Flip-Flop Politicians, Amazon and Whole Foods, Refugee Stories
Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Season 1, Episode 591
- Jul 10, 2017 6:00 am
- 1:42:37 mins
When Politicians Flip-Flop Guest: Tamar Kreps, PhD, Assistant Professor of Management, University of Utah No politician wants the label of “flip-flopper.” Republicans in Congress are hoping to avoid it as they struggle to repeal and replace Obamacare after years of promising to do it as soon as they were back in control. In everyday life, changing one's mind might be seen as a sign of open-mindedness or maturity. But politicians are judged harshly for it - especially under certain circumstances. University of Utah management professor Tamar Kreps and her colleagues found that leaders who justify their original position on moral grounds, and then have a change of heart, have the most trouble bouncing back from the flip-flop. Amazon Will Change the Grocery Game Guest: Richard Feinberg, PhD, Consumer Psychologist, Professor of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University When Amazon announced plans to buy Whole Foods, the stock price of grocery and retail giants like Kroger, Costco, and Wal-Mart immediately took a hit. What’s so scary to brick-and-mortar stores about Amazon picking up a chic, pricey urban grocery chain? A lot, it turns out. Learning English Through Refugee Stories Guest: Roberta Baer, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida Learning English is a top priority for refugees who come to America. And a typical reading text in that English class would go something like, “Meg is my best friend. She’s ten. Everyone in our class likes Meg because she’s always happy and she’s very funny. She can ride a bike very fast too.” A text like that covers all the basics for learning English, but imagine if refugees could learn the language through stories that actually resonated with their own experience - like this one about a woman named Ana: “I’m originally from former Yugoslavia. In 1992, war broke out there. I’m a child of mixed marriage. My mom is Catholic and my dad is Orthodox. The war in Yugoslavia was about religion. Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox, everybody wanted the