The Resentment That Never Sleeps – The New York Times

December 9, 2020 medical

Gidron and Hall continue:

The populist rhetoric of politicians on both the radical right and left is often aimed directly at status concerns. They frequently adopt the plain-spoken language of the common man, self-consciously repudiating the politically correct or technocratic language of the political elites. Radical politicians on the left evoke the virtues of working people, whereas those on the right emphasize themes of national greatness, which have special appeal for people who rely on claims to national membership for a social status they otherwise lack. The take back control and make America great again slogans of the Brexit and Trump campaigns were perfectly pitched for such purposes.

Robert Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester in the U.K., argued in an email that three factors have heightened the salience of status concerns.

The first, he wrote, is the vacuum created by the relative decline of class politics. The second is the influx of immigrants, not only because different ways of life are perceived as threatening to organically grown communities, but also because this threat is associated with the notion that elites are complicit in the dilution of such traditional identities.

The third factor Ford describes as an asymmetrical increase in the salience of status concerns due to the political repercussions of educational expansion and generational value change, especially because of the progressive monopolization of politics by high-status professionals, creating a constituency of cultural losers of modernization who found themselves without any mainstream political actors willing to represent and defend their ways of life a role Trump sought to fill.

In their book, Cultural Backlash, Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, political scientists at Harvard and the University of Michigan, describe the constituencies in play here the oldest (interwar) generation, non-college graduates, the working class, white Europeans, the more religious, men, and residents of rural communities that have moved to the right in part in response to threats to their status:

These groups are most likely to feel that they have become estranged from the silent revolution in social and moral values, left behind by cultural changes that they deeply reject. The interwar generation of non-college educated white men until recently the politically and socially dominant group in Western cultures has passed a tipping point at which their hegemonic status, power, and privilege are fading.

The emergence of what political scientists call affective polarization, in which partisans incorporate their values, their race, their religion their belief system into their identity as a Democrat or Republican, together with more traditional ideological polarization based on partisan differences in policy stands, has produced heightened levels of partisan animosity and hatred.

Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, describes it this way:

The alignment between partisan and other social identities has generated a rift between Democrats and Republicans that is deeper than any seen in recent American history. Without the crosscutting identities that have traditionally stabilized the American two-party system, partisans in the American electorate are now seeing each other through prejudiced and intolerant eyes.

If polarization has evolved into partisan hatred, status competition serves to calcify the animosity between Democrats and Republicans.

In their July 2020 paper, Beyond Populism: The Psychology of Status-Seeking and Extreme Political Discontent, Michael Bang Petersen, Mathias Osmundsen and Alexander Bor, political scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark, contend there are two basic methods of achieving status: the prestige approach requiring notable achievement in a field and dominance capitalizing on threats and bullying. Modern democracies, they write,

are currently experiencing destabilizing events including the emergence of demagogic leaders, the onset of street riots, circulation of misinformation and extremely hostile political engagements on social media.

They go on:

Building on psychological research on status-seeking, we argue that at the core of extreme political discontent are motivations to achieve status via dominance, i.e., through the use of fear and intimidation. Essentially, extreme political behavior reflects discontent with ones own personal standing and a desire to actively rectify this through aggression.

This extreme political behavior often coincides with the rise of populism, especially right-wing populism, but Petersen, Osmundsen and Bor contend that the behavior is distinct from populism:

The psychology of dominance is likely to underlie current-day forms of extreme political discontent and associated activism for two reasons: First, radical discontent is characterized by verbal or physical aggression, thus directly capitalizing on the competences of people pursuing dominance-based strategies. Second, current-day radical activism seems linked to desires for recognition and feelings of losing out in a world marked by, on the one hand, traditional gender and race-based hierarchies, which limit the mobility of minority groups and, on the other hand, globalized competition, which puts a premium on human capital.

Extreme discontent, they continue,

is a phenomenon among individuals for whom prestige-based pathways to status are, at least in their own perception, unlikely to be successful. Despite their political differences, this perception may be the psychological commonality of, on the one hand, race- or gender-based grievance movements and, on the other hand, white lower-middle class right-wing voters.

The authors emphasize that the distinction between populism and status-driven dominance is based on populisms orientation toward group conformity and equality, which stands in stark contrast to dominance motivations. In contrast to conformity, dominance leads to self-promotion. In contrast to equality, dominance leads to support for steep hierarchies.

Thomas Kurer, a political scientist at the University of Zurich, contends that status competition is a political tool deployed overwhelmingly by the right. By email, Kurer wrote:

It is almost exclusively political actors from the right and the radical right that actively campaign on the status issue. They emphasize implications of changing status hierarchies that might negatively affect the societal standing of their core constituencies and thereby aim to mobilize voters who fear, but have not yet experienced, societal regression. The observation that campaigning on potential status loss is much more widespread and, apparently, more politically worthwhile than campaigning on status gains and makes a lot of sense in light of the long-established finding in social psychology that citizens care much more about a relative loss compared to same-sized gains.

