Retail therapy, meet debt psychology.
What’s your attitude toward the credit cards in your wallet? A new study finds that people are more likely to take on debt and spend freely when they view borrowed money as their own, while those who think of money extended to them on credit as belonging to the bank are more conservative about spending it. This psychological insight doesn’t lift the crushing weight of the $870 billion in credit card debt Americans carried in 2019, but it could have implications for promoting financial literacy. “This research suggests that it may be less about understanding the details of compound interest and more about basic attitudes,” says study author Stephanie M. Tully, assistant professor of marketing at the Graduate School of Business. “If you can change the way people think about borrowed money from an early age, that could make an impact across their lifetime. Credit card companies do a great job of making us feel like they’re granting us access to our money. They’re not. It’s important to understand that this is debt.”
We’re primed.
Ready or not, the primary race is on, and thanks to a campus-wide effort by StanfordVotes, Stanford has registered more voters on the digital platform TurboVote than any other college or university in the nation. Curious about caucuses? Stanford Law School’s Rabia Belt, a legal historian whose scholarship focuses on disability and citizenship, explains the differences between primaries and caucuses and how the latter pose barriers for people with disabilities, health challenges and more.
Meanwhile, the d.school’s Lisa Solomon writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that design thinking could help voters narrow their choices. “‘Designing the President’ is a non-partisan, issue agnostic approach that uses design to help voters find clarity on the leadership qualities most important to them. . . . It reframes the question from asking which person do you like best to a more foundational reflection: What is the job of the president, who holds the highest leadership position of our country? And, given that, what specific leadership traits are needed in the Oval Office right now?” She suggests this prompt to ask yourself or use in conversation with others: “In thinking about our next president, I hope the country becomes [blank] as a result of the president’s leadership qualities and time in office.”
Out on a limb.
While college basketball was tumbling toward March Madness this winter, there was something else going on in Maples. After being Treejected five times by Stanford’s unofficial mascots, Stanfordmag.org and Loop editor Summer Moore Batte, ’99, finally convinced one of them to extend a branch. Watch as Batte bruises body parts, dodges Dollies and sweats profusely, all in the name of giving every alum a view from the Tree.
Photo credit: Erin Attkisson
What to do if your jargon is putting people to sleep.
Do people glaze over when you talk about your latest idea/research project/business venture/anything you are an expert on? Do your friends not really understand what you do for a living? Matt Abrahams, a lecturer in strategic communication at the GSB, launched the podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart to help you out. Abrahams sits down with experts from across campus to discuss communication topics from public speaking anxiety to managing your reputation.
As for the ways you’re not enthralling others, check out the episode titled “When Knowing Too Much Can Hurt Your Communication: How to Make Complex Ideas Accessible.” The first rule of great communication: Know your audience. Figure out what aspects of your work people care about and can understand, then explain things in those terms.
But wait, there’s more.
“For 30 years, Stanford has benefited from Harry’s wisdom, his hard work on behalf of undergraduates and his advocacy for the arts.” In an email to the Stanford community, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced that Harry Elam, vice provost for undergraduate education and vice president for the arts, had been appointed the 16th president of Occidental College.
Efforts to reduce the overuse of prescription opioid painkillers shouldn’t target all doctors but rather the 1 percent of providers responsible for nearly half the opioid doses in the United States, say the authors of a new study.
Where do you stand on eponymous disease names?
When Noel Vest walked out of Lovelock Correctional Center in 2009, he had no money, no job and 14 felonies on his record, including identity theft and methamphetamine use. Today, he’s a postdoc scholar in the Systems Neuroscience and Pain Lab at Stanford Medicine, studying how people recover from addiction.
Don’t let your GPA stop you and other advice on applying to grad school from five Stanford doctoral candidates.
Summer Moore Batte, ’99, is the editor of Stanfordmag.org. Email her at summerm@stanford.edu.
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