It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Schadenfreudian Slip
A Data Scientist Resigned From Twitter and Blasted Elon Musk Directly to His Face That's gotta hurt.
Quit Clown
A Twitter data scientist who was set to resign reportedly told CEO Elon Musk what a lot of users are thinking these days: "I hope you’ll declare bankruptcy and let someone else run the company."
That anecdote and other eye-opening revelations are at the center of the just-released book "Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter," by New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, who take readers inside how Musk has transformed the social network, now called X, into a shambolic mess of bots and extremist hate accounts.
The departing employee was initially pleased that Musk had taken over the company, as flagged by Rolling Stone, but grew increasingly alarmed, especially after Musk shared a deranged and incorrect conspiracy theory about Nancy Pelosi's husband after a home invader attacked him with a hammer.
"It’s only really like the tenth percentile of the adult population who’d be gullible enough to fall for this," the data scientist told Musk during a face-to-face meeting.
"Fuck you!" Musk shouted back.
Fail Whale
There are even more bonkers revelations in the book, but you don't really need to read all these anecdotes to get a sense that X-formerly-Twitter is adrift and that Musk is a terrible manager.
Not to mention arcane tech glitches, like last year when the website became unusable due to "rate limit exceeded" messages.
And because of Musk's mismanagement and his mercurial presence on the app, advertisers and users have left in droves — leading Musk to sue advertisers over this supposed mass boycott.
Here's a thought: perhaps Musk should have listened to that data scientist and left the website in more competent hands.
“How do you balance dreams of peace with the complex reality of achieving it,” said conflict researcher Mareike Schomerus, “without giving up on the dream, but without ignoring the reality?”
Tensions permeate the work of those trying to understand the roots of conflict and pathways to peace. What motivates people to accept those they’ve only ever learned to hate? Why do people join extremist groups, and how do some get out? How do institutions contribute to violence, and how can they foster peace?
The answers to questions like these are far from simple. They are nuanced and context-dependent, but not out of reach. Recently, a group of people who have dedicated their careers to finding those answers convened at the third annual Neuropaz conference in Medellín, Colombia.
One of those people is Andrés Casas, the founder and organizer of Neuropaz, an annual conference in Colombia that explores how the behavioral sciences can promote peace. Casas led this year’s conference with support from local and international organizations, including Comfama, Fundación Corona, UNDP Colombia, and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism. Across the four-day conference and workshop, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from within Colombia and around the world came together to share what they’ve learned.
Colombia was a fitting setting for the gathering. After more than 60 years of war between the government and guerrilla and paramilitary groups, a peace deal in 2016 brought a formal end to the conflict. It was a significant step for the peace builders who had spent years dedicated to the cause. But their work was far from over. Since then, they’ve been working to ensure that the declaration of peace translates to peace in practice. Neuropaz is part of that ongoing mission.
During the conference, I spoke with eight of the local and international experts who have worked on conflicts in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and the U.S. and U.K. These are behavioral scientists who have convinced members of al-Qaeda to have their brains scanned in an fMRI machine, consulted with decision-makers on the ground in South Sudan in the years leading up to independence, and provided a platform for former guerrilla combatants and their victims to share their stories together.
Below are their reflections on the questions that define their work, the answers they’ve found so far, and their aspirations for what’s yet to come.
* * *
Economist Pablo Abitbol asks: “How can we build democracy in local communities to nurture more dignified human development?”
Pablo Abitbol is an economist at the Technological University of Bolívar and a member of the Montes de María Regional Space for Peace Construction in Colombia. He studies collective memory, cultural change, and deliberative democracy in an effort to restabilize the territories in Montes de María and Cartagena that were impacted by years of violence. Many of those territories are still governed by corrupt actors that neglect public institutions like education and mental health services. Abitbol works with local leaders to restore the voices of those who have been excluded from the democratic process and political decision-making within their own communities.
“Our approach is to create spaces and processes of democratic deliberation within these communities. We are trying to reincorporate into the democratic process its heart, which is what Amartya Sen calls government by discussion—exchange of arguments, being able to listen attentively and respectfully to others’ positions and worldviews, and being open to reconciling your own worldviews and perceptions with those of other people.
“One thing that emerged from these deliberative assemblies, which is what we call our specific design, is the precariousness of mental health services for these kinds of rural communities. They’re often totally absent or harm-producing.
“But given the absence of good mental services for these communities, many have developed their own practices for taking care of themselves. A paradigmatic example is the tejedoras, the weavers of Mampuján, a group of displaced women from the town of Mampuján. They were displaced by paramilitaries and had to resettle. A lot of pain, a lot of trauma. The women started gathering to make sancocho, which is a delicious soup that is typical of the region, and to take care of their hair. And then they started producing tapestries. Those tapestries tell the memory of their displacement and their resistance, and they have become an incredible work of art that is now in the National Museum of Colombia. And now they have their own museum of Mampuján. That is a clear example of how, in the absence of the institutional service of mental health, they developed their own way of healing anchored in their traditions.
“We have deliberated about how to connect local practices with institutions so that institutions might offer a better kind of service that is more connected with their communities. If you want to have better mental health services, or any other kind of service—state services, public services—you have to change the way that politics is done.”
* * *
Psychologist Boaz Hameiri asks: “Why is it so difficult to change people’s views about conflict?”
Boaz Hameiri is a senior lecturer and head of the Conflict Management and Mediation Program at Tel Aviv University. He studies the psychological barriers to conflict resolution and how we might overcome them. One of those barriers is cognitive freezing—a hallmark of intractable conflict. When our views about a conflict are characterized by closed-mindedness and rigidity, there’s little that activists and policymakers can do to garner support for peace. Unfreezing, then, is central to moving toward peaceful conflict resolution. A useful tool for unfreezing people’s views, Hameiri believes, are metaperceptions.
