Daily Archives: March 5, 2021

Ori Cantwell 22 presented his research poster during the Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference on Feb. 13. Cantwells study found that liberals were more anxious than conservatives, partially explaining why liberals socially distanced more during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ori Cantwell 22

Do political views and anxiety play a functional role in combating COVID-19?

According to a recent study by Ori Cantwell 22, the answer is yes.

Cantwell, a psychology major, presented his recent study Yes We (Anxiously) Can: Liberal Ideology and Anxiety Predict Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic during the virtual 22nd Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, held Feb. 913.

We found that in a sample of over 10,000 American adults, anxiety partially mediated the relationship between liberal ideology and social distancing, Cantwell explained. Liberals were more anxious than conservatives, and people were most likely to want to social distance if they were more anxious.

Cantwell began working on this research in March 2020 with his advisor, Kostadin Kushlev of the Digital Health and Happiness Lab at Georgetown University. They were introduced through Assistant Professor of Psychology Alexis May 05.

We dont think that theres a plus side to anxiety disorders, but these findings suggest that anxiety could have played a role in how people adapted to the threat of COVID-19 by social distancing.

To create a social distancing index, Cantwell explored data collected by the Pew Research Center. Between March 19 and 24 more than 10,000 participants were asked, whether, during the pandemic, theyd be comfortable visiting a friend/family members house; eating out in a restaurant; attending a crowded party; going out to the grocery store; and going to a polling place to vote.

The average participant was comfortable doing 3.29 out of 5 activities, Cantwell noted.

In November 2020, Cantwell and Kushlev co-authored a pre-print titled Anxiety Talking: Does Anxiety Predict Sharing Information about COVID-19? This spring, theyll continue their research on the topics of misinformation, infodemics, political ideology, anxiety, and social distancing.

Cantwell also is a recipient of the Psychology Departments Feldman Family Fund grant, which supported his conference registration.

Read the original post:

Cantwell '22: Liberals Are Anxious About COVID-19 And They Social Distance More - Wesleyan Connection

The public interest, the pledge to governfor all of us, has collapsed. Morrison seems bored pretending sports rorts was a fair process, based on need. Margo Kingston

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins steel-eyed testimony around rape allegations saw spiders crawl from under rocks and spread in all directions last week.

As women from both sides of politics unfurled their fury at the profoundly, deliberately unsafe workplace for women in our House, the Prime Minister, whether you believe him or not, defined his leadership failure.

He said he found out about an alleged rape in a Cabinet Ministers office, not from the several ministers and personal staff who already knew, but by reading Samantha Maidens story.

There would be no consequences for anyone who kept him in a dark on the alleged crime down the hall from his office.

In the early 1990s, a daring womens recruitment campaign, led by moderate NSW Liberal Chris McDiven, asked interested women to give her a call.

It saw female Liberal MP numbers treble at the 1996 election.

I wrote at the time, The new government could for the first time, put more than one token woman in Cabinet.

Howard chose two, and his womens minister, Jocelyn Newman, predicted the influx would raise the tone.

People on the outside badly wanted a better behaved parliament.

But when Tony Abbott returned the Coalition to power 17 years later, he appointed one woman to Cabinet, and called himself womens minister.

Howard and Abbott presided over the near collapse of the Partys liberal wing, which was the outcome of hard right hegemony. Women now comprise 23 per cent of federal Liberal MPs, compared to 47 per cent of Labor.

It was no surprise then that several female Liberal ministers and backbenchers decried bullying and intimidation from the boys when they supported Malcolm Turnbull in the 2018 leadership spill.

The big parties are now tiny tribes run by nasty, ugly numbers men, as the recent Sixty Minutes report in Victoria revealed.

Loyalty is to the tribe, not the voters. Parliament doesnt debate and finesse policy, because decisions have been made in backrooms. Politics is performance, spin, donor service.

The public interest, the pledge to govern for all of us, has collapsed. Morrison seems bored pretending sports rorts was a fair process, based on need.

No wonder the talent pool is narrow, insular and overstocked with the self-serving, corrupt narcissists and sociopaths. Can anyone seriously imagine women of substance answering a Liberal Party ad for candidates in 2021?

When Turnbull fell for the second time, trying to enact a solid climate change policy, his exit saw Wentworth independent Kerryn Phelps take his seat with a 19 per cent swing.

I was in the public gallery to see Morrison lead a Coalition MP walkout when she stood to give her maiden speech. It was a contemptuous trashing of the civilised Parliamentary full house tradition.

At the last election, Phelps nearly held on, despite Labor being favourite to win the election, and Warringah, the blue ribbon seat the other side of Sydney Harbour, tossed Abbott for Zali Steggall, with another 19 per cent swing, again through a vibrant community alliance of blue, red and green voters.

In 2013, the only bright spot for Labor was Cathy McGowan, a rural feminist, and founder of Women in Agriculture.

She beat Sophie Mirabella in the safe Liberal seat of Indi on the back of a wildly innovative community campaign.

When I spoke to Cathy the day after the 2013 election, she eschewed any suggestion her win had national implications. Its all local, I have to stick to my knitting, she insisted.

Things changed after she helped her successor, Helen Haines, become the first independent to succeed as an independent in Indi (1,800 local volunteers!).

