Targeting patients with machine learning can increase the number of people getting liver cancer screenings, according to a National Institutes of Health-sponsored study by a research team from Rice University, Texas A&M University, Iowa State University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Regular and timely health screenings save lives through early detection, which can reduce symptoms and enable cheaper and more effective treatment during early stages of cancer. Yet screening rates remain dismally low. For example, just 4.2% of patients in the United States who are at high risk for lung cancer get screened. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, screening rates for cervical, breast and colorectal cancer fall short of Healthy People 2020 targets.

The authors of the study used a multiperiod, randomized field experiment involving 1,800 patients of a large hospital system in the greater Dallas area. Each patient was randomly assigned to one of three scenarios: “usual care,” where physicians offer preventive care recommendations at their discretion during a patient’s usual care visits; “light touch,” where patients receive outreach mail and standardized follow-up calls; or “patient navigation,” where patients receive the same outreach mail and follow-up calls along with motivational education. The research team observed screening rates for 18 months. They then used machine learning to maximize screening rates by developing an algorithm that matched outreach intervention to the right patients.

Without personalized targeting, outreach interventions increased screening rates to 25%, the researchers found. However, targeting with machine learning increased screening rates to about 45%-49%. “The best part of this personalized approach to targeted screening is that it is based on information already available in (patients’) records,” said Vikas Mittal, a professor of marketing at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

For example, Hispanic females who were relatively healthy and who received health care through charitable providers such as Dallas’ Ryan White HIV/AIDS Care Program were more likely to get screened if they received a letter in the mail advertising availability. In contrast, older Hispanic females who lived in high-income neighborhoods and had better access to clinics were more likely to get screened if they received a letter in the mail and a personalized phone call and assistance.

Implementing this approach could increase financial savings to the hospital system from $2.1 million to $3.7 million, or 74%, the research showed.

The study, “Improving Cancer Outreach Effectiveness Through Targeting and Economic Assessments: Insights from a Randomized Field Experiment,” is published in the Journal of Marketing.

To schedule an interview with Mittal or to request a copy of the study, contact Jeff Falk, director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

Follow the Jones Graduate School of Business on Twitter @Rice_Biz.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Mittal bio: https://business.rice.edu/person/vikas-mittal.

The downturn in the stock market has rattled most investors but also created unprecedented long-term investment opportunities, according to expert at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

So how are ordinary, everyday investors likely to approach the stock market? Republicans are more likely than Democrats to invest in stocks, especially when confident about their investing ability, according to research by Rice marketing scholar Vikas Mittal and colleagues.

“Though the coronavirus crash has created an opportunity to invest in the stock market, not everybody will take advantage of it,” said Mittal, who is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing at Rice Business. “Our research suggests that, among everyday ordinary investors, Republicans who are confident in their investing ability will be more likely to take advantage of this investing opportunity.

“A person’s political leanings affect the societal goal a person wants to achieve,” he said. “With a goal of improving their standing in society, Republicans with more confidence prefer investing in stocks over less risky options. Ultimately, confident Republicans are more likely to believe that increased financial standing through stock investing will also improve their social standing. Especially in an American context, it is easy to imagine the link between a person’s financial and social standing.”

One study conducted by Mittal and colleagues in 2015 provided two investing options to 199 participants: a bank account offering a guaranteed return of 4% and a a stock fund that provided a similar return but with higher variability (a 45% chance of generating a return of 16%, a 10% chance of generating a return of 4% and a 45% chance of incurring a loss of 8%). They found that those who said they would vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and had confidence in their investing ability were more likely to invest in the stock fund than those who said they would vote for Hillary Clinton; among potential Clinton voters, there was no change in investing behavior depending on investing confidence.

These results were confirmed in several other studies and a large-scale analysis of 14,945 U.S. households from different states. The results spanning decades showed the same pattern: Republicans were more likely to invest in stocks as they became more confident in their investing ability relative to Democrats.

