Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Reddits WallStreetBets has its own language: What stock tendies and diamond hands tell us about America – Vox.com

Its hard to overstate how big the WallStreetBets group has gotten. With 8 million members as of this writing, and the group is still growing its as if 1 in every 40 Americans is standing in a giant room talking. And, at first glance, theyre speaking a foreign language.

Tendies, rocket ships, diamond hands this is the language of WallStreetBets (WSB), the white-hot subreddit powering the GameStop (GME) frenzy on the stock market. Strings of rocket emojis signify how the group wants to send GMEs price to the moon. Users encourage each other to have diamond hands (represented in emojis, of course), a riff on the strength of diamonds and a users strength to last through big market swings.

They insult the paper hands who crumple and sell their shares at the first taste of money or scary drops. Commenters call themselves degenerates or apes. Reddit posts hype up how many tendies a person will get from their investments, a phrase that comes from old 4chan greentext stories about manchildren living in their moms basement. In the joke, a manchild relies on his mom for everything, throws tantrums, and is rewarded for good behavior with Good Boy Points (GBP), which he redeems for his favorite food: chicken tenders, a.k.a. tendies.

The groups potential influence is enormous. So far, followers have created two original songs and bought emoji-covered billboards across the country touting their stock picks. Entrepreneurial heavyweights like Chamath Palihapitiya, Elon Musk, and Mark Cuban have stood up for WSB (Cuban even did a pep talk AskMeAnything in the subreddit on Tuesday morning). The news coverage is both constant and global. Oh, and there was that little stock rally. But what does it all mean?

I spoke with a dozen people, from WallStreetBets members to professors to human behavior analysts, to try to understand what makes up the unique culture of WSB and what the group might mean for society at large.

No group is a monolith, especially one of this size. There is a wide spectrum of opinions, beliefs, and experiences. The users I spoke to were quick to point out that the groups dynamics have changed at light speed over the past two weeks.

For anyone wondering whether WSB is part of the alt-right or a harbor for neo-Nazis, it doesnt appear that way. Although the subreddits controversial ex-founder who was banned from the group for violating community rules himself has accused moderators of racism off-site, after a week and dozens of hours spent on the forum, I havent seen any evidence of hate speech or alt-right imagery.

Political posts barely make it past the moderators, let alone political extremism, even with the recent massive influx of users. WallStreetBets language is crass and offensive, the humor is self-deprecating, and the culture is a little strange, but it is not an organizing ground for hate. Instead, what I found is a complex, multifaceted group. There is mutual aid, gambling, inequality, community, creativity, masculinity, humor, humanity. Its a microcosm of America.

Like many GameStop retail investors, my week has been full of late nights, deep dives into Reddit, and obsessive stock chart checking. I dont yet have diamond hands; I only just signed up for Robinhood, throwing $100 into GameStop stock at 2 am last Tuesday to see what happens. I felt the frustration of every canceled buy order, the anxiety of steep drops in the stock charts, and an odd affinity for a bunch of strangers on the internet.

Im not a frequent Reddit user, and I thought the anonymity of the platform might bring out the worst in people. WallStreetBets often uses problematic language, but buried beneath piles of rocket emojis and cuckolding jokes and homophobic and ableist insults, there is some vulnerability and heart.

Jimmy Lee, a 20-year-old college student in Southern California and member of WallStreetBets, told me his GME holdings could help his family buy another car. Lees father is a janitor, and his mother is out of work due to the pandemic. Depending on what happens with GME stock, his earnings may be the largest lump sum his parents, who moved from Vietnam after the war, have seen in their lives.

Tutu, a WSB member who requested that I refer to him by his nickname, reports turning his initial investment of $35,000 into almost $278,000 as of Sunday also to help his family. He tells me they immigrated from India roughly 15 years ago, and Tutu worked full time through high school to help provide for them. Now he wants to use his GME gains to help pay off his parents mortgage. If his family were still in India, Tutus dad would have retired by now. Instead, Tutu says he works six days a week, managing a 7-Eleven.

This is not to glorify struggles or paint over pain with a rosy rags to riches brush. But there is more to WallStreetBets than the story thats been told so far, and its the story that some commenters are telling about themselves: Dishwashers, gas station attendants, and minimum wage workers have all posted publicly about how the gains from GME stock could change their lives. Commenters have shared tender stories of siblings or children with cancer, losing partners to overdose, or fighting addiction. Some subscribers have parents who lost everything in the 2008 stock market crash. Many Redditors say they see this as a chance at revenge against the people on Wall Street who ruined lives but suffered no consequences.

Sure, its Reddit. It could all be a troll. But is it really so hard to believe?

Theres also a core group of WallStreetBets members that is more experienced than the news media gives them credit for (and theres even reason to think that these investors may be comparatively well off). They have sophisticated investing ideas (alongside lots of memes) and want to make money. Theyre also well aware that the stock market and the group is a casino. Bets is in the name, after all. William Callewaert, a portfolio manager at the financial services firm Multipli, has been a member of WSB for about a year and thinks the original WSB members probably fell into two main camps.

The first is the 25- to 50-year-old professionals who are longtime Reddit users and probably have significant investments. The other would be 14- to 24-year-olds who probably spend a lot of time on 4chan, etc., and are interested in finance and investing (and understand the power of 100,000 plus people doing the same thing), Callewaert surmised.

Chris Barnes, chief product officer at Escalent, a behavior and analytics firm, notes that while the GameStop surge didnt start as a way to push back against billionaires, low levels of institutional trust in America and simple, clear messaging made the cause easy to rally around.

Thomas Shohfi, an assistant professor of finance and accounting at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, thinks this subset of WallStreetBets may also be using their investor power to point out the greed of Wall Street. Theres a good portion of the retail side thats saying The stock market is the pinnacle of capitalism and capitalism isnt working for a lot of people. We want to show people that we dont even care about the money. We just care about not driving companies into the ground, he hypothesized.

To be clear, if inequality werent rampant in America, or if we had stronger social safety nets, wage growth, and cheaper health care, werent facing potential climate catastrophe, and didnt have deep generational angst or if a hedge fund hadnt shorted so much of a single stock we wouldnt be here. To paraphrase entrepreneur Jeromy Sonnes think piece, people dont burn down a system thats working for them.

Clear demographics on WSB members dont exist, but roughly 70 percent of Reddit users are men and approximately 65 percent of Redditors are between the ages of 18 and 29. These arent exactly the people Id expect to open up and be vulnerable online, but InverseInception, a frequent Reddit user and longtime member of WSB who asked that I not use his real name, thinks Reddit, in particular, offers a safe space for people to share things they cant or dont want to share on other social media sites.

No one wants to see a post about antidepressants on Facebook, he said, but the anonymity of Reddit and the way the pandemic has opened up conversations about mental health allows people to share their stories. Indeed, dozens of comments on the WSB subreddit share how the groups humor and community are helping users climb out of depression.

