju dan 'tanktop' merah putih dengan logo daun mapel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Perdana Menteri Kanada Justin Trudeau tampil sebagai seorang petinju dalam seri buku komik Marvel ‘Civil War II: Choosing Sides’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-cover-of-us-publisher-marvels-comic-book-featuring-news-photo/598119942?adppopup=true">Marc Brainbant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ada banyak contoh laki-laki lainnya yang duduk di kekuasaan tapi tetap ingin menunjukkan kejantanannya. Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8796659/vladimir-putin-shirtless-video">terkenal sering menunggang kuda dengan bertelanjang dada</a>. Sementara, Presiden AS Joe Biden pernah mengatakan bahwa ketika di sekolah menengah, ia <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump/index.htmll">ingin menyeret Donald Trump dan menghajarnya</a>.</p>
<p>Selama hampir dua abad, unjuk kejantanan–mulai dari William Henry Harrison hingga Donald Trump–telah menjadi bagian dari kesuksesan <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/opinions/bridges-trump-macho-candidates/index.html">kampanye kepresidenan AS</a>.</p>
<h2>Akhir dari laki-laki … lagi dan lagi</h2>
<p>Bukanlah suatu kebetulan bahwa rivalitas Musk vs Zuckerberg muncul di tengah persepsi populer bahwa maskulinitas sedang dalam masa krisis. Perempuan <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/08/whats-behind-the-growing-gap-between-men-and-women-in-college-completion/">bisa jauh lebih cepat memperoleh gelar sarjana dibandingkan laki-laki</a>. Sementara, kesenjangan pendapatan semakin menyempit. </p>
<p>Bunuh diri dan overdosis di kalangan laki-laki, yang sering disebut sebagai <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide">“kematian karena putus asa”</a>, terus meningkat. </p>
<p>Keyakinan akan adanya <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Cultures-of-Masculinity/Edwards/p/book/9780415284813">“krisis maskulinitas”</a> meningkat selama masa perubahan sosial yang progresif. Para pendukung pandangan ini cenderung menyalahkan kaum feminis dan kaum progresif sosial lainnya karena mengkritik adat istiadat dan nilai-nilai tradisional yang maskulin yang, menurut mereka, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life.html">menyebabkan laki-laki menjauh dari “semestinya”</a>.</p>
<p>Menurut <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3683791.html">para ahli gender</a>, pergantian abad ke-20 dan tahun 1990-an menjadi momen perubahan sosial lainnya yang memicu kecemasan serupa.</p>
<p>Pada tahun 1890, gerakan menuju pendidikan koedukasi (ketika murid laki-laki dan perempuan ditempatkan di satu ruang kelas) memicu perdebatan perihal anak perempuan dan laki-laki diajarkan kurikulum yang sama. Para pendukung gerakan itu berpendapat, jenis kelamin tidak seharusnya menjadi masalah di dalam kelas. Anak perempuan memang sudah seharusnya dipersiapkan untuk melakukan pekerjaan di luar rumah.</p>
<p>Sayangnya, gerakan semacam itu tidak bisa diterima oleh para laki-laki yang diuntungkan oleh pemisahan peran berdasarkan gender. Boy Scouts of America yang muncul pada tahun 1910 sebenarnya bertujuan untuk menjamin anak laki-laki mendapatkan ruang yang tidak boleh didapatkan oleh anak perempuan. Ini juga untuk memastikan <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1978.tb02548.x">anak laki-laki akan “cukup” mengenal maskulinitas</a>.</p>
<p>Sama halnya dengan kemunculan politik identitas pada tahun 1990-an. Politik ini menyoroti ideologi berbasis hak, khususnya <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/marked-men/9780231112932">hak-hak istimewa laki-laki kulit putih</a>. </p>
<p>Saat ini, kemajuan sosial–entah dalam bentuk banyaknya jumlah perempuan di tempat kerja, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-breaking-number-of-women-were-elected-governor-in-2022-here-are-7-things-to-know-about-how-that-happened-195871">meningkatnya jumlah perempuan di jabatan politik</a> atau makin banyak anak perempuan yang diizinkan untuk ikut kegiatan <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boy-scouts-new-name-scouts-bsa-girls-joining-ranks/">Pramuka</a>–tampaknya memicu rasa tidak aman para laki-laki.</p>
<p>Hal tersebut dapat terlihat dari mulai munculnya sejumlah advokat pendukung hak-hak laki-laki seperti Jordan Peterson, yang mengklaim bahwa laki-laki diminta untuk <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKrEil9-Ag">mengebiri diri mereka sendiri</a> atas nama kesetaraan. Selain itu, ada pula <a href="https://www.them.us/story/barbie-movie-ben-shapiro">cemoohan</a> oleh komentator konservatif Ben Shapiro terhadap film “Barbie” yang mendapat pujian karena mengkritik nilai-nilai patriarki.</p>
<p>Pada saat-saat seperti ini, seperti yang telah diprediksi, banyak laki-laki bertindak untuk merebut kembali gagasan bahwa mereka secara mutlak berbeda dengan perempuan–dan karenanya berhak berada di ruang yang berbeda.</p>
<p>Sosiolog <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Caveman-Mystique-Pop-Darwinism-and-the-Debates-Over-Sex-Violence/McCaughey/p/book/9780415934756">Martha McCaughey</a> mengungkapkan bagaimana biologi evolusioner telah menjadi cara yang populer untuk berargumen bahwa laki-laki tidak dapat menahan “kecenderungan bawaan” mereka.</p>
<p>Ini termasuk dorongan untuk mendominasi orang lain, baik dalam hal bisnis, di tempat tidur atau, ya, di atas ring.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristen Barber tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>‘Unjuk kejantanan’ cenderung berkaitan dengan keyakinan bahwa maskulinitas sedang mengalami krisis atau sedang diserang.Kristen Barber, Associate Professor of Race, Ethnic and Gender Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas CityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114062023-08-17T12:34:39Z2023-08-17T12:34:39ZWhat Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s canceled cage match says about masculine anxiety<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543092/original/file-20230816-17-330xso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C26%2C5838%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Would a fight help them prove to themselves that they are 'real men,' despite their soft − probably manicured − hands?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/meta-and-threads-app-from-elon-musk-vs-mark-zuckerberg-seen-news-photo/1583887287?adppopup=true">Photo illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While the cage fight between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/mark-zuckerberg-cancels-cage-fight-elon-musk-meta-threads-tesla/">seems to be on hold</a>, if these men do ever end up sparring, it’ll give a whole new meaning to the term “tech bro.”</p>
<p>The two billionaires’ business interests have butted heads in the past: Musk’s 2016 test launch of a <a href="https://time.com/4476416/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-rocket-explosion-satellite/">SpaceX rocket destroyed Zuckerberg’s US$200 million satellite</a>. In 2022, Musk said Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/15/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-sun-king-louis-xiv">shouldn’t dominate social media</a> and encouraged people to abandon Meta-owned Facebook. Meta also recently launched Threads, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meta-launches-twitter-competitor-threads-as-zuckerberg-and-musk-rivalry-intensifies">which competes directly</a> with Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter.</p>
<p>But threatening to beat the pulp out of each other represents a new – if not bizarre – form of one-upmanship for the two men. At one point, it was rumored that <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/ufc/musk-zuckerberg-fight-colosseum-ufc-b2390844.html">the livestreamed fight would take place in Rome’s Colosseum</a>, where gladiators once gruesomely battled to the death.</p>
<p>What in the name of <a href="https://gladiator.fandom.com/wiki/Maximus_Decimus_Meridius">Maximus</a> is going on?</p>
<p>Though Musk and Zuckerberg have attempted to frame their pugilistic pursuit as a once-in-a-generation event, they are far from alone. They join the ranks of other high-profile men in public and political positions who have shown off their physical strength to burnish their status.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=E4xQpIgAAAAJ&hl=en">As a gender scholar</a>, I’ve seen how these fights – let’s call them “performances of virility” – tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack. </p>
<h2>Money can’t buy masculinity</h2>
<p>You don’t usually see two wealthy white billionaires duking it out. So what would Musk and Zuckerberg gain from fighting each other? </p>
<p>As sociologist Scott Melzer writes in his study of fight clubs, “<a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/manhood-impossible/9780813584911">Manhood Impossible</a>,” fighting is culturally associated with masculinity, and U.S. culture celebrates men’s violence in the right contexts. </p>
<p>For white-collar white men, Melzer explains, fighting can help them to feel they have passed a test of adulthood and fulfilled the cultural requirement of strength. The fighting helps them prove to themselves that they are “real men,” despite their soft – probably manicured – hands.</p>
<p>To me, the chest puffing between Musk and Zuckerberg is a desperate display of masculinity for two tech nerds with deep pockets. They say money can’t buy happiness. Perhaps money can’t buy masculinity, either.</p>
<p>Kris Paap, author of “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801472862/working-construction/#bookTabs=1">Working Construction</a>,” explains that men who don’t take risks are often seen by their peers as weak and effeminate. Men who risk their health and well-being, on the other hand, prove their bravado for the respect of their peers. </p>
<p>This is particularly the case for working-class men. But politicians have also put on gloves to fight for admiration – and political clout – through displays of physical prowess.</p>
<p>In 2012, Justin Trudeau squared off against Senator Patrick Brazeau <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12067">in a boxing match</a>. A member of Canada’s Parliament who came from money and political royalty, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/02/god-save-justin-trudeau-film-boxing-canada-patrick-brazeau">Trudeau declared before the match</a> that he was “put on this planet to do this … I fight – and I win.”</p>
<p>After emerging from the bout victorious, Trudeau’s image as a scrawny <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-a-nepotism-baby.html">nepo baby</a> all but evaporated. Three years later, he became prime minister <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figures/pierre-trudeau">just like his dad</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cover of comic book depicts smiling man sitting in corner of boxing ring wearing boxing gloves and a red and white pinny with a maple leaf logo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543078/original/file-20230816-44322-afpteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a boxer in a 2016 issue of the Marvel comic book series ‘Civil War II: Choosing Sides.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-cover-of-us-publisher-marvels-comic-book-featuring-news-photo/598119942?adppopup=true">Marc Brainbant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>There are countless examples of other powerful men looking to showcase their virility. Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8796659/vladimir-putin-shirtless-video">infamously rode horses shirtless</a>, while U.S. President Joe Biden once said that when he was in high school, he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump/index.html">would have taken Donald Trump “behind the gym and beat the hell” out of him</a>.</p>
<p>For almost two centuries, performances of masculinity – from William Henry Harrison to Donald Trump – have been a part of successful <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/opinions/bridges-trump-macho-candidates/index.html">U.S. presidential campaigns</a>.</p>
