United Academics Magazine - August 2011 by United Academics

JUST LIKE STEVE JOBS Tune in, drop out and get rich

BURQA PRODUCTIONS Teaching new media in Afghanistan

EDITORIAL

HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

In this month’s issue, we decided to honor all those brave students and teachers who will soon return to class. Back to School. It made me wonder: would I ever go back there? I could only think of one reason that could make me walk through those doors again: the high school reunion. Once upon a time, reunions were meant to reminisce, reconnect and reflect upon yourself. And more importantly, they were the only way through which certain urgent questions could be answered. Who got fat? Who married their high school sweethearts? Is Laura still hot? And did John’s acne finally clear up? Today however, the truth is just one Facebook invite away. With a few clicks, you can find out all you need to know about your former classmates, and probably more. Did Facebook kill the High School Reunion? In an article in Time Magazine, co-owner of Reunited Inc. Jonathan Miller stated that social networks do influence attendance numbers. “It’s definitely affected our business,” Miller says. “Classes can now easily say to me, ‘Jonathan, we have 150 people in our Facebook

group right now, and we really don’t need your services.’” In addition, college-alumni associations are dealing with the same issues. “Students now are all connected through Facebook and MySpace and other sites, so they leave college with their own network completely intact,” says Deborah Dietzler, executive director of alumni relations at the University of Georgia. “This is not like 20 years ago, where, if you wanted to get in touch with someone, you kind of needed to call the alumni office.” Social networks definitely eliminate the element of surprise that is an important part of the fun of reunions. Still, the idea that Facebook might be the end of reunions is a faulty one, because that would essentially mean killing nostalgia itself. Social networks may allow you to easily discover that John’s skin problems were never resolved; they do not offer the opportunity to buy Laura a drink. So if you do get invited to a reunion, just use your social network to do some preselecting. It will leave you more time to catch up with the people that really matter. ANOUK VLEUGELS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Back to School @ Jalalabad

Just Like Steve Jobs

Teaching new media in Afghanistan

Tune in, drop out and get rich

The Power of 140 Characters

The impact of Twitter on human behaviour

Let’s Get Radical

Book & Review

Hungary’s shift to the far-right

Remarkable Research

Credits Editor-in-Chief Anouk Vleugels Executive Editor Mark Fonseca Rendeiro Editorial Swaan van Iterson, Sanne Stricker, Gerdine Tiemens, Daphne Wiersema Design Michelle Halcomb Advertisement Send an e-mail to advertising @united-academics.org Questions and suggestions Send an e-mail to redactie @united-academics.org Address Warmoesstraat 149, 1012 JC Amsterdam Website www.united-academics.org

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WORDS BY YOUR MOTHER ILLUSTRATIONS BY YOUR FATHER

Back to School @ Jalalabad ”DOES IT HAVE ANY IMPACT,” A FRIEND RECENTLY ASKED ME, “GIVING VIDEO TRAINING TO DIFFERENT GROUPS IN AFGHANISTAN FOR ONLY 1 WEEK?” IF BY IMPACT HE MEANT DOES ANYTHING GET LEARNED THAT WILL BE USEFUL TO THE STUDENTS NOW AND IN THE FUTURE, THEN MY ANSWER IS YES.

WORDS BY MARK FONSECA RENDEIRO PICTURES COURTESY OF MARK FONSECA RENDEIRO

My average day as a visiting new media teacher in Afghanistan started more or less the same depending on what city we were working in that week. As part of Small World News, our team of international media trainers would arrive early each morning at the large gate of the local Nai Center (organization that works locally to empower independent media and promote freedom of expression), two bearded Western men in their late 20’s, and a cleanly shaven muscular Afghan translator of around the same age, ready for action. First we must clear security, which usually consists for two or more guards who may either be wielding an AK-47 or a cup of tea depending on the day. Media development organizations are not generally at the top of the list when it comes to being targeted by the Taliban, but it feels 7

like each month a new unexpected place gets attacked. We go through a quick security check with the full understanding that if there were an attack, these polite uniformed gentleman would be easily over-run. Next step is to greet staff at the the NAI center, everyone is Afghan but they greet us in English and we discuss how yesterday’s classes went or how yesterday evening was. Once everyone has been greeted with a hand shake and a hand on your heart, off we go to our classroom - along with an overhead projector, a few computers, and some flip cameras. Beat the burqa Students arrive on foot mostly, or getting a ride from a family member. In more conservative and security-inconsistent places like Jalalabad, women often arrive wearing a burqa. Once in the building the Burka is put away. Some ladies wear a veil throughout the day while others choose simply to go for the standard and simple head cover throughout class. Later I learn that in some cases women prefer coming to the center with the anonymity of a full burqa, as they fear being recognized and risk being kidnapped or murdered.