Kurer argued that it is the threat of lost prestige, rather than the actual loss, that is a key factor in status-based political mobilization:

Looking at the basic socio-demographic profile of a Brexiter or a typical supporter of a right-wing populist party in many advanced democracies suggests that we need to be careful with a simplified narrative of a revolt of the left behind. A good share of these voters can be found in what we might call the lower middle class, which means they might well have decent jobs and decent salaries but they fear, often for good reasons, that they are not on the winning side of economic modernization.

Kurer noted that in his own April 2020 study, The Declining Middle: Occupational Change, Social Status, and the Populist Right, he found

that it is voters who are and remain in jobs susceptible to automation and digitalization, so called routine jobs, who vote for the radical right and not those who actually lose their routine jobs. The latter are much more likely to abstain from politics altogether.

In a separate study of British voters who supported the leave side of Brexit, The malaise of the squeezed middle: Challenging the narrative of the left behind Brexiter, by Lorenza Antonucci of the University of Birmingham, Laszlo Horvath of the University of Exeter, Yordan Kutiyski of VU University Amsterdam and Andr Krouwel of the Vrije University of Amsterdam, found that this segment of the electorate

is associated more with intermediate levels of education than with low or absent education, in particular in the presence of a perceived declining economic position. Secondly, we find that Brexiters hold distinct psychosocial features of malaise due to declining economic conditions, rather than anxiety or anger. Thirdly, our exploratory model finds voting Leave associated with self-identification as middle class, rather than with working class. We also find that intermediate levels of income were not more likely to vote for remain than low-income groups.

In an intriguing analysis of the changing role of status in politics, Herbert Kitschelt, a political scientist at Duke, emailed the following argument. In the recent past, he wrote:

One unique thing about working class movements particularly when infused with Marxism is that they could dissociate class from social status by constructing an alternative status hierarchy and social theory: Workers may be poor and deprived of skill, but in world-historic perspective they are designated to be the victorious agents of overcoming capitalism in favor of a more humane social order.

Since then, Kitschelt continued, the downfall of the working class over the last thirty years is not just a question of its numerical shrinkage, its political disorganization and stagnating wages. It also signifies a loss of status. The political consequences are evident and can be seen in the aftermath of the defeat of President Trump:

Those who cannot adopt or compete in the dominant status order closely associated with the acquisition of knowledge and the mastery of complex cultural performances make opposition to this order a badge of pride and recognition. The proliferation of conspiracy theories is an indicator of this process. People make themselves believe in them, because it induces them into an alternative world of status and rank.

On the left, Kitschelt wrote, the high value accorded to individuality, difference and autonomy creates

a fundamental tension between the demand for egalitarian economic redistribution and the associated hope for status leveling and the prerogative awarded to individualist or voluntary group distinction. This is the locus, where identity politics and the specific form of intersectionality as a mode of signaling multiple facets of distinctiveness comes in.

In the contest of contemporary politics, status competition serves to exacerbate some of the worst aspects of polarization, Kitschelt wrote:

If polarization is understood as the progressive division of society into clusters of people with political preferences and ways of life that set them further and further apart from each other, status politics is clearly a reinforcement of polarization. This augmentation of social division becomes particularly virulent when it features no longer just a clash between high and low status groups in what is still commonly understood as a unified status order, but if each side produces its own status hierarchies with their own values.

These trends will only worsen as claims of separate status hierarchies are buttressed by declining economic opportunities and widespread alienation from the mainstream liberal culture.

More:
The Resentment That Never Sleeps - The New York Times

Human Behavior

Toucan play that game: Sparrows found to mimic human behavior by using preventative medicine to protect their young – RT

December 9, 2020 medical

New research from China suggests that russet sparrows use the leaves from a particular tree to line their nests and protect their young from parasites, indicating a primitive form of preventative medicine use.

A team led by Hainan Normal University ecologist Canchao Yang found that russet sparrows in China are using wormwood leaves to line their nests to protect their offspring from parasites which may impede their growth.

The sparrows begin lining their nests with the special leaves at the same time the local human population hangs wormwood from their doorways to mark the traditional Dragon boat festival, with antiparasitic benefits suspected to play at least some role in the human tradition.

The belief that this behavior confers protection against ill health is supported by the description of anti-parasite compounds in wormwood, Yang says.

It has been suggested that the incorporation of fresh wormwood leaves into nests may serve a similar function for sparrows.

To test their hypothesis, Yang and his team examined 48 pairs of nest boxes, some with five grams of wormwood inside and the other with five grams of bamboo.

Once the russet sparrows populated the nests, researchers began adding small increments of wormwood or bamboo each day (while other nests received no additional treatment as a control).

They then weighed the amount of wormwood the sparrows themselves brought home each day and found that the birds favored locations close to ample wormwood supplies, which they used to reinforce the lining in their nests daily and top-up their medicinal fortifications.

Sure enough, when the chicks hatched, the nests with higher amounts of wormwood leaves were found to have fewer parasites, which corresponded with heavier and healthier chicks.

Our results indicate that russet sparrows, like humans, use wormwood as a preventative herbal medicine to protect their offspring against ill health, says ecologist William Feeney, from Griffith University in Australia.

One has to wonder who is mimicking who?

Primitive forms of medicine use have been observed in the animal kingdom before, with pregnant elephants in Kenya reportedly eating a particular plant to induce birth while other creatures have been observed making use of medicinal plants for health and recreational reasons.