She wrote a folksy how-to-win-and-serve book called Cathy goes to Canberra, and last weekend hosted the first #gettingelected conference for community independents. It attracted Voices for groups, which are now popping up in safe Liberal city seats, and several regional and rural seats.

Women dominated the event organisers, facilitators, speakers, participants. Many knew nothing about the practicalities of politics.

It was, as Cathy said, a gathering, a wide-eyed, excited, naive, supremely hopeful launch of a movement, full of be your best self and never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.

Community before candidate, values before votes, principles before policies, that sort of thing.

It has to be, because for an independent woman to win, she must come second on first preferences and harvest the preferences of the other candidates. That means some Liberal, Labor and Greens voters must vote 1 for her, and that means she must find enough common ground to embody the electorate.

The 300 people at Cathys conference last weekend want to seriously, positively disrupt our politics.

They want to attract a class act to represent them, someone they trust to serve their needs, and act in what they believe to be the public interest. Someone who will always vote for her conscience and be accountable to them, directly. No middle man.

My take is that an emerging community independents movement is, in essence, a response to the collapse of the Liberal wing of the Liberal Party.

It was once progressive Andrew Peacock as leader took Australias first emissions trading scheme to the electorate at the 1990 election.

Yet its getting organised, folks. Independents CAN is a new political party that will endorse Voices for independents to give them the benefits of a party without having to join it. Things like tax deductible donations, access to the electoral roll, and insurance.

Founder Oliver Yates, a former Liberal Party member who stood against Josh Frydenberg as a climate change independent last election, told me were trying to create an Uber service to help independents get to Parliament, to remove their competitive disadvantage against the Parties.

PS: To follow the Voices groups popping up around Australia, follow @VoicesforAU on Twitter.

See the rest here:

Rapey Liberal culture is their undoing The Echo - Echonetdaily

Time is running out for the Western Australian Liberal Party. Polling points to a massive Labor landslide at the upcoming state election on March 13.

Following last months Newspoll, which put Labor in front by 68-32, two-party-preferred, Liberal opposition leader Zak Kirkup abandoned any public pretence he might actually win the election.

I accept its not my time, he told The West Australian newspaper last week.

While not entirely unprecedented (then Labor leader Geoff Gallop said the Court government would be returned comfortably three days before the 1996 WA election), it is nonetheless an extraordinary admission from Kirkup. It departs from established practice where political leaders try to preserve hope amongst their faithful, even in the face of extreme adversity.

Some voters may applaud Kirkup who only took up the Liberal leadership last November for his honesty. This was certainly the editorial view of The West Australian. It is also a definitive way of capturing the underdog status going into election day and emphasising the importance of checks and balances in our political system, while highlighting the importance of the upper house race as well.

But there are significant risks to this approach. One is that voters may feel its disrespectful to the vast majority of people who are yet to vote. Another is, why would voters take any notice of Liberal party policy announcements, if they wont be in government to deliver on any of them?

Under the circumstances, the Liberal Party could be forgiven for pitching their policy settings firmly towards their own base. Curiously, their one signature policy involves shutting WAs coal-fired power plants by 2025, backing in renewable energy generation, and achieving net zero carbon emissions in the state electricity system by 2030.

It has certainly attracted the ire of federal colleagues, with Liberal MP Andrew Hastie describing it as a lemon. For their part, the McGowan government has borrowed lines from the federal Coalitions playbook, arguing the policy would see,

many, many billions of extra debt, a huge increase in family power bills, rolling blackouts across the state and huge job losses.

While the headline result of the election looks like a foregone conclusion, there are plenty of reasons for the Liberals to continue to fight hard for every vote.

The first is to try to stop Labor from winning control of the Legislative Council (upper house). While the Coalition almost always win control of the upper house when in government in WA, this is extremely rare for Labor.

A Labor majority (or a Labor-Greens majority) could pave the way for electoral reform to remove undemocratic malapportionment in WA. In the upper house, one regional six-member electorate has fewer than 70,000 voters, while three six-member metropolitan ones have more than 400,000 each.

Read more: Whopping lead for Labor ahead of WA election, but federal Newspoll deadlocked at 50-50

However, this malapportionment is so extreme, it means even a Labor landslide doesnt guarantee an upper house majority in its own right. The Labor party currently has just 14 seats in the 36 seat chamber, despite winning 41 of the 59 seats in the lower house in 2017.

To win 19 seats they need to pick up additional seats in five of the six upper house regions. They already hold three seats in both the east metropolitan and south metropolitan regions and the quota for four is a whopping 57.14% of the primary vote. This provides us with some sense of magnitude of the victory required to achieve a basic majority.

A second critical reason for the Liberal party to chase every vote is to avoid a wipe out that is so bad it makes them ineffective as an opposition.

The Liberal Party currently has just 13 seats in the 59 seat Legislative Assembly, which is the legacy of a very poor performance at the last election. While they look very likely to sink further, they would be desperate to avoid the most catastrophic outcome a return of fewer seats in the lower house than the Nationals and the loss of official opposition status.

There is also the possibility their numbers could be so low as to deny them the resources normally allotted to parliamentary leaders and whips as set out by the Salaries and Allowances Act.

This means they would have very few staff and minimal funds to hold the government to account. It also means their capacity to probe during question time and ask useful Questions on Notice would be limited. They would also have a very thin presence on parliamentary committees.