“Metaperceptions are what we think others think. When we talk about intergroup relations, they refer to what we think members of the outgroup think about us. If I’m Jewish Israeli, a metaperception is what I think Palestinians think about Israelis.
“We find that people tend to have pessimistic metaperceptions. They often think that people from the outgroup think much more negative things about them than they actually do. In a study published in 2020, led by Samantha Moore-Berg, we found that Democrats and Republicans in the United States are essentially in complete agreement: both of them think that the other party thinks much more negative things about them than they do in reality. They think that the other side dehumanizes them much more than reality. They think the other side dislikes them much more than reality. And the differences are staggering—on a 100-point dehumanization scale, the perceived dehumanization and dislike was 20 to 40 points higher than actual dehumanization and dislike.
You’re not trying to change people’s views about the outgroup . . . The only thing that you’re saying is: You think that they think something about you, but the truth is something else.
“But it’s not only that the divide is so big—it’s also consequential. If you think that the other side dislikes you, you dislike them in return. There’s a reciprocal response. If they dehumanize you, you dehumanize them.
“So metaperceptions are overly pessimistic and completely false in the vast majority of cases. If that’s the case, then you can correct these kinds of perceptions. And if you correct those erroneous metaperceptions, you can also reduce dehumanization and dislike.
“You’re not trying to change people’s views about the outgroup. You’re not trying to contest anything that they think about the outgroup. You’re not trying to persuade them to think something different. The only thing that you’re saying is: You think that they think something about you, but the truth is something else. It’s much easier to do—people will be less defensive.”
* * *
Conflict researcher Mareike Schomerus asks: “When working toward peace, how do we make visible the tension between an idealized version of the future and the reality of getting there?”
Mareike Schomerus is a vice president at Busara, an organization working to incorporate behavioral science into development work in the Global South, and author of Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict (open access here). She studies the emotions, memories, experiences, and actions of people in situations of violent conflict to better understand how we might facilitate peace. Lately, Schomerus has been thinking about the mental models of conflict held by practitioners working toward peace and the cognitive dissonance that arises when reality is at odds with those models.
“I worked on the conflict in South Sudan five or six years before independence. Although this was a seemingly happy moment for a country about to become independent, we could see that conflict dynamics were already developing.
“I was trying to convey that concern to decision-makers. They would patiently and politely listen to me, but at some point you could see this cognitive dissonance click into action. They would go, ‘Yeah, but people wouldn’t throw away newly gained independence to go back to war.’ The decision-makers would dig in their heels and effectively say, ‘I just cannot imagine that this would be any other way than exactly how I imagine it to be.’
“There was this international wave of consensus that carrying South Sudan through the democratization process, elections, and a referendum on independence was going to be a huge international freedom fighter success story. After South Sudan went into horrific civil war, a lot of senior decision-makers said, ‘Well, if we’d only known.’ But people had written about this—it just didn’t fit into the narrative, the mental model of peacemaking, so it couldn’t be heard.
“People often imagine peace processes to be romantic, but the reality is human. The romanticism can be detrimental because it means you ignore the real problems. But sometimes it’s also quite beautiful—that’s where human dignity, hope, and beauty lie. How do you balance dreams with realities without giving up on the dreams, but without ignoring the reality? And if we know this tension to be true—the cognitive dissonance between dream and reality—how do we make it visible?”
* * *
Cognitive scientist Nafees Hamid asks: “Why do people join and leave extremist groups?”
Nafees Hamid is the research and policy director of XCEPT at King’s College London. He investigates how trauma and mental health influence an individual’s propensity for peace or violence. He has also studied political violence among groups spanning jihadists, white nationalists, and QAnon to better understand how individuals get pulled into extremist groups, and how we might pull them back out again.
“When people hold sacred values—values so morally important that they’re willing to give their lives—the material incentives that governments typically use to dissuade violence not only fail but actually backfire. If you’re trying to get people to compromise on their sacred values (if you’re trying to negotiate with the Taliban or trying to convince someone to not join a neo-Nazi group, for example), then you would be better off avoiding material incentives or disincentives. Instead, things like social inclusion, social norms, acknowledgment, symbolic concessions, making people feel like they’re heard, giving them space to talk—all become useful.
“Tools like social inclusion aren’t going to get rid of your sacred values, but they can adjust what you’re willing to do for them. Maybe you’re not going to fight, maybe you’re not going to kill people. On the other hand, when you socially exclude people, as our neurosciencestudies on early-stage extremists show, you can see nonsacred values turning into sacred values. You can see that at the level of the brain. You can see both an increase in sacred values and an increased willingness to fight and die for those sacred values.
How do you make the extreme group feel . . . that they’re still part of the broader society, while at the same time making it clear that you do not support their level of violence?
“Now think about the wake of a terrorist attack, for example. You have political leaders telling this broader group, ‘You must condemn this extremist group in your midst. You must say they are not one of us.’ I understand where that’s coming from, but what you’re actually doing is severing the only vector of influence we have over these extreme people.
“It’s like telling people who have a child or relative in a cult to condemn them for being part of the group—to stop talking to them, to stop listening. Guess what’s going to happen if you do that? They become more a part of the cult. If you want to influence the cult, you want to make sure that each of those cult members still has multiple connections to the outside world—that’s the only way you can influence who they are and what they do.
“This is why demands for the broader population to condemn the more extreme population can, in some cases, make the problem worse, rather than better. And so the balance that the broader population must find is: How do you make the extreme group feel like they belong, that they’re still part of the broader society, while at the same time making it clear that you do not support their level of violence?”