Butterflies have been found to drink beer, while elephants and certain bird species have been discovered drunk from fermented berries. A reportedly drunk moose even became stuck in an apple tree in Sweden.

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Toucan play that game: Sparrows found to mimic human behavior by using preventative medicine to protect their young - RT

Human Behavior

A Better Way to Do AI: Focus on the Big Problems – No Jitter

December 9, 2020 medical

AI has become a core focus in my analyst practice, and now all the industry players have an AI story; Cisco, Microsoft, Avaya, Genesys, Mitel, Five9, Talkdesk, Twilio, and Zoom, to name a few. The capabilities for each are impressive, and they address a specific set of challenges facing enterprises and contact centers.

Our market space absolutely needs these solutions, and they will keep getting better as AI matures. To a large extent, these vendors are helping customers solve problems in better ways than workers or agents can without using AI. As AIs track record improves, it will also be applied to problems humans cant solve efficiently such as detecting customer dissatisfaction in real-time across millions of call records instead of the handful that a supervisor can review manually. Going a step further, AI will identify new problems that we didnt even know existed, such as identifying unknown forms of fraud arising from home-based workers accessing meetings over unsecure networks.

Thinking About Bigger Problems with AI

These capabilities will certainly support the business case for AI, and many vendors will make healthy profits when the benefits are finally delivered. Overall, this is a welcome development in our space, but its important to keep in mind that communications and collaboration is just one of many applications of AI, and in the grander scheme of things, these are actually rather small problems.

Of course, theyre mission-critical for any business, but its not the only way to think about AIs potential. Ive long advocated that use cases should drive IT decision-making rather than going with a solution thats AI-enabled. AI itself is not a solution, and its value should be based on the problems being solved rather than how cool the technology is.

Humans can solve small problems fairly well, but AI does it better.

Conversely, the bigger problems remain problems precisely because we cant solve them ourselves, and in todays world, there is absolutely no bigger problem to solve than COVID-19. Our space is poised to benefit nicely from AI, but the stakes are much higher in healthcare and medical science, and I would encourage IT decision-makers to look in this direction for inspiration to think bigger with AI.

Listen to the Science: Michio Kaku Says AI Can Defeat COVID-19

During his talk, Kaku discussed various ways that AI can defeat the pandemic, both with new capabilities as well as leveraging existing technology thats widely used today. Some of this is about having the data science expertise to utilize AI applications, but its also about connecting the dots among things in plain sight and layering AI over that to glean new insights to address the problem such as in this case, to stop COVID-19.

In other words, the coronavirus itself can be very harmful but only under the right conditions. The real harm is caused by human behavior, and AI can track our behavior and identify risk scenarios before they become dangerous to others, as in super-spreader events. Along those lines, he talked about using AI with Internet platforms like Google search and Facebook to detect anomalies that provide clues where COVID-19 is present.

As Kaku explained, someone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms might type Im having difficulty breathing into Google, searching for answers. Taken in isolation, thats just another search query, but its a pretty telling indicator of what might be happening. Then, by tracking their Facebook activity, AI can get a good read on others whom that person will likely be in contact with, and in turn who each of those will be in contact with soon after. Layer on that smartphone tracking, and it becomes pretty easy to pinpoint exactly where that person is going, at what time, for how long and with whom.

Each of these applications is an important piece of the puzzle, but in isolation, they dont tell you much. Reading across all this, AI can draw a pretty reliable heat map of where pandemic spread is likely to occur, and if corrective action is taken, it can be curtailed significantly.

Naturally, there can be false positives, as that query for Im having difficulty breathing may simply be searching for a song lyric or a movie title. On the other hand, one of AIs virtues is not making the same mistake twice. Once an error is identified and corrected, it never happens again with AI, and the same cant be said for humans.

Kaku takes this another step further by looking at global air traffic patterns. While community spread is very localized, what makes COVID-19 a true pandemic is the ease of transmission by virtue of human travel. No doubt, a great deal of virus spread comes from traveling by auto or train, but air travel takes things much further, much faster, and on a greater scale. In fact, he explained that 60% of COVID-19 entry into the U.S. came via air travel, specifically at either JFK or Newark airports.

Layering concentric rings of human behavior from local out to continental circles of travel, AI pieces together a much bigger, global picture of how COVID-19 spreads. AI was built for providing this level of understanding with such massive, global data sets and doing it in real-time. The key to defeating the pandemic is stopping large scale spread, and that has nothing to do with the virus itself and everything to do with understanding human behavior which en masse is highly predictable. Big problems need big solutions, and for context, Kaku cited this as a key reason why the Spanish flu was so deadly. The conditions are no different than today, but in 1918, we simply didnt have the technology to detect spread before it gets out of hand.

What Should You Be Thinking About?

In contrast, the challenges faced by IT decision-makers may seem pretty small, but they still need to be addressed. Current applications of AI in our space become no less valid, and Im sure Kaku would agree. However, I think he would also say that the most important thing remains how you think about the problem set.

This is the essence of the scientific method, and so long as you only focus on specific use cases, the impact of the solution will be fairly small. As stated at the outset, AI is really about solving the big problems the complex problems that we just otherwise cant even begin to think about or solve.