<h2>The end of men … again and again</h2>
<p>It is no coincidence that Musk vs. Zuckerberg comes at a time when there is popular perception that masculinity is in crisis. Women are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/08/whats-behind-the-growing-gap-between-men-and-women-in-college-completion/">obtaining college degrees at a faster clip than men</a>, while income gaps are closing. Suicides and overdoses among men – often termed <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide">“deaths of despair”</a> – are on the rise. </p>
<p>Belief in a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Cultures-of-Masculinity/Edwards/p/book/9780415284813">“crisis of masculinity”</a> spikes during times of progressive social change. And proponents of this view tend to blame feminists and other social progressives for critiquing traditionally masculine mores and values, which, they claim, is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life.html">causing men to spiral</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3683791.html">Gender scholars</a> point to the turn of the 20th century and the 1990s as other moments of social change that sparked similar anxieties.</p>
<p>In 1890, moves toward coeducation stoked debates around girls and boys being taught the same curriculum. Advocates suggested that sex shouldn’t matter in the classroom and that girls’ education should prepare them for jobs outside the home.</p>
<p>This didn’t go over well with men who benefited from gender segregation. The Boy Scouts of America actually emerged in 1910 so that boys were assured a space where girls and women weren’t allowed – and <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1978.tb02548.x">where boys would be “sufficiently” acquainted with masculinity</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, the emergence of identity politics in the 1990s, which highlighted rights-based ideologies, scrutinized, in particular, <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/marked-men/9780231112932">the privileges of white men</a>. </p>
<p>Today, social progress – whether it’s more women in the workplace, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-record-breaking-number-of-women-were-elected-governor-in-2022-here-are-7-things-to-know-about-how-that-happened-195871">more women in political office</a> or girls permitted to join what is now referred to as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boy-scouts-new-name-scouts-bsa-girls-joining-ranks/">“the Scouts”</a> – seems to stoke men’s insecurities. You can see it in the popularity of men’s rights advocates like Jordan Peterson, who claims men are being asked to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKrEil9-Ag">castrate themselves</a> in the name of equality. And you can see it in conservative commentator Ben Shapiro’s <a href="https://www.them.us/story/barbie-movie-ben-shapiro">scorn toward</a> the “Barbie” movie, which has been lauded for calling out patriarchal values.</p>
<p>In these moments, men have historically taken predictable actions to reclaim the idea that they are inherently different from women – and thus belong in different spaces.</p>
<p>Sociologist <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Caveman-Mystique-Pop-Darwinism-and-the-Debates-Over-Sex-Violence/McCaughey/p/book/9780415934756">Martha McCaughey</a> has pointed out how evolutionary biology has become the popular way to argue that men just can’t help their “innate propensities.”</p>
<p>This includes the urge to dominate others, whether that’s in business, in bed – or, yes, in the ring.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristen Barber 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>‘Performances of virility’ tend to coincide with beliefs that masculinity is either in crisis or under attack.Kristen Barber, Associate Professor of Race, Ethnic and Gender Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas CityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843572022-06-09T12:41:56Z2022-06-09T12:41:56ZPeople overestimate groups they find threatening – when ‘sizing up’ others, bias sneaks in<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467887/original/file-20220609-24-pcgf27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C1142%2C6690%2C4154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You might make a quick and exaggerated judgment about what kind of neighborhood you’re in based on the people or flags you see.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cityscape-with-a-residential-building-decorated-for-royalty-free-image/1251614727?adppopup=true">David Levingstone/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Places are not just physical, but also social.</p>
<p>For instance, around the North Carolina campus where we met, we knew certain bars based on the students who frequented them – the “Duke bars” versus the “UNC bars.” Or, when traveling, we may try to guess whether most of the patrons at a restaurant are tourists – and if so, go elsewhere.</p>
<p>This common way of thinking about our environments seemed fairly reasonable to us until a few years ago, when we noticed something that gave us pause.</p>
<p>We’ve overheard one of our alma maters, the University of Pennsylvania, pejoratively referred to as “Jew-niversity of Pennsylvania,” and one of our hometowns, Decatur, Georgia, disparagingly called “Dyke-atur.” These labels are not only deeply offensive … they are also wrong. Neither of these places are actually majority Jewish or gay. And yet, some people seem to hold the belief that these groups dominate these spaces.</p>
<p>Where do these beliefs come from, and why do people make these inaccurate judgments? Perhaps more importantly, why might this matter?</p>
<p>As social psychologists who explore how intergroup dynamics affect <a href="https://www.rebeccaponcedeleon.com/">organizational</a> and <a href="https://bloch.umkc.edu/profiles/faculty-directory/jacqueline-rifkin.html">consumer</a> phenomena, we were fascinated by these questions. Four years ago, we set out to answer them.</p>
<p>Across six studies, we found that people commonly exaggerate the presence of certain groups – including ethnic and sexual minorities – simply <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211060009">because they are perceived as ideologically threatening</a>. Psychologists call this feeling – that groups hold different values and worldviews from the mainstream, thereby jeopardizing the status quo – “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-03917-001">symbolic threat</a>.”</p>
<h2>Symbolic threats loom large</h2>
<p>We began by looking at survey data from the year 2000 that examined 987 non-Black Americans’ beliefs about Black people. We found that the more a survey respondent believed that Black people had different values or a separate lifestyle from their own, the more they believed the population of Black people would increase over time.</p>
<p>We followed this up with several experiments, looking not only at beliefs about Black people, but also other minority groups, including gay people and immigrants. We asked participants to imagine everyday social spaces, including patrons at a bar or residents in a neighborhood. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="blurred Black office workers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467591/original/file-20220607-20-l4ozmz.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">Imagining a company with some amount of Black workers, non-Black people seemed to jump easily from feeling threatened to feeling outnumbered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/busy-african-office-with-people-walking-around-royalty-free-image/471871485">AfricaImages/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In some studies, we showed participants demographic information about a small portion of employees at a company and asked them to guess the demographics of the entire business. In other studies, we described a group of people congregating in a place and asked participants whether they believed the place was somehow linked with those people – for example, a “Duke bar” or “UNC bar.”</p>
<p>Our volunteers were much more likely to overestimate the groups they found symbolically threatening, such as gay people or immigrants, compared to groups that did not seem so threatening, like those with green eyes.</p>
<p>Specifically, triggering a sense of value conflict made our study subjects both more likely to perceive those groups as more populous in a place, and to believe that the group and place are somehow linked.</p>
<p>This pattern emerged regardless of participants’ own demographic characteristics or political stances and even when we used completely fictitious groups, like a made-up organization called “PDL” with a fake logo. Our findings suggest that these kinds of judgments are universal and may be hard-wired into how people process their environments.</p>
<h2>Better safe than sorry mindset</h2>
<p>Humans have evolved a variety of strategies to protect themselves from harm. One involves being hypervigilant to potential threats. According to what psychologists call “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.78.1.81">error management theory</a>,” people tend to err on the side of caution by exaggerating potential threats in their surroundings. When camping in the woods, for instance, it is safer to incorrectly assume a shadow is a big bear than it is to incorrectly assume the shadow is harmless.</p>
<p>While prior work has explored these kinds of snap judgments in potentially dangerous environments, our research uncovers that people give in to these same biases in everyday social spaces. </p>
<p>The tendency to exaggerate potential threats has helped our species navigate new environments and stay safe. But it may be cause for concern when people make these same judgments about others simply because they appear to think and live differently from them. Groups that differ from the mainstream are likely viewed as more pervasive than they actually are or as growing in number. This yields a sad irony: Although these groups are often subjugated and disempowered, they may be perceived as just the opposite — an ever-encroaching threat that must be suppressed. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot of Tucker Carlson on Fox News" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466810/original/file-20220602-14-duw7cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tucker Carlson has been a proponent of the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/c_fill,g_auto,w_1200,h_675,ar_16:9/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F210412234601-tucker-carlson-0412.jpg">Fox News/'Tucker Carlson Tonight'</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This kind of rhetoric has unfortunately been in the spotlight of late. For instance, conservative figures like Fox News host <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-tonight.html?chapter=3">Tucker Carlson</a> and Rep. <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-mtg-straight-heterosexual-sexuality-trans-georgia-mtg-live-1711528">Marjorie Taylor Greene</a> have recently lent credibility to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/06/01/great-replacement-theory-poll-republicans-democrats/7461913001/?gnt-cfr=1">bigoted conspiracies like</a> the <a href="https://theconversation.com/replacement-theory-isnt-new-3-things-to-know-about-how-this-once-fringe-conspiracy-has-become-more-mainstream-183492">“great replacement” theory</a>, which posits that minority groups are intentionally increasing in order to replace and outvote “mainstream” Americans. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/great-white-replacement-theory-explainer-c86f309f02cd14062f301ce6b9228e33">This rhetoric apparently motivated the white gunman</a> accused of killing 10 Black Americans in Buffalo in May 2022.</p>
<h2>Breaking free of the bias</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470752937.ch16">Prior work in psychology</a> suggests that merely being aware of your own biases is the first step toward reducing their influence. Since starting this project, we have even noticed our own tendency to jump to conclusions about the groups in our surroundings and their pervasiveness.</p>