There is also a third, compelling reason for Kirkup and the Liberals to avoid electoral oblivion.

While the modern electorate is a volatile one, if they win just a handful of seats in 2021, the task of winning in 2025 would also become much more difficult the Liberals may face at least three terms in opposition.

Read more: Labor wins WA in a landslide as One Nation fails to land a blow

An electoral wipe-out could ruin the careers of future leadership aspirants and ensure that the next Liberal premier is yet to enter parliament.

Original post:

The Liberals face electoral wipeout in WA, but have 3 good reasons to keep campaigning - The Conversation AU

OTTAWA The federal Liberals are setting aside some of the billions of dollars planned in short-term transit spending to help municipalities further green their bus fleets.

The hope is that the $2.75 billion in traditional grant money will dovetail with the $1.5 billion an infrastructure-financing agency is supposed to invest toward the same cause.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna says the grant money is supposed to help cover the upfront cost of purchasing electric buses to replace the diesel-powered ones rumbling through Canadian streets.

She says federal funding has helped cities buy 300 buses and the government hopes the funding will help them add 5,000 zero-emission buses over the next five years.

But she acknowledged there are added costs that need to be addressed, including having charging stations on transit routes and in existing depots.

The Liberals are hoping cities then turn to the Canada Infrastructure Bank to finance the cost of the remaining work.

The bank's chief executive, Ehren Cory, says the energy savings expected from not having to buy diesel could, for instance, be used to pay off a low-interest loan from his agency.

"It's quite a from-the-ground-up reinvestment and the savings will pay for a lot of that, but not for all of it," he said, via video link.

"That's why the combination of a grant from the government, a subsidy, combined with a loan against savings together will allow us to get the most done, allow us to make wholesale change quickly and do so at minimal impact to taxpayers."

Garth Frizzell, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, welcomed the funding as a way to speed up work in cities to replace diesel buses.

"We are already putting more electric vehicles on our streets, and this major funding to electrify transit systems across the country will reduce GHG emissions, boost local economies, and help meet Canadas climate goals," he said in a statement.

McKenna made the same connections multiple times during an event Thursday in Ottawa, where she stood near the city's mayor, Jim Watson, with Cory and Industry Minister Franois-Philippe Champagne joining by videoconference.

Joanna Kyriazis, senior policy adviser at Clean Energy Canada, noted that the investments could help the country's six electric-bus manufacturers scale up to compete internationally.

"As Canada develops its battery supply chain from raw metal and mineral resources to our North America-leading battery recycling companies we must build the market for electric vehicles and their batteries at home," she said in a statement.

The Liberals are promising billions in permanent transit funding as part of a post-pandemic recovery, including $3 billion annually in a transit fund starting in five years.

Cities have seen transit ridership plummet through the pandemic as chunks of the labour force work remotely. Demand for single-family homes well outside urban cores suggests some workers are expecting remote work to become a more regular fixture of their post-pandemic work lives.

McKenna said her thinking about public transit hasn't been changed by that shift, saying her only thought is that Canada needs more and better systems. It's up to cities and transit agencies to set routes and priorities, she said.

"The reality is many of our essential workers have no other option than to take public transit. And I think we've recognized how important it is for people to be able to get around in a safe way," McKenna said.

Conservative infrastructure critic Andrew Scheer questioned whether the Liberals could follow through on the promise, adding that the infrastructure bank hasn't completed a project.

"The Trudeau Liberals keep announcing the same money but cannot get anything built," he said in a statement.

"You cant take a Liberal re-announcement to work. Electric or not, they just can't get the job done."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2021.

Continued here:

Liberals tap $2.75B of promised transit dollars for zero-emission buses - Kamloops This Week

The whole shemozzle brought out Police Commissioner Chris Dawson, who went on a mini-media blitz on Wednesday to try to distance the force from politicisation during an election.

He told 6PR about how regardless of who won the election he wanted to introduce a legislative reform package, through the minister for police and the attorney general, after March 13 to try to remove some of the red tape around stop-and-search laws for declared drug routes.

Im not saying we stop absolutely every vehicle, what Im saying is if we can refine the powers similar to what we do to protect the states biodiversity meth is actually just as, or even more destructive for our community, he said.

Mr Dawsons ultimate goal is to be able to carry on the same stop-and-search powers provided in an the current state of emergency beyond the pandemic at drug entry points to WA.

Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup, whose party came up with stop-and-search laws in 2009 which it wanted to employ in areas such as Northbridge and Fremantle, has continued to blast the Premier for trying to overreach despite the similarities to old Liberal policy.

Mr McGowan screwed up his nose at suggestions Labor was trying to enable stop-and-search and spun the Liberal messaging to accuse the opposition of not wanting to have more police to prevent drug trafficking.

The Premier also bypassed traditional media on Wednesday to take his own message to the masses on Facebook to talk about how his comments had been misrepresented.

When asked on Thursday if this misrepresentation was by traditional media, Mr McGowan pointed the finger at the opposition rather than news outlets.

Its the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party misrepresents, thats what they do, he said.

He further tried to explain his flip-flopping by stating he tries not to rule things in or out when Im asked questions at press conferences.

Loading

The Liberals are continuing to run with attack ads on the border issue to try to stop its base from voting Labor but theyll have to shout a bit louder.