For myself, the full face veil proves to be a difficult obstacle. On a simple level, I can’t tell if the student is smiling or scowling, through I try to read this in their eyes. As the days go on, in the case of one class, I find the veiled students are the one’s I’m making the least amount of progress with. If I sit next to a young lady with a veil, the feeling I get - whether its true or not- is that she is uncomfortable with me sitting next to her and is not listening to a word I’m saying regarding how 8

to edit or some other computer related issue. It may also be simply my own insecurity projecting this feeling, but since these things never get discussed, I’ll never know. However, this was not an issue in the case of female students wearing a head cover, who proved to be very alert, motivated, and often extremely interesting for we the teachers to learn from.

Revenge in the Classroom Our experiences on this particular mission were limited to two groups of students, one from Western Afghanistan, a mix of ethnic backgrounds, and one from Eastern Afghanistan, an all Pashtun group. Besides speaking different languages, there is also a distinct cultural difference between a group of Pashtun students and a group of students from varying backgrounds. All are surely Afghan, but from the first day we notice the Pashtun group’s lively classroom dynamic. Discussions erupt in sometimes inconvenient times in different parts of the room. Just when it seems to us that students have understood the lesson, the assignments show that in fact that haven’t understood much of what we have been saying. Even with an excellent translator who moves from student to student reviewing the latest lessons, there is something I start to think – cultural- about wanting to please the teacher by saying everything is fine, even when it is not. The other issue that proves problematic is the idea of criticism in the classroom. When students show their video projects, we encourage others to comment on the work. The idea, just like in many classrooms in the western world, is that peers can provide constructive criticism. In some cases this proved to be true and useful. The trouble arose when at first no students would dare criticize each other. Throughout the first

few screenings there was nothing but praise for each other, no one speaking a critical word about another. The moment a student did point out problems with audio quality and camera angles in one interview, a back-and-forth argument erupted that seemed to spread like a sickness around the crowded classroom. Even when things seemed to calm down, students who had been criticized would bide their time and wait for the next chance to attack back and find flaws in the work of the person who dared previously attack their own work. The idea of constructive criticism very easily seemed to descend into grudges and vitriol. The students themselves did all of this with relative ease while we the foreign visitors felt quite upset about what we were witnessing. In the back of my mind I started wondering how closely this is connected to how Afghan politics

work, were alliances seem to come and go and rivalries are dangerously bitter. Eventually we adjust our strategy, putting a limit on criticism and changing the way we give assignments. Based on previous problems, each student gets a customized assignment that seeks to address their specific needs. Several students rise and give stern reminder to their colleagues of what the purpose of criticism in the classroom should be, to help each other improve and not to insult one another. Thankfully these comments as well as our change of strategy are well received, the results of which we enjoy when reviewing the excellent final assignments. Be home for dinner What a foreign teacher might not be used to but will likely face when teaching in a country

with as complicated a reality as Afghanistan has, is the outside classroom factors for students. Sometimes it can be as simple as a female student who needs to leave early, as she is concerned with having dinner ready for her husband or children, and other home related responsibilities. Then there are the security risks, as in the case where a student would tell us he would be missing class tomorrow as his friend, who had been kidnapped last week, had been found dead. Not only do you listen and learn about what the reality sometimes can be for each individual but as the teacher you can see it on their faces, as they get terrible news during class, or the following day after the funeral when they’re back in class. Trouble outside the class is nothing new to any educator anywhere in the world, but the specific types of trouble students face here, that can be difficult to grasp for anyone, foreign or Afghan. Untold Stories As each of our one week trainings are completed, we are pleased with the results. Students have gone from never having produced a video report on some topic, to having produced one or two 4 minute segments consisting of interviews and detailed video footage. Their stories focused on every work in Afghanistan: the tailor, dairy farmer, teacher, day laborer, and even brick making children. They also reported about civic issues in their communities, such as pollution, water, and basic sanitation, all issues that impact everyone’s lives here, but rarely make the international press. Those students who came with previous experience were also able to build upon that. Our favorite example being Said, the veteran camera man for a local TV station who was determined to finally learn how to edit and produce his own items. His experience proved invaluable for his own work and for the class. “I remember once during the war between the Taliban and the Mujahadeen I was at the frontline with my video camera,” Said explains during a lesson on being aware of one’s surroundings while filming, “I got so immersed in getting the footage and good camera shots, I realized much too late I was all alone, the soldiers that had been with me had all disappeared. The frontline had moved, others were getting hit and gunfire was still coming my 10

way as I ran away as fast as I could.” A Military Exit As the media trainings come to an end, yet another reminder of the precarious security situation: we must take a helicopter from a nearby US-Afghan military base, the Jalalabad to Kabul has been too dangerous lately. Oddly enough a local military base was attacked only a

few nights ago by a few Taliban fighters, “nothing too big” we’re told, just a few rockets fired. And so we pass through another world with its own cultural traditions, the forward operating military base. After enjoying a quick coffee with a helpful security contractor from the UK, the big Russianbuilt Mi8 helicopter swoops down along with its Australian military escorts. Well armed flight escorts who are good spirited and sit vigilantly at the open door of the helicopter is we fly over some of the most majestic mountains and valleys on earth. A strange but exciting ending for a story about teaching a course. The question others ask, which we also ask ourselves, is how to ensure long term impact. As interest and funding for Afghanistan grows smaller, so too do job offers and length of training programs. Jawad Jalali, founder of the photoagency Afghan Eyes, and a fellow teacher, explains the situation based on his own experiences giving photography seminars: “Most of our participants are unemployed young people or students in schools or university. The important thing that I have to mention here is that after distributing the certificates at the last day of workshop

