Over the last decade, concern has grown about American support for politicians who spread misinformation. Researchers attribute this trend to the “factual flexibility” of voters who accept fiction as fact — such as widespread support for Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

But a groundbreaking study shows there’s more to the story. Voters are not only factually flexible — they’re also “morally flexible.”

In a recent article published by the American Journal of Sociology, professors Minjae Kim (Rice Business), Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan (MIT), Oliver Hahl (Carnegie Mellon) and Ethan Poskanzer (University of Colorado Boulder) find that voters often support politicians who spread divisive misinformation because it reflects a “deeper truth” that resonates with their beliefs and grievances.

“In short,” Kim says, “when the statement is by a Republican, Democrats insist the statement should be evaluated on its facts, whereas Republicans say what matters is the message. The reverse is true when the statement is by a Democrat.”

To arrive at their findings, the researchers conducted six surveys of American voters during the last years of Trump’s administration and in spring 2023 during Biden’s administration. Respondents evaluated divisive statements made by Trump, Biden and other politicians, focusing on issues like immigration, Black Lives Matter protests, the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 election.

The surveys reveal that voters care more about “truth” with favored politicians and facts with disfavored ones. This effect is slightly stronger for Republicans, but it applies to Democrats, too.

Participants were shown a divisive, nonfactual statement verified by a fact-checking organization. They then rated whether it was based on objective evidence or impressions and whether truth or objective evidence was more important.

For instance, Trump supporters rated a false statement about a “caravan” of immigrants higher in truth than nonsupporters. A similar gap was seen in responses to an erroneous Biden claim about COVID vaccines. Biden voters justified the statement as appealing to patriotism during a crisis, valuing moral correctness over sheer factuality.

To really address the problem of misinformation and partisan bias, Kim, et al., highlight the role of “moral flexibility.” Interventions remain unclear, but first things first, they say. To make progress, we need to understand the problem.

In his graduation ceremony address to the MBA Class of 2024, Julian Duncan ’99 (BA), ’06 (MBA) described the seemingly small and insignificant moments of his life that grew to become his passion, career and purpose.

As a kid I attended an all-Black, inner-city private school that celebrated the traits and skills we demonstrated daily. One student’s certificate said “Artist,” while another’s said “Engineer.” Mine said “Leader.” It wasn’t as fun or easy to internalize as “Artist,” but I felt a sense of pride in this moniker. A seed was planted.

During summer months, I would spend weekdays at my grandparents’ house, which I loved doing because they always had great snacks and a big TV. I loved watching TV. My love for watching TV was only matched by my dread of playing outside. As I watched TV during the day, I began to notice patterns, specifically in advertising. I noticed that when cartoons ended and soap operas began, the commercials changed from GI Joe action figures and sugary cereals to household cleaning supplies and Calgon soap. I began to piece it together — certain people watch certain things at certain times, and companies use marketing to connect with them and sell them stuff. It was fascinating to me, even at a young age. Another seed.

Later, when I got to middle school, my PE coach told me to play football in seventh grade because I was kind of tall and kind of big. I blithely agreed — remember, playing sports outside was not my thing. After multiple botched attempts at putting on equipment, I went to my first football practice. Outside. In the heat. With 20 pounds of gear on. During that practice, I got absolutely crushed by an eighth grader. Not to mention, I couldn’t stop dry heaving after post-practice conditioning. Even so, I was hooked and rode the wave through high school varsity, the Rice Owl football team, NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League. Sports took me around the world and brought me joy. Yet another seed.

Much later in life, I found myself at Rice Business having a conversation with an advisor who asked the question, “Why are you here?” My response: “To increase my earning potential.”

The advisor said, “If that’s your sole reason, you may want to reconsider your place here.”

I was shocked.

But the advisor quickly kicked into mentor mode: “Once you earn the Rice Business MBA, you’ll be able to make money. But what you should consider is how to make money by doing something you love to do. Something you’re passionate about.”

Leadership. Marketing. Sports. All of a sudden, the seeds that were planted came together. From that point on, the challenge became finding the opportunity that made the best fit.