The general trust in Mr McGowan does not appear to have faltered because unlike any of his predecessors he has the reach to share his thoughts directly with a massive chunk of WA.

Mr McGowans social media post about being misrepresented, which we were talking about a few paragraphs up, had the potential to be viewed by his now more than 361,000 followers on Facebook.

Those same followers have been lapping up the Premiers premium content with a combined 739,800 views for just three recent videos in late February.

That was the question WA Senator Michaelia Cash asked on Monday at the Liberal campaign launch as her opener to try and electrify the party faithful.

She got a pretty decent cheer from the more than 200-strong crowd.

Ask the same question five days later, however, and you wonder what WA Liberals state and federally will soon be left.

Labors online advertising spend keeps rising as votes continue to roll in over an unprecedented early voting period where West Australians have been able to go to the polls most days of the week.

On one hand Mr McGowan had $34,446 pumped through his Facebook page on positive ads where he features heavily in photos with a rotating gallery of candidates.

The Premiers party also spent $17,477 on attack ads from February 20 to 26 featuring Liberals and Clive Palmer.

Another block of ads in Riverton, Mount Lawley, and Bateman turn the oppositions own campaign language of asking punters to vote Liberal locally against them.

The ads, which feature opposition candidates next to Pauline Hanson, criticises local Liberals for preferencing racist One Nation over McGowan Labor.

Labor attack ads featuring Liberal candidates Matthew Woodall and Liza Harvey with Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer.Credit:Facebook

Meanwhile the Liberals, who were chirping on Monday about trying to win electorates seat by seat, are using the rhetoric of dont give Labor too much power which takes them back to white-flag language that lends itself to the Democrats kind of keep the buggers honest catch cry.

Labor is once again flipping the Liberal messaging by accusing the opposition of just wanting the power to block Mark McGowan.

There have also been attack ads from Labor targeting the Nationals over a $75,000 donation from Mr Palmers company Mineralogy to the party.

Only the money in question went to the organisations federal branch in 2019-20 rather than the state division.

The Nationals have been running their own variation of the Liberal total control message and have been doing so for months.

The regionally orientated party has been warning bush voters in its ads that Labor getting majority control would lead to one vote, one value a concept of providing equal voting weight between city and country seats being introduced to the upper house and less country representation as a result.

Mr McGowan has stated such a move is not on his agenda but the Greens remain open to the possibility.

Labor has made $250 million in promises since last Friday with its total commitments this election, not including recently announced initiatives already in the budget, close to $3 billion.

The impact on the budget over the next four years for these pledges is about $2.2 billion as of last week.

There wont be any more big pledges from Labor after Friday as it will make its last submission to the Treasury as part of the election costings process.

The Liberals meanwhile got a bit quiet with their biggest announcement of the week in Malaga for an $85 million expansion of the North Wanneroo horticulture precinct.

As a side note, the Liberal candidate for that area, Dave Nesbit, was nowhere in sight despite Mr Kirkup asking voters at the press conference to back their local Liberal.

Might have had something to do with Mr Nesbit promoting an unproved anti-parasite drug as a cure for COVID-19.

The total Liberal spend is uncertain as announcements are made through media releases but also the social media of individual candidates.

Labor claims the Liberals and Nationals would have a budget impact of $11 billion, but also say the total commitment from those two parties is closer to $16.5 billion.

Mr McGowans party is also running online ads saying the Liberals and Nationals have $26 billion of uncosted promises.

WAtoday has clocked the Liberal promises as being worth close to $6 billion but the party will finally release its costings on Wednesday or Thursday.

Peter de Kruijff is a journalist with WAtoday.

More here:

Mark McGowan misstep not the fly in the beer Liberals had hoped - WAtoday

BLAIR GABLE/ReutersPrime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the House of Commons in Ottawa on Feb. 24. Trudeau's minority Liberal government could be defeated by the opposition parties in a confidence vote, which would trigger an election.

OTTAWA A House of Commons committee is unanimously urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to promise he wont call a federal election while the COVID-19 pandemic rages across Canada.

In a report by the procedure and House affairs committee, even Liberal members supported a recommendation calling for a commitment that there will be no election during the pandemic, unless Trudeaus minority Liberal government is defeated on a confidence vote.

The committee makes no similar call for opposition parties to promise not to trigger an election during the pandemic by voting non-confidence in the government.

However, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has vowed his party wont vote to bring the government down as long as the country is in the grip of COVID-19.

That should be enough to ensure the survival of the minority Liberal government for the foreseeable future, unless Trudeau decides to trigger an election himself.

Trudeau has repeatedly insisted he has no interest in forcing an election but opposition parties remain suspicious.

Unfortunately, the Liberal government has already indicated their desire to recklessly send Canadians to the polls at whatever time they deem to be the most advantageous for the prime minister, the Conservatives say in a supplementary report to the committees report.

Indeed, the Conservatives assert, without explanation, that Trudeau has already tried to orchestrate his governments defeat.

They thank Liberal committee members for taking a stand against the whims of the prime minister, who has been eagerly pressing towards an election for the last few months.

At the same time, Conservatives appear to be pursuing a strategy that could give Trudeau justification for calling an election: Liberals accuse the Tories of systematically blocking the governments legislative agenda, including repeatedly delaying a bill authorizing billions in pandemic-related aid.

Theyve also blocked debate on a bill that would give Elections Canada special powers to conduct an election safely, if need be, during the pandemic.