As a takeaway, I would encourage IT decision-makers to think about the bigger problems that go beyond making individual workers more productive or specific customers happier. Some vendors have made moves in this direction, such as with Microsoft Graph or cognitive collaboration from Cisco. These models have power by virtue of connecting millions of data points from our everyday activities to identify patterns to improve workflows and detect anomalies before becoming problematic. AI is really good at this, and as we edge closer to the world of IoT, those data sets will become even bigger but also will become more accurate predictors of our behavior.

Of course, the potential is there for a hard right to the workplace becoming a surveillance lab where every move is monitored, and workers have no choice but to conform to the operating methods chosen by the enterprise. However, Kaku seems to have only good intentions, and unless youre a big pharma cynic, his lessons learned are noble.

Theres no reason why enterprises cant be thinking the same way, especially multinationals with massively distributed workforces and customer bases. Some are already well down that path, but for many, the focus is on the small stuff. Dare to dream and think bigger if AI can curb this pandemic, theres no business problem too big for it to handle. However, its not about technology; its how you think about the problems.

This post is written on behalf of BCStrategies, an industry resource for enterprises, vendors, system integrators, and anyone interested in the growing business communications arena. A supplier of objective information on business communications, BCStrategies is supported by an alliance of leading communication industry advisors, analysts, and consultants who have worked in the various segments of the dynamic business communications market.

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A Better Way to Do AI: Focus on the Big Problems - No Jitter

Human Behavior

New book teaches readers how to apply the Authenticity Compass to attain sustainable success and well-being – GlobeNewswire

December 9, 2020 medical

WEYMOUTH, Mass., Dec. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pamela Bond enters the world of publishing with the release of The Authenticity Compass (published by Balboa Press). Filled with practical examples, illustrations, and exercises, this self-improvement book reviews principles of authenticity to help people, communities and organizations experience their best lives.

The Authenticity Compass combines two bodies of evidence-based research that have been guiding successful human behavior in personal and business settings for decades. The resulting framework, the Authenticity Compass (AC), links well-established facts about personality with skill sets that lead to goal achievement. In this book, the author teaches the ABCs of Authenticity by providing examples and a variety of exercises to demonstrate that living in a state of Alignment and Balance is a Choice and; achieving this state is a prerequisite for sustainable success.

Every entity has an Authenticity Compass that points to its true purpose, strengths and optimal growth path, Bond states. By learning to translate your purpose into alignment and balance you direct the domains of your life and workplace into powerful improvement cycles. Whether you are an individual looking for more from life, or a globally expanding enterprise, your unique Authenticity Compass provides the insights you need to promote your well-being and establish a foundation for your ongoing success and happiness.

Visit https://www.balboapress.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/419247-the-authenticity-compass to learn more about the book and its concepts.

The Authenticity Compass: Essential Guidance For Sustainable Success

By Pamela Bond

Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 202 pages | ISBN 9781982250966

Softcover | 6 x 9in | 202 pages | ISBN 9781982250942

E-Book | 202 pages | ISBN 9781982250959

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Boston native and Girls Latin School graduate, Pamela (Plevock) Bond began developing her research skills as a high school student studying the effect that color has on animal behavior. Her research won first prize in the Boston City Science Fair multiple times. Her first first-prize win was noteworthy because it made her the first girl to ever win the first prize award. Bond holds a master of science degree in information management from Northeastern Universitys School of Engineering and a bachelor of science in biology from the University of Massachusetts. Her career spans the disciplines of medical research, software engineering, corporate planning and management consulting. She is a skilled facilitator and lecturer with a broad range of experience developing innovative business practices and world-class service strategies. Bond is certified in positive psychology from the Wholebeing Institute, is a qualified administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and is a member of the Institute of Coaching affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 844-682-1282 today.

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New book teaches readers how to apply the Authenticity Compass to attain sustainable success and well-being - GlobeNewswire

Human Behavior

If a dance program at the University of Illinois can find a way to carry on, so can our country – Chicago Sun-Times

December 9, 2020 medical

Dear Dr. Anthony Fauci,

I sympathize. It must be demoralizing to deliver scientific data daily and watch in horror as our country slips into nonsensical debates about personal freedoms. I could hear the exasperation in your voice in a recent New York Times interview in which you stated that practicing the rules of COVID-19 mitigation doesnt mean shutting down the country.

Unfortunately, the stories youve had to tell are about our countrys massive failures.

If I may be so bold, I think you need a success story. I have one and it comes from the most unlikely of places a dance program on a college campus.

Dancers on a college campus are the least likely folks to return to work during a pandemic. Sweat flies and germs spread as dancers rev up the body. Campuses are Petri dishes as young people, prone to parties and socializing, gather together in a bubble of contagion. As a recent New York Times survey found, U.S. colleges and universities have already reported more than a quarter of a million infections.

All these factors should have made us go home. At first, back in March, we did. As head of the Dance Department at the University of Illinois, I watched students gloomily pack up their dance bags last spring when Gov. J. B. Pritzker declared a stay-at-home mandate. As dancers struggled to jump, leap and roll in their kitchens and bedrooms, it was clear that dance classes over Zoom were less than ideal.

Come this fall, we had to try to come back.