<p>If you notice yourself doing the same thing, it doesn’t make you a bad person. But we encourage you to use these moments to slow down and reconsider your gut instincts. While this way of thinking might help you figure out the best sports bar for cheering on your team, categorizing places based on the people within them can have serious ramifications if left unchecked.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184357/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>Social psychology researchers found that people commonly exaggerate the presence of certain groups – including ethnic and sexual minorities – because they perceive them as ideologically threatening.Jacqueline Rifkin, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Missouri-Kansas CityRebecca Ponce de Leon, Assistant Professor of Management, Columbia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1705162021-10-28T12:34:07Z2021-10-28T12:34:07ZState spending on anti-poverty programs could substantially reduce child abuse and neglect<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428868/original/file-20211027-23-7v8rbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2075%2C1377&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public spending aimed at reducing poverty can lead to deep reductions in child maltreatment and could improve overall child well-being. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/father-and-son-going-to-kindergarten-royalty-free-image/1288962069?adppopup=true">shih-wei/ E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>States’ financial investments in public benefit programs for low-income families are associated with less child abuse and neglect, also known as maltreatment. These investments are also associated with less need for foster care and maltreatment-related deaths, according to our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-050685">recent publication in the journal Pediatrics</a>.</p>
<p>Our research team included the two of us – <a href="https://www.childrensmercy.org/profiles/hank-t-puls/">Hank Puls</a>, a pediatrician who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=qkBLs3YAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">conducts research on the prevention of child maltreatment</a>, and <a href="https://medschool.kp.org/about/leadership/paul-chung">Paul Chung</a>, who studies childhood determinants of adult health – as well as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8o47xsAAAAAJ&hl=en">Matthew Hall</a>, <a href="https://www.childrensmercy.org/profiles/james-d-anderst/">James Anderst</a>, <a href="https://www.kumc.edu/tgurley-calvez.html">Tami Gurley</a> and <a href="https://www.massgeneral.org/children/research/james-perrin">James Perrin</a>. </p>
<p>Our study examined the relationship between states’ rates of child maltreatment and their annual spending per person in poverty on major benefit programs from 2010 to 2017. Benefit programs included those providing cash, housing or material resources, childcare assistance, refundable earned income tax credits and medical assistance programs such as Medicaid. </p>
<p>Our findings indicate that an increase of US$1,000, or 13%, in annual spending per person in poverty on these programs by all 50 states and Washington, D.C., might be associated with approximately 181,000 fewer children reported for maltreatment, 28,500 fewer victims, 4,100 fewer children entering foster care and 130 fewer children dying – every year.</p>
<p>Our results also suggest that reductions in child maltreatment might provide fiscal returns in the long term for states and society. The 13% increase in spending amounted to $46.5 billion nationally. We estimate these reductions might return $1.5 billion to $9.3 billion in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.09.018">avoided economic burdens associated with maltreatment</a> in the short term, but as much as $25.8 billion to $153.2 billion over the course of children’s lives.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Child maltreatment is a public health crisis. By 18 years of age, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.410">at least 1 in 8 U.S. children</a> will have experienced abuse or neglect. This leads to poorer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61706-7">overall health and mental health</a>, as well as worse <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.12.022">socioeconomic outcomes</a>, for those individuals and society.</p>
<p>We believe that our study serves as an example of how benefit programs might have positive effects beyond their stated objectives. Benefit programs likely have powerful, broad and unmeasured effects on a host of health issues – the combined impacts of which might dwarf those found for child maltreatment alone. </p>
<p>For example, Medicaid expansion improves <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/report/the-effects-of-medicaid-expansion-under-the-aca-updated-findings-from-a-literature-review/">health care access</a> and some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.12345">health</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.00776">mental health</a> outcomes. Medicaid also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0331">significantly reduces poverty</a> and can reduce <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1650">parental stress</a>. Our study suggests that that one such “side effect” of benefit programs may be improving families’ overall well-being to the extent that fewer children are abused or neglected.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>A more nuanced understanding of how benefit programs might prevent child maltreatment is needed. <a href="https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bar/44-children-in-poverty-by-race-and-ethnicity?loc=1&loct=2#1/any/false/1729/10,11,9,12,1/323">Poverty</a> is not equally distributed among all children in the U.S., and how these programs might affect maltreatment and other health-related disparities in specific populations remains unknown.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/coronavirus-child-abuse.html">increased risk for child maltreatment</a>. But it’s still unclear whether economic relief, such as the CARES Act and eviction protections, aided in reducing some of the perceived risk, if at all.</p>
<p>More recently, the American Rescue Plan Act provided direct economic relief to Americans and included fundamental changes to tax credits, such as the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. These changes increased income for families and, in some cases, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/05/27/the-american-families-plan-too-many-tax-credits-for-children/">better allocated benefits to the lowest income Americans</a>. President Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-the-american-families-plan/">American Families Plan</a> proposes to extend those tax credit reforms and additionally invest in child care and early education. It will be critical to examine how these policy changes to benefit programs might influence poverty, child maltreatment and well-being, in general.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We believe that ample opportunities remain to responsibly invest in public benefit programs. For example, <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/">12 states have yet to expand Medicaid</a>, over 30 million Americans remain uninsured, <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/factsheet-estimates-child-care-eligibility-receipt-fiscal-year-2017">6 in 7 eligible families do not receive child care assistance</a> and <a href="https://www.aappublications.org/news/2021/09/14/childpovertyreport091421">1 in 6 U.S. children</a> still live in poverty. </p>
<p>Our findings provide optimism that public benefit programs can not only lift families out of poverty but also address child maltreatment and improve health more broadly.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170516/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>Public investments in benefit programs could save tens of thousands of children from being victims of child abuse and have important later-life effects on child welfare and overall health.Henry T. Puls, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Children's Mercy Kansas City, University of Missouri-Kansas CityPaul J. Chung, Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy and Management, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1658632021-09-22T12:59:42Z2021-09-22T12:59:42ZPsychological ‘specialness spirals’ can make ordinary items feel like treasures – and may explain how clutter accumulates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422466/original/file-20210921-27-s2ispq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C350%2C4641%2C3372&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The longer you hold off on using an everyday purchase, the more likely you are to preserve it untouched.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/finding-that-perfect-outfit-royalty-free-image/643534884">kupicoo/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Years ago, I bought a blouse at Target. That same day, I considered putting it on, but for no particular reason decided not to. That weekend, I again considered wearing the blouse, but the occasion didn’t seem good enough, so again, I passed. A week later, I considered the blouse for a date, but again, the event didn’t seem special enough.</p>
<p>Fast forward to today. I have never worn my Target blouse. What had started out as ordinary now holds a special place in my closet, and no occasion feels quite worthy of my wearing it.</p>
<p>What happened here? Why do people own so many unused possessions, treating them as though they are too special to use?</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://bloch.umkc.edu/faculty-directory-rifkin-jacqueline/">assistant professor of marketing</a>, and these are the questions that inspired <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/714363">my latest research</a> with <a href="https://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/jberger/">Jonah Berger</a>, an associate professor of marketing.</p>
<p>In six experiments, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/714363">we uncovered one important reason</a> why people can accumulate so many ordinary possessions without ever using or getting rid of them: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/678302">nonconsumption</a>, or the act of not using something.</p>
<p>When people decide not to use something at one point in time, the item can start to feel more special. And as it feels more special, they want to protect it and are less likely to want to use it in the future. This accrual of specialness can be one explanation for how possessions accumulate and turn into unused clutter.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hand with pen poised above empty notebook pages" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422445/original/file-20210921-17-g1fh7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When is the right time to make the first marks in a fresh new notebook?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-writes-in-notebook-royalty-free-image/1289092612">Grace Cary/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>We first invited 121 participants to the lab and gave each one a fresh notebook. We asked half the people to solve word puzzles that required writing – they could either use their brand new notebook, or scrap paper. The other half completed puzzles on the computer. Later in the lab session, all participants encountered a puzzle that required writing, and they could either use their notebook or scrap paper.</p>
<p>Interestingly, participants who had the initial opportunity to use the notebook, but hadn’t, were significantly less likely to use the notebook later in the session, versus those who hadn’t had the option. And this finding was not limited just to notebooks. We saw the same pattern in other scenario-based experiments using bottles of wine and TV episodes. </p>
