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'Shake it Off' - Do Grammy-Winning Pop Artists Take More Creative Risks Than Their Runners-Up?

Taylor Swift has had a career marked by an evolution in sound and style. Swift emerged into the industry a country star and was later rebranded a pop icon. She’s gone on to explore alternative rock and indie folk sounds. Research by Giacomo Negro, professor of Organization & Management and professor of Sociology (by courtesy), suggests Grammy award wins may be credited as the catalyst for these changes. Swift, who holds 11 Grammy awards, won her first in 2010, taking home Album of the Year for country album “Fearless,” then again for her first exclusively pop album “1989” and again in 2021 for her indie folk album “Folklore.” Each time she earned another Grammy, she tried something new. Swift is not the only one. After winning Album of the Year in 1988 for classic arena rock album “The Joshua Tree,” U2 released “Achtung Baby,” an album that dabbled with kraut rock and electronic music. Similarly, Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” won them Album of the Year in 1978, after which, they released their double album “Tusk,” an experimental record that incorporated punk-rock. Does Missing out on a Grammy Win Make Artists Timid? Negro’s research shows Grammy award winners tend to release albums that are more distinct from the work of other artists, whereas Grammy nominees who do not win create music that is more similar to other artists than they had prior to their nomination. Negro co-authored the research with Balázs Kovács from Yale University and Glenn Carroll from Stanford University–a culmination of more than five years of work. Negro says he has always been interested in cultural production, and he set out to study the patterns of differentiation in the music market. He chose the Grammys because these symbolic awards provide a situation similar to a natural experiment that is hard to find in real life or without a controlled environment. The Grammys are also unique because they share the names of both the award winners and the nominees, presenting a comparison among candidates of similar quality. To explore this question, Negro obtained data from four main sources: Grammy Awards Academy, online music database AllMusic, Spotify, and Billboard. From the academy information, he collected data for the Grammy nominated artists and winners from 1959 to 2018 in four “general” categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year,and Best New Artist. From AllMusic, they collected data based on the Grammy information that included artist name, recording name, year of release, record labels the artists released the music with, the production team they worked with, and the stylistic tags attached to each recording. Spotify holds a repository of popular songs; from here, they sourced data on the songs’ sonic features, which are the objective parameters of the music that qualify how the music sounds and is measured by algorithms, including tempo, genre, and key. Looking at the Billboard charts for the 2000s, they found the most albums that sold the most copies. “We combined all of this information coming from different sources, which was a challenge and an endeavor by itself, to attach information related to styles, sonic features, performance on the chart, and performance with the awards,” Negro says. They compared albums of Grammy winners with the albums of the nominees, then compared these with albums from a group of artists in the general market matched on a series of characteristics (such as genre and length of recording career). The researchers found that after artists win a Grammy, they become more experimental with their work, whereas the runners-up make music that is stylistically more conventional. This latter result was unexpected. Negro argues that there is value to be seen in the Grammys–even though it may be criticized for being too commercial or questioned for its relevance–because it has an impact on the music market and the careers of artists who are nominated and awarded. “These prizes celebrate creativity and innovation but may have unintended consequences in terms of their artists’ behavior,” he adds. “If more people become more conventional because of not receiving an award, one implication for cultural production is that awards have mixed impact. They benefit winners because they afford them more autonomy and, perhaps, confidence to explore new ideas, but they don’t necessarily benefit innovation in the field overall because more artists are just becoming more conventional.” He offers that, conversely, there may be a positive impact for artists who were not nominated at all. These artists may try to imitate the winners and try different things in the future. From this, it is clear that there is a benefit to mention who wins an award, but he says it is inconclusive whether there is a benefit to sharing the names of shortlisted candidates. What are the Greater Cultural Implications? “It’s interesting to observe how cultural production is sensitive to symbolic awards,” Negro says. “We tend to think that artists mainly follow their muse or their inspiration, but they respond to the stimuli around them.” Negro speculates that the results found in this study might apply to other industries in which producers or artists can combine different elements of styles to create their products, such as book publishing, visual arts, film, or television. He adds, these results may apply more generally to other markets and professional settings, in which employers create programs of rewards for employees. A bestowal of such awards may empower winners to continue with their behaviors, while discouraging those who were not recognized for their efforts, leading them to return to more typical behaviors. Negro is interested in following up this research by looking at the general impact of all Grammy Awards–not just the general ones–to see if specialized awards have a similar impact. He is also curious to investigate the patterns of collaboration between artists, and if stylistic changes are related to changes in the people artists work with. When Business Meets Research, What Can Students Take Away? Negro says this research also yielded findings that his team did not expect, as in the difference between winners and non-winning nominees. Where they thought they may see similarities, they, instead, saw differences, reiterating the importance of questioning how industries operate. To inquisitive students he advises, “Keep your eyes open and be curious about understanding why or how things work the way they do. Then, be persistent because it can take a long time to bring your idea to fruition.” Interested in knowing more or connecting with Giacomo Negro - simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview or time today.