Luckily, Illinois scientists had begun to build the COVID-19 Shield program, which would allow us to safely come back to in-person classes. This program includes multiple layers of protection: Target extensive modeling to guide how, who and when the community tests; Testing a saliva test, which is low cost, easy to use, with high accuracy and fast notification; and Tell an app called Safer Illinois, which provides fast notification and contact tracing.

Public health experts used an appropriate metaphor, Swiss cheese, to describe the plan: the more layers, the fewer holes.

As last summer wore on, building layers and adaptability were critical in gaining collective buy-in for students to return. In the dance department, we created ten-foot squares in studios, set up elaborate cleaning schedules and reserved an outdoor basketball court so we could dance freely when weather permitted. We built technology stations that allowed teachers and students to honor their choices, live or online, based on their health and their own sense of risk and safety.

Multiple layers of cheese were needed. Currently, the university conducts more than 10,000 tests per day and the Safer Illinois app has 40,000 users. Near the end of November, the campus seven-day positivity rate stood low at .5%, while surrounding Champaign County is at 9%, and the State of Illinois at 10.4%.

With everyone testing two or three times a week, and with measures to ensure compliance, we know that everyone entering our classrooms is, in all likelihood, free from COVID.

As our students returned to campus, human behavior was the wild card. Everyone hated wearing masks while dancing at high aerobic capacity, but it began to seep in that this was the only way to continue our lives and practice our art.

Our biggest challenge was presenting a live concert. Fortunately, artists, like scientists, embrace limitations as the doorway to creativity. Set designers built ramps and platforms that naturally separated the dancers, and costume designers learned to fit costumes while physically distancing.

At times, when we lost valuable rehearsal time to solve problems, adaptability came into conflict with our desire for excellence. But, Dr. Fauci, I heard your voice whisper, Dont let perfect be the enemy of good.

The students wrestled with the uncertainty of everything. But because they didnt know if they would ever perform, they embraced every moment as if it were the last dance. A life lesson like no other. Grit, determination and a sense of collective purpose settled into the sinews of our bodies.

In early November, we live streamed a concert to thousands of people, and 40 enthusiastic fans sat in the balcony of a 1,000-seat theater for each performance. Their cheers energized the performance, which sparkled with the enduring will of the human spirit.

I tell this story because if dance on a college campus can return to work, the nation can too.

Campuses are privileged environments, yes. They often have the economic and scientific resources necessary to invent and support coronavirus mitigation in a manner that the nation is not yet equipped to handle. Yet their inventions can lead the way, making it possible for our essential workers and most vulnerable citizens to gain access to best practices as quickly as possible.

Even once the vaccine has arrived, coordinated governmental actions, collective resolve and individual responsibility will be necessary. By engaging with the challenge, we have the opportunity to build a more resilient and creative nation.

Jan Erkert is a professor and head of the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois and the author of Harnessing the Wind. She is currently writing Drink the Wild Air, A Sensorial Journey Through Leadership. She is a 2020-21 Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project.

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com.

Human Behavior

Leading Into An IPO, Airbnb Ranks #1 in Travel for Innovation, Creativity and Relevance According to Harte Hanks Behavioral Index – PRNewswire

December 9, 2020 medical

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Despite the challenges related to COVID-19 that have severely impacted the hotel and travel industries, new research from the Harte Hanks Behavioral Index (HHBI) reveals that global home-sharing provider Airbnb is outperforming many leading hotel companies in key areas critical to building and maintaining long-term consumer loyalty and market share.

According to findings from the fourth wave of the Index, Airbnb, which is gearing up for its public debut this week, is outperforming traditional hotel companies in multiple areas measured by the HHBI, including Innovation, Creativity and Relevance, where it ranks first among all hospitality providers. Airbnb's performance in these areas is contributing significantly to their ability to grow their share of the hospitality marketplace.

The Harte Hanks Behavioral Index, which has been tracking consumer insights since the early stages of the pandemic, defines Innovation as being the first company in an industry to bring new innovations to the world; Creativity as helping consumers look at the world differently; and Relevance as a company's ability to understand and respond to what's happening in a culture.

"Airbnb overshadows traditional hotels by creating a personal experience that starts at the moment of your booking and lasts throughout your stay. Their hosts provide everything from customized restaurant recommendations to tips on the best local farmer's markets. That is meaningful personalization," says Gretchen Ramsey, Chief Strategy Officerat Harte Hanks. The secret to Airbnb's success may be in how they respond to behavioral needs. "Travelers now expect health and safety measures to follow the highest of standards and more than anything want financial protections built into their bookings. What the pandemic taught the traveler was to be more cautious about the small print, so transparency and financial innovation will be the trends going forward."

In addition to its strong performance in the areas of Innovation, Creativity and Relevance, Airbnb also scored highly in the category of a brand that consumers would consider in the future, ranking third just behind Marriott (#1) and Hilton (#2). In terms of travel brands that consumers would recommend, the top ten in order were Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Comfort Suites, Airbnb, Hard Rock, Intercontinental, Wyndham, Atlantis, and Wynn.