<p>But is this about specialness, or any of a number of other reasons for nonconsumption?</p>
<p>To find out, we ran another experiment in which participants imagined buying a bottle of wine. We had half imagine considering opening it one night, but deciding not to. Then when we measured how special the wine seemed, and participants’ intentions to open it later, we found that those who had imagined holding off on opening it were in fact less likely to intend to open it later. They saw the wine as more special.</p>
<p>When we asked participants to provide a reason for why they thought they passed up the wine in this scenario, most assumed they were waiting for a future occasion to open it – not that they didn’t like it or were otherwise prevented from drinking it in some way.</p>
<p>If unused items start to seem too special to use, then would encountering a really special occasion break the cycle?</p>
<p>According to our final study, yes. Imagining forgoing an ordinary bottle of wine made participants feel less likely to open it at the next ordinary occasion, but more likely to open it at a future extraordinary occasion. Like my Target blouse, what had started as an ordinary bottle transformed into something fit for a wedding toast. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="wine bottles on grocery shelf with price labels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422448/original/file-20210921-21-3wpyb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Postponing use seems to change an item’s humble origin story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/poul-newmasn-own-wine-at-sale-in-walmart-supercenter-2-june-news-photo/526253852">Francis Dean/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The psychology behind a ‘specialness spiral’</h2>
<p>Why do people fall into this mental trap? Prior research points to two main reasons.</p>
<p>First, when options are presented one at a time, rather than all at once – much like the choice about whether to crack open a bottle of wine on this particular evening – it can be <a href="https://www.americanscientist.org/article/knowing-when-to-stop">difficult to know when to make a decision</a>. So people often end up “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616671401">holding out</a>” for an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.593">idealized future occasion</a>.</p>
<p>Second, regardless of the actual reasons behind their feelings and actions, people often come up with their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60024-6">own explanations after the fact</a>. For example, maybe you felt nervous on a date because you were worried about something unrelated, like work. But you might later believe that your nervousness came from really liking your date – psychologists call this phenomenon “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.1.56">misattribution of arousal</a>.” </p>
<p>Putting these together is a recipe for what we term “specialness spirals.” When you forgo using something – for whatever reason – if you believe that you were waiting to use it, the possession will start to feel more special. You’ll want to save it for a later occasion. And as you search for the right occasion day after day, it becomes more tempting to hold out for a future occasion. The less you use it, though, the more special it feels, and the cycle continues.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the likelihood of using the possession becomes more and more rare – potentially to the point where that originally decent wine is now vinegar, or the blouse is out of style, but you’re still holding on to it. The more this happens, the more stuff you have lying around.</p>
<h2>The clutter connection</h2>
<p>Clutter can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9682-9">quite destructive</a>, leading to higher stress levels, feelings of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/07/stuffocation-living-more-with-less-james-wallman-review">suffocation</a>, strained relationships and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.03.003">reduced well-being overall</a>. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/714363">Our research</a> provides one explanation for how and why clutter accumulates.</p>
<p>How can you combat specialness spirals and the accumulation of clutter? Try committing in advance to use an item on a specific occasion. When buying a dress, tell yourself you’ll wear it this weekend. Or when purchasing a candle, plan to light it that day. This strategy should limit how often you consider – but ultimately forgo – using things, and encourage you to actually enjoy your possessions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165863/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Rifkin 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>Have you ever bought an item and then just not gotten around to using it because the time never felt right? New studies suggest an explanation for what researchers call nonconsumption.Jacqueline Rifkin, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Missouri-Kansas CityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1455242020-09-29T12:34:10Z2020-09-29T12:34:10ZFailure to shore up state budgets may hit women’s wallets especially hard<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359701/original/file-20200924-20-ouvmk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=247%2C209%2C4625%2C2080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers organize their socially distanced students at Weaver Elementary School in Rossmoor, California.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kindergarten-and-tk-teachers-organize-their-students-on-the-news-photo/1271437757">Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>States are seeing enormous <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/states-grappling-with-hit-to-tax-collections">budget shortfalls because of the coronavirus pandemic</a>, and the consequences for teachers and other public school employees could be dire. At least <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/stalled-coronavirus-aid-talks-test-schools-11598531735?mod=djem10point">640,000 education jobs in state and local government</a> vanished between February and August 2020.</p>
<p>The states, which provide an average of about <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-spending-covers-only-8-of-public-school-budgets-142348">47% of U.S. public school funding</a>, are cutting school spending because their <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/08/31/us-tax-base-coronavirus-covid-19-state-local-taxes/">tax revenue is declining</a> and they have no easy recourse to balance their budgets; unlike the federal government, <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/balanced-budget-requirements">states can’t just print money</a>.</p>
<p>Negotiations continue around another pandemic relief bill, which would include money for states to spend on public education. But <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-archive-6878194947f8e4b5791d5454f2f0fd9b">lawmakers have passed</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/3588901312dec9607b6cd22bc83029c2">no measures</a> since May, when the House of Representatives passed a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/15/21258854/house-three-trillion-stimulus-bill">US$3 trillion coronavirus relief bill</a> that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/politics/stimulus-negotiations-latest-congress-leaving-town/index.html">stalled in the Senate</a>.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/nrc8g/2915359">study families</a>, <a href="https://law.umkc.edu/profiles/faculty-directory/nancy-levit.html">employment</a>, <a href="https://www.law.umn.edu/profiles/june-carbone">corporations</a> – and gender. We are tracking how the coronavirus pandemic is underscoring the disproportionate financial burden women bear when states slash their budgets in times of recession.</p>
<p>Without sufficient federal aid, recessions have historically prompted job losses, pay cuts and high turnover that burden school <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/4/22/21230992/great-recession-schools-research-lessons-coronavirus">districts for years</a>. Because <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp">most public school teachers are women</a>, they are affected more. </p>
<p>We are examining this issue and others more deeply in a book we are writing called “Shafted: The Fate of Women in a Winner-Take-All World.” It explores the jobs women do from public schools to Walmart or hedge funds and demonstrates that the forces that have produced a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2928352">highly unequal economy</a> have <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3605503">undermined women’s well-being</a>.</p>
<p>What we’ve found so far is that women in almost every field have lagged behind men in pay, promotions and leadership opportunities. And in K-12 schools, this issue can appear starkly.</p>
<p><iframe id="GhTDi" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/GhTDi/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>The government’s role</h2>
<p>Historically, the federal government has implemented policies aimed at keeping the economy afloat during recessions.</p>
<p>During the Great Recession, for example, the 2009 stimulus package included money that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizfarmer/2020/07/30/bailout-stimulus-federal-relief-recovery/#784914bd5678">cushioned the impact of the recession on the states</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/upshot/what-debate-economists-agree-the-stimulus-lifted-the-economy.html">Economists largely agree</a> that the policy worked. The spending bolstered state budgets, helping to prevent massive layoffs and <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/economic-stimulus-education-school-budget">prompt the start of a recovery</a>.</p>
<p>Nationwide, education spending averages about 30% of state budgets, with two-thirds of the funds <a href="https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/elementary-and-secondary-education-expenditures">supporting K-12 education</a>. More specifically, the average state expenditures are 21% on elementary and secondary education and 10% on higher education.</p>
<p>After Republicans swept Congress in 2010, however, the flow of federal aid related to the recovery <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/congressional-republicans-smothered-rapid-economic-recovery/">was dramatically reduced</a>. There was an immediate impact on the nation’s schools. Collectively, the states spent <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-punishing-decade-for-school-funding">billions less in K-12 education in 2012 than they had in 2011</a>.</p>
<p>As of the 2017-18 school year, 12 states were still <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-punishing-decade-for-school-funding">spending less on K-12 education than a decade earlier</a>. In their communities, fewer teachers were employed and schools were scrimping on school maintenance and supplies. Many public school teachers’ <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/101700/how_have_teacher_pensions_changed_since_the_great_recession_0.pdf">wages stagnated and their pension benefits were cut</a>. </p>
<p>In these conditions, the most experienced – and expensive – <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/teachers-could-retire-in-droves-by-the-time-schools-reopen/">teachers can be forced out</a>. These are often women. </p>
<h2>A ‘teaching penalty’</h2>
<p>During recent decades of squeezed state budgets, the percentage of K-12 teachers who are women has grown, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp">rising to 76% in 2018</a> from <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=cpre_researchreports">67% in 1981</a>. Therefore, the refusal to fund state budgets has fallen disproportionately hard on women.</p>
<p>Today, teachers earn about <a href="https://www.epi.org/files/pdf/153196.pdf">21.4% less than people with the same level of education</a> do in other fields, the highest teaching wage penalty economists have recorded in U.S. history. Female teachers also <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp">earn lower salaries than male teachers</a>.</p>