UC Irvine expert on metacognition: Megan Peters

How do our brains take in complex information from the world around us to help us make decisions? And what happens when there’s a mismatch between how well your brain thinks it’s performing this function and how well it’s actually doing? UC Irvine cognitive scientist Megan Peters takes a deep dive into metacognition - our ability to monitor our own cognitive processing. To reach Prof. Peters, contact Heather Ashbach at hashbach@uci.edu or 949-284-1577. “Our brains are fantastically powerful information processing systems. They take in information from the world around us through our eyes, ears, and other senses, and they process or transform that sensory information into rich internal representations — representations that we can then use to make useful decisions, to navigate effectively without running into things, and ultimately, to stay alive. And interestingly, our brains also can tell us when they’re doing a good job with all this processing, through a process called metacognition, or our ability to monitor our own cognitive processing. My name is Megan Peters, and I’m an associate professor in the department of Cognitive Sciences at UC Irvine. I’m also a Fellow in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Brain, Mind, & Consciousness program and I am president and chair of the board at Neuromatch. My research seeks to understand metacognition — how it works in the brain, and how it works at a computational or algorithm level — and it also seeks to understand what this metacognitive processing might have to do with the conscious experiences we have of our environments, of each other, and of ourselves. So in our research group, we use a combination of behavioral experiments with humans, brain imaging (like MRI scans), and computational approaches like mathematical modeling and machine learning or Artificial Intelligence, to try to unravel these mysteries. I think my favorite overall line of research right now has to do with cases where our brains’ self-monitoring sometimes seems to go wrong. So what I mean is, sometimes your brain “metacognitively” computes how well it thinks you’re doing at this “sensory information processing” task, but this ends up being completely different from how well you’re actually doing. Imagine it this way: you’re driving down a foggy road, at night in the dark. You probably can’t see very well, and you’d hope that your brain would also be able to tell you, “I can’t see super well right now, I should probably slow down.” And most of the time, your brain does this self-monitoring correctly, and you do slow down. But sometimes, under some kinds of conditions or visual information, your brain miscalculates, and it erroneously tells you, “Actually you can see just fine right now!” So this is a sort of “metacognitive illusion”: your brain is telling you “you’re doing great, you can see very clearly!” when in reality, the quality of the information that it’s receiving, and the processing it’s doing, is really poor, really bad — in essence, that means that you can feel totally confident in your abilities to accurately process the world around you, when in fact you’re interpreting the world totally incorrectly. Now normally, in everyday life, this doesn’t happen of course. But we can create conditions in the lab where this happens very robustly, which helps us understand when and how it might happen in the real world, too, and what the consequences might be. So this is fascinating both because it is a powerful tool for studying how your brain constructs that metacognitive feeling of confidence, and also because — in theory — it means that your subjective, conscious feeling of confidence might be doing something really different than just automatically or directly reading out how reliably you brain is processing information. And that could eventually provide a better way to investigate how our so-called phenomenological or conscious experiences can arise from activity patterns in your brain at all.” To reach Prof. Peters, contact Heather Ashbach at hashbach@uci.edu or 949-284-1577.