we don’t leave the students behind. Instead we note their contact information and when any organizations are ask us for a local afghan photographers we connect them to the talented students. A good example is Qais, a young afghan man who was one of our participants in Mazar province, AFP (Agence France Press) needed to hire a photographer in Mazar for news and feature photo coverage in Mazar, I introduced my student Qais to them. Now he is working for AFP and last week I saw one of his photos featured as photo of the day in NY Times Magazine. This also means he is making money and can provide for his family by selling his photographs to AFP. In the long term we have got many young men and women who are interested in taking these courses in long term and find a job through this profession, every day we are getting phone calls and emails about when the next course will be. But we have our own problem in our agency too, as a non-profit we find it difficult to find funding for long term courses that can have a greater impact.”

knowledgable and experienced teachers there, where they will receive excellent instruction. To us it is the same, studying in foreign country or foreign teachers coming here in our country to teach us. It is really interesting and important for us to have learned from the intelligent teachers which come from far away and let us benefit from their adroit ideas and knowledge.”

Looking back at my own experience teaching in Afghanistan, my second time teaching in that country in the past 2 years, I see a hopeful but concerning situation. Declining interest and lack of funds for Afghanistan, combined with extremely strict immigration policies in the west and obviously limited scholarships for Afghans to study abroad. We want the students to become teachers, the trainees to become the trainers, but we want it all to happen now under the most difficult of circumstances. While some, like Jawad and Ulfat, are themselves prepared to do just that, they may not get the resources and support they need to do so. In that situation, everyone loses, foreign instructors, organizations, governments, Here or Abroad and above all, Afghan people who are lining up The other question that observers might ask and and ready to learn what others have to teach. we certainly ask ourselves is couldn’t an Afghan teach what we teach? It would certainly be more affordable for media organizations in Afghanistan, and arguably safer for instructors who are better integrated into local culture. Presently, groups of international police are in Afghanistan to teach the fundamentals of police work with the hope that once the seed is planted their role will no longer be needed and Afghan police will train others themselves. Part of our goal is to arrive a similar situation, teach future teachers. With some luck and if we do our jobs correctly, some of our former students will go on to work for media organizations or make use of video production in some other forum, which will give them experience, income, and make them good teachers for others. But gaining this experience takes time, while many Afghans are extremely interested and in need of such training right now. Ulfat Kazemi, an English teacher and a graduate of our training program, explains the situation as follows: “Here in Afghanistan students like to study in foreign countries because they can find 11

LET’S GET RADICAL FACED WITH SOARING UNEMPLOYMENT AND ALACK OF PROSPECTS, MANY EDUCATED YOUNG HUNGARIANS ARE BEING DRAWN TO THE RADICAL RIGHT. BUT WILL IT GIVE THEM THE BETTER FUTURE THEY SEEK?

Until last year, the international media paid little attention to Hungary. This changed when the nationalist and conservative Fidesz party, under the leadership of Viktor Orbán, won a two-thirds majority in the 2010 elections, thereby gaining the power to push through radical changes. Orbán moved quickly to nationalise private pension funds. In addition, he pushed through a controversial media law, which stipulates that a government-appointed media authority should monitor whether journalists provide “moral” and “objective” reporting. More recently, in July of this year, his government passed a new church law, which officially recognises only 14 religions, and hence strips the others of the right to receive state subsidies. The Institute on Religion and Public Policy (IRPP) called the legislation the “worst religion law in Europe.” But Orbán and his party are not finished yet. His latest idea is to allow secondary school children to study “basic military science” starting in the next academic year. Yet Fidesz is not the only party that is making news in Hungary. Further to the right on the political spectrum the radical Jobbik party, which won 16.7% of the vote in the 2010 elections to become the third largest party in Hungary, is drawing significant attention. The Movement for a Better Hungary’s (A Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom) manifesto is mainly based on, among other things, nationalism and the combating of so-called “gypsy criminality” (cigánybűnözés). Many believe that the party was closely linked to the Magyar Gárda (the Hungarian Guard that is now dissolved, but still active under different names), which was established to protect the population against this “gypsy crime.” Jobbik’s main support base is not only found in the ranks of the poor and poorly educated workers in the northeast of the country, but increasingly amongst the urban young. In early 2010, some 15% of under-25s said they would vote for Jobbik – the party was particularly popular among university students specialising in the humanities or history. This raises the question of why Jobbik would be attractive to more highly educated students in Budapest. Most narratives paint a pic-

ture of a faceless crowd of “societal losers” who vote for the radical right. Can the same terminology be used to describe these students? I travelled to Budapest to find out. During a month of extensively interviewing students and hearing their stories, while trying not to judge and to remain objective, I learned that radical right voters can be far from being the indistinguishable mass of victims they are often taken to be.