At the same time sometimes within the same post users often refer to themselves as autists, degenerates, or smooth-brained. They also use homophobic terms to refer to bearish investors (those who expect stock prices to fall), particularly Gabe Plotkin of Melvin Capital, the hedge fund at the center of GameStops short squeeze. The same vulnerability that gives WSB heart may also help explain the problematic language used in the group.

C.J. Pascoe, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, has researched teenage boys, young men, and masculinity for 20 years. When I talk to teenage boys and young men, what I hear them say about masculinity is that to be a man, you have to be dominant, competent, unemotional, and heterosexual, Pascoe said.

One way she sees this type of masculinity play out, both online and off, is in the way men talk. First, men insult other men using feminizing insults, Pascoe explained, which is often illustrated in homophobic language similar to whats used in WSB. By tying another mans identity to gay culture, you are feminizing him. At the same time, Pascoe said, you head other men off at the pass by making a joke about your own masculinity before other men can insult you. This helps explain the groups cuckolding jokes.

My wifes boyfriend is typical of the self-deprecation heard on WSB. It stems from yet another meme. Is there a bit of pure humor in these jokes? Absolutely. Is every poster using each joke in the same way? Of course not. But Pascoes research helps show us where the culturally acceptable boundaries of masculinity are and why people may be acting the way they are within those boundaries.

If WSB users are largely male, theyre joking about their masculinity to protect themselves. And the joking is key. Jokes serve as a sort of shield in male adolescent culture, Pascoe has found, demonstrating how unemotional you are. (This is also illustrated in Peggy Orensteins writing on young men.) Even if the young men in WallStreetBets are no longer teenagers, they grew up in an internet culture soaked in this humor.

The narrow path of masculinity weve laid out for young men, one focused on dominance and competence, Pascoe explained, also helps make sense of the zeal of WallStreetBets. Wall Street suits might have money and power in America, but now, millions of men on their computers have access to information and crowdsourced leverage. If WSB can beat Wall Street at its own game, these men demonstrate their own dominance and competence.

Pascoe is also quick to point out that constricting ideas about masculinity arent due to mens personal failings. Its a structural problem.

Weve set up these impossible standards for men to achieve, she said. Boys often get teased and harassed by other boys for not being manly enough. And so then what happens? You end up with these young men who have a deep need for connection because theyre human. [WallStreetBets] is a place for these guys to connect in a really great way, but that connection also leaves them vulnerable.

Hence, the self-deprecating humor. If WallStreetBetters advertise themselves as tendie-seeking degenerates who live in their moms basement playing video games their wifes boyfriend gave them, theres not much other men can tease them for.

Perhaps, most encouragingly, Pascoes research has shown that the jokes or shock-value statements men make in a group setting dont necessarily reflect their internal desires or feelings. Her analysis of more than 1,000 tweets with the phrase no homo found that it is mostly used as a shield that allows boys to be fully human, a sort of inoculation against insults from other guys. It is our job, as a society, to create new definitions of masculinity that allow men to connect without these insults.

Since 2010, fintech startups like Robinhood, Betterment, and Acorns have launched easy-to-use mobile apps that welcome a younger generation of investors. Robinhood also gamified trading, transforming the stuffy UI of boomer-favored platforms into an exciting interface with simple green and red lines and confetti rewards for trades. In October 2019, in part spurred on by Robinhood, behemoth broker Charles Schwab dropped its commissions on stock trades. Every major online broker quickly followed. But it wasnt until the coronavirus market downturn that young people piled into the markets in record numbers.

Like so many events in the past year, the pandemic was a catalyst for this moment. If the rise of fintech, the gamification of trading, and zero-commission trades were the kindling, the pandemic was the spark that started the fire. Barnes, the CPO and researcher from Escalent, notes that retail trading increased months before the GameStop rally.

People who havent been financially impacted by the pandemic have more cash on hand than in pre-pandemic times since they arent able to spend on travel or social engagements, Barnes explained. And, with the increase in remote work, people have more freedom to trade throughout the day. Government stimulus checks could also be propelling trading. Numerous WSB comments mention investing their stimmy checks, as the group calls them, into the stock market.

But the pandemic hasnt just impacted WallStreetBets in financial ways. Loneliness, increased isolation, and a need for community all probably helped WSB go viral. InverseInception thinks people are desperate for community right now and just want to laugh. And WSB is nothing if not a form of entertainment, from the loss porn posts to intricate memes about J-Pow (Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, savior of stonks).

The pandemic also inspired InverseInception to give away tendies with his tendies. He donated 100 lunches from a chicken tenders chain to the staff at Gillette Childrens Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, Minnesota. He wanted to support health care workers who are stressed and have been through a hell of a year. He hopes to set an example for other WallStreetBets subscribers to follow. No matter how big or small your account is ... you can make an impact.

It seems to have caught on. Subscribers want to give back and make a positive impact on their local communities always with a touch of WSB humor. One person donated $5,000 to a childrens hospital, two have donated Nintendo Switches (bought at GameStop, of course) to local hospitals, another donated $500 to St. Judes Hospital, yet another sent Buffalo Wild Wings to their local GameStop. After a year when Americans donated to charities more than ever and mutual aid was in the mainstream news, its hard not to see WSBs donations as an extension of a positive trend.

Pascoe, the researcher on masculinity, welcomed the spirit of these donations. There is a delight and a playfulness there, she said. Perhaps WallStreetBets and these donations show us a broader version of masculinity that involves generosity and humor that doesnt come at the cost of somebody else.

Its impossible to predict what will happen with GameStop or the WallStreetBets group moving forward. Opinions are divided. Barnes thinks we may see the larger group fade away, only to come back as smaller, more concentrated groups. These smaller groups may focus on environmental, social, or governance investing theyre passionate about. Callewaert, the portfolio manager at Multipli, is more bullish.

He thinks WSB can successfully harness the power of the group and is confident meme stocks arent going anywhere soon. Shohfi, the RPI professor, doesnt want to see retail investors get crushed. He worries the economic concept of prospect theory, which is the idea that losses are more painful than gains are pleasurable, could deter individual traders who may have seen their holdings decline from GameStops record highs last week even if theyve still made money overall from investing in the future.

Tutu, one of the WallStreetBets members I spoke with, left me with a plea. Most of us are regular people who are just trying to make a quick buck out of this GME craze so we [can] pay off some bills or get someone something special. Wall Street has been playing this game for years, messing with the regular folks. This one time we have the chance to get back [at] them. Dont tarnish this movement, please.

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Reddits WallStreetBets has its own language: What stock tendies and diamond hands tell us about America - Vox.com

Human Behavior

The Square Helmer Ruben Ostlund on Filming Triangle of Sadness With Woody Harrelson During Pandemic (EXCLUSIVE) – Variety

Ruben stlund, the Palme dOr-winning director of The Square, did not binge-watch series on a couch during the pandemic. Instead, stlund, who received the 2021 Nordic Honorary Dragon Award on Thursday, told Variety that he had the time of his life shooting Triangle of Sadness, his most ambitious film to date, in exotic locations with a multinational cast, including Woody Harrelson.