In another study with 450 participants, the researchers found this happens because Republicans have a higher social dominance orientation, meaning a desire to increase their social standing. “Believing that increased financial success will help increase their social standing, conservatives are more likely to invest in stocks than cash, believing stocks will provide a higher payoff in the long run,” Mittal said. These results were tested in six studies with more than 16,000 participants and a variety of methods such as surveys, secondary data and randomized experiments.

To schedule an interview with Mittal, contact Jeff Falk, director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

Related materials:

• Research paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243718813331
• Mittal bio: https://business.rice.edu/person/vikas-mittal

Based on research by Marlon Mooijman, Wilco W. van Dijk, Eric van Dijk and Naomi Ellemers

• When authorities enforce rules and penalties, they convey mistrust for the people they are attempting to control.
• Perceived distrust has a negative effect on rule-following.
• The less legitimate an authority figure is perceived to be, the less likely people will obey the rules enforced by that authority.

It’s one of our first human experiences: the smell of something sweet in the air followed by the overwhelming desire to gobble it. Imagine now that you’re six years old, and your dad is taking warm chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. Not one nibble before dinner, he says, otherwise you’ll lose your appetite. Then, before dashing out for a meeting, he gives a warning: “If even one cookie is missing, no TV for a week.”

What will you do? Dutifully wait? Or grab a cookie regardless of the threats?

Rice Business professor Marlon Mooijman and colleagues Wilco W. van Dijk and Eric van Dijk of Leiden University along with Naomi Ellemers of Utrecht University studied 883 people to understand the links between deterrence, threats and rule following. In layman’s terms, they wanted to see how policies and punishments affected the choice to steal cookies. To reach their conclusions, they conducted a series of games in which participants reported or hid taxable income depending on whether they were threatened with fines, fined with an explanation, or fined with no explanation.

With adults as with children, the researchers found, threats and punishments often backfire. This is because they signal distrust by the authorities of the very people they're supposed to control. Often, the response to that distrust is rebellion. The more perceived distrust people feel, the less likely they are to follow the rules. 

So if your dad simply tells you to lay off the cookies — that is, deterrence but no justification — you won’t assume he distrusts you. If, on the other hand, he says, “Don’t eat those cookies before dinner because you’ll spoil your appetite” — offering justification — or “If one cookie’s missing, no TV for a week,” you’re inclined to think he doesn’t trust you. Human nature being what it is, that feeling may send you straight to the cookie sheet as soon as he turns his back.

The perception has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If your dad doesn’t have faith in you, who cares about disappointing him?  

In general, the researchers discovered, justifications and threats of punishment leave a bad taste. Instead, we respond better to rules with no justification.

At the same time, the authority who is making the rules is important. What happens when an older sister or babysitter lays down the law? Authorities who want subordinates or constituents to follow their rules, Mooijman and his colleagues found, need to be seen as legitimate: that is, possessing the right to govern and to have others comply with their rules. 

In our family scenario, this might mean that once your mother gets involved, the fun and games are over. Because you believe she’s legit, you’re more likely to follow her rules. Your older sister might have rank because she is older, but she’s not a parent, and you know she’s likely to sneak a cookie or two along with you. 

Even so, you might be more prone to listen to her than to the babysitter. Your parents don’t know that the babysitter spends most of her time on the phone with her boyfriend while watching reality TV and periodically raiding the fridge. You have little respect for her; as an authority, she is illegitimate. If she instructs you not to eat cookies, they’re as good as gone.

Our first contacts with authority, legitimacy and deterrence usually occur at home. But the same principles apply in adult organizations, from education and penal correctional systems to finance, judicial and legislative bodies to the corporate world. Regardless of industry, if you want subordinates’ to keep their hands out of the cookie jar, don’t try to justify your rules. Just tell them what not to do.

