S4E1: Ethan Poskanzer - The Politics of Truth: Exploring Moral Flexibility

Our guest’s latest research is focused on how voters relate to the concepts of truth and factuality, and how personal moral values tend to drive voters more than facts.Ethan Poskanzer is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder. Ethan studies how organizations can select and connect people to develop innovative ideas and is particularly interested in how the opportunity to innovate can be democratized and made more inclusive.In his second appearance on the show, Ethan joins our new host Mariz Kuntz to chat about the latest paper he co-authored. We’ll dive into how moral flexibility influences political parties and challenges the efficacy of fact-checking, and ultimately shows us how across political parties, people are more similar than they are different.Leeds Business Insights Podcast is a production of Leeds School of Business and is produced by University FM.EPISODE QUOTES:How can we improve our political environment?[16:55] In the political environment, it would be better if we tried to support candidates who we thought would conduct themselves in a way conducive to the American political system we want to see. Which I would say, frankly, it's not that easy, because I think there's always shades of these behaviors going on, but it's a new variable in my “who am I going to support?” equation.Politicians reflect what voters reward[17:44] As voters, I think the point of a democracy is that politicians are going to do what gets them votes, so we're going to get the things that we have demand for in the world. And so, if you say that, hey, there's too much distrust in politics, and there's too much misinformation in politics, you probably shouldn't vote for a candidate to do that because that's going to keep happening. I think this is a case where the politicians do what is rewarded by the voters, so we have the power to kind of create a political environment.Seeking leaders who value facts over political agendas[12:08] We see that politicians are not really penalized for saying things that aren't true. And politicians generally are going to do what gets them votes. So to an extent that we want to see this stop, the voters have to hold politicians that do this accountable and not vote for them. SHOW LINKS:Ethan Poskanzer | Leeds School of BusinessEthan Poskanzer | Personal WebsiteEthan Poskanzer | LinkedInEthan Poskanzer | Google ScholarWhen Truth Trumps Facts: Studies on Partisan Moral Flexibility in American Politics