Bill C-19 is the governments response to chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault, who has said special measures are urgent given that a minority government is inherently unstable and could theoretically fall at any time. However, some opposition MPs view the legislation as proof that the Liberals are planning to trigger an election.

In their own supplementary report, New Democrats argue that an election in the midst of the pandemic has the potential to undermine the health of our democracy. They point to the current delay in Newfoundland and Labradors election due to a COVID-19 outbreak as an example of the delays, confusion and unforeseen barriers in voting that could undermine Canadians confidence in the outcome of a federal election.

This raises the spectre of a government whose political legitimacy is openly challenged, the NDP committee members say, adding that could lead to the kind of crisis that provoked a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by supporters of former U.S. president Donald Trump.

Watch: Trudeau said he welcomes sorely missed U.S. leadership in his first meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden. Story continues below.

The Capitol riot, sparked by Trumps unfounded claims that mail-in ballots were fraudulent, appears to have been on the minds of opposition committee members when it comes to other recommendations for how to safely conduct an election, if necessary, during the pandemic.

Anticipating a massive increase in mail-in ballots, the chief electoral officer has, among other things, suggested that mail-in ballots received one day after the close of in-person polls should still be counted.

The Conservatives say the procedure and House affairs committee should have rejected that proposal, arguing that the election should end on Election Day and Canadians deserve to know the results without delay.

Bloc Quebecois committee members, in their supplementary report, similarly argue that extending the deadline for receipt of mail-in ballots would delay the election results, which would fuel voter suspicion and undermine confidence in the electoral system, which is obviously undesirable.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2021.

Continue reading here:

Even Liberals Are Urging Trudeau To Rule Out Calling Pandemic Election - HuffPost Canada

Maryam Kouchaki, an associate professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, thought there might be another important dimension to the gender leadership gap: women receive less encouragement to apply for senior positions than men do.

Pre-recruitmentthe early phase of a job search, when other employees, recruiters, and human-resources staff identify qualified contacts and encourage them to applyis an increasingly important and common aspect of the hiring process. One survey found that 82 percent of U.S. organizations use social-media platforms such as LinkedIn to contact potential candidates.

When it comes to discrimination and sexism in the workplace, a lot of the research has focused on issues like raises and promotions, which are very important, Kouchaki says. But when you think of the broader issue of underrepresentation, while there are probably many mechanisms at play, we felt like pre-recruitment was crucial in terms of whether women would get excited about a position.

Kouchaki wanted to understand whether recruiters framed positions differently depending on the gender of the prospective candidates. In particular, she was interested in how political ideology might influence pre-recruitment communications.

She and her coauthors focused on political ideology in part because of how that can impact peoples preference for maintaining the status quo. Political conservativism, research shows, strongly predicts a persons preference for the status quowhich, in many organizations, doesnt include women in leadership roles.

For that reason, Kouchaki and her coauthorsBurak Oc of Melbourne Business School and Ekaterina Netchaeva of Bocconi Universitysuspected that conservatives might be less encouraging to prospective female candidates.

And indeed, thats what they found: while conservative recruiters dont actively discourage women from applying, they offer less encouragement to women than to men during the early stage of filling senior positions.

To Kouchaki, the research shows that bias doesnt always manifest as obvious hostility or mistreatment. Subtle discouragement can result in the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, she says.

Happily, the researchers also discovered that it wasnt hard to overcome the encouragement gap between liberals and conservatives: simply reminding people that women leaders can have a positive effect on an organization was enough to eliminate the disparity in how conservatives treated female and males candidates.

Kouchaki and her coauthors started their investigation by recruiting a group of 222 working adults in the United States.

Participants were asked to imagine themselves as hiring managers browsing LinkedIn to recruit candidates for a senior leadership position. They had come across a promising prospect with strong qualifications and relevant experience: either David Thompson (for half of the participants) or Sarah Thompson (for the other half).

Next, participants were given a list of eight facts about the position to use in an initial email to either David or Sarahhalf positive attributes (e.g., good pay, friendly colleagues) and half negative (e.g., no flexible working hours, skimpy benefits). Participants indicated which of these they would include in an introductory message. They also indicated from one to five how likely they would be to immediately send the email and the probability they would continue searching for other candidates.

Finally, participants answered demographic questions, including questions about their political beliefs and endorsement of traditional gender roles.

The researchers discovered that political ideology didnt have any effect on how likely participants were to contact David or Sarah or their desire to continue searching for other candidates. But it did change the content of those introductory messages: conservative participants, they found, used fewer positive facts about the position when writing to Sarah as opposed to David. Political leaning didnt affect participants use of negative facts, however.

Conservative participants, on average, are not more likely than liberal ones to push more negative information. Theyre just not selling the position to female candidates, Kouchaki explains. That was interesting for usits not a case of hostility; its that you are less inclined to be positive.

The first study showed the researchers that political ideology does influence how decision-makers treat men and women during the pre-recruitment phase of a job search. But it didnt explain whyconservative recruiters treat female candidates differently.

Kouchaki and her coauthors suspected that anxiety about change may have played a role. Conservative political beliefs are characterized by a desire to maintain the current social orderan order that in many cases doesnt include women in leadership positions. And when faced with such a threat, the dominant emotional response is anxiety.