Emphasize, though, that these rules are spelled out for wrongdoers, not the conscientious individuals who might hear them as well. Finally, sprinkle a little sugar on top. For best results, always sweeten new rules and procedures with assurances of trust.

Marlon Mooijman is an assistant professor in the management department of organization behavior at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

To learn more, please see: Mooijman, M., van Dijk, W., van Dijk, E. & Ellemers, N. (2016).  On Sanction-Goal Justifications:  How and Why Deterrence Justifications Undermine Rule Compliance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(4), 577-588.

During a crisis, outsiders view a leader who voices both anger and sadness, or even sadness alone, as more effective than a leader who shows only anger, according to newly released research conducted at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

Brent Smith, the senior associate dean for executive education and an associate professor of management and psychology in organizational behavior at the Jones School, is available to discuss the study and its implications.

Even in the digital age, the public responds best to leaders who show their humanity, according to the research from Smith and his colleagues. The team explored how specific emotions from leaders resonate with people during a crisis.

The study polled 322 employees from different companies after they had read a newspaper article featuring company leaders involved in a product recall.

Existing literature in organizational psychology holds that a leader who shows anger during a crisis conveys competence, strength and intelligence, and a leader who expresses sadness in the same situation conveys remorse, sympathy, warmth and affiliation. The team wondered whether leaders who express both would be evaluated more favorably.

“Most subjects indeed factored the leader’s public display of emotion into their assessments of her or him,” Smith wrote. “In addition, the subjects reacted more favorably to leaders who publicly voiced both anger and sadness, or even sadness alone. A leader who showed anger alone, the subjects said, seemed less effective.”

Prior to joining the Jones School, Smith was a faculty member at London Business School and Cornell University, where he taught in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Oxford University; the Technical University of Denmark and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. He has conducted executive education programs around the world for companies such as Shell, IBM, HSBC, Credit Suisse and Barclays.

A radio and television studio is available at Rice for media outlets that want to schedule an interview with Smith. For more information, contact Avery Franklin, media relations specialist at Rice, at averyrf@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

Related materials:

Smith bio: https://business.rice.edu/person/d-brent-smith

Based on research by Alessandro Piazza, Dan Wang and Sarah A. Soule

• Social movements have proliferated over the last decade — and with them, the need to better grasp how they develop.
• Much of their growth comes from tactics that create a sense of collective identity, from protests to petition drives to online mobilization.
• At the same time, efforts to grow inadvertently unleash infighting and division — leading many social movements to flounder.

Brexit, Tea Party, Arab Spring. Black Lives Matter and MeToo. Protests in Hong Kong, Chile, Paris, Beirut, Baghdad and Barcelona. In recent years, the depth and variety of global social protest has exploded.

How did these movements grow and strengthen — and what are the perils that sometimes ruin them? In a recent paper, Rice Business professor Alessandro Piazza joined Columbia University’s Dan Wang and Stanford University’s Sarah A. Soule to analyze the dynamics of the movements shaping our times.

To do it, they scrutinized existing research on today’s golden age of social protest. The three researchers reviewed roughly 120 academic papers and other source material, comprising the total relevant literature about protest tactics. 

First off, the researchers noted, social movements don’t develop in a vacuum: Many current movements have given a voice to an aggrieved group by speaking with a collective identity. Movements such as Brexit or MeToo, for example, express protestors’ rejection of unwanted actions from others.

Yet both Brexit and MeToo have varied memberships and include a mix of political and social outlooks as well as a range of ethnicities, nationalities, social classes, ages and even genders. What brings such protest movements together, Piazza and his colleagues write, is their “tactical repertoires” — the array of techniques they use to reach their goals.

To be sure, people with grievances have many ways to make their cases. But specific actions carry their own cultural meaning, and this meaning helps bind members of diverse groups together. A particular protest movement’s repertoire might emphasize demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins, flash mobs or artistic performances. Each of these tactics draws outside attention — and also heightens solidarity within the movement.