<p>We believe the low pay and relatively low status of teaching help explain the increasingly high percentage of women in teaching and the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/02/the-explosion-of-women-teachers/582622/">declining percentage of men</a> who join their ranks. </p>
<p>We see a solution. It is for <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/5/4/21243725/coronavirus-unemployment-cares-act-federal-job-guarantee-green-new-deal-pavlina-tcherneva">countercyclical assistance</a> – giving more government assistance when times are tough – to the states, and making this support automatic. Other financial stabilizers, such as unemployment insurance and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-snap-can-help-people-during-hard-economic-times-like-these-133664">SNAP nutritional support program</a>, already do this by rising during downturns, which also has the effect of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/07/02/what-are-automatic-stabilizers/">bolstering the national economy</a>.</p>
<p>That won’t happen, however, without greater political recognition that the federal role in state budgets is essential to the health of public schools – and the national economy. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Schoolteachers have begun to fight back, engaging in strikes over the past few years for better pay, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/23/politics/teacher-strikes-politics/index.html">better working conditions</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-of-a-difference-does-the-number-of-kids-in-a-classroom-make-125703">smaller class sizes</a> and more services – such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/chicago-strike-support-staff.html">guidance counselors and nurses</a> – for students. </p>
<p>The strikes, however, address pressing local issues, not the broader – and, we argue, more critical – role the federal government plays during downturns in school budgets. That requires making the connection among congressional action, the nation’s economic well-being and the health of its educational system much more visible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145524/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>When the federal government doesn’t intervene during downturns, the states often cut school spending. In turn, teachers may earn less or lose their jobs. And three in four teachers are female.June Carbone, Professor of Law, University of MinnesotaNancy Levit, Associate Dean and Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas CityNaomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1254172019-11-15T13:28:25Z2019-11-15T13:28:25ZThe Democrats are running more female veterans for office than ever before – but can they win?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299887/original/file-20191101-88403-mwid7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amy McGrath speaks to supporters in Louisville, Kentucky.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Election-2020-Kentucky-Senate-McGrath/bcf50a2ebd2f400e80b107e88093cf12/7/0">AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not often that a political unknown’s campaign ad goes viral. But in 2018, M.J. Hegar (TX-13) burst onto the scene with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi6v4CYNSIQ">“Doors,” a provocative campaign announcement video</a> that placed her military experience and leadership ability front and center. </p>
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<figure><figcaption>M.J. Hegar’s ‘Doors’ video.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Hegar was among a record-setting <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/11/14/an-unprecedented-number-of-women-military-veterans-ran-as-democrats-this-year-heres-why-they-were-unusually-successful/">14 female veterans</a> running for Congress in 2018. </p>
<p>Though it is still early, the 2020 election cycle is shaping up to be another record-breaking year. The progressive PAC VoteVets has already endorsed <a href="https://www.votevets.org/candidates">three female veteran challengers</a>, and five incumbents are expected to run for reelection. </p>
<p>This upward trend is likely to continue. Syracuse University has opened a <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/04/15/want-run-office-now-theres-politics-boot-camp-veterans.html">training program</a> for veterans interested in running for office, and veterans currently serving have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/politics/female-veterans-democrats-elections.html">developed a fund</a> to support women with security backgrounds running for office. <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/veterans-house-democrats-recruiting-236845">Democrats have begun explicitly recruiting</a> veteran women to run for Congress, hoping to capitalize on their service and military experience. </p>
<p>But are veteran women more likely to win? <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kFXXIioAAAAJ&hl=en">We</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=emXX-aIAAAAJ">wondered</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=RnvcuIAAAAAJ">whether</a> military service might allow women running for office to overcome concerns about their national security chops, without sacrificing voters’ positive perceptions of women’s ability to handle areas like health care.</p>
<h2>Vote choices</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2111526">Voters typically use stereotypical thinking</a> to simplify their choices. They use attributes of the candidate, such as gender or profession, to judge a candidate’s suitability to hold office, as well as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2647681">candidate’s policy stance</a>.</p>
<p>For veterans of either sex, stereotypical thinking can be beneficial. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912915572151">Veterans are often perceived</a> as placing national interest over personal gain, being of good character and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X12451561">having practical knowledge about national security affairs</a>. American voters strongly value <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/11/defending-against-terrorism-has-remained-a-top-policy-priority-for-americans-since-9-11/">national security</a>, so it is unsurprising that survey research finds voters are more likely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/106591299304600304">to support candidates viewed as best able to handle security affairs</a>.</p>
<p>For women candidates, stereotypical thinking is a mixed blessing. Women are often perceived as well-equipped to handle <a href="http://www.barbaraleefoundation.org/research/opportunity-knocks/">issues such as education, health care and poverty</a>. </p>
<p>But stereotypes also promote the belief that women are emotional, irrational and weak. Women are often thought <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/106591290405700312">unfit to handle national security threats and the military</a>. This can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002715603097">impede their election</a>.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2011.589283">survey research</a> finds that women with experience in national security can overcome stereotypical beliefs that they are unsuited to handle national security threats. </p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p>In a study presented at the <a href="http://www.iusafs.org/">Inter-University Symposium on Armed Forces and Society</a> on Nov. 9, we analyzed elections from five U.S. House election cycles between 2010 and 2018.</p>
<p>Our analysis indicates that veteran women, on average, do not garner more votes than nonveteran women of the same party. That’s unsurprising, given that veterans generally do not seem to do better at the polls than nonveterans in general elections. Our result echoes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X12451561">earlier</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912915572151">studies</a> that focused on male veterans only.</p>
<p>On average, across the five elections, women veterans performed no better than nonveterans, regardless of gender. But the 2018 cycle showed a different pattern. Democratic female veterans on the ticket significantly outperformed their Democratic male veteran counterparts in their races. </p>
<p>We counted a dozen women with military biographies who ran as challengers in the 2018 midterm House races, ten of them Democrats. Three of these Democrats won their races, and several of the losses were close contests. Democratic women such as M. J. Hegar and Amy McGrath lost in narrow races in solidly red districts.</p>
<p>Democratic women veterans gained nearly half a percent more of the vote on average, as compared to their male veteran counterparts. When we controlled for factors that also drive vote choice, such as incumbency, Democratic women veterans’ lead over male veterans increased to more than 2%.</p>
<p>This suggests to us that women veterans running as Democrats may benefit from positive perceptions of veterans as more knowledgeable in national security, as well as positive perceptions of women’s strength in domestic issues. </p>
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<figure><figcaption>Kim Olson’s June ad.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Female veterans</h2>
<p>Our analysis is preliminary. </p>
<p>At this stage, our model does not allow us to rule out the possibility that our results are driven by veterans running in districts where it’s harder for them to win.</p>
<p>Our results, which indicate that veterans of both genders running as Democrats get a lower share of votes, may be a product of the party recruiting veterans to run in long-shot districts, coupled with the veterans’ own heightened willingness to take on such challenges. </p>
<p>Military life is notoriously challenging for all members, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/magazine/women-military-stories.html">but more so for women who live and work in a male-dominated domain</a>. Veteran women may relish the challenge of succeeding where women are often expected to fail.</p>
<p>As candidates, women veterans bring a competitive and confident spirit to the campaign trail. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcjG2fK7kNk">Amy McGrath’s (KY-6) initial advertisements</a> highlighted the challenge she overcame in her military career and how these challenges were heightened by perceptions that women did not belong in combat. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLtxLWJgHZo">Kim Olson’s ad</a> announcing her bid for the TX-24 shows her walking the flight line in a bomber jacket, recounting the battles that earned her the nickname Colonel Marvel. </p>
<p>What’s more, the Democratic Party clearly sees an advantage in recruiting veterans to run for office. The number of women with military service running for office has increased, especially in 2018, and they are running in more competitive districts with a better shot at winning. </p>
<p>As this trend continues, researchers will be better able to determine how the military service impacts of women from both parties impacts their candidacies and their service in office.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Teigen is affiliated with VeteransCampaign.org. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Best receives funding from the Dirksen Congressional Center. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theresa Schroeder Hageman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Voters tend to view female candidates as strong on issues like education and health care, but weak on national security. Female veterans might be able to overcome the stereotype.Theresa Schroeder Hageman, Visiting Assistant Professor, Ohio Northern UniversityJeremy Teigen, Professor of Political Science, Ramapo College of New JerseyRebecca Best, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri-Kansas CityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/913732018-03-26T10:46:20Z2018-03-26T10:46:20ZThe ideal female body type is getting even harder to attain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211755/original/file-20180323-54878-6ddqzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is muscle definition now being added to an already impossibly thin ideal?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/concept-sport-healthy-lifestyle-known-athlete-403890532">Mikhaylovskiy/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Day after day, we’re bombarded with so many media messages that rarely do we stop to think about what they’re telling us to think, do or feel.</p>