Anxiety here is a reaction to the threat women pose to their status or what they think is the right way to do things, Kouchaki says.

To test this theory, the researchers repeated the first experiment with a larger group of participants and a few tweaks: this time, they asked participants to rank on a one-to-seven scale how anxious they felt at the prospect of interacting with David or Sarah. In addition, participants actually wrote an introductory email, rather than simply indicating which positive and negative facts about the position they would include in one.

The researchers used specialized software to analyze these emails for positive-emotion words; for authenticity (the use of words and expressions associated with uncensored thought); and for personal pronouns (I rather than ita sign of more personal and friendly communication).

As in the first study, political ideology predicted the content of participants emails: when writing to Sarah as opposed to David, more conservative participants used fewer positive-emotion words, less authentic phrasing, and more impersonal pronouns. In other words, the emails werent just less positive; they were also less open and friendly.

Whats more, conservative participants also expressed greater anxiety about interacting with Sarah as compared with Davida feeling that statistically predicted their tendency to write less personal emails.

Having established this subtle bias on the part of conservative hiring managers, the researchers wondered if anything could be done to counter it. They ran one final study to find out.

Once again, they repeated the basic design of the first study with new participants. This time, however, instead of only assigning participants to the David or Sarah group, they added a third option. This group was told they had found a promising candidate named Sarahand were given information about the positive organizational effects of having women in leadership roles.

This information, Kouchaki says, was designed to legitimize and normalize the idea of hiring womensomething they suspected might particularly help conservatives, who feel anxious about social change.

As in the first study, participants indicated which facts about the position they would include in an introductory message. But this time, the researchers weighted each of those facts on the theory that some positives and negatives are more important than others. (After all, good pay is typically more important to job seekers than friendly colleagues, although both are desirable.) They used the quantity and weight of the positive descriptors participants selected to calculate a positivity score for each participants proposed message.

Once again, conservative participants wrote more positive messages to David than to Sarahbut this pattern disappeared among participants in the third group, who learned both about Sarahs professional qualifications and about the importance of hiring women into senior positions.

This final study showed that even small measures can help reduce gender bias.

A simple reminder that hiring women can have organizational benefits was all it took to overcome the encouragement gapa message companies can reinforce during trainings for hiring managers. The power of this small intervention is a sign that legitimizing the presence of women and minority groups in companies is really important, Kouchaki says.

Companies can also use technology to ensure they arent discouraging women from applying, Kouchaki notes. One technology startup saw its number of female employees increase by 30 percent after implementing a text-analysis tool that checks for biased language in job descriptions.

Together, these kinds of interventions can help employees become more mindful about all the interactions they have at work, Kouchaki says: Changing peoples mindsets and attitudes in these more formal ways could have a spillover effect even when it comes to personal interactions.

Original post:

Conservatives and Liberals Differ in How Aggressively They Recruit Women for Leadership Roles - Kellogg Insight

Over the past several hundred years, one moral and political philosophy has left a greater mark on the world than any other. Often opposed by other ideologies, it has defeated all those which sought to banish it to the dustbin of history. This philosophy is known as liberalism and continues to have a tremendous influence on modern life.

Somehow, despite its prevalence, a surprising number of people couldn't begin to explain what the philosophy they ostensibly support is or what the arguments in support of it are. To correct this, let's take a look at the philosophy and the ideas and arguments of some of its founders.

Before we begin, I should say that today we are focusing on classical liberalism; it differs from the term "liberalism" as Americans tend to use it and has some significant points of disagreement with its modern decedent. What those are and why they exist are the subject for another time.

Liberalism begins with the assumption that people are or should be free and that restrictions on their liberty must be justified. Liberal thinkers debate the proper role of the state and often agree that it is a limited one which would result in very few restrictions beyond those needed to secure the rights of everybody living under its jurisdiction. When this was first proposed, during an era of absolute monarchy and nearly unchecked power of institutions over individuals, it was a radical claim.

For classical liberals, "liberty" usually means what might be called "negative liberty" today. These liberties are "negative" in the sense that they can be seen as "freedoms from interference." This contrasts with "positive" liberties, which are "freedoms to do" or the capacities to accomplish something. Classical liberalism is very concerned with the right of people to be left alone to live their own lives.

This means a liberal society will let people decide things like their own religion, their idea of what constitutes a good life, and what organizations they want to be a part of, among other things. Importantly, since cohesion is not applied in these areas of choice, people are free to join a church or civic group when it suits them and leave when it suits them and face no government reprisals for it. Liberal theorists typically advocate for tolerance of others to assure that these freedoms of choice are applied to everyone.

Classical liberals also tended to argue that the economy, or some version of it, existed before or independently of the state. As a result, they maintain that the right to private property is natural and should be fairly unlimited. For some thinkers, this also ties into ideas of independence from external authority, as a person with enough property to be more or less financially self-sufficient would be able to tend to themselves and select when to engage with institutions that could help them but might infringe on their rights.

Let's take a closer look at three of the more prominent classical liberal philosophers, what they thought, and why they thought it.

Considered the Father of Liberalism, John Locke wrote two treatises on government attacking absolute monarchy and supporting a more limited view of government. While his conception of liberalism is explicitly based on a theology many people would dispute, his reasoning has been applied in secular conditions to great success.