JEWS AND GYPSIES Farkas Gergely (25), a recent graduate in economics and sociology, is a Jobbik member and one of the youngest members of parliament. According to Gergely, the lack of prospects many students face leads them to vote for his party: “Many students in Hungary cannot find work once they graduate… For 20 years, no party stood up for young people and so they looked for something new. We have filled that gap.” A lot of the students I have spoken to indicate that having a university degree in Hungary is no guarantee for a secure future. According to Marcell, a 25-year-old public administration student, the bad socio-economic situation is a result of, amongst other things, foreign interference: “Multinationals, transnational companies and foreign banks have come to the country in droves since 1989. They were able to operate here without paying any taxes while local firms had to pick up the tab – they got no special perks,” he says. “The result is that the multinationals have devoured our economy. They became the rulers of our homeland. Every Hungarian government over the past 20 years has been their unquestioning servant.” Szuszanna (21), a medical student in Budapest, believes that it is mainly Jewish enterprises that have received this beneficial treatment: “We’re not happy with the Israeli companies which buy up everything here – they ruin everything. They take a lot of money out of the country and invest very little,” she argues. In Szuszanna’s view, the trouble is that if you want to do something about the situation, you’re immediately labelled as an anti-Semite. According to her, the same problem arises around 13

the “gypsy question.” The Jobbik party introduced the term “gypsy criminality” into Hungary’s political discourse, which finally made it, in Szuszanna’s view, possible to talk about the situation - something that is very urgent, she believes: “During communist times, everybody was obliged to work, but that changed with the advent of capitalism,” Szuszanna explains. “Now that you can get benefits, a lot of gypsies don’t work anymore. They spend their benefits on alcohol and cigarettes and when this runs out, they often steal.”

Student supporters of Jobbik greet one another by saying “Szebb Jövőt”, meaning “A better future”. RADICAL CHANGE

caption: Jobbik demonstration in Budapest

Student supporters of Jobbik greet one another by saying “Szebb Jövőt”, meaning “A better future”. They would like to see change not only in the socio-economic conditions but also in the political situation. János (26), who studies IT, believes that students vote for Jobbik because they want radical change. According to him, Hungary never underwent a change of regime (rendszerváltás). He thinks that many communists continue to be in power under the guise of socialism and that communism actually never went away in Hungary. Moreover, like János, a lot of students view the socialists as being corrupt. For a lot of the students, 2006 was the time they decided to join the Jobbik party. That year, an audio recording surfaced from a closed-door meeting, featuring the then socialist president Ferenc Gyurcsány. In the recording, Gyurcsány admitted that “we have been lying for the last one and a half to two years” about the economic situation in Hungary. The leak led to public outrage and mass demonstrations, including the occupation of the state television building by football hooligans and radical-right students. Many of the Jobbik supporters believe that socialist “indoctrination” does not only occur in the political sphere, but also in the education system. Jószef, a PhD student in political science who is researching euroscepticism, would like to build an academic career but, in his view, it is very difficult to earn money as an independent political scientist in Hungary: “You need to have a political colour, otherwise you’ll 15

get nowhere in this field,” he says. “Personally I have had no problems but I have heard others say that it is difficult to get a good position if you’re not a socialist.” And it’s not just academia. In Katalin’s opinion the media is also dominated by “liberal leftists” (referring to the socialists). The “simplistic and oversexualised” American programming on television annoys her: “The Hungarian media is extremely prejudiced and, above all, extremely liberal,” she complains. “People watch MTV, use drugs, find it normal to be gay and encourage others to become so too. That’s just ridiculous.”The “bias” of the Hungarian media does not stop Jobbik from reaching the public, János stresses. He says that the party bypasses the mainstream media by being very active on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, this helps the party to connect better with young people.

“People watch MTV, use drugs, find it normal to be gay and encourage others to become so too. That’s just ridiculous.” Eszter, a master’s student in public administration, thinks that Jobbik is a party for the young generation in a country where there is an intergenerational divide in politics: “Older people lived through communism and miss the security and stability of those times. In those days, there was still work for everyone. This means that older people vote more frequently for the socialists. Young people don’t have the same experiences and sympathies.”

HUNGARY’S YOUNG TURKS? Péter is a university lecturer at both ELTE and Corvinus University. He says that students who vote for Jobbik regularly voice their political views in their essays and assignments. According to him, history students in particular are drawn to the party - a phenomenon that does not surprise him in the least: “Hungarians have a history of lost wars and lost independence. This gives you a reason to become nationalistic. Young people are convinced that, given all they’ve lost, Hungarians can only count on themselves.” Many of the students I spoke to integrate their political views not only into their studies but also their plans for the future. Ákos (21) describes knowledge as his “weapon” 16