<p>Much has been written about the unrealistic beauty standards women have been held to. Female actresses, models and TV personalities are overwhelmingly thin, which has had a detrimental effect on the eating habits and self-esteem of countless women.</p>
<p>But in recent years, we’ve noticed something else: Media targeting women have featured models who are not only exceedingly thin, but also muscular. </p>
<p>As psychologists who study body image issues, we wanted to test whether women are aware of this trend – and whether they’re aspiring for this look themselves.</p>
<h2>The body gap grows</h2>
<p>By now, most women are probably aware of <a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4317004.aspx">the discrepancy</a> between their bodies and the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-8721.00144">impossibly thin</a> women who appear on TV and in magazines.</p>
<p>This disparity was first identified in a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pr0.1980.47.2.483">1980 study</a> that compared the body weights of regular American women to prominent media figures, Miss America contestants and Playboy centerfolds. The researchers found that between 1959 and 1978, average female weights in the general population increased, while the women appearing in the media were actually getting <em>thinner</em>.</p>
<p>This matters because, particularly for women, exposure to thinner bodies contributes to <a href="http://christopherjferguson.com/Eye%20of%20the%20Beholder.pdf">body dissatisfaction</a>, which can <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2010.01581.x/abstract">worsen your mood</a> and lead to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1025609624848">lower self-esteem</a>. Those who aspire to this ideal figure can end up engaging in negative behaviors like <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7822589">restrictive eating</a> or purging. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/180/6/509/full-text.pdf+html">2002 study</a>, researchers exposed women on the island of Fiji to Western television. Before the study, island inhabitants had preferred larger female figures, seeing them as a sign of health. But following the introduction of Western television, the researchers found that women were much more likely to engage in disordered eating behaviors such as vomiting and restrictive dieting, all in a quest to appear thin. </p>
<h2>The birth of ‘fitspiration’ – and a new norm?</h2>
<p>While media messages continue to encourage women to change their bodies, the platforms being used to consume media are changing.</p>
<p>In recent years social media use has exploded. On many of these platforms, women are able to choose what content to follow and “like.” Social media sites, from Facebook to Instagram, then take this information and feed it into an algorithm, which then influences the content that’s advertised and shown to users on their feeds. </p>
<p>One trend that has gained traction is “<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/explore/fitspiration/?lp=true">fitspiration</a>.” These are images and videos that depict women engaged in workouts or poses that highlight particular muscle groups like the abdomen or buttocks.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgq5PefAciB/?taken-by=leadingleggings","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>In promoting muscularity, these images seem to be promoting healthy exercise. But analyses of the text accompanying the images have found that they often include <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.22403/abstract">guilt-inducing messages</a> that focus on body image (e.g. “Suck it up now, so you don’t have to suck it in later”).</p>
<p>In fact, one study has shown that an overwhelming percentage (72 percent) of these posts <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10410236.2016.1140273">emphasize appearance</a>, rather than health (22 percent).</p>
<p>And it’s an appearance that’s not only muscular, but also thin.</p>
<p>Is this the new ideal? </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-017-0886-0">Our studies</a> sought to answer this question.</p>
<p>In the first, we presented 78 undergraduate female participants with images of Miss USA winners between 1999 and 2013. Because winners are selected annually, they serve as a relevant representation of what is considered attractive. For the study, we depicted the pageant winners from the neck down wearing black two-piece swimsuits. Participants then rated each winner on her level of thinness, muscularity and attractiveness. The ratings demonstrated that the winners became thinner and more muscular over the 15-year span. </p>
<p>In a second study, we wanted to examine whether women had begun to <em>prefer</em> this thin, toned body type. </p>
<p>So we presented 64 undergraduate female participants with two versions of seven different images. One version featured a thin, muscular model. In the other, the muscle tone and definition were digitally removed, leaving the model appearing to be only thin. Participants viewed these images one by one in random order and were asked to rate them on thinness, muscularity and attractiveness, and to identify how typical they were of images in the media. </p>
<p>Results showed that participants could detect the difference in muscularity among the images and rated all of them as typical of media images. However, they did not clearly identify one type of figure as being more attractive than the other. </p>
<p>In a final portion of this study, we showed participants the pair of images side by side and asked them to identify which they preferred. When presented with the images in this format, participants overwhelmingly chose the thin and muscular image over the thin-only image. </p>
<h2>Benign implications, pernicious effects</h2>
<p>You might wonder: Isn’t it healthy that women are increasingly preferring muscularity? </p>
<p>Studies have examined the impact of viewing thin and toned bodies, and have found that they have a negative impact on the body image of female viewers. Just like the previous studies on media images that promote thinness, seeing thin, muscular women can lead to a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26176993">negative mood</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25528369">decreased body satisfaction</a>. </p>
<p>It is the addition of muscularity to thinness that has this impact; if women see other women who are fit <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21880562">but not thin</a>, then we don’t see the same effect.</p>
<p>It seems as though the quest for a toned body adds just one more thing to strive for – <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359105307088146?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed">another layer of pressure</a> for women. Not only do they need to restrict caloric intake, but they also need to add a muscle-building exercise routine. </p>
<p>Because there’s a deceitful aspect of rhetoric surrounding “fitspiration” – with benign implications that it’s simply all about being healthy – we fear that our culture may be in the midst of a more toxic promotion of an ideal female body that only leads to more dissatisfaction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91373/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>The rise of ‘fitspiration’ seems to promote a body that is both impossibly thin and muscular. A new study explores whether this has become a new benchmark for women.Frances Bozsik, PhD Candidate in Clinical Health Psychology, University of Missouri-Kansas CityBrooke L. Bennett, PhD Candidate at University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of HawaiiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932412018-03-13T17:53:28Z2018-03-13T17:53:28ZWhy do gun-makers get special economic protection?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210101/original/file-20180313-30989-4deywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A line of AR-15s are on display at gunmaker Daniel Defense in Georgia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The gun industry is <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/16/hillary-clinton/clinton-gun-industry-wholly-protected-all-lawsuits/">one of very few industries</a> to have congressionally backed <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-repeal-the-gun-industrys-exceptional-legal-immunity-51950">immunity from liabilty</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, it’s been largely shielded from responsibility for the deaths and injuries its products cause, with few exceptions. </p>
<p>How did this happen? And, in the aftermath of another tragic mass shooting, could this protection ever be overturned? </p>
<p>As an expert in constitutional law and product liability, I believe the answer to these questions lies in examining the economic and political clout of the gun industry. </p>
<h2>Gun industry gets a protector</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-firearms-industry-influences-us-gun-culture-in-6-charts-92142">gun industry</a> <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/s397/text">acquired its protective shield</a> in 2005 after a <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/city-lawsuits-review.pdf">wave of lawsuits</a> by cities threatened gun companies’ survival.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-repeal-the-gun-industrys-exceptional-legal-immunity-51950">New Orleans became the first government</a> to file a lawsuit against gun manufacturers in 1998. More than 30 other American cities and counties soon followed. </p>
<p>The suits, prompted by the growing epidemic of urban gun violence and patterned after claims brought by states against tobacco companies, initially succeeded by shining a spotlight on the industry. I was one of the lawyers at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence who helped put these cases together. They uncovered <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/resources/smoking-guns">evidence</a> about how gun manufacturers could reduce risks by making changes in the way they design and distribute their products.</p>
<p>But then came the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/109/plaws/publ92/PLAW-109publ92.pdf">Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act</a>, which gave gun-makers a special immunity from legal responsibilities and blocked most of the claims. While Congress has occasionally limited the liability of companies making other products, <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/16/hillary-clinton/clinton-gun-industry-wholly-protected-all-lawsuits/">such as medical devices and small aircraft</a>, the degree of protection given to the gun industry was unusual and didn’t create alternative ways to regulate the industry and compensate those injured, as <a href="https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/ReportaProblem/VaccineAdverseEvents/QuestionsabouttheVaccineAdverseEventReportingSystemVAERS/default.htm">it did with the makers of childhood vaccines</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210108/original/file-20180313-30989-dkdigw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210108/original/file-20180313-30989-dkdigw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210108/original/file-20180313-30989-dkdigw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210108/original/file-20180313-30989-dkdigw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210108/original/file-20180313-30989-dkdigw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210108/original/file-20180313-30989-dkdigw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210108/original/file-20180313-30989-dkdigw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Bush sits down to sign the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shielded the firearms industry from civil lawsuits brought by victims of gun crimes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good times for gun-makers</h2>