The 72-day shoot took place on a deserted Island in Greece and onboard The Christina O, a prestigious yacht whose passengers have included Winston Churchill, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe.

Perks aside, stlund admitted that on a few occasions (he and his producers) werent sure (they) could finish the shooting in the fall.

One key challenge was having the cast travel from multiple locations, but especially the U.S. from where Harrelson flew, in spite of an international travel ban. The staff at the gate wouldnt let Woody board the plane. And then, when he arrived, we were afraid he would be sent back to the U.S. We felt that anything could happen at any moment because of the COVID-19 hysteria, said stlund, who mentioned that the production carried out 1,061 tests throughout filming and all were negative.

It was also a race against the clock to wrap shooting on the yacht before filming restrictions kicked in in Greece.

We had to shoot several days on the yacht just as Greece was going into lockdown, and we knew that if we couldnt finish the shoot on the yacht, we would lose everything, (including) one big scene where we blow everything up! said stlund.

The film boasts a 13 million ($15.6 million) budget and a splashy production value. Its an expensive film. We have a cast with actors of eight different nationalities, we captured the fashion world and were blowing things up in a spectacular way, including the yacht (which has) a fun symbolic value, said the filmmaker.

stlund also noted he had a blast working with Harrelson, whom he described as a fantastic person and 100% socialist from the many political discussions the pair had during filming.

In Triangle of Sadness, Harrelson plays a rabid Marxist who is the captain of a cruise for the super-rich. The yacht sinks, leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, marooned on an island.

Hes been famous since he was 20 and now hes 60 hes a superstar but he doesnt act that way. Hes a very social person and we had so much fun shooting this film. I also pushed him like I push any other actor, said stlund, whose banner, Plattform, produced the film with Coproduction Office and Essential Films.

Harrelson stars opposite Harris Dickinson (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), Charlbi Dean, Vicki Berlin, Dolly De Leon and Zlatko Buric, among others.

stlund, who is known for his sharp sense of observation, isnt done exploring human nature in extreme situations. Hes currently in early development on The Entertainment System is Down, a feature project set on board a long-haul flight and inspired by Aldous Huxleys dystopian novel Brave New World.

In a world controlled by advanced entertainment systems, you have people stuck on a long flight with no screens to look at. Im curious to see if people will start talking to each other or what will happen, he said.

stlund added that the movie would be like an experimental lab looking at human behavior from different perspectives. One aspect hes particularly interested in is the so-called air rages among passengers. Air rages are uncontrollable and considered a danger, so when one happens, the plane has to land. Interestingly enough, air rages are more frequent when economy passengers board through business class, stlund quipped.

The daring helmer said, going forward, he aims to continue making films with his European production partners, whether or not theyre in English.

While we were preparing this tribute for the Gteborg Festival with [its artistic director] Jonas Holmberg, it was fun because I could look back at my body of work, my social approach when looking at human behavior and I want this to remain my main focus, said stlund, whos been offered several projects from Hollywood since winning the Palme dOr for The Square in 2017.

stlund also said he had a special bond with Swedens Goteborg Film Festival, where he made his first steps in the film world back in 1998. Its like a football team youre cheering for, or old relatives. I feel loyalty towards them; they have made cinema something thats alive and interesting, and theyre a big part of why Im doing what Im doing.

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The Square Helmer Ruben Ostlund on Filming Triangle of Sadness With Woody Harrelson During Pandemic (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety

Human Behavior

Ending the Rat Race: How Evolution Can Change Science for the Better – SciTechDaily

Mathematical modeler and statistics. Credit: Image is provided by the Anthro Illustrated project (https://anthroillustrated.com)

Current reforms to end the rat race between scientists can help; but are they enough?

Science is societys best method for understanding the world. Yet many scientists are unhappy with the way it works, and there are growing concerns that there is something broken in current scientific practice.

Many of the rules and procedures that are meant to promote innovative research are little more than historical precedents with little reason to suppose they encourage efficient or reliable discoveries. Worse, they can have perverse side-effects that harm both science and scientists. A well-known example is the general preference for positive over negative results, which creates a publication bias giving the false impression that certain effects exist, where in reality the dissenting evidence simply fails to be released.

Arizona State University researchers Thomas Morgan and Minhua Yan, working with ASU graduate Leonid Tiokhin, now at University of Technology Eindhoven in the Netherlands, have developed a new model, published this week in Nature Human Behaviour, to better understand the challenges facing the scientific process and how we can make it better. They focused on the priority rule: the tendency for the first scientist to document a finding to be disproportionately rewarded with prestige, prizes and career opportunities while those in second place get little to no recognition.

Many scientists have sleepless nights worrying about being scooped fearing that their work wont be considered novel enough for the highest-impact scientific journals because a different group working on the same topic manages to publish first. The priority rule has been around for centuries. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz haggled over who invented calculus. And in the 19th century, Charles Darwin rushed to publish On the Origin of Species to avoid being scooped by Alfred Russel Wallace.

Rewarding priority is understandable and has some benefits. However, it comes at a cost, Tiokhin said. Rewards for priority may tempt scientists to sacrifice the quality of their research and cut corners.

The idea is that competition encourages scientists to work hard and efficiently, such that discoveries are made quickly, said Morgan, a research affiliate with theInstitute of Human Originsand associate professor with theSchool of Human Evolution and Social Change.But if everyone is working hard, and you need to come in first to be successful, then theres a temptation to cut corners to maximize your chances, even if it means the science suffers.

This is partly why some academic publishers, such as PLOS and eLife, now offer scoop protection, allowing researchers to publish findings identical to those already published within a certain timeframe. The problem is that science and publishers currently dont have a good idea about whether these reforms make sense.

To figure out how exactly the preference for priority affects science, and whether recent reforms offer any solution for its potential drawbacks, the collaborators developed an evolutionary agent-based model. This computer model simulates how a group of scientists investigate or abandon research questions, depending on their own results and the behavior of other scientists they compete against.The benefit of an evolutionary simulation is that we dont need to specify in advance how scientists behave. We just create a world in which success is rewarded, and we let selection figure out what kinds of behavior this favors, Morgan said. We can then vary what it means to successful for instance, whether or not its critical to come first and see how selection changes the behavior of scientists in response. We can also measure the benefit to society are scientists being efficient? Are their findings accurate? And so on.

The researchers found that a culture of excessive rewards for priority can have harmful effects. Among other things, it motivates scientists to conduct quick and dirty studies, so that they can be first to publish. This reduces the quality of their work and harms the reliability of science as a whole.

The model also suggests that scoop protection, as introduced by PLOS and eLife, works.