* * *
Economist Sandra Polanía-Reyes asks: “How do we influence people’s preferences to achieve a less divided, more integrated society?”
Sandra Polanía-Reyes is an associate professor at the University of Navarra and a research associate at the Navarra Center for International Development. She studies social norms, trust, and cooperation and works to steer people toward prosocial behavior—to help them make decisions for the common good in contexts including migration and peace building.
“Mainstream economics would describe endogenous preferences—those shaped by our economic and sociocultural environment—as complex. But actually, in one word, it’s education. As we learn, we define our preferences, and then we behave according to our preferences. This is why early intervention is crucial. The brain is still developing, so helping children, teenagers, or young adults adopt prosocial behaviors during these formative years can have a lasting impact.
“For example, when kids are exposed to different phenotypical groups—in Europe, you have Black and Caucasian Europeans, African communities, refugees from Syria—in their public school classrooms when they are very young, there is evidence that when they are teenagers, it’s completely normal to interact with people that are different from them. We play together. We make the same mistakes. We both like soccer.
“This is an example in terms of phenotype, but of course there are many kinds of differences. In Colombia, we have Venezuelans and Colombians, and we are very similar physically, ethnically, religiously—so why does this still happen?
“Across contexts, we find that influencing endogenous preferences in kids by exposing them to diverse groups results in adults who are more generous, care about others, and are open to diversity—so many positive attributes that otherwise would have been much harder to cultivate in adults whose past experiences have shaped preferences that are far more difficult to change.”
* * *
Technologist and innovation researcher Martin Waehlisch asks: “How do we use new technologies to address global challenges in conflict prevention and peacemaking?”
Martin Waehlisch has been a leader in innovation at the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and is now a researcher at the University of Birmingham. He focuses on how we can borrow knowledge from disciplines that haven’t typically played a role in the peace process—with a particular focus on computational social science—to measure things we haven’t been measuring, to communicate more accurately and effectively with peace constituencies, and to bring voices to the forefront that aren’t usually part of the peace process.
“Technology can play a role in the conflict prevention, management, and peace building phases equally. First, we can use new technologies to prevent conflict—for instance, to help us get a sense of public sentiments. When we know something is brewing, the data that we have on hand might ordinarily be built based on surveys or social media analysis in the best case. But now there are ways that we can multiply data sources to get a more thorough idea about what the public thinks at large, and those issues can then be addressed in order to prevent an outbreak of violence.
“Then we have the actual ongoing peace negotiation, which is right in the middle of the war. That’s where technology can help to bring people together who wouldn’t normally have the chance to be heard by politicians. One example is the digital dialogs we’ve been running for years where artificial intelligence is used to achieve the scale of a poll, but the intimacy of a focus group. Imagine thousands of people talking to each other at the same time about the same issue in a 45-minute conversation, and then an AI listening digitally to every individual, and then summarizing everything to instantly give the peace mediator a sense of what’s relevant.
Imagine thousands of people talking to each other at the same time . . . and an AI listening digitally to every individual, and then summarizing everything to instantly give the peace mediator a sense of what’s relevant.
“Trauma work usually comes at the very end of the peace process. I’m curious about how machines allow us to have conversations in a deeper way, in comparison to human-to-human conversations, when it comes to overcoming trauma. There’s research showing that people often feel more comfortable talking to a machine than a human psychologist—there seems to be some comfort in talking to an object whose memory can be deleted. It also gives more privacy and creates a sense of safety, to a certain extent. We only have a limited number of psychologists or mental health workers, so that’s where these technologies can step in. But of course, this must be approached with sensitivity and responsibility, as many questions remain around AI, including concerns about algorithmic biases and hallucinations.”
* * *
Behavioral science specialist Josh Martin asks: “How do ‘normal’ people—those who otherwise seem like typical members of society playing typical roles—come to participate in extreme action?”
Josh Martin is a lead expert in countering extremism at the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism and former director at ideas42 and Beyond Conflict, a project dedicated to applying behavioral science toward conflict resolution. One theme of his peace and conflict work is the often subtle pathways toward extremism and how we might use our knowledge of human behavior to help people detect, avoid, and escape them.
“One lens through which I often view this problem is channel factors—the bucket of behavioral mechanisms that conspire to put you on a path that you may not realize you’re on. And then they keep you there by imposing some nonmonetary cost for leaving that path.
“A lot of people who end up in extremist organizations, for instance, start on a path that looks nothing like that. Channel factors are things like networks of friends or your information environment on social media, but also much more mundane things like the timing of when you’re exposed to certain messages. These things all contribute to the existence of this channel that pushes you toward extremism.
“An example is the case of Adolf Eichmann. I just finished reading Hannah Arendt’s book about the banalities of evil, and there’s a quote by Eichmann: ‘It was like being swallowed up by the party against all expectations and without previous decision. It happened so quickly and suddenly.’ He ended up working on the Holocaust and murdering millions of people without any ideological predisposition on his part. Arendt is pretty skeptical about this—he’s not blameless. Just because people can be guided without their knowledge toward an extreme doesn’t make them blameless. We’re all still accountable for our actions. But she cites him as much more of an example of the situation acting on an individual than an individual who was violent from the beginning.
“We often want to console ourselves by thinking that people who do bad stuff are just bad because that keeps us from seeing ourselves in them. But all the evidence goes in the other direction. We are all the sort of people who might. It’s not that we’re all evil, or that there’s evil inside of us. That’s not the point. The point is that we are all people who, under the wrong set of circumstances, would do the wrong thing.
“And to be clear: you would never tell victims of armed conflict that they shouldn’t blame their perpetrators for the violence and atrocities. The distinction I would draw is between accountability and prevention. We should hold people accountable for not doing more to get themselves out of the channel. But it is totally fine to analyze the future behavior of others in a way that would lead us toward better prevention strategies. If we appreciated the ways in which the modern world can act upon somebody, then we might design the modern world slightly better.”
