26
center events
10th annual conference
T
he Center’s 10th annual conference, “Healing the Big Fractures in the Economy, Politics & Society,” held virtually on February 18–19, 2021, convened a distinguished array of prominent researchers from the fields of economics, psychology, public policy, finance, law, government and behavioral science to take an interdisciplinary, evidence-based approach to this question, with an eye on pragmatic policy solutions. Barely four weeks after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, amid continuing economic, health and climate crises and a rise in political tensions, the keynote speakers Jay Van Bavel—Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Cognition and Perception, and Neural Science, and Director of the Social Identity & Morality Lab at New York University—and Mariana Mazzucato—Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL) and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose—offered insight in deciphering the unprecedented events of 2020, as well as a roadmap for where to go from here. The first day of the conference focused on politics, examining political partisanship, polarization, and misinformation in the United States and around the world. The second day focused on economics, investigating the question of how to increase investment to meet the challenges of 2021 and beyond in an equitable, inclusive and sustainable way.
We need to think differently. We need to admit that value is created collectively, not just from business, but also from different types of actors in the public sector and the third sector, and none of the big challenges that we have that are underneath the 17 Sustainable Development Goals...are going to be solved by one actor alone. —Mariana Mazzucato
how can we move beyond posttruth politics? Nolan McCarty, Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and moderator of the session, kicked off the first panel, which examined the rise in partisanship and political violence, and offered some practical steps to combat misinformation and reduce polarization. Yphtach Lelkes, Assistant Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, began by asking, “Are we driven by hate or fealty?” Though many assume that animosity towards the opposition is driving polarization, Lelkes said that based on his survey research, in-group attachment, or wanting to help your own side, is more important than trying to hurt the other side. Lilliana Mason, Associate Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity, spoke about the links between political violence and partisan identity in the US. Political leaders have an important role to play in addressing hyper-partisanship and political violence, Mason concluded, noting that strong partisans who read an anti-violence message from their leader are much less likely to condone violence than those in a control group. Drawing on his own work, Sander van der Linden, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge, argued for inoculation against misinformation by training people to identify fake news through an online app, Bad News. The ultimate goal, said van der Linden, is to attain herd immunity and have a critical mass of people inoculated against misinformation to limit its spread.