<p>Now a string of recent mass shootings, from <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/index.html">Orlando</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/after-the-las-vegas-shooting-massacre-survival-can-be-excruciating/2018/03/10/23fd3998-23aa-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html">Las Vegas</a> to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-respond-shooting-parkland-florida-high-school-n848101">Parkland</a>, has brought renewed scrutiny to the gun industry’s products and practices. </p>
<p>It comes at a time when the firearms industry has enjoyed remarkable growth. In an unintended and sadly ironic way, the mass shootings actually contribute to the industry’s financial success. </p>
<p>Gun sales are strongly correlated to prospects for gun control and surge whenever it seems more likely that new legal restrictions on guns may be imposed. And this was the case in 2008, when the election of Barack Obama rejuvenated the then-stagnant industry. Fearful that President Obama would take away their guns, many Americans rushed to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/03/11/barack-obama-may-have-been-at-least-a-9-billion-boon-to-the-gun-industry-so-far/?utm_term=.748e31c9ea4e">stock up</a> on new weaponry. <a href="https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/docs/undefined/firearms-commerce-united-states-annual-statistical-update-2017/download">Production</a> of firearms rose steadily throughout Obama’s first term, even though he did <a href="https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/docs/undefined/firearms-commerce-united-states-annual-statistical-update-2017/download">virtually nothing</a> at that time to advance a gun control agenda.</p>
<p>The massacre at <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/connecticut-shootings-fast-facts/index.html">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> shortly after Obama won re-election in 2012 drove gun sales to unprecedented levels, with production reaching an all-time high of nearly <a href="https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/docs/undefined/firearms-commerce-united-states-annual-statistical-update-2017/download">11 million</a> in 2013 – yielding more economic clout than ever before. </p>
<p><iframe id="Pu4sH" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Pu4sH/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The <a href="https://d3aya7xwz8momx.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/EconomicImpactofIndustry2017.pdf">industry’s economic impact rose</a> from $19 billion in 2008 to over $51 billion in 2016, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry’s trade association. And its impact is felt across the country in both red and blue states and politically important ones, from Texas and California to Florida and Ohio. Some of the nation’s oldest and largest gun companies are still based in the legendary <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2013/04/13/greetings-from-new-england-gun-valley/bnluvQAU7sgWyhe4x8FVgP/story.html">“Gun Valley”</a> region of New England, but there are other manufacturers scattered around the nation. Wholesale distributors and retail dealers operate virtually everywhere. </p>
<p><iframe id="2zGgn" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2zGgn/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The <a href="https://d3aya7xwz8momx.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/EconomicImpactofIndustry2017.pdf">number of jobs</a> supported by the industry nearly doubled to about 301,000 in that period, with the largest totals in Texas and California. The taxes paid by the industry have increased even more dramatically.</p>
<h2>The gun lobby’s power</h2>
<p>Gun companies have made it clear they are willing to relocate their operations if the price is right, and state and local governments have thrown <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/fully-loaded-ten-biggest-gun-manufacturers-america/">millions of dollars</a> in subsidies and tax breaks at them in recent years. For example, Remington Arms shifted much of its manufacturing from New York to Alabama a few years ago, drawn by <a href="http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/alabamas_incentive_offer_to_re.html">$68.9 million</a> in government handouts, as well as displeasure with New York’s enactment of tougher gun laws. </p>
<p>And the industry has used this growth in wealth, employment and taxes to exercise its political muscles at the state and national levels. The trade association’s <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000054336&year=2017">annual lobbying expenditures</a>, negligible prior to Obama’s election, soared after Sandy Hook to more than $3.3 million in 2017.</p>
<p>Its biggest political influence comes through its customers, who are a <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-nra-an-educational-organization-a-lobby-group-a-nonprofit-a-media-outlet-yes-92806">uniquely potent force</a>. The National Rifle Association <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000082&cycle=2016">spends over 50 percent more</a> on lobbying than the gun industry and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nra-power-lobbying-statistics-gun-control-2017-10">nearly 10 times</a> as much as any gun control group. </p>
<p>And while the industry’s interests are usually aligned with those of the NRA, even when a gun-maker wants to take a softer position on gun policy it’s extremely risky to do so. A case in point came in 2000, when Smith & Wesson tried to ease the burden of the lawsuits against it by agreeing to be more careful in how it designed and distributed its products as part of a <a href="https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/textonly/WH/New/html/20000317_2.html">settlement agreement</a>. Its modest steps prompted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/02/27/a-gunmaker-once-tried-to-reform-itself-the-nra-nearly-destroyed-it/">boycotts</a> by gun owners that nearly destroyed the company in a few short months.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210104/original/file-20180313-30954-16npywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210104/original/file-20180313-30954-16npywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210104/original/file-20180313-30954-16npywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210104/original/file-20180313-30954-16npywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210104/original/file-20180313-30954-16npywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210104/original/file-20180313-30954-16npywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210104/original/file-20180313-30954-16npywb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Smith & Wesson nearly went bankrupt after modest steps to make its guns safer sparked a backlash.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Julie Jacobson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Turning the tables</h2>
<p>The question now is, can the increasing frequency of tragedies like Parkland and the resulting raw youth outrage turn the tables on the gun industry?</p>
<p>Applying financial pressure is one way to get the industry’s attention. Several years ago, a coalition of organizations began a <a href="http://www.adweek.com/creativity/powerful-anti-violence-film-wants-you-unload-gun-companies-your-401k-157492/">divestment campaign</a>, encouraging people to move their savings out of mutual funds that invest in gun companies. Fund managers say the campaign is having its intended effect, with <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/28/17058342/wall-street-gun-stocks-divestment">more investors</a> demanding that funds dump gun stocks. According to one study, the amount of assets precluded from being invested in companies that make weaponry for military or civilian use has increased [1,042 percent] since Sandy Hook. This campaign is <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article200813194.html">cited as a factor</a> that led to the bankruptcy of Remington, the maker of the AR-15 rifle used in that shooting. </p>
<p>The idea has recently gained <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/28/17058342/wall-street-gun-stocks-divestment">new momentum</a>. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-new-jersey/new-jersey-democrats-seek-to-bar-gunmakers-from-pension-funds-idUSKCN1G62B6">Legislators in New Jersey</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-22/teacher-retirement-funds-in-12-states-hold-gun-company-stocks">teachers in Florida</a> are now calling for public employee pension funds to sell their shares of firearms companies. Other socially conscious investors are keeping their shares and using them as a channel to express concern. Shareholders of companies that make or sell firearms, like Sturm Ruger & Co. and Dick’s Sporting Goods, have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-23/guns-and-more-guns-will-wall-street-ever-let-go-of-firearms">called</a> for gun-makers to explain what they are doing to reduce the risks posed by their products.</p>
<p>Americans <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-nra-boycott-working-so-quickly-92513">fed up with the NRA’s intransigence</a> have also begun putting pressure on a <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/nra-boycott-full-list-companies-have-cut-ties-gun-lobby-over-florida-shooting-819050">wide range of businesses</a> to cut ties with the gun rights group.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210105/original/file-20180313-30979-1b7eat6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210105/original/file-20180313-30979-1b7eat6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210105/original/file-20180313-30979-1b7eat6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210105/original/file-20180313-30979-1b7eat6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210105/original/file-20180313-30979-1b7eat6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210105/original/file-20180313-30979-1b7eat6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210105/original/file-20180313-30979-1b7eat6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Connecticut State Police detective holds up a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, the same make and model of gun used by Adam Lanza in the Sandy Hook school shooting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jessica Hill</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What the future holds</h2>
<p>Preventing some NRA members from <a href="http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/02/23/car-rental-companies-nra-discounts/">getting a discount</a> on a car rental or airline flight is obviously not going to bring the gun lobby to its knees or lead to a repeal of the industry’s immunity. But every small step brings attention to the issue and builds the pressure that will eventually change the political calculus for legislators.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/guns.htm">large majority</a> of Americans support the enactment of stricter gun laws, but the crucial question will be whether the intensity of their feelings about the issue ever match the passion of those who fiercely favor gun rights.</p>
<p>Change will happen if enough people make it clear that their preference for stronger regulation of firearms is something that affects how they spend their money and how they cast their votes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allen Rostron was a senior staff attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence prior to becoming a law professor in 2003.