* * *
Psychologist Andrés Casas asks: “Can people change?”
Andrés Casas is a doctoral researcher studying neuroscience and conflict resolution across Latin America, the United States, Africa, and the Middle East. He is also the founder and organizer of Neuropaz, and the reason that all the experts quoted in this piece—among many other researchers and practitioners from Colombia and around the world—came together as a part of this effort to advance the science of peace. He shared a personal anecdote that captures the heart of his work.
“I grew up in a country where not supporting your side of the conflict was seen as inappropriate. You’re a coward—you’re not supporting your national identity while we’re fighting against these terrorists, the worst people in the world, who kidnap people, who commit massacres.
“But my grandpa was a political activist back in the 1940s. His mission, in a sense, was to educate us about the real situation of the country. And he worked with a famous political leader called Jorge Eliécer Gaitán who was an inspiration to all rebel causes—he was from one of the poorest sectors, made it through law school, and became an incredible communicator about the injustices of the country.
“Gaitán was assassinated in Bogotá in 1949, and his death changed the history of Colombia. That event was called El Bogotazo because the city got destroyed, and it sparked the outbreak of violence that persisted through the next 60 years. My grandpa was working with him, yet the people who rose up to avenge his death were responsible for the atrocities that followed. In my family, the idea that things are not black-and-white and that you need to educate yourself about context and the nuances of reality was very important.
If we appreciated the ways in which the modern world can act upon somebody, then we might design the modern world slightly better.
“That’s why I got into this. My mom, who has already passed away, was against FARC because she always worked to provide services for people who were victims of the insurgent violence. Colombia has the second highest rate of internal displacement after Syria, and my mother devoted the last part of her life to helping people in that situation. I’m so proud. But again, my mother was very prejudiced against FARC members because she saw the effects of what they did.
“When I was younger, difficult situations in my family made me think that people cannot change. I saw my mom working hard and doing this stuff for other people, but she was prejudiced against FARC. It was confusing. Growing up, I had a very difficult relationship with my mom, politically speaking, because she was on one side, I was on the other side.
“But my grandpa had educated me about politics. That’s why I became a political scientist. I want to go beyond just understanding political systems, I want to understand how political change happens. In a sense, my work was trying to convince my mom to think differently.
“She was diagnosed with cancer back in 2000. And before she passed, Emile [Bruneau, a peace scientist and former collaborator of mine who has also since passed away] and our team had managed to do the first stage of our project to help correct misperceptions of former FARC combatants and foster their peaceful reintegration into society. We had conducted the interviews, developed the first videos, and run the first study to find the video that worked best to reduce dehumanization and increase support for peace.
“My mother was sick already, but she was still aware. ‘Mom, I want to show you what we’re working on,’ I said to her. So we played the video, and I asked her, ‘What do you think about it?’
“And she told me, ‘Maybe I was wrong.’”
Disclosure: Mareike Schomerus is a vice president at Busara which provides financial support to Behavioral Scientist as an organizational partner. Organizational partners do not play a role in the editorial decisions of the magazine.
Heather Graci is an editor at the Behavioral Scientist and an editorial researcher who has worked with authors Angela Duckworth and Dan Heath. Previously, she was a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania’s Behavior Change for Good Initiative. She graduated in 2019 from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in Behavioral Economics and Psychology.
Construction Project Unearths Millions of Fossils Beneath a Los Angeles High School
The discoveries include sharks, shorebirds, mammals and saber-toothed salmon, with the oldest remains dating to almost nine million years ago
A vertebra fossil of an extinct dolphin species found at the site. Envicom Corporation
Millions of years ago, Los Angeles was underwater. In fact, the land where the city lies today was submerged for most of its geological history. And now, a local high school has gotten a powerful reminder of that fact: Construction work at the San Pedro High School on the Palos Verdes Peninsula revealed millions of marine fossils beneath its campus that testify to the region’s aquatic prehistory.
“There’s never been this type of density of fossils ever found at a site like this before in California,” Wayne Bischoff, the director of cultural resources at Envicom Corporation who managed the excavated fossils, tells the Los Angeles Times’ Jireh Deng. “It’s the largest marine bone bed found in Los Angeles and Orange counties.”
The excavation work, which began in 2022, revealed three distinct fossil sites: a layer of 120,000-year-old shells from the Pleistocene epoch, an 8.7-million-year-old bonebed containing fish and marine mammal remains from the Miocene epoch and an 8.9-million-year-old layer of phosphorous-rich rock that revealed evidence of volcanic activity.
Now that the construction is completed, scientists have begun the arduous process of studying the tons of paleontological material unearthed from the site, including remains of sea turtles, birds, fish, sharks, dolphins, whales, invertebrates, plants and the megalodon, the largest shark to ever exist. The fossils represented more than 200 species, including some that had never been seen in Southern California before, such as the saber-toothed salmon.
The deepest bonebed layer dates to a time that’s underrepresented in the fossil record of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. “The material is unique in that it also has a large amount of coprolites—fossilized scat that contains dozens of fish bones,” wrote Bischoff in a summary of the findings shared with Smithsonian magazine.
Using these newly discovered remains, researchers at the Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County, along with Milad Esfahani, a San Pedro High School student and museum intern, are now analyzing the area’s geologic past
“We’ve moved away from just describing what we find, identifying new species and making lists of things … to really trying to understand how ecosystems function, how they’ve changed through time,” Austin Hendy, a paleontologist and assistant curator at the museum, tells LAist’s Mariana Dale.