It's a fabulous fall - and our expert can explain why all those colors come out this time of year

Autumn has arrived.  And as we all take time to welcome this wonderous palette that nature delivers year after year, those who are curious about all those colors are looking for answers. Why there are so many different shades, tints, and tones? What causes the colors to change? And where's the best place to find one of nature's finest displays of leaves? It's a topic that comes up every year, and recently Connecticut Public Radio connected with UConn's Bob Fahey to get some of the answers about autumn in New England. I ventured into a forest in northeastern Connecticut with two UConn tree experts. We met up at Horsebarn Hill, one of the best viewpoints in the state, surveying a rolling river valley showing off with fall colors. We see oaks just starting to turn red. Nearby hickories provide a dash of yellow – and, of course, the maples are already stealing the show, even on a cloudy day. Here’s what I found out: Our trees are diverse One reason the foliage is so good is simply due to the number of species we have. “We have a very diverse hardwood forest in this part of New England,” said Bob Fahey, an associate professor and forest ecologist at UConn. “We have both species that are more southern species and also some of the more northern species.” “In comparison to say, the Mid-Atlantic or other places that have lots of deciduous species, we have maples, which are just the best,” he said. “We also have a number of species that have nice yellow foliage,” he said. “Birches and beech. If you go a little bit farther south from here, mostly what you have is oaks. And oaks can have good fall foliage colors, but there are a lot of times they don't and they don't last for as long.” We have lots and lots of trees The diversity of species provides a diversity of color, said Tom Worthley, an associate extension professor and a forester at UConn. He asked me to remember the last time I flew over Connecticut. What did you see, he asked. Lots of trees, right? “Most of the ground is covered by a tree canopy,” Worthley said, noting that some estimates put that tree canopy cover at around 75% of the land area of the whole state. “Back where we were standing a few minutes ago, we had some cherry trees,” Worthley said, his eyes scanning the trees enveloping us. “There's a few remnant ash, there's some walnut around the edges here. And let's see, some hickory.” A walnut tree towers over us – and there are even some white pines. It’s that varied bioscape that sets New England forests apart. “Even in my two-acre forest behind my house, I have 22 different species of tree, which is more than some regions of the northern part of the U.S.,” Fahey said. Travel to the west, and what you’re likely to see are lots of evergreens and aspen trees. “Not that there aren't others, there are plenty of others, but not in the same abundance and not in the same kind of mix that we have around here,” Worthley said. Climate plays a role Across New England are rolling hills with microclimates that can contribute to vibrant fall colors. “You’ll see ... highly different color in different parts of the landscape, which has to do with temperature differences,” Fahey said. Combine that with Connecticut’s mix of southern and northern species and the colors here might not be as exciting and bright as what you would see in Vermont and New Hampshire, Fahey said. But our foliage season can sometimes last a little bit longer. One reason? Oaks. “We have so much more of that oak component,” Fahey said. “The oaks will hold their leaves until the end of October.” Moisture, temperature and the amount of daylight all contribute to how long it takes for a tree to shed its leaves. And, for each species, the calculation is different. “A tree makes an economic decision,” Worthley said. “It decides, ‘Well, it's costing more in energy to keep these leaves going than what they're producing for me and so it's time to shut them off.’” Why do leaves fall anyway? It’s when leaves are green that the most important work is happening, pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and giving us oxygen. And for that green color, we can thank the pigment chlorophyll. “The color that's in the leaves – is always there from the time the leaf is grown,” Worthley said. “As the growing season fades, the chlorophyll disappears,” he said. Then the other colors in the leaf can begin to show off. Pigments like anthocyanins (reds and purples) and carotenoids (yellows and oranges) peek out, tiny threads in an autumnal blanket transforming New England’s green forests into a richly colored landscape. The colors are out - but only for a limited time.  If you're a journalist looking to know more about this topic before all the leaves fall, then let us help. Dr. Fahey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of Connecticut. He is also the George F. Cloutier Professor in Forestry, director of the UConn Forest, and associate director of the UConn Eversource Energy Center. Simply click on his icon now to arrange a time to talk today.