Like many other thinkers at the time, Locke turned to an idea of what life was like before the existence of governments, known as the state of nature, to make his arguments. For Locke, people in the state of nature were free within the boundaries of "natural law" and generally get along. However, in this condition, there is nobody to turn to if somebody else violates your rights, like if they steal from you, and no neutral arbitrator to turn to if you and somebody else have a dispute.

Locke argues that these issues eventually drive people to want to create a state to protect people's rights by enforcing natural law and acting as a neutral arbitrator when people have disputes.

The state he envisions people would create in this situation is a minimal one that focuses almost exclusively on protecting people's natural rights of "life, liberty, and property." It does not try to determine how people live their lives within the confines of natural law. It tolerates various religions and worldviews- since to promote one above all others would go beyond its prerogatives. It cannot operate in ways contrary to the rule of law, features a representative legislature with majority rule, the separation of powers, and is founded by people explicitly consenting to be governed this way.

His defense of private property is noteworthy. He argues that some variation of the economy exists in the state of nature and that nobody would willingly create a state if it were going to take away their property.

However, he holds that property can only be held if it will be used before it spoils, was acquired by the labor of the person who owns it, and if after acquiring it there is still enough of the resources it is made of left in the commons for the next person. What limits these principles place on a person going into Sherwood Forest in 1690 to cut down a tree to make lumber with and a person trying to start a business today is still debated.

A German philosopher, Kant is widely considered one of the most influential thinkers of all time. He worked in every area of philosophy there was to work in, political philosophy among them.

Kant based his liberalism on the idea of freedom from other people's choices and universal rationality. He maintains that all people have a fundamental dignity as rational and moral beings. This both obligates us to act accordingly and to respect the dignity of others. From this starting point, he argues that the state should exist to assure that individuals enjoy "Freedom, insofar as it can coexist with the freedom of every other in accordance with a universal law."

This freedom is limited by what is consistent with reason but is wide-ranging; a large number of liberties are required for a rational, autonomous person to be able to utilize those capacities. These liberties include the freedom of speech, religion, and the right to pursue happiness in any way a person wants to, so long as it is consistent with everybody else being able to do the same. Anything less than this conflicts with a person's moral autonomy and borders on treating them as a child.

He further argues that no state should make a law that "a whole people could not possibly give its consent to." That means things like laws granting privileges to one group of people and not others would be prohibited, as no rational group would sign a contract giving them the short end of the stick. It allows for other things, such as a generally applied tax of debatable value, as a rational person could consent to such a thing if the arguments for it were sound.

While he thought that an elected representative government was the best option for providing these protections, but didn't rule out other models. He also strongly asserted the necessity of constitutional governance.

While most interpretations of Kant maintain that his idea of freedom is "negative," there is some ambiguity in his writings which led some commentators to suggest he is open to ideas of positive liberty as well. Given his reliance on and admiration for some of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas, this idea is not absurd, though it is difficult to prove.

While better known as an economist, Adam Smith was also a philosopher who considered the problems of society as a whole. Between how important his economics are to classical liberalism and the nuanced approach of his political philosophy, Smith remains an essential figure in the liberal tradition.

Unlike some of the other thinkers we're looking at, Smith thought it was a legitimate goal of government to help the poor and promoting the virtue of society. He went so far as to say:

"...[the] civil magistrate is entrusted with the power not only of restraining injustice, but of promoting the prosperity of the commonwealth, by establishing good discipline, and by discouraging every sort of vice and impropriety; he may prescribe rules, therefore, which not only prohibit mutual injuries among fellow-citizens, but command mutual good offices to a certain degree."

However, this isn't a call for a moralizing government. It is a call for the government to do less than it was at the time.

As he thought with economics, Smith thought society would work best when people were generally left alone to handle things themselves. He argues that people can only develop virtue on their own; if they are only doing it because the government is telling them to do so, they aren't actually virtuous. Additionally, he didn't think that politicians would be very good at promoting virtue or prosperity, suggesting that they can handle issues like defense and criminal justice while leaving other tasks to individuals with better knowledge of the conditions on the ground than far off bureaucrats.

His economics, based on the idea that markets often provide the best possible outcomes when left alone, became the basis for the classical liberal stance on capitalism. While he wasn't quite as opposed to government intervention as many people think, his arguments in favor of fewer restrictions on business meshed well with other liberal ideas on property and freedom.

This overall approach is important in how it differs from our two other thinkers. While Locke and Kant both appeal to natural rights or individual autonomy to support their ideas on liberty, Smith leans on arguments showing how a society that values liberty will be a better place to live in than one that does not, in addition to it being morally defensible.

While few people will want to base their freedom on the idea that it is expedient, the appeal to tangible benefits has proven to be one of the more convincing arguments for liberty.

Many philosophers, arguably starting with John Stuart Mill, continued to work within the liberal tradition but considered the new problems of industrial society, market failures, and what happens when there is no longer a "nature" to take resources from like there was in 1690. Their work, combined with critiques of liberalism from other ideologies, notably socialism and conservatism, led to an evolution of liberal philosophy into the modern version we see today.

Despite some elements of liberal thought dating back to ancient times, the political philosophy of classical liberalism, which changed the world by elevating the rights of man and continues to influence our thinking even as we move past it, is surprisingly young. It achieved a lot in its few hundred years of existence, and its arguments for liberty, equality, democracy, and the right to get on with our lives and business continue to resonate today.