with which he can build his future and change the world. Towards that end, he is studying history and Turkish. He believes that Hungarians must have more control over their country, and the only way to achieve this is to become more independent from the West. Surprisingly, for all those right-wing Europeans who oppose Turkish membership of the EU because of the supposed civilisational differences, Ákos wishes to strengthen ties between Hungary and Turkey, as he believes the two countries share a common history: “Most people believe that the Hungarians are descendants of the Finno-Ugric tribes, but this is untrue. The Turks and Hungarians are brothers and there is a lot of research which shows that Hungarians are related to tribes in Kazakhstan.” For other students, Jobbik is more a part of their daily reality than their future dreams. Barnabás (20), also a history student, wears black jeans and a leather jacket bearing Hungarian nationalist iconography, as well as an armband in the colours of the Hungarian flag. His interest in the Hungarista subculture began when he turned 16 and started listening to nationalist rock bands like Kárpátia and Romantikus Erőszak, whose songs include 100% Magyar (100% Hungarian) and Lesz még Erdély (Transylvania will be ours).

“It is very, very important for me to be part of the Jobbik movement. It is an integral part of my Hungarian identity,” Barnabás admits. “You really get the feeling that you belong to a group. Jobbik helps people who feel out of place but have a strong bond with Hungary to find a community. Before I joined Jobbik, I often felt alone, like I didn’t belong anywhere.” According to Ákos, this sense of loneliness is common among young Hungarians who have few extracurricular activities to engage in or groups to join. For him, Jobbik is almost more like a family than a party: “At Jobbik, you feel that you’re at home. You are surrounded by people who think just like you and who want to reach the same goals.” He ended our conversation with the following words: “We’re there for each other. We fight for each other. Also for you, a better future!” The students I talked to are trying to change their future through the Jobbik party. The way they actively engage their political ideas in their daily activities, studies and career plans, and use modern utilities like social media, makes it impossible to label them as ‘losers of the modern world’ or the modernisation process. But despite the solidarity and belonging that Jobbik inspires in its young members, the question is whether 17

the radical right path they are treading is the way to achieve their dreams of independence, pride and well-being.

Name: Swaan van Iterson Studies: Social Sciences Swaan van Iterson recently finished her bachelors in general social sciences (mainly conflict studies and international relations) at the University of Amsterdam. In her studies, she focused on ethnic tensions, nationalism and extremism. Being half-Hungarian, she was struck by the developments in the country. In January, she decided to visit Hungary for a month to interview students about their affiliation with the Jobbik party. Read Swaanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thesis here

REMARKABLERESEARCH PSYCHOLOGY

WHY STRONG LEADERS ARE NOT ALWAYS THE BEST LEADERS In times of crisis people tend to prefer leaders who are decisive, have authority and are sure of themselves. Indeed, these kinds of strong individuals may look like good leaders, but new research suggests the opposite might be true. Narcissistic leaders often seem like good leaders because we think their typical qualities like confidence and authority make them good leaders. However, research by Barbora Nevicka and her colleagues, published in Psychological Science, shows the opposite to be true. They divided participants into groups of three and gave them the task to jointly decide on a job candidate. One of the group members was randomly assigned to be the groupsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; leader. Participants were instructed that each of the group members could contribute to this decision by giving their advice, but that the leader was responsible for the decision. Each of the members was given some information about the candidate in advance. In total, there were 45 pieces of

information. However, some of this information was given to all three participants while other information was only provided to one of the participants. The crux was that, in order to make the best decisionchoosing the best candidate- information that was not available to all three members of the group had to be shared. When this information was not shared, decisions were based solely on the information available to all three members, leading to a bad decision. After the leader made a decision, the group leaders filled in a questionnaire measuring narcissism while the others filled in questionnaires measuring the perceived authority and effectiveness of the leader. Moreover, participants indicated which of the 45 items of information they knew which is a measure of how well information was shared. Although narcissistic leaders were perceived by group members as more effective, compared to leaders who were not narcissistic, they made decisions of lower quality and less unique information was shared between group members.

HEALTH

had 92 per cent more chance of having erectile problems compared to men that did not experience partner betweenness. MALE FRIENDSHIPS PROMOTE A Interestingly, the effect partner betweenHEALTHY SEX LIFE FOR HETEROSEX- ness has on sexual problems diminishes UAL MEN in men older than 70 and 80 years of age. The researchers think this may be because New research suggests that sexual probthese older men have a different concept lems in middle-aged and older aged men of masculinity compared to the younger may be linked to the relationship between men. their best friends and their partner. The research was conducted by scholars at the University of Chicago and Cornell University and is now published in the American Journal of Sociology. They found a relationship between sexual problems and the relationship the male participant had with their best friends and partner. When the female partner came too close, having even better relationships with the best friends than the male partner, this was associated with sexual problems such as having difficulty getting or maintaining an erection or having trouble achieving an orgasm during sex. Cases where the friendship is stronger for the female partner as opposed to the male partner were labeled as ‘partner betweenness’ by the researchers. Researchers Laumann and Cornwell argue that partner betweenness may undermine men’s feelings of autonomy and privacy. Both are related to the concept of masculinity. Even when controlling for health-related problems such as diabetes which are also related to erectile dysfunction, partner betweenness still contributed to sexual problems in men. At least 25 per cent of men experience partner betweenness in at least one of their friendships and men who experienced partner betweenness in at least one of their relationships 20

EVOLUTION DON’T MAKE IT TOO DIFFICULT FOR THE FEMALE The colorful feathers of male peacocks, complex songs sung by male birds and the calls made by frogs, are all meant to attract females. But why aren’t the feathers even more colorful , or the songs and calls more complex and melodious? New research suggests the answer must be sought in the cognitive capacities of the females.

