Author: TheConversation

By Geoffrey Jones and Sudev Sheth; Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School; Senior Lecturer, The Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania Mahatma Gandhi is celebrated across the globe as an idealist who used civil disobedience to frustrate and overthrow British colonialists in India. The popularity of his nonviolent teachings – which inspired civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela – has obscured another important facet of his teachings: the proper role of business in society. Gandhi argued that companies should act as trusteeships, valuing social responsibility alongside profits, a view recently echoed...

By Ramsi Woodcock, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Kentucky Since it first became clear that Russian agents spent thousands of dollars a month on political advertising on social media in the runup to the 2016 presidential election, Americans have been asking how the powerful advertising infrastructure run by Google and Facebook could have been thrown open to foreign agents. But fewer have stopped to ask whether there is a good reason for this infrastructure to exist at all. Why, exactly, is it a good thing for Facebook and Google to be selling advertising to anyone, let alone Russian...

By Nathaniel Geiger, Assistant Professor of Communication Science, Indiana University Climate activists walked out of classrooms and workplaces in more than 150 countries on September 20 to demand stronger action on climate change. Mass mobilizations like this have become increasingly common in recent years. I’m a scholar of environmental communication who examines how people become engaged with solving dilemmas such as climate change, and how activism motivates others to take action. A new study I worked on suggests that large rallies, such as this youth-led Climate Strike, could be influencing public opinion. Conflicting signs For anyone in the U.S....

By Thomas Saltsman, Senior Lab Director, Social Psychophysiology Laboratory, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York Freedom of choice is a pillar of Western culture. But there’s such a thing as too much choice. Researchers such as Sheena Iyengar and Barry Schwartz have pioneered this area of study, finding that being overwhelmed with options can create an adverse experience called “choice overload” or ”The Paradox of Choice.“ People tend to want as many options as possible. Whether it’s buying a car or a meal, they gravitate toward companies that offer more options versus fewer ones, because they...

By Leah Ranney, Director of Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill In 2018, more than 4 million high schools students and 840,000 middle schools students used any tobacco product, with e-cigarettes driving the surge. The increase among high school students represented a 78% increase, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The upsurge started in 2011, when 1.5 percent of high school students, or 220,000, reported e-cigaratte usage in the past 30 days. In 2018, 20.8 percent, or 3.01 million, high school students surveyed reported e-cigarette use in the past 30 days. There is...

By Risa Robinson, Professor and Department Chair, Mechanical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking closely at the different flavored nicotine juices and other substances users may be vaping in e-cigarettes to determine how the aerosol might be affecting users’ lungs. On September 12, 2019, the CDC lowered the number of confirmed and probable cases from more than 400 to 380. The number was lower, the agency said, because it is no longer reporting “possible cases.” The mystery and concern remain. And, many smokers who use these devices to quit are concerned...