It reduces the temptation to rush the research and gives researchers more time to collect additional data, Tiokhin said. However, scoop protection is no panacea.

This is because scoop protection motivates some scientists to continue with a research line even after several results on that topic have been published, which reduces the total number of research questions the scientific community can address.

Scoop protection reforms in themselves, while helpful, are not sufficient to guarantee high-quality research or a reliable published literature. The model also shows that even with scoop protection, scientists will be tempted to run many small studies if new studies are cheap and easy to set up and the rewards for negative results are high. This suggests that measures that force scientists to invest more heavily in each study, such as asking scientists to preregister their studies or get their research plans criticized before they begin collecting data, can help.

We also learned that inefficiency in science is not always a bad thing. On the contrary inefficiencies force researchers to think twice before starting a new study, Tiokhin said.

Another option is to make large-scale data collection so straightforward that there is less incentive to skimp on data, alternatively, reviewers and journals could be more vigilant in looking out for underpowered studies with small sample sizes.

This project is an example of metascience, the use of the scientific method to study science itself.

It was a great pleasure to be part of this project. I got to use my modeling skills not only to make specific scientific discoveries, but also to shed light on how the scientific procedure itself should be designed to increase research quality and credibility. This benefits the whole scientific community and ultimately, the whole society, said Yan, a graduate student in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Reference: Competition for priority harms the reliability of science, but reforms can help by Leonid Tiokhin, Minhua Yan and Thomas J. H. Morgan, 28 January 2021, Nature Human Behaviour.DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-01040-1

Written by Julie Russ (ASU) and H.G.P van Appeven (Eindhoven University of Technology).

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Ending the Rat Race: How Evolution Can Change Science for the Better - SciTechDaily

Human Behavior

Family ties and pandemics: Evidence from Covid-19 | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal – voxeu.org

Luca Di Gialleonardo, Mauro Mar, Antonello Motroni, Francesco Porcelli 04 February 2021

We still have imperfect knowledge of the 2020 pandemic from the Sars-CoV-2 virus, its origin, how it is evolving, and when it will come to an end. The history of humankind is full of pandemics, each with profound impacts on the habits of people, the evolution of health treatments, and the economy (Baldwin and Weder di Mauro eds. 2020a and 2020b). There are still some uncertainties about the implementation of containment measures and the intensity of lockdown needed (Flaxman et al. 2020, Barro 2020, Barro et al. 2020, Asvae et al. 2020, Scala et al. 2020, Hsiang et al. 2020, Aksoy et al. 2020, Van Bavel et al. 2020, Bartscher et al. 2020a, 2020b, Barrios et al. 2020, Bayer and Kuhn 2020, Borgonovi and Andrieu 2020). In the absence of a vaccine, self-isolation and social distancing, along with mask-wearing and cleaning hands, are the only protection tools against the virus (Greenstone and Nigam 2020, Scott and Old 2020, Hsiang et al. 2020, Aksoy et al. 2020, Flaxman et al. 2020). Such actions, however, generate a painful disruption to economic activities. That disruption, in turn, feeds deniers, populism, and social discontent.

We do not have yet the epidemiological proof to affirm specific cause-and-effect links. It is now clear, however, that close relationships between people in transport (trains, buses, and airplanes), schools, workplaces, and mass events significantly increase the probability of contracting the virus. When the medium is the air, to stop a possible exponential growth1one must avoid staying close to potentially infected people; subsequently, the identification of contagion chains and the isolation of spreaders are essential aspects to slowing the spread. However, it was underappreciated at least at the beginning of the pandemic that social capital, family ties, and personal behaviour are also crucial factors in the spread of the virus.2

In our recent study (di Gialleonardo et al. 2020), we provide an empirical analysis of the relationship between the spread of Covid-19 and the strength of family ties. The dataset combines different sources for a cross-section of 63 countries3taking into account seven dimensions: diffusion of the virus, the power of family ties, social capital in terms of trust and religion, the policy instruments implemented to stop the outbreak, the status of the economy, geography, and demography.4 Figure 1 and Figure 2 report the main variables of the study related, respectively, to the spread of Covid-19 and the strength of family ties.

Figure 1 Covid-19 outbreak data registered from 22 January to 12 September for the 63 countries included in the analysis

Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) of the Johns Hopkins University.

Figure 2 Family-ties variables for the 63 countries included in the analysis

Source: authors elaboration using data from World Values Survey.

As suggested in Mar-Motroni-Porcelli (2020), we measure the strength of family ties considering the principal component of three World Values Survey (WVS) variables: the importance of the family, the childrens respect for parents (love-parents), and the generosity of parents towards children (help-child).5

Final results confirm a robust positive relationship between the strength of family ties and the contagion rate across the world. Our estimates show that one standard deviation increase in the principal component of the strength of family ties generates a 0.454 increase in the standard deviation of the number of daily cases per capita.6As visualised in Figure 3, the main force driving the positive correlation is the generosity of parents towards their children (variable help-child).

Figure 3 Correlation between family ties and Covid-19 cases from 22 January to 12 September

Source: authors elaboration using data from World Values Survey and Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) of the Johns Hopkins University.

In line with the existing literature, our paper also shows interesting evidence stemming from social capital variables - trust in other people and religiosity are negatively correlated with the number of cases, while trust in the church shows a positive correlation (Borgonovi and Andrieu 2020, Durante et al. 2020, Bartscher et al. 2020a and 2020b, Barrios et al. 2020, Bayer and Kuhn 2020). Our study also shows that the mortality rate (number of deaths over the number of registered cases) appears to be independent of social behaviours, including family ties. Mortality is positively correlated with other structural variables, such as income, the number of hospital beds, life expectancy, and the average age of the population. More advanced countries have richer and more efficient healthcare systems and healthier lifestyles, which are key factors for virus tracing and treatment strategies. Finally, geographical position and latitude also appear relevant.

A pact between generations is therefore essential. Young people must be "prudent at school, respecting the rules, and keeping the measures at home".7Some clinical evidence in Italy shows that family lunch on Sundays is more dangerous than going to the supermarket. There is no doubt that, until the vaccine is distributed, pharmacological therapies will not be sufficient to contract the spread of Covid-19 if not complemented with the social measures that proved effective during past pandemic events. As far as possible, contacts between the elderly and grandchildren must be limited; we have to protect the former with socially bearable distancing measures such as wearing masks, hand washing, and maintaining appropriate safety distances. It is yet another confirmation that family ties, social capital, and trust are essential not only for economic and social issues, but also for key policies in health care and management of a pandemic. The final question is: Will the pandemic change our social habits in the long run, including the strength of family ties

Aksoy, C G, M Ganslmeier and P Poutvaara (2020), Public Attention and Policy Responses to Covid-19 Pandemic, Cesifo Working Paper, no. 8409.

Asvae, A, G Alfani, F Gandolfi and M Le Moglie (2020), Epidemics and Trust: The Case of the Spanish Flu, IGIER Working Paper Series, March.