Tactical gestures have become especially important in recent years, because so much activism begins and coalesces online. A Twitter hashtag, a Facebook group, hacking into online networks — all have become tools that help social movements strengthen and grow. Through the power of social media, tactical approaches often resonate well beyond the first people to use them. As a result, techniques are often similar throughout an entire movement, sometimes across continents.

In November 2019 in Chile, for example, activists protesting rape culture started publicly performing a dance called “A Rapist in Your Path.” It quickly spread to Argentina, Colombia, Spain, the U.K., the U.S. and Turkey and became a recognizable visual protest. It’s a classic example of how activist groups can adopt tactics across the globe to broaden the cultural resonance of their cause. Such tactics should be studied in much greater detail, Piazza and his colleagues note.

At the same time, tactics may not be enough to keep a movement afloat. In 1966, for example, the Red Guard youth movement in China was beset by a snarl of factions that, together, harmed the movement’s larger effectiveness. Similarly, in “Homage to Catalonia,” George Orwell brilliantly documents how during the Spanish Civil War the anti-fascist forces broke down into irreconcilable groups, allowing dictator Francisco Franco to easily defeat them. More recently, the organizers of the Women’s March on Washington had to battle internal factional differences to pull off their event. In other words, sometimes the very effort to unite large groups for a cause can imperil meaningful social change.

Regardless of such challenges, social movements continue to express themselves in creative new ways. Piazza and his colleagues’ insight is how these tactics have powerful dual roles: both as messaging tools and as membership badges that heighten the loyalty of those who use them.

Alessandro Piazza is an assistant professor of strategic management at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

To learn more, please see: Wang, D., Piazza, A., & Soule, S. A. (2018). Boundary-spanning in social movements: Antecedents and outcomes. Annual Review of Sociology, 44, 167–187.

Members of the Ajayan Research Group led by Rice graduate student Kimmai Tran were among the “highly commended” teams recognized by UNESCO and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations’ first annual World Engineering Day Young Engineers Competition. The competition highlighted work by engineers age 35 and under committed to advancing the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. The Rice team entered its lithium-ion battery recycling project, featured in a Rice News story and video, and was selected to compete at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, an event that was subsequently canceled over coronavirus concerns. Competition details and a list of winners are available here: https://worldengineeringday.net/young-eng2020/.

Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business made U.S. News and World Report’s Best Grad Rankings for 2021. The Jones School tied for No. 25 on the Best Business Schools list and tied for No. 13 for its Part-Time MBA. The rankings take into account the quality of students, faculty and other resources in the education process.

As the COVID-19 pandemic grows and impacts the lives of people across the globe, Rice University experts are available to discuss various topics related to the disease.

– Joyce Beebe, fellow in public finance at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, can discuss paid leave programs.

“COVID-19 highlights the importance of paid (sick) leave programs to workers,” she said. “The issue is not whether we should have a paid leave program; it is how to design a program that provides nationwide coverage to all American workers instead of waiting until the next pandemic.”

– Robert Bruce, dean of Rice’s Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, is an expert in online and distance learning, community education and engagement and innovative models for personal and professional development programs.

“The field of continuing and professional studies is uniquely positioned to help the public during a crisis that requires social distancing,” he said. “Our core mission is to empower people to continue to learn and advance, regardless of location or age or learning style.”

– Utpal Dholakia, a professor of marketing at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is available to discuss consumer behavior and panic-buying during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everyone is panic-buying, not just all over the country, but basically all over the world,” Dholakia said. “That makes the sense of urgency even more. Are all these suppliers going to be able to keep up with the demand?”

– John Diamond, the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Tax Policy at the Baker Institute and an adjunct assistant professor in Rice’s Department of Economics, can discuss the economic impact on Houston and Texas, particularly unemployment.

– Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, professor in sociology and director of Rice’s Religion and Public Life Program, studies the intersection of science and religion. She can discuss how these two entities can work together to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and recently authored an editorial about this topic for Time magazine. It is available online at https://time.com/5807372/coronavirus-religion-science/.