In the animal world, males often stand out, for instance by their bright colored feathers. The goal is to attract females for mating and thereby safeguarding the survival

of their species in general and their genes in particular. But why aren’t their feathers even more colorful or songs more complex? One obvious reason is that standing out in a crowd is dangerous because it enhances one’s chances of being caught by a predator. However, new research published in Science suggests that this is not the only reason. In fact, even though females are drawn by the elaborate traits of the males, they are also attracted to the ones that limit the extent of this elaboration. The researchers studied the neotropical túngara frog. These frogs attract females with a call that consists of a long ‘whine’ followed by one or more short ‘chucks’. Female frogs tend to prefer the calls that contain the most chucks. However, this preference was based on the ratio of the number of chucks and not on the absolute number of chucks. This implies that as the calls contain more chucks, the relative increase in attractiveness decreased. The reason is that females have difficulty perceiving differences in the number of chucks as the number increases. To illustrate, it is quite easy to perceive the difference between 6 tennis balls and 7 tennis balls. However, finding the difference between 100 and 101 tennis balls is very difficult. The female frogs just couldn’t perceive the difference between a lot of chucks and between even more chucks. Therefore, both male frogs are equally likely to be selected by a female for mating and hence reproduce.But what about the predators? Well, they also had difficulty detecting the differences between the mating calls as they became more elaborate. Thus, frogs whose calls contain a lot of chucks are equally likely to reproduce and be killed. 21

the impact of Twitter on consumer behaviour

n October of last year, Dutch comedian Youp van ’t Hek publicly bashed T-Mobile’s customer service for not helping his son properly. As many people had comparable difficulties with the telecom provider, T-Mobile became a trending topic on Twitter. Van ‘t Hek even had some appearances on national television about the affair. Soon, people started to speculate about the damage this was causing the company. Did the ttweets cause serious image damage? Would people abandon their subscriptions with T-Mobile? Nobody knew. The impact of negative ttweets was uncharted territory.

“A happy customer tells one friend, an unhappy customer tells everybody.” With the rise of the Internet and social

media this sentence has been given new meaning. ‘Everybody’ is suddenly the whole world, and it includes more thanjust your friends. Moreover, it has become so much easier for consumers to post their dissatisfaction with a product or brand online. Organizations keep a close eye on what is being said about a product or brand on Twitter. But what exactly is the effect of these negative messages?

THE DIGITAL AGE AND ITS EFFECT ON WORD-OF-MOUTH MARKETING The Internet has forced almost every facet of our business and daily lives to change. The way customers and business come together is shifting away from the traditional model and this evolution is just beginning. The rise of the Internet has an important impact on word-ofmouth communication. Instead of having just your neighbours or friends to chat with you, you can now access the entire world with just a few clicks. In traditional word-of-mouth communication, we rely on people we know and trust. This familiarity is often not present on the Internet. Also, in an online environment sender and receiver of information are separated by both space and time, whereas in its offline equivalent, people need to be together to communicate. These characteristics of the Internet have made it easier for consumers to share their opinions about products, brands or services. Special review websites like Epinions. com or cnet.com enable consumers to share product experiences with other (potential) consumers. But social media such as Facebook or Twitter are increasingly used to sing praises or share disappointments regarding a product. Despite advertisers’ and marketers’ efforts, consumers generally have more trust in the opinions of peer consumers. Also, messages from advertisers are easier to ignore than messages from friends. Electronic word-of-mouth has become an important influence on consumers’ product evaluation and thus is seen as increasingly important by businesses and organizations concerned with reputation management. This progress has led marketing managers to believe that they should have community managers to scan the web every day, searching for positive or negative messages about their brand or product. The prevailing idea behind this is that negative electronic word-of-mouth communication (eWOM) on social media has a great impact on consumer behaviour. The damage negative product-related messages on the web can do is often intuitively estimated as enormous but academic research in this field 24

yet has to confirm or reject this claim. In her master thesis, Stricker took the first steps in determining the power of 140 characters.

THE UNIQUE CASE OF TWITTER The study focused on Twitter for several reasons. It is perceived as a very different form of eWOM than any other social media platform. This is because of the unsolicited, tie strength and swiftness characteristics of the microblog. Whereas most studies focused on consumers that were actually looking for information prior to a purchase, on Twitter consumers are exposed to an unsolicited form of eWOM. The user may just bump into a tweet about a product or brand. This means that the level of involvement is much lower than on a product review website. Also, the quality of the review may differ from a traditional review website. For example, a high quality message is more logical and persuasive and therefore more effective. Considering a tweet can only contain 140 characters, theytweet have to be to the point to have any effect.