Because of the shoreline-related fossils—including coastal plants, driftwood and shorebirds—the team suggests the area was home to a prehistoric island, which is now long gone. Millions of years ago, a storm could have channeled organic debris east from the island and into an underwater canyon, where a layer of mud effectively sealed it into sediment that was only revealed in more geologically recent times. Hendy also hypothesizes that there was “volcanism going on somewhere in the vicinity,” he tells ABC7’s Amanda Palacios. Experts are now looking for signs of more extinct islands.
“We’re kind of like detectives,” Richard Behl, a geologist at California State University, Long Beach, who is studying the composition of the fossils, tells the Los Angeles Times. “We got to find clues and piece those clues together.”
Wayne Bischoff pictured with Austin Hendy and Milad Esfahani. Envicom Corporation
He explains that the Miocene-era fossils are encased in diatomite, a sort of fossilized algae, which signals that the prehistoric environment was nutrient-rich and capable of supporting a complex ecosystem.
The rarity of the discovery has surprised the school’s students—most of L.A.’s paleontological history is sealed away beneath concrete, per LAist.
“I thought this stuff was something that never happens, especially around here,” Taya Olson, a San Pedro High School student, says to ABC7. “It only happens in textbooks.”
The fossils have now been distributed to various institutions for future research, including the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, Los Angeles Unified School District and Cal State Channel Islands. Researchers hope the discovery could unveil even more information about Southern California’s prehistoric ecology.
“It’s the entire ecosystem from an age that’s gone,” Bischoff tells LAist. “We have all this evidence to help future researchers put together what an entire ecology looked like nine million years ago. That’s really rare.”
Opinion: 'Right to disconnect' laws are a step toward healthier, more productive and more inclusive workplaces
In August, Australia joined Ontario, France and several European and Latin American countries in passing a "right to disconnect" law. This law gives workers the right to ignore communications from their employer outside scheduled working hours.
While workers in occupations like emergency medicine or law enforcement expect unpredictable hours and disruptions, these laws target other occupations—ones where a crisis outside regular hours might only be a crisis because someone thinks it is. As one of my former co-workers noted with a sign above their desk: "Your lack of organization is not my emergency."
The right to disconnect targets the growing problems of overconnectedness and over-availability. In the past, if an employer wanted to reach an employee outside work hours, they usually had to telephone them. Now almost all employees can be reached at any time through mobile phones, email, or platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack or WhatsApp.
That ease of contact makes the division between work and home even more blurry than in the past. Some employees who work from home feel they need to compensate for their lack of visibility at the workplace by being accessible after working hours.
With the researchers' input, the firm implemented what it called "predictable time off." Consultants were scheduled for least one full day off each week, and stopped work at a set time at least once a week. The company agreed not to contact consultants during their time off. The consultants were instructed not to contact co-workers or the company outside their scheduled work times.
At first, consultants and team leaders resisted these arrangements. They were afraid the quality of their work would decline, and that clients would object to their limited availability. The consultants also worried their careers would suffer if they were perceived as not being completely dedicated to the company and to their work.
In fact, the opposite happened. Having clearly defined hours forced the consultants to work more efficiently, and to better co-ordinate their work with their colleagues' work, resulting in improved client service and higher-quality outputs. The consultants also reported that scheduled time off left them refreshed and energized, which made them more productive during working hours.
The researchers cautioned that arrangements like these will only succeed if both employees and employers fully commit to them—consciously avoiding the temptation during time off to send just that one email or finish that last little task.
But when the boundaries between work and non-work are respected and enforced, the effects are profound. All of the workers with predictable time off wanted to continue with that arrangement, and most of the company's other employees said they would welcome it, too.
Leveling the playing field
Giving workers the right to disconnect can also help create more inclusive workplaces, by addressing the disproportionate impact that overwork enabled by overconnectedness has on women compared to men.
But disconnecting can level the playing field by discouraging workplace norms that reinforce gender-based stereotypes. When organizations establish clear boundaries between work and personal time, they help remove the implicit bias that equates constant availability with dedication.
Instead of criticizing right to disconnect legislation as unnecessary governmental interference or an unwanted operational constraint, organizations should welcome these laws as an opportunity.
When employees' time off really is time off, they can be more productive and efficient at work. And when employers respect the boundaries between work and home, they can build workplace cultures that are more equitable and respectful. These are desirable outcomes for everyone.
New Poll from The George Washington University and HarrisX: Confidence in American Government and Institutions Returns to Levels from Early Biden Years, But Bipartisanship Demands Remain Unmet
Newswise — WASHINGTON and NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2024 -- Today, the GW Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) Society of Presidential Pollsters Founder Mark Penn, in conversation with Christopher Arterton, professor emeritus and founding dean of the GW Graduate School of Political Management, will reveal the results of the latest "American Government in the 21st Century" annual survey, which takes a pulse of the American people on a wide range of issues related to how elected officials and public institutions are serving them. The complete survey results can be found here.
"Americans continue to desire bipartisanship from their institutions but feel they are not getting it," said Penn. "There's an appreciation that this country is built on compromise, but politicians are falling short on the demand for bipartisanship."
Confidence in federal government returns to levels from early Biden years
48% of voters say the presidency is working as an institution, up 7 points from last year (2024: 48%; 2023: 41%; 2022: 50%; 2021: 53%).
39% of voters say Congress is working as an institution, up 7 points from last year (2024: 39%; 2023: 32%; 2022: 41%; 2021: 40%).
Confidence in the Supreme Court remains largely unchanged, with 53% who say it is working as an institution.
63% of Democrats believe the President is most effective at doing their job, while 58% of Republicans and 44% of Independents, believe the Supreme Court is most effective.