Interestingly, the HHBI revealed that no lodging provider measured scored highly across the attributes of Purpose, Authenticity and Responsiveness areas where major hotel brands have a lot of natural equity, but they're not getting credit for it. Hotel brands must make sure they leverage their legacy to ensure they are delivering on modern travelers' expectations. "Health and safety measures are expected in today's world. And "loyalty" through points programs is no longer relevant what travelers want to know is how your brand will make them feel."

According to Ramsey, we are living today in an "Epiphany Economy," where it's not enough to provide a product or service; brands must also demonstrate empathy and deliver meaningful action against consumer and cultural needs.

"For example, traditional hotel brands should double down on their founders' set of values, whether about caring for the guest, providing an upscale experience, or delivering against surprise and delight," says Ramsey. "They need to give travelers a customized experience, not just in terms of choosing a foam pillow over feathers but being able to express their travel occasion and having the hotel respond with appropriate options/upgrades."

TheHarteHanksBehavioral Index isaglobal initiative conducted on a quarterly basis to uncover emerging behavioral shifts that influence consumer behavior. The ultimate goal is to help brands understand how to best meet their consumers' needs.

The Index was developed using a proprietary method that evaluates brands on a set of criteria, such as Empathy and Action both ways to serve consumers.The latest wave is based on 700 million global social conversations with 11,000 people surveyed, 40,000 global stories and 2 million semantic artifacts.

View the webinar here, or for information on how to apply these learnings to your travel brand, please email [emailprotected].

About Harte Hanks:

Harte Hanks is a behavior-driven Customer Experience (CX) company uniquely able to partner with brands on everything from data to delivery. We marry our data-driven understanding of human behavior with a seamless connection to the consumer through a full suite of digital, direct marketing and eCommerce services, including fulfillment and customer care. Harte Hanks works with leading Fortune 500 companies, including Bank of America, BMW Group, Cisco, L'Oral S.A., Pfizer, Sony and Unilever. Headquartered inPhiladelphia, PA, Harte Hanks has more than 2,000 employees throughoutNorth America,Asia-PacificandEurope. For more information, visit Harte Hanks at hartehanks.com.

SOURCE Harte Hanks

https://www.hartehanks.com

Human Behavior

‘The more who die, the less we care’ Why we’re growing numb to Covid-19 – malheurenterprise.com

December 9, 2020 medical

Why do many people seem to relax their guard and dismiss concerns in the face of a clearly exponential spread of Covid? University of Oregon professors examine the psychological research to offer some explanations.

Psychic numbing, risk judgment and other concepts may explain why people seem to worry less as the pandemic grows and wears on. (CDC file art)

EUGENE University of Oregon psychology professor Paul Slovic has spent much of his time during the COVID-19 pandemic writing articles, talking to journalists and thinking about why the coronavirus is so out of control.

To explain why case counts are surging and the virus is growing so rapidly, Slovic has drawn on previous psychological research that he thinks is relevant to the pandemic.

Slovic said there are a few concepts in particular including reinforcement theory and psychic numbing that can help everyone understand why, while the virus is getting worse, it seems the community is becoming less worried.

Fast and slow thinking

Slovic said that given the curve of coronavirus cases since March, its clear the growth is exponential. This means it is growing more rapidly over time. This type of growth happens when one person gets infected, then infects a couple others, who in turn each infect more than one person and so on.

The human mind doesnt deal with exponential growth very well, Slovic said.

Behind this, he said, is psychological research that shows humans think in two ways: fast and slow. Fast thinking relies on intuition and gut feelings, while slow thinking is based on analysis, data and science.

We rely on fast thinking because usually it works for us, Slovic said. Its easy, it feels right and most of the time, it works for us. Except when it doesnt. And when things are happening exponentially, it doesnt work for us.

Exponential coronavirus data can also teach us about climate change, Slovic said. The overwhelming surge of sea level rise will alsocome sooner than expectedand the early exponential curve has been hard for the human brain to process.

If one isnt trained to think exponentially or rely on slow thinking, they underestimate data. Slovic said the overwhelming surge that follows the initial, steadier exponential growth comes sooner than expected.

This is why we need to rely on scientists and experts those who are trained to think slowly when they face data to make decisions regarding the coronavirus, Slovic said.

Listen to the experts, he said. Not the politicians.

Risk judgment

Another reason people misjudge the risks of the coronavirus and allow it to get out of hand is because its an invisible threat. Unless people see the virus right in front of them if they or a loved one gets sick they dont really think COVID-19 is there.

Were better at judging risk when we can see the evidence of it directly, Slovic said.

Because people cant see the virus itself, they are less likely to be careful about it and more likely to underestimate the risk of it, he said.

Reinforcement theory

Another factor that makes the virus hard to control is that everyone has to rely on behavior to curb the spread, Slovic said. Unfortunately, this means communities have to stop doing things they like and start doing things they dont.

When the pandemic first hit the United States in the spring, most people followed guidelines and took them seriously, Slovic said. Because of pressure to open the economy which resulted in relaxing restrictions people started to relax and stop following guidelines as closely.

Even now, when we have a tremendous amount of cases, he said, people are tired of doing the things theyre supposed to do.

The reason people are tired of practicing COVID-19-safe behaviors is because they dont feel the benefit from them, Slovic said. In fact, they feel like theyre being punished.

Slovic said people can understand these behaviors through reinforcement theory a concept that students might have come across in an introductory psychology class.