While most people may not be classical liberals anymore, taking time to consider the philosophy is an exercise that we can all benefit from.

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

Read the original post:

Classical liberalism and three of its founders: explained - Big Think

NSW Liberal MP John Sidoti has joined the crossbench after the state's corruption watchdog announced it would hold a public inquiry into his property dealings.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will probe allegations Mr Sidoti improperly used his influence to advance developments around Five Dock, in Sydney's inner-west, between 2011 and 2018.

Mr Sidoti the Member for Drummoyne stood aside as NSW sports minister in September 2019, after ICAC began investigating his property investments.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Sidoti announced he would "remove himself from the Liberal Party Room" while the investigation was underway.

In a statement, he said he has "always acted with integrity and honour" and "absolutely rejects" the allegations raised against him.

"However, I am concerned that my presence in the Liberal Party Room may be used as a distraction by the media and my political opponents," he said.

"For that reason I have decided to voluntarily remove myself from the Liberal Party Room, and sit on the crossbench, for the duration of the ICAC investigation and I look forward to returning to it after my name has been cleared."

AAP: Joel Carrett

Earlier today, in light of the ICAC announcement, Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed Mr Sidoti had officially resigned from the ministry.

He was referred to ICAC by Greens MP David Shoebridge, just hours after Ms Berejiklian announced a separate review into Mr Sidoti's alleged dealings.

Speaking at a media conference today, Ms Berejiklian said she had limited information about the public inquiry.

"I spoke to him briefly [this morning], he offered his resignation from the ministry, which I accepted and on that basis I will be appointing a new minister in the near future," she said.

The two probes were sparked after Mr Sidoti fronted a fiery budget estimates hearing, where he was grilled over his investments and denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement, ICAC said its public hearings would focus on whether Mr Sidoti improperly influenced others to:

The properties are opposite a site designated by the NSW government for a metro station due to be completed in the next decade.

ICAC is also investigating allegations Mr Sidoti failed to disclose several business and personal financial interests between 2011 and 2019.

Chief Commissioner Peter Hall QC will preside at the public inquiry, and barrister Rob Rankin will be counsel assisting.

At the time he stood down as sports minister, Mr Sidoti said: "The allegations made against me by the media, and exacerbated by the Opposition and the crossbench in budget estimates and Parliament, are false and inaccurate."

"I deny any allegations of wrongdoing. I have no undeclared conflicts of interest or benefits."

Ms Berejiklian said Geoff Lee would continue to serve as Acting Sports Minister until she had determined a replacement.

When the ABC contacted Mr Sidoti's electorate office for comment today, staff said they had not yet been told about the public hearings.

The public hearing will begin on March 29 and is expected to last four weeks.

Read more from the original source:

NSW MP John Sidoti leaves Liberal Party to sit on crossbench after ICAC announce inquiry into his property dealings - ABC News

There was a rare display of non-partisan agreement at the B.C. legislature Thursday as debate began on bringing municipal election finance rules into line with provincial restrictions on fundraising and campaigns.

Municipal Affairs Minister Josie Osborne, who was mayor of Tofino until the October election, said the changes are mainly based on 2018 recommendations of B.C.s Chief Electoral Officer. They include extending the official campaign period for local elections from 29 to 89 days, restricting third-party donations and preventing local political slates from accepting money for operating expenses between elections.

This new framework will result in elector organizations being treated more like provincial political parties under the Election Act, but continues to accommodate the elements that make local elections unique from provincial elections, Osborne told the legislature March 4. Changes to the rules governing election advertising will enhance the transparency of advertising by making it clear who is sponsoring advertising during the pre-campaign period.

The types of activities that are captured as election advertising will be clarified. This will ensure that paid canvassing activities, such as door-to-door canvassing or canvassing by telephone and mailing election materials on a commercial basis, will be subject to election advertising rules.

RELATED: B.C. political parties reap millions from subsidies

RELATED: Horgan vows to stop local corporate, union donations

B.C. Liberal MLA Dan Ashton, a former mayor of Penticton, said he expects his fellow opposition members to support the legislation after detailed discussion. He said the inclusion of paid canvassers as a registered advertising expense and the a $1,200 cap for third parties donating are overdue reforms. He expects more debate on a change that allows campaigning politicians and canvassers into strata condo units.

It provides Elections B.C. with additional penalties to fine people who do not comply with the rules and the process, and it also removes the 30-day local residency requirement in order to vote, as that has pros and cons, Ashton said.

It allows access for strata properties and other properties for canvassing. I look upon my peers that are from the Lower Mainland and look at all those large towers inhabited by residents and wonder how they have the opportunity to be able to show those residents what they want to do for them. Thats a difficult process, and I hope that that also comes into consideration in the future.

Jinny Sims, NDP MLA for Surrey Panorama, welcomed new restrictions on pseudo-parties that operate as electoral organizations in civic elections. Osborne noted that election slates or municipal parties are mainly a Lower Mainland phenomenon now, but with technology and advertising changing quickly, the province needs to be ready to regulate elections for councils, school boards and regional districts.

@tomfletcherbctfletcher@blackpress.caLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

BC legislatureBC politics

View original post here:

BC Liberals, NDP sing in harmony on local election reforms Coast Mountain News - Coast Mountain News