Baldwin, R (2000), Covid-19 testing for testing times: Fostering economic recovery and preparing for the second wave, VoxEU.org, 26 March.

Baldwin, R and B Weder di Mauro (2020a), Economics in the Time of COVID-19, VoxEU.org, 6 March.

Baldwin, R and B Weder di Mauro (2020b), Mitigating the COVID economic crisis: Act fast and do whatever it takes, VoxEU.org, 18 March.

Barrios J, E Benmelech, Y Hochberg, P Sapienza and L Zingales (2020), Civic Capital and Social Distancing during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Working paper, University of Chicago, 28 May.

Barro, R J (2020), Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions and Mortality in U.S. Cities during the Great Influenza Pandemic, 1918-1919, NBER Working Papers, No. 27049.

Barro, R J, F Ursa and J Weng (2020), The coronavirus and the great influenza pandemic: Lessons from the Spanish flu for the coronaviruss potential effects on mortality and economic activity, NBER Working Papers, No. 26866.

Bartscher, A, S Seitz, S Siegloch, M Slotwinski and N Wehrhfer (2020a), Social Capital and the spread of Covid-19: Insights from European Countries, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 14711.

Bartscher, A, S Seitz, S Siegloch, M Slotwinski and N Wehrhfer (2020b), The role of social capital in the spread of Covid-19, VoxEU.org, 18 June.

Bayer, C and M Kuhn (2020), Intergenerational ties and case fatality rates: A cross-country analysis, VoxEU.org, 20 March.

Borgonovi, F and E Andrieu (2020), The role of social capital in promoting social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, VoxEU.org, 10 June.

Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) (2020), COVID 19 Dashboard, John Hopkins University.

Di Gialleonardo, L, M Mar, A Motroni and F Porcelli (2020), Family Ties and the Pandemic, Some Evidences from Sars-CoV-2, Covid Economics 60, 4 December.

Durante, R, L Guiso and G Gulino (2020), Civic capital and social distancing: Evidence from Italians response to Covid-19, VoxEU.org, 16 April.

Flaxman, S, S Mishra, A Gandy et al. (2020), Estimating the effects of non- pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in Europe, Nature584, 257261.

Greenstone, M and V Nigam (2020), Does Social Distancing Matter?, Working Paper Becker Friedman Institute, n. 26, 25 March.

Hsiang S, D Allen, S Annan-Phan et al. (2020), The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the COVID-19 pandemic, Nature584.

Mar, M, A Motroni, F Porcelli (2020), How family ties affect trust, tax morale and underground economy, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization174, 235252.

Scala A, A Flori, A Spelta, E Brugnoli, M Cinelli, W Quattrociocchi and F Pammolli (2020), Time, space and social interactions: exit mechanisms for the Covid-19 epidemics, Sci Rep 10, 13764.

Scott, A and J D Old (2020), The interaction between Covid-19 and an ageing society, VoxEU.org, 27 April.

Van Bavel,B, PBoggio, V Capraro et al. (2020), Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response, Nature Human Behavior4, May.

1A recent analysis by Baldwin (2020) shows that the epidemiological curve not necessarily follow the path of an exponential curve, but rather tends to rise rapidly, peaks, and then flattens.

2Van Bavel et al. (2020) highlights that the perception of threat plays a very important role. Like other animals, human beings can perceive emotions and the feeling of threat that can be very effective in the virus containment, since it motivates people to adopt good practices and changes unhealthy behaviours.

3This is the maximum number of countries for which we have been able to measure the strength of family ties in a consistent way by using World Values Survey data.

4Information on COVID-19 outbreak are taken from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSS 2020) of the Johns Hopkins University. Data include, for 187 countries, the number of confirmed cases, the number of deaths, and the number of recovered, from 22 January to 12 September, the day we closed the estimation.

5 In the empirical analysis, the overall measure of family ties is computed using the principal component of the three variables: "importance of family", "love-parents", and "help-child".

6This result, robust to different specifications of our model, is obtained through the OLS estimator (robust for heteroscedasticity) applied to a linear regression model in which we control for the following variables: Religiosity, trust church, trust people, rule of law index, COVID measures stringency index, GDP per capita in Purchasing Power Parity, human development index, health spending in % of GDP, number of beds per 1,000 inhabitants, latitude, northern hemisphere dummy, median age in years, life expectancy, diabetes prevalence, and cardiovascular death rate. Information on the composition of the population, status of the economy, the policy response to the pandemic, and other general structural characteristics of each country (including data on health care systems), are taken from "GlobalEconomy.com" and "Ourworldindata.org". These two web repositories combine official statistics and research data sources on almost all countries. Finally, information on trust, attitude toward religion, and composition of the family (especially to monitor the ratio of older people living within a family) have been collected from the latest World Values Survey edition available at the time.

7 The French Health Prefecture has recently reiterated that "a significant number of outbreaks originate in the family or friends", and for this reason, private meetings should be limited to fewer than six or ten people. In Spain, the limit was set to six, as in the UK and Italy. Giuseppe Ippolito, the scientific director of Italian "Istituto Lazzaro Spallanzani", a major Covid centre in Italy, stated that the resurgence of infections could be attributed to "a transmission model that involves family contacts between different age groups".

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Family ties and pandemics: Evidence from Covid-19 | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal - voxeu.org

Human Behavior

Specially designed rig will act as crash pad for truckers while construction closes runaway ramps – CDLLife

Truckers who lose control at the bottom of a freeway in Australia are expected to crash into the back of a specially designed truck for the duration of construction, officials say.

The South Eastern Freeway will be under construction for resurfacing beginning this upcoming Sunday, which will close the runaway truck ramps. Because of this, the Transport Department has set up a special truck outfitted with a shock absorber system as a replacement for the ramps.

It is basically a rigid truck with a massive rear fender with a huge shock absorber system built into it, said The head of the South Australian Road Transport Association, Steve Shearer.

Apparently it can withstand the impact of a fully loaded semi-trailer going at 100kmph, it will stop that truck.

While the device is structurally sound, officials say the trickiest part of this transition will be getting truck drivers to actually use the device, since they spend so much of their lives trying not to smash into another truck.

Its a very innovative, but mentally challenging approach, Shearer said to ABC News Australia.

Its been used elsewhere in the country and on some roadworks with lower speed events to protect the road workers, but the point weve made is its counter-intuitive for a truck driver. The human behavior problem is getting truck drivers to understand what theyre seeing in front of them.

Would you be able to intentionally crash into this truck if your brakes failed?