Reinforcement schedules are rules that state the relationship between a behavior and its consequences. With COVID-19, the reinforcement schedules are the opposite of what they need to be to keep people doing the right thing, Slovic said. People dont feel the immediate consequences when they do whats wrong, and they feel punished for doing whats right.

You dont see who youve been protected from or who youve been protecting. You dont see the benefit, he said. But you feel the cost that youre constrained and you cant do the things you want to do.

Slovic said those kinds of reinforcement schedules dont keep people motivated to keep doing the right thing and continue following COVID-19 guidelines.

So thats why you see people who are really good people and are concerned about COVID in general. They relax their guard, Slovic said. And thats inevitable.

This backwards reinforcement schedule means that the only way to get people to do the right thing during the pandemic is to enforce regulations and shut things down.

Psychic numbing and feelings of inefficacy

Another psychological concept that explains why the virus is out of control is called psychic numbing. When people are exposed to countless data and statistics, they become numb to the information, Slovic said.

Especially as numbers increase, he said, they become just that numbers. They dont carry emotion and they dont impact people as much.

A related concept is the feeling of inefficacy. Even if individuals are concerned about something, they feel as if they cant do anything about it.

As Slovic put it: Why make yourself miserable worrying about these horrible things if you feel you cant do anything about it?

An example of this occurred in a study regarding donating to children in need, Slovic said. Participants were shown two commercials: one of a single child they could donate to, and one of that same child next to statistics of millions of other children who needed aid.

Participants who saw the commercial with the statistics were almost 50% less likely to donate, even though the inclusion of the data was meant to get more donations.

This happened, Slovic said, because with the added millions of children, it felt like the problem was too big and a single donation wouldnt help.

People feel this sense of inefficacy often false inefficacy because their feelings mislead them.

David Markowitz is a professor at UOs School of Journalism and Communication. Markowitz and Slovic have collaborated on projects including exploring why people dehumanize immigrants in the United States.

Markowitz said he thinks psychic numbing is the most relevant concept on display during the pandemic.

As the number of cases and deaths surge, Markowitz said, our feeling system becomes numb and cannot respond compassionately.

Markowitz and Slovic agree that hearing stories about COVID-19 directly affecting people instead of just seeing numbers and data can make people care more about it.

The arithmetic of compassion

Slovic uses this term the arithmetic of compassion to explain why people care less when they should care more. Their feelings can only do arithmetic up to the number one, he said.

The arithmetic of compassion, Slovic said, is a mistake. In reality, people should care more about problems that are bigger. Everyone should work harder to stop them, he said, but they actually do less.

The more who die, Slovic said, the less we care.

Slovic said efficacy is a powerful motivator for peoples actions, and this also explains human behavior during the pandemic. Feelings of inefficacy can arise when people see others ignoring coronavirus guidelines or when they cant help but be exposed to others at their jobs, for example.

If we dont think our actions make a difference and theyre not pleasant to do, he said, we won't do them.

In addition to working for the university, Slovic is the founder and president of Decision Research, an institute that investigates human judgment, decision-making and risk, according to itswebsite.

Along with others from the institute and faculty from various universities including UO, Slovic has been working on a project titled theArithmetic of Compassion.

Slovic said the project goes from the basic science of things like psychic numbing and inefficacy and shows how those concepts play out in the world around us. The goal of the project is to make people aware of this mistaken arithmetic and other psychological factors that affect their behavior.

Maybe, Slovic said, the project can help people overcome the barriers and get the arithmetic right.

This article is republished with permission from the Daily Emerald, an independent news operation produced by and for students at the University of Oregon. Reporter Sally Segar is a UO senior studying journalism and environmental studies.

Human Behavior

It’ll be years before Colorado jobs bounce back from the coronavirus – The Colorado Sun

December 9, 2020 medical

By Sarah Mulholland, CPR News

It will likely take several years for Colorado to fully regain the jobs lost during the recession brought on by the pandemic, according to a report from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The state is forecast to add 40,500 workers in 2021, for a growth rate of 1.5%, CU economists wrote in the report. In 2020, the workforce declined by 5.3% equating to 148,800 jobs lost.

The latest from the coronavirus outbreak in Colorado:

>> FULL COVERAGE

Promising news on several vaccines is boosting optimism that economic activity can return to some semblance of normalcy in 2021. But its unclear how effective the vaccines will be, or how long it will take to distribute them, said Brian Lewandowski, an executive director at the Leeds Business Research Division.

Moreover, its difficult to predict how people will respond.

How long does it take for human behavior to recover, and people start to travel to our resort communities again; get on planes, go to concerts, start commuting to the office again, riding public transit again, Lewandowski said during a conference call. Roughly one-third of Coloradans polled are not sure theyre willing to take the vaccine when it becomes available.

Even with a coronavirus vaccine on the horizon, many businesses wont survive.

Even as businesses and consumers hold out hope for a vaccine, the U.S. economy is reeling with COVID-19 cases surging across the country and new lockdowns. Employers added just 245,000 jobs in November, down from 610,000 in October.

Lewandowski predicts it could be 2023 before the economy is back to where it was at the start of 2020. Many businesses will never come back, said Richard Wobbekind, Lewandowskis counterpart at CU.