– Christopher Fagundes, an associate professor in the department of psychological sciences, is available to discuss the link between mental and immune health.

“In my field, we have conducted a lot of work to look at what predicts who gets colds and different forms of respiratory illnesses, and who is more susceptible to getting sick,” Fagundes said. “We’ve found that stress, loneliness and lack of sleep are three factors that can seriously compromise aspects of the immune system that make people more susceptible to viruses if exposed. Also, stress, loneliness and disrupted sleep promote other aspects of the immune system responsible for the production of proinflammatory cytokines to overrespond. Elevated proinflammatory cytokine production can generate sustained upper respiratory infection symptoms.”

And while this research has centered on different cold and upper respiratory viruses, he said “there is no doubt” that these effects would be the same for COVID-19.

– Mark Finley is a fellow in energy and global oil at the Baker Institute.

“The U.S. and global oil market is simultaneously grappling with the biggest decline in demand ever seen (due to COVID-19) and a price war between two of the world’s largest producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

– Bill Fulton, director of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, an urban planner, an expert on local government and the former mayor of Ventura, California, can speak to both the short-term and long-term changes in city life and the way government works.

"What will the effect be on transportation and transit? Retail and office space? Will people walk and bike more? How will they interact in public spaces in the future? How will government function and hold public meetings during the crisis, and will this fundamentally alter the way government interacts with the public in the long run? How will local governments deal with the inevitable revenue loss — and, in the long run, with the fact that they will probably have less sales tax?"

– Vivian Ho, the James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics, director for the Center of Health and Biosciences at the Baker Institute and a professor of economics, can discuss insurance coverage as families experience lost income and jobs during the crisis.

“Policymakers should temporarily expand subsidies for middle class workers who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace,” Ho said. “Families experiencing lost income due to the pandemic shouldn’t have to worry about losing access to health care in the midst of a pandemic.”

“Hospitals in states that did not expand Medicaid coverage to able-bodied adults under the Affordable Care Act are bearing tougher financial burdens, which may damage their ability to respond to the current health crisis,” she said.

– Mark Jones, a professor of political science and fellow at the Baker Institute, is available to discuss how the spread of COVID-19 is impacting elections, including runoffs in Texas.

“COVID-19 has already resulted in the postponement of local elections originally scheduled for May 2, with the elections now to be held in November with current officeholders’ tenure extended until their successors are confirmed in November,” Jones said. “It is increasingly likely that COVID-19 will affect the Democratic and Republican primary runoff elections scheduled for May 26, with a growing possibility that the elections will be conducted entirely via mail ballots or at the minimum will involve the adoption of no-excuse absentee voting whereby any Texan, not just those 65 or older, hospitalized or out of the county, will be able to obtain an absentee ballot and vote by mail.

“The emergency adoption of no-excuse absentee voting would change the composition of the May primary runoff electorate by expanding turnout among many voters who otherwise would have been unlikely to participate, as well as increase pressure on the Texas Legislature to reform the state’s electoral legislation to allow for no-excuse absentee voting when it reconvenes in January of 2021 for the next regular session.”

– Laura Kabiri, a lecturer in Rice’s Department of Kinesiology, can discuss staying active during social distancing, and how adults and children can get enough physical activity and/or work out at home.

“Physical activity is good for your physical, mental and emotional health,” Kabiri said. “Exercise decreases stress, boosts your immune system and can lead to the release of your own endogenous opioids to decrease pain, relieve anxiety and improve your mood, all without pills or their side effects.

“If you already exercise on a regular basis, keep it up,” she said. “Even without a gym, you can get a great workout at home. Water bottles and jugs make terrific weights and that deep freezer is great for modified push-ups and tricep dips. Can’t make your Zumba class? Have a family dance party in your living room to streaming music videos or dust off the old LPs.

