Academics & The Real World

I am in Boulder today and tomorrow. I had an interesting conversation with a colleague here about the state of our discipline and whether the "real world" is moving much further ahead than us academics.

It is not whether academics are smart or whether we have the ability to make significant contributions. It is whether we are focusing on the right things and not giving enough attention to the phenomena that make a difference in the real world. In an effort to keep our research interesting, are we moving towards studying increasingly "fringe" phenomena? That is, are we getting so focused on publishing "interesting" research that we're studying behavior that is so weird and active under such special conditions that they have little relation to "normal" consumer behavior?

This is well beyond the "academic" vs. "real world" research. I don't imply that all research should have immediate application to the real world. It's just that we may need to study esoteric issues that may have no immediate application, but are rooted in normal consumer behavior over strange quirks in behavior under very specific conditions.

Obviously a very complex issue that has no easy answers. But, thought-provoking nonetheless. I now have more to think about (and argue with my colleagues about).

The Fringe Freaks

It is well known that when we have limited information about a target, we use that information to form our perceptions of the target. Since the perceptions were based on limited information, we end up with potentially wildly incorrect perceptions. A simpler example of this is when we stereotype people based on a small amount of information. If the stereotype is based on a large amount of information, it can be fairly accurate. If not, it can be grossly inaccurate. Always, a stereotype is a generalization that obviously does not apply to everyone in the group.

So, why am I talking about this? Well, I was aghast at the ridiculous reaction of some people in India to the infamous Richard Gere - Shilpa Shetty kiss. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can view the 1-minute video of the kiss on YouTube here. Richard was in India on a charitable mission on AIDS prevention and was being honored by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty when he was overcome with emotion and gave her a hug and kiss on stage. Okay, so maybe he went a little bit overboard for being on stage. I'm not so sure I would have been completely under control if I was standing next to that lady. But that's beside the point. Some nutcases went completely batty over this apparent insult to all of India or a slap in the face of chastity in the country or some such thing. There were protests, effigies burned (the usual) and then some publicity-seeking, grandstanding, sanctimonious lawyer filed a lawsuit. A supportive judge was so offended by the video that he issued a waarant for the arrest of both Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty for public indecency or something like that. Of course, the press in India and around the world are having a field day (it even made the newspaper in Duluth, Minnesota).

Of course, as usual, it is just a small group of fringe freaks who are getting all the attention from a story-hungry press corps. But, as the story wends its way around the world, people with limited information about India (which would be most of the world), quite understandably start to form impressions of the country based on these weird stories they hear. Of course it is not reasonable or fair, but it happens. And, they probably go around telling others what they know about India. Believe it or not, I have actually had people (educated people) come to me and ask if we eat chilled monkey brains regularly in India after they watched the Indiana Jones movie (Temple of Doom). Oh well, if you have to ask, let me tell you, they're delicious!