Aston University fraud specialist continues ongoing engagement with UK Government

Dr Rasha Kassem advises UK government on countering fraud through the Government Counter Fraud Profession (GCFP) advisory group She shapes policies to combat £33 billion annual losses Dr Kassem influences fraud standards and shares vital research. Dr Rasha Kassem, a fraud specialist based at Aston Business School, remains actively engaged with the UK government through her advisory role in the Government Counter Fraud Profession (GCFP) advisory group. This advisory group, a vital component of the Government Counter Fraud Function, collaborates with cross-sector experts to shape policies and strategies aimed at countering fraud and other financial crimes. The Government Counter Fraud Profession Strategy 2023-25 underscores the severity of fraud within the public sector, estimating losses at a minimum of £33 billion annually due to fraud and error. As a dedicated member of the GCFP Cross Sector Advisory Group, Dr Kassem plays a pivotal role in advising and supporting the development of policies to combat these financial crimes. The GCFP serves as a professional body for counter-fraud experts within central government and beyond. Its mission is to unite the counter-fraud community under a common framework of standards, fostering growth and development to safeguard public services and combat economic crime. Dr Kassem's involvement in the advisory group holds significant impact, influencing the establishment of knowledge, skills and experience requirements for fraud professionals across various disciplines and levels. Additionally, she contributes to the publication of influential fraud research in the Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal and addresses UK government fraud conferences on recent research findings. Dr Kassem also collaborates with experts from diverse sectors to bridge training gaps, all while engaging in discussions through regular group meetings. The Government Counter Fraud Profession operates under the umbrella of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), established in August 2022. The GCFP is positioned within the Practice, Standards, and Capability Function of the Authority. The PSFA, a collective effort by 17 public sector organisations, adheres to core principles of building capability, with the GCFP taking a lead role in advancing structures and services. Dr Kassem emphasises the critical nature of engaging with policymakers through knowledge exchange activities to amplify research impact. Her active participation in UK Government fraud conferences and contributions to the Public Sector Counter Fraud Journal serve to raise awareness on prevailing fraud issues. Furthermore, her feedback on existing and new fraud guidance aids the GCFP in crafting professional standards and guidance for countering fraud. Dr Kassem has been a valued member of the Cross-Sector Advisory Group of the UK Government Counter Fraud Profession since 2019. Dr Kassem said: “Collaborating with the UK government through the Government Counter Fraud Profession has been a rewarding journey. “It's through these engagements that we're shaping policies and standards to counter fraud and protect public resources. “The recent Annual GCFP conference was well attended by fraud investigators, law enforcement, and regulators from the public sector. My presentation was well received and some participants said it was wildly fascinating to hear the striking reality that insider fraud can be, especially in UK policing, given its impact on policing integrity and legitimacy. The presentation opened their eyes to the risk of insider fraud and its impact. “Together, we're making a significant impact on the battle against financial crime.” For further information and to explore Dr Kassem's recent research, click here.

The long road to 2024 begins tonight in Milwaukee and FAU's political expert is here to help with your coverage.

The race to lead the GOP kicked off long ago, but all eyes are on Wisconsin tonight as the first Republican presidential debate takes place. The field, as expected, is crowded and chock full of hopefuls. But how will Donald Trump’s absence affect the debate? And will it even matter given his massive lead in the polls among Republican voters? In his absence will a strong alternative emerge, and if so, what does he or she need to do to coalesce the GOP vote and bolster a campaign that is in for a long fight against a former president that seems unscathed by indictments, scandal and deemed almost unstoppable? If you're covering the race - we have an expert who can help with your stories. Kevin Wagner, Ph.D., is Florida Atlantic University’s renowned political science expert. He is here to answer all your questions and is available for interviews. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.

