The Conversation

Voters' embarrassment and fear of social stigma messed with pollsters' predictions

Written by Aradhna Krishna, Dwight F Benton Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan

What if people don't tell pollsters the truth?Liar image via www.shutterstock.com.

The outcome of the presidential election shocked many people – and they pointed their fingers at misleading polls that didn’t do a great job predicting what actually happened.

On Election Day, analyst Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight predicted that Clint...

Caring for veterans: A privilege and a duty

Written by Sanjay Saint, George Dock Professor of Medicine, University of Michigan

Veterans Day had its start as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I hostilities. The holiday serves as an occasion to both honor those who have served in our armed forces and to ask whether we, as a nation, are doing right by them.

In recent years, that question has been directed most urgently at Veterans Affairs hospitals. Some critics...

The perils of a life in isolation

Written by Frank T. McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox College

'Alone' via www.shutterstock.com

Humans are hardwired to interact with others, especially during times of stress. On the other hand, when we go through a trying ordeal alone, a lack of emotional support and comradeship can increase our anxiety and hinder our ability to cope.

This message is forcefully driven home in the newly released thriller...

Janet Reno: Reflecting on America’s first female attorney general and her example of public service

Written by Jon L. Mills, Professor of Law, University of Florida

Some of today’s politicians seem to equate leadership with shouting, arrogance, cruelty and deception. Janet Reno, the first female U.S. attorney general and the second longest serving attorney general in history, was so honest she scared some politicians.

They called her blunt. They said sometimes she was not a team player. But she was...

Here's why 'baby talk' is good for your baby

Written by Catherine E. Laing, Postdoctoral Associate, Duke University

The way you talk to your baby makes a difference.Elvis Kennedy, CC BY-NC-ND

When we read, it’s very easy for us to tell individual words apart: In written language, spaces are used to separate words from one another. But this is not the case with spoken language – speech is a stream of sound, from which the listener has to separate...

Donald Trump tweeted himself into the White House

Written by Shontavia Johnson, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Drake University

Trumpisms at your fingertips.AP Photo/John Locher

Donald Trump’s presidential election victory has been described as stunning, shocking and having elicited a “primal scream” from the media. The president-elect resonated enough with more than 59 million Americans that they pulled the lever for him in the voting booth and propelled...

House results: Republicans lose just a handful of seats, but party factions run deep

Written by Kathryn L. Pearson, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota

It is not a surprise that Republicans retained their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The unexpected result is that they will work with a Republican president and a Republican-controlled Senate in the 115th Congress.

A sea change lies ahead on Capitol Hill as Republicans shift from vociferously opposing a Democratic president to...

Why repealing Obamacare may not be as easy as Trump thinks

Written by Bill Custer, Director of Center for Health Services Reseach, Associate Professor, Georgia State University

Candidate Trump repeatedly called for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act during the campaign, but it is unclear what President Trump will actually do about the ACA. It is not clear even with President Trump, and Republican majorities in the House and Senate, whether full repeal is possible and what replacement might look like.

There...

Sexual assault enters virtual reality

Written by Katherine Cross, Ph.D. Student in Sociology, City University of New York

Although various forms of online sexual harassment have been with us since the dawn of the internet, recent news suggests that it’s moving into another dimension – the third, to be precise. Gropers are now finding a way to target women through the fully immersive headsets of virtual reality.

Writer Jordan Belamire recently wrote of her...

Managing climate risk in Trump's America

Written by Robert Kopp, Associate Professor, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, and Associate Director, Rutgers Energy Institute, Rutgers University

On Tuesday, it appears, a slim plurality of Americans voted for Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States. However, thanks to the Electoral College sway of Florida and the Rust Belt, the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, is now the president-elect of the United States.

The new president will take office at a singular time in the...