</span></em></p>The gun industry has been virtually immune from liability for the deaths and injuries caused by its products since 2005. Can this change?Allen Rostron, Associate Dean for Students and William R. Jacques Constitutional Law Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas CityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519502015-12-09T11:09:16Z2015-12-09T11:09:16ZIt’s time to repeal the gun industry’s exceptional legal immunity<p>Gun violence has been a problem for a long time, but the recent shootings in Paris and San Bernardino have focused new attention on the issue. </p>
<p>Americans no longer just worry about someone <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-things-americans-should-know-about-mass-shootings-48934">shooting</a> up a school or workplace for personal reasons. The threat of terrorism has added an alarming new dimension to the problem.</p>
<p>Coming up with effective and realistic solutions is not easy. Guns pose a tricky dilemma, because they can be used to do good or bad things. They can be used to commit heinous crimes, but they can be used to protect lives as well. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1342636">challenge for lawmakers</a> is to come up with ways to reduce the risk of criminal misuse of guns while preserving and even promoting the likelihood of guns being used in beneficial ways.</p>
<p>Ensuring that every firearm manufacturer and dealer operates as safely and responsibly as possible should be one piece of the puzzle. </p>
<p>A key way to ensure that gun companies have the right incentives would be to repeal the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/109/plaws/publ92/PLAW-109publ92.pdf">Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act</a>. </p>
<h2>Gunmakers’ special immunity</h2>
<p>Enacted in 2005, this federal law gave gun sellers a special immunity from legal responsibilities that is not enjoyed by any other industry.</p>
<p>This law was enacted because a wave of lawsuits had put unprecedented pressure on the gun industry. In 1998, New Orleans became the first city to file a lawsuit against gun manufacturers. More than 30 other major American cities and counties soon followed. Other cases brought by individual victims of shootings began working their way through the courts as well.</p>
<p>As one of the lawyers at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence helping to bring these cases, I saw very clearly the impact that they had. The lawsuits generated <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/resources/smoking-guns">evidence</a> of severe problems with distribution of guns, including undercover sting operations revealing how gun dealers knowingly allow people to make “straw purchases” on behalf of convicted felons who cannot pass a background check.</p>
<p>The lawsuits also changed perceptions about the issue. Rather than seeing gun violence simply as a crime issue, the press and public began focusing for the first time on specific ways in which the gun industry’s practices contribute to the danger. </p>
<p>Journalists wrote a <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1161206">flood of stories</a> about topics like how gun companies boosted the lethality of their products to boost sales, how new technologies could make guns “personalized” to prevent unauthorized use and what government data showed about the illegal market for guns. </p>
<p>The lawsuits put enormous pressure on the gun industry to either reform its practices or face serious potential liability. From the industry’s perspective, that meant the lawsuits were a <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1161206">major threat</a>. Rather than doing the right thing and cleaning up its act, the industry turned to Congress for relief. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act knocked out almost all of the litigation pending against gunmakers at the time.</p>
<h2>Regrets about immunity in California</h2>
<p>If Congress decided to do away with this law, it would not be the first legislature that came to regret bestowing special immunity on gunmakers. California enacted a gun industry immunity law in 1983. Ten years later, a deranged gunman killed eight people and wounded six others in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/03/us/the-broker-who-killed-8-gunman-s-motives-a-puzzle.html">shooting rampage</a> at the office of a San Francisco law firm. </p>
<p>The killer used a pair of TEC-9 assault pistols, weapons with a <a href="http://www.cpmlegal.com/news-publications-Assault_Weapons_The_Case_Against_The_TEC_9.html">notorious reputation</a> for being designed and marketed in ways that appealed to criminals. </p>
<p>Survivors of the shooting and families of the victims brought a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the TEC-9s. They had compelling evidence of negligence but never got their day in court in front of a jury because <a href="http://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/4th/26/465.html">judges ruled</a> that the manufacturer was immune from liability under California’s statute. </p>
<p>Legislators in California were appalled and soon repealed the law, replacing it with a <a href="http://codes.findlaw.com/ca/civil-code/civ-sect-1714.html">measure</a> simply stating that those who design, distribute and market firearms have no special exemption from the normal legal duty to exercise ordinary care. California’s decision unfortunately became a moot point a few years later when Congress gave sweeping immunity to the gun industry on a nationwide basis.</p>
<h2>A compelling case</h2>
<p>The federal measure effectively bars almost any lawsuit against a gun manufacturer or wholesale distributor for failing to take <a href="https://theconversation.com/milwaukee-case-could-encourage-gun-stores-to-reduce-illegal-sales-49277">reasonable steps</a> to reduce the risk of criminal misuse of its products, such as exercising greater oversight of the retail dealers through which guns are sold. </p>
<p>It also bars a wide range of claims against retail sellers of firearms, leaving only a few narrow exceptions such as for certain types of claims based on statutory violations. For example, a gun dealer can be sued for knowingly selling a gun to a convicted felon or other legally disqualified purchaser. But if a dealer takes an “I know nothing” attitude and recklessly disregards circumstances that ought to raise reasonable suspicions or concerns about selling the gun, the dealer can invoke the federal immunity statute to avoid liability. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/press-room/brady-center-lawsuit-targets-missouri-gun-dealer-for-gun-sale-to-mentally-ill-woman-who">case</a> currently before the Supreme Court of Missouri provides a disturbing example of the federal law’s consequences. </p>
<p>Colby Sue Weathers had a long history of severe mental illness and substance abuse. She heard voices in her head and believed she was being monitored by a computer chip implanted inside her nose. She walked into a gun shop in May 2012, and, despite her debilitated mental condition, she managed to purchase a pistol. </p>
<p>She planned to shoot herself with it, but changed her mind and surrendered the gun to her parents. A few weeks later, Colby’s mother called the gun shop, told them about Colby’s mental problems and begged them not to sell another gun to Colby. She specifically warned the store that Colby would soon be receiving a Social Security check and was likely to use the money to buy another gun. </p>
<p>The shop could have simply declined to sell a gun to Colby, but it refused to use its discretion to refrain from making the sale. Two days later, Colby walked into the shop, purchased a pistol and then went home and used the gun to kill her father.</p>
<h2>Limited legal avenues</h2>
<p>Colby’s mother sued the gun shop for negligently selling the gun to her daughter despite being specifically warned of the danger. </p>
<p>The case is compelling, for even many gun rights advocates would be troubled to hear that a gun store would ignore such a highly specific warning about a particular customer, particularly a desperate plea from a mother worried about her child. </p>
<p>But for the case to have any chance of succeeding, lawyers bringing it had to try to squeeze it into one of the narrow categories of claims that the federal law allows against gun dealers. So far at least, they have failed, as the case was thrown out on the ground that all of the legal theories asserted in the case are either barred by the federal statute or not recognized under Missouri law. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.courts.mo.gov/SUP/index.nsf/fe8feff4659e0b7b8625699f0079eddf/e2d6549959ec07be86257ee500098d4c?OpenDocument">Supreme Court of Missouri</a> will hear arguments in the case on December 9. It is likely to take a few months to announce its decision, but when it does so, it can save the day by declaring that Colby’s mother has a claim that is viable under Missouri law and not precluded by the federal statute. </p>
<p>But bringing the lawsuit would not be such a convoluted, uphill battle if Congress had not bestowed special legal immunity on the gun shop and every other company in the gun business.</p>
<h2>Rethinking immunity</h2>
<p>At the same time, I would argue that gun manufacturers and dealers should not be subject to any extraordinary forms of liability that do not apply to other products. </p>
<p>They should not be liable, for example, merely because a firearm is a weapon that is capable of being used to do harm. But if a gun manufacturer or dealer fails to take basic, reasonable precautions in distributing products, it should be held accountable under the law just as an irresponsible company in any other business would be. </p>
<p>Think about what the threat of liability for defective cars like the <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1977/09/pinto-madness">Ford Pinto</a> has done for auto safety, or how the risk of liability for a dangerous product like the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/06/magazine/the-sad-legacy-of-the-dalkon-shield.html">Dalkon Shield contraceptive device</a> gives good incentives to the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and other medical products. Why should the makers of firearms be any different?</p>
<p>With the risks of firearms in the wrong hands becoming ever more apparent, Congress should reconsider its regrettable decision to give the gun industry special immunity from legal responsibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allen Rostron is an associate dean and professor at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law. He was a senior staff attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence prior to becoming a law professor in 2003. The Brady Center represents plaintiffs in the cases discussed in this article.</span></em></p>Finding solutions for what happened in San Bernardino is a challenge, but ensuring gunmakers behave responsibly should be one piece of the puzzle.Allen Rostron, Associate Dean for Students and William R. Jacques Constitutional Law Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas CityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.