THE IMPORTANCE OF INVOLVEMENT, MESSAGE QUALITY AND TIE STRENGTH Building on existing word-of-mouth studies, Stricker developed an experiment in which respondents were exposed to a negative tweet about CoffeeCompany (Dutch coffee bar chain). Three factors were incorporated in the experiment: message involvement (being high or low involved in reading the tweet), message quality (containing arguments or not) and tie strength (strong or non existing relationship between source and receiver). Before and after reading the negative tweet, people were asked about their purchase intentions and brand attitudes toward CoffeeCompany. The results showed significant differences between the effect of strong and weak tie sources. Consumers conform to online consumer reviews via Twitter and attitudes become unfavourable as the tie strength increases. Respondents that were exposed to a

tweet from a friend or family member were affected more in their purchase intention than those from a weak tie source. As opposed to Facebook, it is perfectly normal to follow a person you do not know on Twitter. This person can be an expert on a certain topic, but is still considered a weak tie. The study showed that only close relations could have this impact on one’s behaviour. Marketers should focus less on these anonymous content generators, and more on traditional word-of-mouth theories.

needs to be solved. Brands need to be serious about answering consumers on Twitter.

THE INFLUENCE OF STRONG TIES The negative tweet impacted purchase intention more than brand attitude. This finding points towards the short-term impact of negative tweets. People were reluctant to buy from CoffeeCompany in the short-term, but longterm attitudes toward the brand were not affected as much. These findings stress that marketers should look at online word-of-mouth the same way they do offline. Consumers are not necessarily affected by exposure to potentially thousands of messages about a brand. What matters most in influencing consumers behaviour are friends and family. In his blog, Paul Adams (Facebook employee, formerly at Google) also points toward the importance of ‘normal’ people in your inner circle. These are the people that influence you most in your decisions. According to Adams your circle contains about 20 people. Where do you connect online with these people? Probably not on Twitter, but on Facebook. Adams: ‘If we want ideas to spread, if we want people to evangelize our brand and for their messages to spread, we need to focus on everyday people, and understand how their groups of friends are connected.’ This research showed that only strong ties can have an impact on purchase intention. However, this does not mean that businesses can stop monitoring the Twitter-buzz. According to research by inboxQ, Twitter users are likely to make a purchase from businesses that answer their questions. Your negative buzz on Twitter may not have an impact on your followers, but in the end you have a problem that

Name: Sanne Stricker Studies: Business Studies Sanne recently finished her master in business studies cum laude at the University of Amsterdam. She specialised in Information Management Studies and Marketing. She is now putting her efforts in working at Amsterdam based startup Roamler. For more information and the full thesis (Dutch) please go to sannestricker.com.

JUST LIKE STEVE JOBS he new academic year is about to start. Freshmen line up at the university doors ready for the ‘next step’ while returning students sneak in through the back, just a bit late for the first lecture of the year. They all have the same goal: to walk out with a diploma. But why? Do we really need higher education in order to be successful in our professional life? All over the internet there are firm believers who state that you don’t have to go to college to be a success. You will find lists such as ‘The Worlds Most Successful Dropouts’ with names such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Virgin CEO Richard Branson and Apple genius Steve Jobs - today’s most successful entrepreneurs. It might just be true that students would be better off dropping out of school. You can simply invest the money spent on college in that one unique idea or take those four years and travel, work, play, and spend time with interesting people talking about

important things. Shouldn’t it be your choice to decide what’s important, not that of a professor or examination board? Even if you do decide to study for a while, you don’t have to graduate to be a success. But is this really true, or is the ‘brilliant drop-out’ a popular myth we like to hold onto? Steve Jobs once said: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped in dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”. Inspirational words, but we can’t all be Steve Jobs. What about the not so famous dropouts? What happens when the monstrous machine you’re building in your parents’ garage doesn’t work? Well, in that case, it is the taxpayer that is left to pick up the pieces. A former school teacher and currently the education correspondent for National Public Radio, Claudio Sanchez argues that dropouts are a high fiscal burden. A report from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) shows that in 2002, from the 1.1 million full-time students who started their Bachelor studies in the US, 493,000 did not graduate within six years. These dropouts cost the nation $4.5 billion in lost earnings and income taxes. “Taxpayers have paid billions of dollars in subsidies to support these students as they pursue degrees they will never earn, and as a nation, we incur billions in lost earnings and lost income taxes each year,” said Mark Schneider, a vice president at AIR and co-author of the report.

ting them to go to a second year might waste even more money,” Lerman said. Moreover, graduates often leave college with a great amount of debt as a result of loans. The New York Times estimated the average debt of a college graduate at roughly €24,000. Even so, besides the question if whether dropouts are a burden for tax payers, the financial burden of dropping out of college will most surely be felt by dropouts themselves. Sanchez states that dropouts will end up earning $1 million less over their lifetime than a college graduate. According to the AIR report, students who did not graduate within six years already missed out on approximately $3.8 billion in potential earnings for 2010. This could have generated around $566 million in tax revenue in a nation facing a massive revenue shortfall in 2011. Furthermore, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labour college dropouts contribute to the rising unemployment rate. They state that the unemployment rate under college dropouts exceeds 9 percent against a small 4 percent under college graduates.