Most voters prefer bipartisanship but do not see it in today's institutions
70% of voters believe bipartisan support is critical for major policy changes, but 82% characterize the bipartisan system of governing right now as broken.
The majority of voters believe the branches are becoming more politicized and that their representatives across all levels of government and judges prioritize political party interests over the national interest.
87% of voters believe U.S. politics has become too much about fighting and 77% say differences between the two parties have become so great that bipartisanship on big issues is no longer possible, even though over 3 in 4 voters prefer bipartisan compromise over gridlock or single party control of the government.
Voters demand more information and transparency from campaigns
A plurality of voters agree that the presidential campaigns have done too little to inform voters about their positions on the issues (Harris: 44%; Trump: 39%).
A majority of voters approve of measures to improve information and financial transparency from presidential campaigns, including 86% who say policy papers should be required, 83% who are in favor of financial spending disclosures, and 82% who want three presidential debates.
Strong support for First Amendment protections across all platforms
81% of voters say we need to strengthen the First Amendment's provision for freedom of speech and the press.
More than half of voters believe First Amendment rights should apply to social media and Big Tech platforms.
54% of voters believe it is inappropriate for the government to delineate misinformation when it comes to social media, and 57% believe the same for news media organizations.
70% of voters, and a majority across the political spectrum, perceive Big Tech companies as politically biased in their actions.
Voters generally satisfied with amount of power institutions hold right now
64% of voters say the President should have the same amount of power as they do now, regardless of who is in office, a 12-point increase from last year. In 2023, nearly one-third of voters believed the President should hold less power.
The majority of voters would keep the power of Congress, the Supreme Court, and other key federal agencies the same.
47% of voters say the federal government's power should be the same as now. 14% say it should have more power, down 7 points from 2023.
The event will be held from 5:30 – 8:30 PM EDT today on the Hall of the States rooftop. If you would like to attend, please RSVP here.
The George Washington University established the Society of Presidential Pollsters in 2010. The Society acts as a membership organization for the select group of people who have served as public opinion advisors to the President of the United States. The Society aims to collect and preserve records of the polling conducted on behalf of the White House over the last eight decades.
HarrisX, on behalf of the Society of Presidential Pollsters, conducted the survey online between Sept. 14 – 16, 2024 among 1,505 registered voters who were randomly recruited to participate in it. Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race or ethnicity, income, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. The margin for error was +/- 2.5%.
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Husbands of employed wives report greater happiness and self-esteem
A recent study published in the journal Personal Relationships explored the intricate links between self-esteem, happiness, and marital conflict in married couples, with particular attention to how these dynamics might differ based on whether the wife is employed. The findings suggest that marital relationships are shaped by both partners’ psychological well-being, but wives tend to have a greater influence on their husbands’ self-esteem and happiness than vice versa. Interestingly, husbands married to employed wives reported higher psychological well-being compared to those with stay-at-home wives.
Marital relationships are fundamental to the well-being of adults, yet researchers still have much to learn about how psychological factors like self-esteem and happiness interact with marital conflict over time. Although there is ample research showing that partners influence each other’s health, emotions, and behavior, there is a gap in understanding the long-term, mutual effects between self-esteem, subjective happiness, and marital conflict.
Self-esteem has long been seen as a predictor of relationship quality. People with high self-esteem are more likely to engage in behaviors that strengthen their relationships, while those with low self-esteem may struggle to maintain satisfying relationships. Happiness, too, is linked to relationship satisfaction, but the direction of influence—whether happiness leads to better relationships or vice versa—remains debated.
Additionally, previous research has suggested that wives, who often play a larger emotional role in marriage, may influence their husbands’ psychological well-being more than the reverse. In the new study, Jeong Jin Yu (a professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University) aimed to fill these knowledge gaps by examining these dynamics over time in South Korean couples, while also exploring how the employment status of wives might affect these relationships.
Yu analyzed data from the Panel Study on Korean Children, a nationwide survey that has tracked families since 2008. The data for this study were collected from 1,668 married couples at three different points in time, spaced one year apart. This longitudinal approach allowed Yu to track changes in self-esteem, happiness, and marital conflict over time.
Participants included both husbands and wives who were required to be living together at the start of the study. If a couple separated or divorced during the study, they were no longer included. The couples had been married for about ten years on average, and most had one or two children. About 40 percent of the wives were employed, while nearly all of the husbands worked.
To measure self-esteem, participants responded to a series of questions that assessed how they felt about their worth and qualities. Marital conflict was measured by asking participants how often they experienced arguments or tension in their marriage. Happiness was measured by having participants rate how happy they generally felt.
Yu found that self-esteem and happiness are closely linked for both husbands and wives. High self-esteem led to increased happiness over time, and the reverse was also true: feeling happy boosted self-esteem. This positive feedback loop was present for both men and women, suggesting that feeling good about oneself is crucial for overall happiness and vice versa.
However, when it came to the influence between spouses, Yu found that wives had a stronger impact on their husbands’ self-esteem and happiness than the other way around. Wives’ self-esteem at the start of the study was linked to their husbands’ self-esteem in subsequent years, but the reverse was not observed.
“Counter to the lay beliefs that men are independent and self-reliant or draw their self-worth from their relationships less than women, the overall findings suggest that husbands tend to derive self-esteem from their wife more than the other way around. However, husbands have minimal association with their wife’s self-esteem,” Yu wrote.
Yu also found that marital conflict had a negative effect on happiness, but not necessarily on self-esteem. Both husbands and wives who reported more conflict in their marriages were likely to feel less happy over time. Interestingly, wives’ marital conflict had a stronger impact on their husbands’ happiness and self-esteem than husbands’ conflict had on their wives. In other words, when wives were unhappy in their marriages, it had a significant emotional toll on their husbands.