Coronation of King Charles III: Augusta University professor talks about what to expect

Eyes from around the world will be on Westminster Abbey in London this weekend as King Charles III is crowned king following the passing his mother Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8, 2022. As you might expect, there will be plenty of pageantry involved with the ceremony. Ruth McClelland-Nugent, PhD, is chair of History, Anthropology and Philosophy at Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Augusta University and an expert on the royal family. McClelland-Nugent said this is a major day for those in the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent, some parts of the Commonwealth "where the British monarch is still monarch, such as Charles will become king of Canada as well as the U.K." The coronation is a religious service of the Church of England, so there will be a number of traditions upheld, such as anointing of the king with blessed oil, and by the end of the ceremony, Charles will have officially received his crown and his scepter, as well as the traditional robes and stole that mark him as king. The crown and the orb that will be used during the coronation date back to 1661 for King Charles II. New crowns were needed after the Puritans melted the old ones down during the English Civil Wars.  “These are very traditional things, and reinforce the ancient idea that the monarch is selected by God to have authority over people,” said McClelland-Nugent. "However, for the first time, there will be participation from clergy of other faiths as well, since the king has invited clergy from the Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist faiths to participate, reflecting the great religious diversity in the U.K.” She also said those watching the coronation, in-person or virtually, will be invited to swear an oath of allegiance to the monarch, giving the entire country a role in the ceremony for the first time. “It will probably feel very formal and ancient to any Americans who watch it, and it is, but it will be the most informal and diverse coronation in recent British history,” McClelland-Nugent said. Others in the royal family will also play roles in the ceremony. Queen Camilla will be crowned alongside Charles. Princess Anne, Charles' sister, will lead a procession of armed forces and other personnel behind the new king and queen when they leave Westminster Abbey. “Look for her to be on horseback. This is a highly prestigious role and not one carried out by a woman previously.” McClelland-Nugent said Prince William, Prince of Wales, who is now heir to the crown, will make an oath of loyalty directly to the newly crowned king. Some of the king’s grandchildren and queen’s grandchildren will also serve roles during the coronation. If you're a reporter covering the coronation and all the events leading up to it this week, then let our experts help with your stories. Ruth McClelland-Nugent is available for interviews; simply click on her icon now to arrange a time to talk today.

When Our Feelings Become Physical: Understanding Our Bodily Responses To Emotion

Alicia Walf is a neuroscientist and senior lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute whose research interests are fueled by the broad question: Why are there individual differences in stress? This question led to studying hormones' actions for growth and plasticity in the brain and body. She has since refined her pursuit to include consideration of body, brain, and mind relationships as they relate to memory, perception, social cognition, and emotions. Dr. Walf has taken a cross-species and cross-discipline approach in her work. Dr. Walf’s studies of the effects and mechanisms of stress and well-being often occur in the “wild,” such as in architectural built environments, artistic installations, interactions with technology, contemplative practices, conference rooms, and classrooms. Here, Walf examines what we know and what we have yet to learn about the physical manifestations of our emotions. Over 100 years ago, the earliest ponderings of how feelings are reflected in our body were described. Also, several decades ago, the first personality associated with an intense stress response was Type A personality. This personality type is characterized by quickness to anger and competitive drive as well as the negative consequences of chronic stress on the cardiovascular system. Recent work in mice shows that increasing heart rate produces an anxiety-like state (Hsueh et al., 2023, Nature). Now, a focus is trying to link changes in the body with feelings to brain mechanisms. Even after all of these years of study, we do not fully understand if there is a signature bodily response associated with specific feelings. For example, both anger and love (and other feelings that have been studied like jealousy) are associated with changes in the body that look indistinguishable from stress. The heart beat quickens, the eyes widen and the pupils become larger, blood rushes to the muscles and surface of the body. As surface body temperature and blood flow rises with these changes, a blush may become apparent on our cheeks. Indeed, a study showed that people have similar responses in describing which areas of the body are activated or deactivated in different emotional states; that is, where they feel these emotions in their body (Nummenmaa et al., 2013, PNAS). In this study, people said that love most greatly activated the head and trunk, whereas anger’s activation of the body was more focused on the head, arms, and chest. We can agree that love and anger – and all the strong feelings we have – mentally feel quite different from each other and we also have different behaviors. Those differences are likely due to a cognitive component, or how we assess the current situation in relation to what we know and our past experiences. Neuroscientists would argue that there are likely different brain circuits active in an angry and love state (and others), but those precise mechanisms are yet to be figured out. To date, we understand that feelings of love activate a reward pathway. Neurochemical differences may also play a role. For example, release of dopamine in this reward pathway and oxytocin in areas involved in social bonding are tied to love. The challenge of understanding the links between these expressions of emotions in the body to the mechanisms in our brain remains. Walf is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.