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Specially designed rig will act as crash pad for truckers while construction closes runaway ramps - CDLLife

Human Behavior

How To Help Burned Out Employees Change Their Habits – Forbes

AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 09: BJ Fogg, Founder & Director Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, ... [+] speaks onstage at the Why Tiny Habits Give Big Results panel during the 2013 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Austin Convention Center on March 9, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jesse Knish/Getty Images for SXSW)

Complexity is the defining business and leadership challenge of our time. But it has never felt more urgent than this moment, with the coronavirus upending life and business as we know it. Since March, weve been talking to leaders about what it takes to lead through the most complex and confounding problems, including the pandemic. Today we speak with BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. Fogg is the founder of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University.

David Benjamin and David Komlos: Please tell us a bit about yourself and your area of expertise.

BJ Fogg: My focus is human behavior and improving peoples lives by helping them be happier and healthier - and so I call myself a behavior scientist. I split my time between running a research lab and teaching at Stanford, and teaching and training people in industry. That allows me to keep one foot in both worlds, which is unusual and tricky to maintain. All the work I do on practical problems in industry helps me take on important research questions at Stanford. And then the rigor at Stanford helps me do a better job in industry.

Benjamin and Komlos: Can you briefly describe what business leaders can learn by reading your book?

Fogg: Pick any aspirational outcome - whatever youre trying to achieve - and that's the starting point for a system that I explain in the book called behavior design. It boils everything down to behaviors, and once you've figured out the desired behaviors, you can systematically design how to make any business outcome happen.

Benjamin and Komlos: How does behavior design work? Can you explain the Fogg Behavior Model behind it and how it unlocks behavior change?

Fogg: I summarize the Behavior Model as B = MAP: Behavior happens when motivation and ability and prompt converge at the same moment. Motivation is your desire to do the behavior; ability is your capacity to do the behavior; and prompt is your cue to do the behavior.

Human behavior isnt complex - it always comes down to motivation, ability and prompt - but within each component there can be a lot of complexity. What motivates a 12-year-old boy in Merced, California is different than what motivates a 79-year-old woman in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are nuances and factors in what makes things hard or easy for people. Prompts have various facets to them. The formula itself, B = MAP, is straightforward, elegant, and describes all behaviors, but within those three components you get individual differences and cultural differences and differences that shift moment by moment. The complexity isn't in the behavior itself, it's in all the variables in our environment and perceptions of the environment.

Benjamin and Komlos: What is Shine and what is its relevance in behavior change?

Fogg: Based on the research Ive done, it turns out its not repetition that creates habits; its our emotions that reinforce behaviors and turn them into habits. As I coached thousands of people, I tuned into the specific emotion that most helps people with this reinforcement, and thats the good feeling they have when they succeed at something. That emotion didnt have a name, so I called it shine.

Benjamin and Komlos: Is a forced change prompted by a major crisis like the pandemic a different mechanism? Or can it still be explained using your behavioral model?

Fogg: Its absolutely the same. For example, consider millions of peoples changed habits in terms of how and where they work. A strong motivator, fear (of getting sick, of getting your parents or grandparents sick, of looking like you're not a good citizen), coupled with an increase in ability (my boss says its okay, and I have the technology available) has created this massive shift. In fact, many people will continue on with new work habits even after the motivating fear is removed because so much has changed in terms of the ability to work somewhere outside of the office and in new ways.

Benjamin and Komlos: Do the current circumstances (i.e., high levels of stress, trapped at home, etc.) make it harder for people to intentionally establish a new habit they want or break a habit they dont want?

Fogg: Yes, because their attention is diffused and their motivation is bouncing around from worry to worry. As an example in the book, I talk about the formal research we did with nurses and emergency department workers, teaching them to do Tiny Habits. At the time, even though there wasn't a pandemic, these people were burning the candle at both ends. There was simply no way you were going to get them to meditate for 30 minutes or go walking for an hour, or take a Zumba or Crossfit class, or train for a marathon.

Yet Tiny Habits worked very, very well for them because it was systematic, the changes they took on were small and incremental, and they didnt require a lot of motivation. Thats the only way for stressed-out, anxious, tapped-out people to reliably change. Despite all the stress and anxiety and fatigue, they still could use the method - to drink more water, to do brief meditations, to look a patient in the eye, to compliment a co-worker, or to take three calming breaths.

Benjamin and Komlos: Many business leaders have told us that during the pandemic their teams have fallen into the habit of focusing on the day-to-day to the exclusion of spending time planning for the future. Would you consider this a downhill habit (easy to maintain / difficult to stop), and if so, can you offer any advice on how to overcome it?

Fogg: Getting tasks done each day isnt a bad thing, of course. Whats dropped out is planning for the longer term. By using the steps in Behavior Design company leaders can help their teammates rebalance.

The first step is to specify an aspiration for the company (what most people would call a goal). Once the aspiration is clear, you use a method I call magic wanding. This allows your team to explore many behaviors that can help them reach the aspiration. When magic wanding, a leader can specify the timeframe and guide the team to focus on the longer term objectives.

Benjamin and Komlos: Do you have any other specific advice leaders should heed today? Any parting thoughts?

Fogg: If I had a magic wand and could influence the behavior of all business leaders in the world, it would be to make them really effective - with superpower abilities - at helping people feel successful. That's the game-changer for habits and for peoples personal perception of themselves.

People need to feel successful and leaders need to help them feel that way now more than ever. The next time an employee is giving a talk for the first time on Zoom, you can offer blunt criticism that's going to hurt like crazy, or you can offer feedback thats true and positive that's really going to help them feel good. My advice is to get good at giving people shine.

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How To Help Burned Out Employees Change Their Habits - Forbes

Human Behavior

Human Disturbance Is Forcing Animals to Move Further Distances, Scientists Find – EcoWatch

In 2017, a team of researchers went to the Santa Cruz Mountains to study how mountain lions responded to human disturbance. Hanging speakers that broadcasted human voices, they found mountain lions were fearful of the sounds, altering their eating behaviors and the corresponding food chain, The Atlantic reported.

"People often fear large carnivores like mountain lions, but in reality, they are far more scared of us," Kaitlyn Gaynor from UC Berkeley, who was not involved in the study, told The Atlantic.

Scientists have long understood that human activity impacts wildlife, but most studies have focused on individual species' behaviors.

For the first time, researchers calculated the global impact of human activity on animal movement, according to the University of Sydney. Their findings were published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Compiling data from 208 studies on 167 species, from both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, scientists quantified how human activity impacts the movement of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and arthropods, the authors wrote.

"It is vital we understand the scale of impact that humans have on other animal species," lead author Dr. Tim Doherty, a wildlife ecologist, told the University of Sydney. "The consequences of changed animal movement can be profound and lead to reduced animal fitness, lower chances of survival, reduced reproductive rates, genetic isolation and even local extinction."

Human disturbance reduced an animal's movement, on average, by 37 percent or increased it by 70 percent, the authors wrote in The Conversation.

South Africa's spotted sand lizard, for example, was found to move more frequently over larger areas than lizards in less disturbed areas. Similarly, moose in Norway were found to increase their home ranges by 84 percent due to military operations, the University of Sydney noted.