“However, this is not the time to overdo or attempt new feats of strength,” she said. “Abusing your body can actually harm your immune system, and no one wants to end up in an already overcrowded ER with a hernia.”

– Danielle King, an assistant professor of psychological sciences and principal investigator of Rice’s WorKing Resilience Lab, is an expert on the topic of resilience to adversity. Her research focuses on understanding the role individuals, groups and organizations play in fostering adaptive sustainability following adversity. She can discuss how individuals can remain resilient and motivated in difficult circumstances.

“Though we are still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can begin to enact adaptive practices that foster resilience such as remaining flexible to changing circumstances, practicing acceptance of the present realities, seeking social support in creative ways while practicing social distancing, and finding and engaging with experiences and thoughts that elicit positive emotions during trying times,” King said.

– Tom Kolditz, founding director of Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders, is a social psychologist and former brigadier general who has done extensive research on how best to lead people under perceived serious threat. His work is widely taught at military service and police academies globally, and he did extensive work with the banking industry during the 2008 financial crisis. His expertise is in articulating what people need from leaders in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times and what leaders must do to gain and maintain people’s trust. His book, “In Extremis Leadership: Leading As If Your Life Depended On It,” teaches people to lead in crisis, when people are anxious or afraid.

“Leadership when people are under threat hinges far less on managerial principles, and far more on trust,” Kolditz said. “Whether in a company or their own family, people who lead in the same way now as they did two months ago will experience a significant decline in their influence.”

– Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute, is an expert on energy geopolitics and Middle East economies and societies. He can comment on the effect on OPEC and its production decisions, relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and how low oil prices will affect policy inside producer countries.

– Ken Medlock, the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics at the Baker Institute, senior director of institute’s Center for Energy Studies and an adjunct professor and lecturer in Rice’s Department of Economics, can discuss COVID-19’s impact on oil prices and the oil industry.

– Kirsten Ostherr, the Gladys Louise Fox Professor of English and director of Rice’s Medical Futures Lab, can discuss the representation of outbreaks, contagion and disease in public discourse and the media. She is also an expert on digital health privacy. She is the founding director of the Medical Humanities program at Rice, and her first book, “Cinematic Prophylaxis: Globalization and Contagion in the Discourse of World Health,” is one of several titles made available for open-access download through June 1 by its publisher, Duke University Press.

– Peter Rodriguez, dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business and a professor of strategic management, can discuss the economic impact of COVID-19 in Houston, the state of Texas and around the world.

– Eduardo Salas, professor and chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences, is available to discuss collaboration, teamwork, team training and team dynamics as it relates to COVID-19.

“We often hear that ‘we are in this together’ and, indeed, we are,” Salas said. “Effective collaboration and teamwork can save lives. And there is a science of teamwork that can provide guidance on how to manage and promote effective collaboration.”

– Kyle Shelton, deputy director of the Kinder Institute, can discuss how the economic impact of COVID-19 closures and job losses can amplify housing issues, and why governments at every level are opting for actions such as halting evictions and foreclosures and removing late fees. He can also speak to some of the challenges confronted by public transportation, why active transportation like biking and walking are so important now, and how long-term investments in these systems make cities and regions more adaptive and resilient.

– Bob Stein, the Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science and a fellow in urban politics at the Baker Institute, is an expert in emergency preparedness, especially related to hurricanes and flooding. He can also discuss why and when people comply with government directives regarding how to prepare for and respond to natural disasters, and the political consequences of natural disasters.

“Since God is not on the ballot, who do voters hold accountable before and in the aftermath of natural disasters?” he said.

– Laurence Stuart, an adjunct professor in management at Rice Business, can discuss unemployment in Texas, how people qualify for it and what that means for employers and employees.

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 217-417-2901 or amym@rice.edu.

This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Photo link: https://news.rice.edu/files/2020/03/23311-1.jpg

Photo credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)