Going green: Solar and wind power remain the best alternatives to fossil fuels

Find video for use here.  In the U.S., more and more individuals, and even corporations, are making it a priority to go green in an effort to reduce the nation's dependence on fossil fuels. Studies have proven carbon dioxide is a main contributor to human-caused climate change, so we're tapping into natural elements more often to reduce the use of fossil fuels. From solar farms to solar panels on houses and wind turbines, it’s tough not to find efforts to go green, and that’s a move in the right direction, according to Jessica Reichmuth, PhD, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science and Mathematics at Augusta University. She said we’re heading in the right direction, but more can be done. “We are taking the right steps, but I’m not sure if we will be entirely able to be green energy, but we definitely need to be more green than we are today,” said Reichmuth. “Fossil fuels will eventually run out and are a non-renewable resource.” Homeowners and municipalities are tapping into solar panels most often as a green resource. Some concerns include the costs involved and the fact that in most cases, the panels are permanently attached to a house. Reichmuth points to California as an example of a state trying to ease that burden. Some people who are moving into rental houses and know they aren’t going to be there for a long period of time can have a company attach removable panels. There are other companies jumping into the business of leasing solar panels as well. Even small panels the size of a binder located in a backyard can make a big difference in producing a noticeable amount of electricity. These are great steps, said Reichmuth, but more progress can still be made. “We are at a point within society with green technology that we know and understand how to make solar panels, the infrastructure is there to support them, we just need a movement to get them so they’re used everywhere,” Reichmuth said. Wind turbines remain a big source of discussion. Yes, they provide an alternative electric source, but at what cost? A big negative is the possibility of bird strikes. “Birds will learn to navigate around wind turbines. They are not built in a way that they are impervious to long-distance migration.” Hydroelectricity and geothermal energy are two other green sources of energy. There are not a lot of areas in the U.S. that offer geothermal resources, and as far as hydroelectricity goes, there’s still concern in Reichmuth’s eyes. “I think it would be great to see if dams are going to be used for hydroelectricity, but not as a water containment system. There are portions of the U.S., especially in the southwest, that are dealing with water issues because we have dammed them. Hydroelectricity is good if the dam is used specifically for that purpose and not water containment.” Renewable energy, cost savings and ESG are top of mind for corporations, governments and populations as we look to the future, and if you're a journalist covering this topic, then let us help. Jessica Reichmuth is available to speak with media. Simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.