While some species increased their movements, others were restricted from human disturbances. Due to forest fragmentation, South America's Northern bearded saki monkey decreased its home range and movement speeds, The Guardian reported.

Changes in their movement impact more than just the animal's ability to "find mates, food and shelter, escape predators and competitors, and avoid disturbances and threats," the authors wrote in The Conversation. These changes also "cascade" throughout ecosystems.

For example, when mountain lions heard human voices, their movements slowed, which increased the distances of rodents in the area, The Guardian reported.

"Animal movement is linked to important ecological processes such as pollination, seed dispersal and soil turnover, so disrupted animal movement can have negative impacts throughout ecosystems," Doherty told the University of Sydney.

While all human activities can impact animal behavior, the scientists found that hunting and recreation had more of an impact on animals than urbanization and logging, The Guardian reported.

"That most species increase movement in response to disturbance gives an interesting hint regarding the mechanism of anthropogenic pressures beyond the obvious, such as invasive predators, habitat loss or direct exploitation," professor Corey Bradshaw, director of the Global Ecology Lab at Flinders University in South Australia, told The Guardian.

Although the study confirmed much of what the scientists already knew, their findings can direct policy decisions to address human disturbance and promote conservation. But "where habitat modification is unavoidable," Doherty added, "we recommend that knowledge of animal movement behaviour informs landscape design and management to ensure animal movement is secured."

One conservation effort aimed at adapting to animal movement is currently underway in one of the world's major cities. In the increasingly growing urban environment of Los Angeles, mountain lion populations are split by a major freeway. This causes the populations to experience low genetic diversity and high mortality rates due to human activity, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

In response, the National Wildlife Federation's #SaveLACougars campaign is in its final stages of developing what may be the largest wildlife crossing in the world, enabling mountain lions and other species to cross California's 101 freeway safely.

"As evidenced from decades of wildlife crossing projects across the world... wildlife crossings work," the National Wildlife Federation wrote in a statement. The crossing can also "serve as a model for urban wildlife conservation across the globe."

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Human Disturbance Is Forcing Animals to Move Further Distances, Scientists Find - EcoWatch

Human Behavior

Jerry Martin: Fluid intelligence and Sudoku – The Union of Grass Valley

For about 60 years I have been fascinated with psychology. I believe that the brains of all humans make us special and dominant on Earth. I believe God gave us these brains to eventually, over many millennia, develop a peaceful, loving, creative, progressive environment.

Earth potentially will become a habitat in which all life thrives together. But only if we humans collectively use our brains optimally.

We are making progress by slowly eliminating practices like slavery, racial and religious discrimination, misogyny and violence, including war, for example, but we obviously have a long way to go.

Many psychologists have studied human behavior controlled by our brains. They have written in simple enough language expressing theories that are understood by the common human, including me. Howard Gardner gave us multiple intelligences. Daniel Goleman wrote about emotional intelligence, Eric Berne gave us transactional analysis. And William Glasser produced choice theory.

But the study that most explains the particular advantage of Sudoku as a tool to train logical development was produced by Raymond Cattell and his adherent, John Horn. These psychologists theorized that every human has two different intelligences, fluid and crystalized, though of different amounts. Most activities require both intelligences.

Crystallized intelligence is mostly learned in school and from books and repetitive activities such as riding a bicycle and washing dishes. Memorizing the multiplication table and alphabet would be crystallized intelligence. Learning dates of events, names of famous people, lyrics of songs and the Pledge of Allegiance would all be crystallized intelligence.

Fluid intelligence is different. This is the intelligence that we use when logically solving a new, unfamiliar problem or providing a creative solution to a difficulty. Applying logic to relevant information by using fluid intelligence is what allowed the Wright brothers to build the first heavier than air vehicle (airplane) in 1903. Studying birds, they realized the distance air travels over wings is greater than the distance air travels under wings. This produced less air pressure above than below, producing lift, which enables flight. All wings are designed on this principle, which was understood with fluid intelligence. Until then this concept was not in books or schools or previous human experience.

Every subject has elements of who, what, when, where, why and how. Who, what, when and where are subjects that crystallized intelligence mostly considers. Liberal arts subjects primarily teach crystallized intelligence. Why and how are in the domain of fluid intelligence. Math and science develop fluid intelligence.

To create a new solution to a problem, we must utilize our fluid intelligence. Some people, the more creative among us, have strong fluid intelligence and are better at solving problems and creating successful solutions.

Studying math and science trains us to develop logical thinking skills. Mathematicians and scientists develop fluid intelligence while learning these subjects. They also employ their crystallized intelligence when learning previously established facts and formulas, cause and effect.

Sudoku also teaches fluid intelligence by requiring the same problem solving processes about 50 times each puzzle. To solve Sudoku puzzles, one must first recognize what information is relevant. A solver must never guess and must always withhold judgment until enough information is available. These are cause and effect simplified. Pattern recognition is important, too. And understanding that 100% accuracy is always required, which emphasizes the value of truth.

The basic skills of fluid intelligence are all developed by doing Sudoku puzzles repeatedly. Over time a Sudoku solver will incorporate fluid intelligence into their repertoire of cognitive abilities. Sudoku is an informal practice available outside academia that trains fluid intelligence but not crystallized intelligence. Sudoku is a shortcut for training fluid intelligence that bypasses the necessity for science and math courses which dont appeal to all humans and are unavailable to many.

Sudoku can be done alone outside school by a wide variety of humans. All ages, both genders, all languages and nationalities can develop fluid intelligence by solving Sudokus. Sudoku is practical, being cheap, available and able to be done almost anywhere anytime. While valuable in U.S. schools, its perfect in third world countries where many children have limited schooling opportunities.

While Ive emphasized Sudokus benefits for children, its also wonderful for prisoners and seniors for developing self-esteem, ameliorating boredom and preventing dementia.

Educators need to seriously consider the advantages of adding this practical tool for training valuable fluid intelligence. Sudoku is a low tech tool to train brain gain.

For more information visit: http://www.sudokuasateachingtool.org.

Jerry Martin lives in Grass Valley.

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Jerry Martin: Fluid intelligence and Sudoku - The Union of Grass Valley

Human Behavior

Dice Clay to perform virtually from Governor’s on Valentine’s Day – Newsday

Comedian Andrew Dice Clay will spend Valentines Day performing on stage at Governors Comedy Club in Levittown to an empty room. The Brooklyn native plans to deliver his sharp-tongued stand-up over Zoom through a panoramic design of three 10 screens where he can view the audience in their homes.

"The comic interacts with the audience from the screens as if they were really at the club." says owner James Dolce. "The audience members laughs, applause and voice comes through our sound system so it makes it easy for the comedian to engage with them."

It appears the Diceman is up for the challenge.