Wives’ employment status emerged as an important factor in these dynamics. Husbands of employed wives reported higher self-esteem and happiness compared to husbands of stay-at-home wives. This effect may stem from the financial and emotional support that working wives provide, which can enhance a more balanced and satisfying marital relationship. Employed wives with high self-esteem were less likely to report marital conflict over time, suggesting that having a sense of personal achievement outside the home may buffer against marital tension.
In contrast, stay-at-home wives who experienced more conflict in their marriages tended to have husbands with lower self-esteem. This suggests that when wives are not employed, marital conflict may weigh more heavily on their husbands’ psychological well-being.
Yu’s study opens up several interesting avenues for future research. One important direction is to explore how these dynamics play out in different cultural contexts. South Korea has a unique cultural landscape, where traditional gender roles are shifting but still influential. It would be interesting to see if similar patterns emerge in more egalitarian societies or in cultures where gender roles are more rigidly defined.
Future research could also investigate how the dynamics between self-esteem, happiness, and marital conflict change over the course of a marriage. For instance, do these patterns look different for couples in their early years of marriage compared to those who have been married for decades? Similarly, how do these dynamics shift when children are born or when couples transition into retirement?
“Taken together, this study supports the position that although couples depend on each other for marital and psychological well-being in different ways over time, wives tend to be their husbands’ substantial source of perceived psychological well-being than the reverse,” Yu concluded. “However, the benefit of psychological well-being appears to be less for husbands of stay-at-home wives compared with husbands of employed wives.
“Future research should continue to utilize longitudinal dyadic data from both partners to better understand the multifaceted effects of interdependence, reciprocity, and gender differences on marital relationships and psychological well-being. Furthermore, such studies should analyze the dynamics both at the level of individual partners and at the couple level, shedding light on the reciprocal influences over time.”
Painting of the dicynodont made by the San in the early 1800s. Image Credit 1: Julien Benoit
A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a study published September 18, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Julien Benoit of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Horned Serpent panel is a section of rock wall featuring artwork of animals and other cultural elements associated with the San people of South Africa, originally painted between 1821 and 1835. Among the painted figures is a long-bodied animal with downward-turned tusks which doesn’t match any known modern species in the area.
As the San people are known to have included various aspects of their surroundings into art, including fossils, Benoit suggests the tusked creature might have been inspired by an extinct species.
The Karoo Basin of South Africa is famous for abundant well-preserved fossils, including tusked animals called dicynodonts, which are often found eroding out of the ground. Benoit revisited the Horned Serpent panel and found the tusked figure comparable with dicynodont fossils, an interpretation that is also supported by San myths of large animals that once roamed the region but are now extinct.
The Horned Serpent panel. A, general view of the Horned Serpent panel photographed in 2024 by the author. B, close up of the section figured in Stow and Bleek’s plate 39. C, close up of the tusked animal. D, close up of the warriors painted below the Horned Serpent panel. E, close up of the warriors painted to the right of the panel. Image Credit 2: Julien Benoit, 2024, PLOS ONE
If the tusked figure is in fact an artistic interpretation of a dicynodont, a species which went extinct before dinosaurs appeared and were long extinct when humans appeared in Africa, it would predate the first scientific description of these ancient animals by at least ten years.
There is archaeological evidence that the San people might have collected fossils and incorporated them into their artwork, but the extent of indigenous knowledge of paleontology is poorly understood across Africa. Further research into indigenous cultures might shed more light on how humans around the world have incorporated fossils into their culture.
Julien Benoit adds: “The painting was made in 1835 at the latest, which means this dicynodont was depicted at least ten years before the western scientific discovery and naming of the first dicynodont by Richard Owen in 1845. This work supports that the first inhabitants of southern Africa, the San hunter-gatherers, discovered fossils, interpreted them and integrated them in their rock art and belief system.”
Journal Reference:Benoit J (2024) A possible later stone age painting of a dicynodont (Synapsida) from the South African Karoo. PLoS ONE 19(9): e0309908. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309908
Enigmatic Rock-Cut Architecture of Zoroastrian Origin Discovered in Madagascar
A series of 35 circular niches excavated in the rock at Teniky, Madagascar. Credit: G. Schreurs et al.
An international team of researchers has made a surprising archaeological discovery in the heart of Madagascar that could rewrite the history of the island’s settlement and its connections with distant civilizations. In Teniky, a site located in the remote Isalo Massif in southern Madagascar, they have found an enigmatic rock-cut architecture that has no parallels anywhere else on the island or the East African coast.
The archaeologists, led by Guido Schreurs from the University of Bern, have documented extensive rock-carved structures that include artificial terraces, niches carved into cliffs, walls of carved sandstone, and stone basins.
Most astonishingly, the closest stylistic parallels to this architecture are found thousands of kilometers away, in present-day Iran, particularly in the Fars region, where similar rock-cut niches have been identified and are related to Zoroastrian communities from the first millennium AD or even earlier.
Location of Teniky in Madagascar. The white circles are archaeological sites. Credit: G. Schreurs et al.
The site of Teniky has been known since the early 20th century for its archaeological structures within a riverine cirque, including the so-called “Grande Grotte” or “Cave of the Portuguese,” a large rock shelter bounded by carefully constructed sandstone walls.
However, recent investigations have revealed that the site is much more extensive than previously thought, encompassing several archaeological zones that extend for kilometers beyond the original cirque.
Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found during excavations indicates that these structures were built between the 10th and 12th centuries AD, coinciding with the presence of imported Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics dating approximately from the 11th to the 14th centuries.
The Grande Grotte with the remains of the wall discovered in 1940. Credit: G. Schreurs et al.
This finding is particularly intriguing as it shows that the inhabitants of Teniky were part of Indian Ocean trade networks during the medieval period, despite being located more than 200 kilometers from the nearest coast.