How Colorism Impacts Professional Achievement

Melissa J. Williams is associate professor of organization and management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She investigates what happens when social identities collide with workplace hierarchies, and the consequences of putting people in positions of power and leadership. Here she looks at something less documented: the extent to which our appearance is stereotypically Black or white. And what that means for our prospects. Rosa Parks made history on December 1, 1955, when she refused to relinquish her bus seat to a white passenger. Her simple gesture of defiance ignited a city-wide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, and has gone down in the annals as a pivotal moment for the social justice movement in the United States. However, Parks was not the only African American to make a stand against racial segregation. Nor was she the first. In March of the same year in the same city, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin also refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a Montgomery bus. So why isn’t she a household name? In part, Colvin’s age was a factor. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other Black civil rights groups got behind Parks, reasoning that an older woman would be better equipped to withstand the controversy. But as Colvin herself stated, there were other factors at play. There was something about Parks’ appearance that gave her more leverage, reasons Colvin explained in Philip Hoose’s award-winning book on the civil rights movement. She had the “right hair and the right look.” Not only that, but her appearance “was the kind that people associate with the middle class. She fit that profile.” Success isn’t black or white. It’s shades of…white. Colorism has long been documented in the U.S. and elsewhere. Discrimination against human beings on the basis of their facial features, hair, and skin color transcends race—it is prevalent even within groups that share the same ethnic identity, where lighter skin tones are perceived to be more valuable than dark. Research over the years has shed light on the nefarious effects of colorism or shadeism in terms of equity and access to opportunity. But a new landmark study by Associate Professor of Organization & Management Melissa Williams, and Goizueta colleagues, PhD student Tosen Nwadei and Roberto C. Goizueta Chair of Organization & Management Anand Swaminathan, looks at just how Black or white someone appears—and how this shapes the way others see their potential; as well as the kinds of professional outcomes they can expect. What Williams and her co-authors, who also include James B. Wade from George Washington University and C. Keith Harrison and Scott Bukstein of University of Central Florida, find in their studies, is that Black professionals are less likely to be promoted to leadership roles. What’s more, for Black professionals whose physical appearance is more Black-stereotypical, their chances drop from 12 percent to a mere seven percent. For white professionals, on the other hand, having a more white-stereotypical appearance is an advantage for leadership – looking more stereotypical as a white person increased their chances of holding a leadership role from 32 percent to 43 percent. Williams and colleagues ran both an archival study and a lab experiment with volunteers to discover the extent to which degrees of ethnicity in appearance influence perceptions of a person’s potential for leadership and actually predict their likelihood of success in an industry. While the science unequivocally shows that white people enjoy advantages over Black people in opportunity and outcome across the board, Williams et al. were also interested in exploring what she calls the “continuum of race:” the more nuanced racial characteristics and differences that shape how the world sees us. There’s an assumption that everyone within the same ethnic group—Black or white—will experience the same degree of bias and prejudice, or acceptance and success. And we wanted to push back on that idea to really explore how degrees of whiteness or Blackness play out in people’s minds and shape how they read you physically. -Associate Professor of Organization & Management Melissa Williams Previous research shows the link between persisting in STEM-based majors in college and how much students are perceived to look “like their race,” she says. Those who are perceived to look less typically Black tend to make more friends outside their ethnic group—a boundary-crossing behavior that can help drive careers. To test these ideas, Williams and co-authors ran two studies. First, they accessed publicly available data including photographs, professional background, and positions from one large industry within the U.S.: American college football. College football is really rich in data. You can access job titles, photos, leadership, and non-leadership roles; and you can separate individuals out into head coaches and position coaches who have overseeing roles but who are not leaders per se. Separately, Williams et al. recruited a group of volunteers to look at the images of the football coaches: a mix of Black and white head and position coaches. These volunteers were asked to rate how typical they perceived each individual’s appearance to be of European or white Americans, or of Black Americans, ascribing each person a score out of five based on features such as their skin color, hair, eyes, nose, cheeks, and lips. These scores were then regressed—or cross-referenced—with the position held by the individuals in the photos to determine the relationship between their racial stereotypicality and their leadership role. Crunching the numbers, Williams found a direct correlation between the degree of perceived whiteness or Blackness of the coaches and how likely they actually were to be successful leaders. “We do find a kind of consensus in people’s view of what it means to be Black or white straight off,” says Williams. “So we do all seem to agree on the physical attributes of race. But it gets really interesting when you regress the scores that these photos get and compare them with the actual jobs these guys hold.” What we see is that, controlling for their age, attractiveness, and professional experience, the white guys who look less stereotypically white are 32 percent likely to occupy leadership roles. This rises to 43 percent with the men who look more like a stereotypical white guy. For Black professionals, the inverse is true, she notes. The more typically Black an individual looks, the less probability there is that he occupies a leadership job. Specifically, that figure drops from 12 to seven percent. So benchmark leadership probability is not only already lower for Black individuals, but drops even further when people are deemed to look “more typically Black,” says Williams. A follow-up experiment invited volunteer football fans to compare how they saw the potential future success of two same-race college football players—one more stereotypical in appearance than the other. The results confirm what Williams et al. suspect: 70 percent of the time, participants chose the more-typical white individual over the less-typical white individual as having greater leadership potential. In other words, the more white a white person looks, the more they are seen as leadership material. These findings should translate into an imperative, says Williams; and that is to think more broadly about race and how it impacts life outcomes. Because race is not a uniform experience, she says. “Organizations might want to look beyond just ticking the box when it comes to diversity and inclusion, and give deeper thought to who they want to recruit, support and push forward in representation. For white people, paying attention to whiteness—the types of white people who enjoy advantages in leadership—can be useful in reframing certain questions. A good place to start might be for leaders to ask: do I want to support people who look like me? Because the face you choose can ultimately help disrupt, or reinforce, the stereotype.” Interested in learning more or connecting with Melissa J. Williams, associate professor of organization and management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School?  She's available to speak about this subject - Simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.