In the end, dropping out of college can create major opportunities but can also cause huge losses. Graduates are more likely to earn more than dropouts. Also, college can give you the opportunity to study what you find interesting or important, while a diploma might make you more credible. Dropouts, on the other hand, are more flexible in building their own distinctive knowledge base through experience and are therefore more likely to pursue their unique idea and become the next Zuckerberg, Jobs or Branson. Either way, you will never be entirely sure at the beginning. Each route has its unique benefits At the same time, critics agree that dropouts can and downsides. The most important thing is to also save the state a lot of money. Having too determine what will work best for you. many students pushed to finish their studies, by social pressure or just by their parents, brings a financial burden as well. According to Robert Lerman, a leading expert on how education and employment can affect economic well-being, we WORDS BY GERDINE TIEMENS should question promoting college for all. He explains that high dropout rates can easily be used to argue that less prepared and less motivated students are better off not going to college. “Get27

BOOK & REVIEW The pain chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of SufferingÂ Melanie Thernstrom

veryone experiences physical pain every now and then, but for some people, pain is a constant part of their lives. Millions of us (70 million in the U.S. alone) suffer from pain on a daily basis. In The Pain Chronicles Melanie Thernstrom tells the story of pain, starting thousands of years ago and ending in experimental modern day pain treatments. Pain has been conceptualized differently throughout the ages. An early example of pain treatment are painbanishing spells that were cast in ancient Babylonia. Today, thanks to important scientific discoveries, pain is dealt with differently. Read about the leading pain clinics, the newest insights from medical research and about experimental drug treatments. Besides valuable information on treatments, there are the stories of how various people battle with their pain, including the author herself. A great deal of wisdom can be found in these stories. An example is a story from a woman who, after visiting over 85 doctors, finds relief from her back pain from a chiropractor who advises her to move instead of taking pills. Moving is the solution pursued by the author herself, who found relief in changing her wish for a pain-free life to a wish for a life filled with love and family. GET IT HERE

1493: Uncovering the new world Columbus created Charles C. Mann

493, the sequel to the best-selling 1491, is in fact a book about globalization. It tells of why tomatoes are found in Italy and chili peppers in Thailand. When Christopher Columbus and other travelers set foot on new parts of the planet, they changed the world, bringing species to places where they had never been seen before. Roughly 200 million years ago, the continents were split apart by geological forces. The result was that different ecosystems existed in different parts of the world. However, when Columbus and others traveled to new and unknown parts of the world, these natural niches came to an end. Their goal was to trade goods throughout the world, but this great Columbian Exchange also lead to some unwelcome side-effects: fungi, rats, bacteria and viruses travelled along with them. Furthermore, the sad story is that the Columbian Exchange greatly benefited Europe, but devastated other continents such as Africa and Asia. Even many of the political disputes today, according to Mann, can be traced back to the way the Columbian Exchange changed the world. GET IT HERE

Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker

ith the death of Osama Bin Laden this year, the U.S. has made important progress in the ‘War on Terror.’ The action – led by US special forces – has astonished the world. But these actions require a great deal of planning and intelligence gathering. In Counterstrike, New York Times reporters Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, uncover how the United States addresses terrorism in innovative new ways, unbeknownst to the outside world. The 9/11 attacks shocked the world and led the U.S. to declare ‘war on terrorism’ to find terrorist networks responsible for these horrible attacks. This was the starting point for military invasions in places like Iraq, who’s government allegedly had some involvement with terror networks. However, all the firepower and military invasions did not stop terrorism and by 2005 the Pentagon began looking for a new approach. Counterstrike tells the story of how analysts within the military, law enforcement and spy agencies created new and innovative ways to fight terrorism. These new methods are carried out with extreme secrecy, especially from the general public. This book contains many revelations on how national security works and is managed, including the details of how Osama Bin Laden was found and killed in May 2011. GET IT HERE

Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To Sian Beilock

hy do we mess up an important job interview, forget our lines during a stage performance we practiced many times or play an awful tennis match against a weaker opponent? Learn the answers to these questions in Choke. It can happen to all of us: choking up when we need to perform. When it happens, we experience shame and pain and often donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand why we forgot lines that we knew by heart a few moments earlier. Even more intriguing is why we sometimes perform at levels that were even higher and better than we ever did before. Bad performances often happen when the stakes are high. A lot of it has to do with performance anxiety which can make us choke, according to Dr. Sian Beilock, an expert on performance and brain science. Beilock explains what anxiety does to us, how it works in our brains, how body and mind are related, and how we can manage our anxiety more successfully, leading to better performances. A big consolation for all of us that have experienced choking under pressure: the best performers are most susceptible to it. GET IT HERE