The research team, which includes scientists from Switzerland, Madagascar, and other countries, has tentatively proposed that the rock-cut architecture of Teniky could be part of an ancient necropolis built by settlers of Zoroastrian origin.
If confirmed, this hypothesis would raise numerous fascinating questions about the nature of early settlement in Madagascar and the complex cultural interactions that took place in the Indian Ocean during the medieval period.
Teniky: images of the niches: a–b) quadrangular rock-cut niches; c–d) the presence of tool marks in the niches. These are absent in the underlying brown-reddish layer in (d), which is friable and erodes more easily. Credit: G. Schreurs et al.
Dr. Schreurs and his colleagues emphasize the need for further archaeological research to test this hypothesis and address crucial questions, such as: Where and when did these settlers first arrive on the coast of Madagascar? Why and when did they move inland? How did they live and interact with other populations on the island? And finally, why and when was the site abandoned?
The discovery at Teniky adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the settlement of Madagascar was a complex and multicultural process. Recent genetic studies have identified African and Asian contributions as the primary components of the present Malagasy population, but with marked regional variability in the relative proportions of these two ancestries.
Archaeological evidence until now had only documented a relatively late settlement of Madagascar during the second half of the first millennium AD, with some possible exceptions suggesting an earlier human presence.
Teniky: Zone 4: a) aerial view of part of the quarry from which shrub and loose gravel were removed at the right; b) detail of a cleaned part of the quarry. Credit: G. Schreurs et al.
In this context, Teniky emerges as a site of exceptional importance that could shed light on a little-known chapter of Madagascar’s history. The presence of such elaborate and unprecedented architecture on the island, along with evidence of participation in Indian Ocean trade, suggests that Teniky may have been an important religious and commercial center in the interior of Madagascar during the Middle Ages.
The study highlights the need to reconsider existing models of Madagascar’s settlement and Indian Ocean trade networks. The possibility of a Zoroastrian presence on the island raises new questions about religious and cultural diversity in medieval Madagascar and migration routes across the ocean.
The researchers also point out the urgency of protecting and further studying the Teniky site. Despite being located within Isalo National Park, the site has suffered damage and looting in the past. Understanding its true historical and cultural significance could help ensure its preservation for future generations.
SOURCES
Schreurs, G., Allegro, T., Rouvinez, M., et al., (2024). Teniky: enigmatic architecture at an archaeological site in southern Madagascar. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 1–44. doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2024.2380619
Meta’s Oversight Board Rules ‘From the River to the Sea’ Isn’t Hate Speech
Company Should Address Root Causes of Censorship of Palestine Content
Deborah Brown Deputy Director, Technology, Rights & Investigations
Click to expand Image Crowds gathered outside of Meta headquarters to protest the company’s censorship of posts on social platforms related to Palestine, in Menlo Park, California, US, November 3, 2023.
Earlier this month, Meta's Oversight Board found that three Facebook posts containing the phrase “From the River to the Sea” did not violate Meta’s content rules and should remain online.
The majority of the Oversight Board members concluded that the phrase, widely used at protests to show solidarity with Palestinians, is not inherently a violation of Meta’s policies on Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement, or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI). In line with Human Rights Watch’s submission, it affirmed that while the phrase can have different meanings, it amounts to protected speech under international human rights law and should not, on its own, be a basis for removal, enforcement, or review of content under Meta's policies. Meta created the board as an external body to appeal moderation decisions and provide non-binding policy guidance.
A minority of board members recommended imposing a blanket ban on use of the phrase unless there are clear signals it does not constitute glorification of Hamas. Such a ban would be inconsistent with international human rights standards, amounting to an excessive restriction on protected speech.
The board’s decision upholds free expression, but Meta has a broader problem of censoring protected speech about Palestine on its platforms. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report found that Meta was systemically censoring Palestine content and that broad restrictions on content relating to groups that Meta puts on its DOI list often resulted in the censorship of protected speech. Meta has said that core human rights principles have guided its crisis response measures since October 7. But its heavy reliance on automated detection systems fails to accurately assess context, even when posts explicitly oppose violence.
For instance, on July 19, Human Rights Watch posted a video on Instagram and Facebook with a caption in Arabic that read: “Hamas-led armed groups committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the October 7 assault on southern Israel.” Meta’s automated tools “incorrectly” removed the post for violating its DOI policy. Formal appeals were unsuccessful, and the content was only restored after informal intervention.
Meta should address the systemic issues at the heart of its wrongful removal of protected speech about Palestine. Amending its flawed policies, strengthening context-based review, and providing more access to data to facilitate independent research are essential to protecting free expression on its platforms.
Israel blows up more Palestinian homes to expand control over Gaza corridors
Israel’s prime minister insists on keeping military presence at Netzarim, Philadelphi corridors in Gaza
Hosni Nadim |18.09.2024 -
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The Israeli army continued on Wednesday to blow up homes and residential buildings around the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors in the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to local sources.
Several buildings were detonated around the Netzarim Corridor in the Zeitoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City and Al-Zahra town south of the city, one source told Anadolu.
The Israeli army also destroyed several residential buildings near the Philadelphi Corridor in Rafah in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, another local source said.
According to the sources, the home detonations aim to widen Israeli military presence in the area and consolidate Israeli control around the two axes.
The two corridors have been a sticking point in negotiations aimed at reaching a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas.
While Israel insists on maintaining a military presence at the two corridors, Hamas calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on several occasions that he would not withdraw army forces from the axes, putting an obstacle to efforts to reach a cease-fire and prisoner swap deal with Hamas.
For months, the US, Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and a cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
More than 41,200 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and over 95,400 injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.