The amount of destruction youre going to see in terms of bankruptcies and restaurants closing and the amount of retail I think youre going to see closing is going to be significant, he said.

The toll on restaurants has been especially brutal. In April, restaurants in Colorado suffered $1 billion in lost revenue when dining was shut down, according to the report. Nationally, 1 in 6 restaurants could close in 2020, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Some structural changes to the business landscape may be permanent, Wobbekind said. The pandemic accelerated a shift to online shopping, hurting retailers that were already struggling to compete with the internet. Office landlords will take a hit to the bottom line if companies dont see a need to lease as much office space, he said. That will have a domino effect on downtown businesses that rely on office workers.

Some businesses are feeling the effects of the pandemic more than others.

While few sectors of the economy dodged the pandemic entirely, small businesses and low-wage employees have borne the brunt of the damage, the report found. Additionally, women have been disproportionately impacted. The labor participation rate for women was 55.9% as of October, the lowest in 34 years.

The leisure and hospitality industry will be one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy when gains do take hold, primarily because those businesses were hit hardest by the pandemic, the report found. Job losses in the sector are expected to total 71,200 this year, according to the report.

Colorados mountain communities were crushed early on. In April, counties with a large share of resort areas such as Pitkin, Eagle and San Miguel reported unemployment rates over 20%. Travel spending in Colorado was down 50% as of October, the report found.

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It'll be years before Colorado jobs bounce back from the coronavirus - The Colorado Sun

Human Behavior

Global Video Analytics Market Trends, Opportunity and Forecasts 2020-2025 by Deployment Type, Component, Architecture, Organisation Size, End-user,…

December 9, 2020 medical

Dublin, Dec. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Video Analytics Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global video analytics market grew at a CAGR of around 20% during 2014-2019. Looking forward, the global video analytics market to continue its strong growth during the next five years.

Video analytics refers to the computerized monitoring, processing and analysis of video streams in real-time to recognize spatial events. It usually involves software applications, multiple cameras and artificial intelligence (AI)-based programs that obtain insights about attributes, events and human behavioral patterns through videos.

These insights are used for surveillance, motion and intrusion detection, generating heat maps and observing traffic patterns on social media platforms. They are also used for dynamic blurring, 2D and 3D counting, facial recognition and license plate reading. As a result, video analytics finds extensive applications across various industries, such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, critical infrastructure, traffic management, and transportation & logistics.

Significant improvements in public surveillance and security systems are among the key factors driving the growth of the market. Video analytics aid in improving public and perimeter safety by automatically tracking and gaining reliable insights from video frames of vehicles, individuals and other items, thus reducing the chances of human errors or negligence in gaining novel perceptions.

Furthermore, the widespread adoption of internet protocol (IP)-based surveillance systems for business intelligence (BI) is also supporting the market growth. For instance, video analytics is used in the retail sector for strolling recognition, footfall measurement and consumer behavior analysis, which aids in improving the overall production, distribution and maintenance processes. Additionally, various technological advancements, such as the utilization of the Internet of Things (IoT), AI and machine learning (ML) systems, are acting as other growth-inducing factors.

Video analytics processes the data using algorithms for accurate, reliable and critical insights and enables the organizations to make prompt and accurate decisions. This is creating a positive outlook for the market further.

Key Questions Answered in This Report:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Preface

2 Scope and Methodology 2.1 Objectives of the Study2.2 Stakeholders2.3 Data Sources2.4 Market Estimation2.5 Forecasting Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Introduction4.1 Overview4.2 Key Industry Trends

5 Global Video Analytics Market5.1 Market Overview5.2 Market Performance5.3 Impact of COVID-195.4 Market Forecast

6 Market Breakup by Component6.1 Software6.2 Services

7 Market Breakup by Deployment Type7.1 On-Premises7.2 Cloud

8 Market Breakup by Application8.1 Incident Detection8.2 Intrusion Management8.3 People/Crowd Counting8.4 Traffic Monitoring8.5 Automatic Number Plate Recognition8.6 Facial Recognition8.7 Others

9 Market Breakup by Architecture Type9.1 Edge-Based9.2 Server-Based

10 Market Breakup by Organization Size10.1 Small and Medium Enterprise10.2 Large Enterprise

11 Market Breakup by End User11.1 BFSI11.2 Retail11.2.1 Market Trends11.2.2 Market Forecast11.3 Critical Infrastructure11.4 Traffic Management11.5 Transportation and Logistics11.6 Hospitality and Entertainment11.7 Defense and Security11.8 Others

12 Market Breakup by Region

13 SWOT Analysis13.1 Overview13.2 Strengths13.3 Weaknesses13.4 Opportunities13.5 Threats

14 Value Chain Analysis

15 Porters Five Forces Analysis15.1 Overview15.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers15.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers15.4 Degree of Competition15.5 Threat of New Entrants15.6 Threat of Substitutes

16 Price Analysis

17 Competitive Landscape17.1 Market Structure17.2 Key Players17.3 Profiles of Key Players

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/12az7j

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Global Video Analytics Market Trends, Opportunity and Forecasts 2020-2025 by Deployment Type, Component, Architecture, Organisation Size, End-user,...

Human Behavior