"This is the first time Im doing something like this and Im excited about it," says Clay, 63. "Look, Im like everybody I want this whole pandemic thing to end but I do find it amazing that through technology we can pull this off. Thats the beauty of human behavior, we find ways to get through stuff in times like this. But, let me tell you somethingpeople need to laugh!"

The situation reminds Dolce of the theatrical symbol of the comedy and tragedy masks.

"As the pandemic continues and people are feeling isolated, I wanted to bring my customers together to laugh and escape from this tragedy even just for a little while," says Dolce. "This virtual system I have in place gives them a true feel of being out at a live comedy show but still in the safety of their homes."

Clay is no stranger to using the camera to turn out comedy. Over the past year he has become a hotly requested celebrity on Cameo, a personalized video greeting service on the internet.

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"Its been a creative outlet for me during the lockdown. I love doing them," he says. "I get all kinds of requests. They let me know if its a birthday, anniversary or if someone just needs a pep talk. Funny thing is a quarter of my Cameo requests come from Long Island."

Long Islanders have always connected with Clay who has a knack for incorporating the crowd into his act.

"I see a certain face, a certain build, a certain attitude and I react," he says. "Im fearless on stage. I dont even think about it. I wing it. Its what I do and I love it."

The evening is being sarcastically billed as "A Night with Mr. Romance" as Dice is not known for his sensitivity. However, he has a new love in his life.

"I have a new girlfriend and shes extremely nice. Ive never come up against this," he says. "Every marriage, every girlfriend or every fiance, its just been a war. This has been going on since Im 17. Its ridiculous. This girl Im dating now is a nice human being. Frankly, its hard to handle."

ANDREW DICE CLAY VIRTUAL CONCERT

WHEN/WHERE 7 p.m. check-in, 7:30 p.m. showtime, Sunday, February 14, govs.com

ADMISSION $55 per household

David J. Criblez is a reporter for Newsday's exploreLI, covering entertainment-related events from local music to stand-up comedy to festivals.

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Dice Clay to perform virtually from Governor's on Valentine's Day - Newsday

Human Behavior

The Role of Violence in the American Literary Canon – Fordham Observer

American Psycho, Blood Meridian and the surprising benefits of graphic content

In his controversial book Clash of Civilizations, late former White House Coordinator of Security Planning Samuel Phillips Huntington wrote, The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. He continued, Westerners often forget this fact.

Americas development is indebted as much to the firearms of Hotchkiss and Colt as to the policy of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. We owe our history as much to the smallpox virus as to the Declaration of Independence. American independence was not achieved through peaceful protest, but with what would now be considered terrorism.

Violence in America is part of our history and identity. Today, Americans own more guns than anyone else, while producing the highest number of serial killers globally.

What we see in books like Psycho and Meridian resonates with the realities of 2020 and the emerging events of 2021.

Americans have a special relationship with violence, and violence occupies a special place in American literature. Perhaps the most violent novel written to date is American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, a book listed at #6 on the Goodreads list of the most violent books ever written.

All other books in the lists top 10 were written by extreme horror author Wade H. Garrett. Garrett is not a gifted writer but his monopolization of the Goodreads list is only broken by American Psycho and Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian, which are both formidable American classics.

Unlike Garretts pretentious and juvenile ultra-horror, Blood Meridian is based on historical events, documenting the massacre of Indigenous Americans who stood between settlers and western goldfields.

American Psycho is similarly nestled within the physical and social realities of 1980s Wall Street. The soulless antihero of Patrick Bateman embodies what an American corporation might have looked like if it were human: ruthless, vain, prideful and insecure.

While American Psycho occurs in a moral desert, Blood Meridian occurs in a literal one. The unforgiving landscape of Meridian displays the inherent brutality of nature itself a sort of warfare predating and underpinning all humanity. As it is explained in Meridian, war lay waiting for man the ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.

In a review of Blood Meridian, literary critic Harold Bloom said, The sheer carnage of it, though it is intensely stylized, is nevertheless overwhelming. Its shocking. Its horrifying but if you break through it, if you read your way into the cosmos of the book, then you are rewarded you get a frightening vision of what is indeed something very deeply embedded in the American spirit.

Similarly, what makes the violence of Psycho redeemable is the power of its vision: a world of faceless yuppies with interchangeable suits, haircuts and names, so concerned with appearance and wealth that all moral concern and human substance recede as if into an abyss.

Reading Psycho is like listening to death metal through a Walkman while doing aerobic gymnastics. Its like seeing Nietzsche dressed in a neon bodysuit dancing to Madonna while cheerfully declaring God is dead.

Upon the Technicolor canvas of the 1980s, Ellis paints a world of unrelenting economic expansion, a place where moral humanity is sucked into the flames of an ever-expanding capitalist garbage fire.

In Ellis vision, mergers and acquisitions become interchangeable with murders and executions. Within the gilded cage of Ellis modern nightmare, Bateman is the most dangerous animal at the Armani zoo.

But literary violence isnt only about entertainment. What we see in books like Psycho and Meridian resonates with the realities of 2020 and the emerging events of 2021.

According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, 2020 saw over 19,000 people killed by firearms, the highest fatality rate in more than 20 years. Time magazine declared that 2020 Will End as One of Americas Most Violent Years in Decades. A report from the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice found that homicides rose by 36% across 28 major U.S. cities between June and October 2020. Every year since 2017 represented a spike more than double the previous average for school shootings.

The video of George Floyd being casually murdered sparked protests that occasionally erupted into violent upheaval. No sooner had the outrage begun to subside than the Capitol was besieged. Irreverence and force have never been far from American hearts.

A long time ago, in a neighborhood not far from Fordhams Lincoln Center campus, a mob assembled in lower Manhattan. It was July 9, 1776, when the crowd tore down a government-installed statue of King George III.

They didnt stop there. They melted George into ammunition.

When the British government responded with troops, they were met with melted majesty their beloved king had become musket balls.

Reading provides a pathway to extremes of human behavior that doesnt sacrifice personal safety.

A quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson states, When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. But there is no evidence Jefferson ever actually said or wrote these words.

The violence in American literature and culture might help explain why this fictional quote is so widely embraced. Violence is etched into the stones of American history. Its a tattoo upon our national flesh that has never really begun to fade.

When you read violence, youre placing your fingers more firmly against the pulse of this country and, indeed, the world. Horror may be an appropriate reaction to violence, but it is rarely useful. Critical reading subverts horror reactions, replacing them with deeper meditations.

An hour of reading can unlock decades. Importantly, reading provides a pathway to extremes of human behavior that doesnt sacrifice personal safety.

If you can develop an understanding of monsters like Patrick Bateman of American Psycho or Judge Holden of Blood Meridian, you might find yourself more perceptive when it comes to the motivations of your fellow citizens. Monsters, after all, are most compelling when they are human.

The word violence comes from the Latin word for vehemence and, in the hands of a competent author, violence can be where we can find our own neglected passions and forgotten feelings.

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The Role of Violence in the American Literary Canon - Fordham Observer