Birmingham MP officially opens £1.5 million healthcare simulation facilities at Aston University

Paulette Hamilton MP officially opens healthcare simulation facilities at Aston Medical School and School of Optometry State-of-the-art facilities including medical simulation room with high fidelity manikins for students to practise real life scenarios opens The first in Europe ocular simulation suite allows students to refine skills in examining the health of the eyes and experience a wide range of eye disease. New £1.5 million healthcare simulation facilities have officially opened at Aston Medical School and in the School of Optometry at Aston University. The state-of-the-art facilities were formally opened by Paulette Hamilton, member of parliament for Birmingham Erdington, on Friday 2 December at a ribbon cutting ceremony that was attended by Aston University Vice-Chancellor Professor Aleks Subic as well as other members of the University executive and staff from the College of Health and Life Sciences. Commenting on the new facilities Paulette Hamilton MP said: “It’s been brilliant to visit and officially open the new healthcare simulation facilities at Aston University. “I know from my time as a nurse how important it is to have access to good training and the latest equipment. These fantastic facilities will give students the best possible learning experience as they prepare to enter their profession, providing healthcare in Birmingham and beyond.” Hosted by Professor Anthony Hilton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the College of Health and Life Sciences, guests were invited to take a tour of the new facilities including a clinical skills simulation room which allows students to practise in emergency settings and an ocular simulation unit facility, the only one in Europe. Professor Hilton said: "We are delighted these new facilities have opened in time for the start of the new term and that students can benefit from practising their clinical skills in a variety of scenarios. “The acute care simulation room will allow for simulated emergency resuscitation scenarios that are very difficult to teach in real life situations, such as heart attacks, acute breathlessness and severe allergic reaction and will be of great value in training students of medicine, pharmacy and optometry.” The healthcare simulation facilities will be used by students studying medicine, pharmacy and optometry, where they will be able to practise in emergency settings using high quality manikins where they will simulate treating patients for acute conditions such as a heart attack or learning how to intubate a patient onto a ventilator. Professor Aleks Subic, Vice-Chancellor, Aston University said: “The launch of the Aston University healthcare simulation facilities marks an important milestone in the development of our digital health precinct within the Birmingham Knowledge Quarter. By establishing world-class medical imaging, advanced visualisation, and digital diagnostics capabilities we are in fact bringing Industry 4.0 to healthcare. “Our students from the Aston Medical School and School of Optometry in particular, will benefit immensely from this development as they will be able to detect a wide range of clinical conditions and diseases and explore different interventions and scenarios, safely within a simulated environment.” The high-fidelity acute care simulation room will also be equipped with recording facilities, a debrief room and control room. The funding has allowed for the purchase of other training equipment such as a hospital grade bed and single task trainer simulation equipment. For example, male and female catheterisation models, pelvic and rectal trainers, venepuncture arms, breast trainers and abdominal trainers. The facilities were part funded by the Office for Students which awarded the University £806,226 to set up the ‘high fidelity’ simulation A&E room with further expenditure by Aston University on the ocular simulation unit. The ocular simulation facility is unique in Europe. It allows students to refine their skills in examining the health of the front and back of the eyes and to experience a wide range of eye disease. One of the simulators allows students to utilise their smartphones to practise at home. They can gain direct feedback and be assessed by the simulators, allowing more flexible, diverse and intensive learning than can be achieve with clinical practice placements. Professor Liz Moores, deputy dean of the College of Health and Life Sciences, said: “The College of Health and Life Sciences is thrilled with this investment. The enhanced facilities will help to support many of our healthcare students, including those now applying for our new nursing degree. It will also support us with the introduction of the new pharmacy and optometry education standards, providing a step change in our ability to simulate a wide range of clinical scenarios.” For more information about studying in the College of Health and Life Sciences please visit our website.