Thanks to my rigorous training at Rice Business, I was able to secure a spot in Nike’s coveted marketing rotational program, beating out hundreds of other MBAs. This opportunity led to a 10-year career with Nike, followed by becoming the first Black chief marketing officer of an NFL football team. And eventually, I returned home to Houston to serve as the chief marketing and strategy officer of my beloved Houston Rockets.

Throughout my life, I was challenged to discover what moved me and to connect it to a career pursuit. In each of those moments, a small spark of passion ignited something larger.

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However, my career path needed more than passion to solidify. I also needed a sense of purpose. Something that extends beyond my day-to-day work.

For a decade, I worked at Nike with my best friend, Jabari. During that time, thanks to mentors, advocates and our hard work, we were fortunate to be in leadership rooms that mid-level employees typically had no access to. We weren’t always in those rooms at the same time, but we often had the shared experience of being the only Black people there. We talked often about this and expressed our desire to transform those spaces.

During the height of the pandemic, Jabari and I observed compounding events that disproportionately impacted Black people in corporate roles. Not only were Black individuals still not in the right rooms, but they also faced higher unemployment rates. And those who had jobs had to contend with heightened racial tension, which held our nation in both a figurative and literal chokehold.

From this crucible, a shared purpose emerged for me and my friend — to provide mentorship for people of color seeking to advance into leadership roles in corporate spaces. Sixteen years after Jabari and I first met, our “why” manifested in the form of Monday Night Mentorship, a collective of 5,000 people that we serve by providing curriculum, content and community. Together, Jabari and I are transforming the complexion of leadership, one mentee at a time.

As I reflect on my journey, I now recognize the seeds of leadership, marketing and sports that took root early on. Over time, they grew into a career that allowed me to break barriers.

Today, as I work to mentor and uplift others, I see the fruits of these seeds blossoming in the lives of those I serve. When you plant seeds with care, nurture them with passion and guide them with purpose, they can grow into something extraordinary. 

In September, Rice hosted an Anniversary Gala to celebrate its 50-year legacy. In an evening that included remarks from Rice Business and university leadership, cocktails, dinner, and even a “50th” ice sculpture and acrobats, the school walked through its history and looked to its future.

Rice Business is one of four schools at the university celebrating upcoming milestone anniversaries, with the business school being the first.

“Current business challenges must be met by critical thinkers trained by world-class researchers and supported by world-class research networks.”
Peter Rodriguez, Dean

As we celebrate these important milestones, we not only honor the vibrant history of service and impact of these schools but also embrace the future with renewed vigor, Rice President Reginald DesRoches said. This academic year, as we embark on a new strategic plan, we are committed to building on and expanding this remarkable legacy, ensuring that Rice University continues to be a beacon of knowledge and creativity for generations to come.

Yan “Anthea” Zhang has spent her entire academic career at Rice Business, joining the school when it was still located in Herring Hall, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Southern California.

The walls, shelves and cabinets of her office in McNair convey a love for her family with framed photos and art from when her children Sophia (an associate at Goldman Sachs Bank) and James (today a second-year student at Rice’s Brown residential college) were younger. A family photo also shows her husband, Haiyang Li, the H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management. There are a lot of smiling faces in this room.

Students, visitors and colleagues can feel at ease when they stop by Zhang’s office, whether to chat or to exchange ideas from the comfy blue couch.

It’s also clearly a space where work gets done. Zhang uses the small whiteboard on her wall to work through modeling and logics with her Ph.D. students, and her shelves hold stacks of dataset documents, journals, articles and her recent book “Crossroads of Family Businesses in China: Succession and Transformation.”

2024 has been a professionally gratifying year for Zhang, professor and the Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Chair of Strategic Management and president of the Strategic Management Society. In April, she was elected to be a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), joining a prestigious group of scholars who have shaped the field of international business. She is also a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society. This semester, she is on sabbatical at INSEAD in France, where she’ll be continuing her research on female entrepreneurship in tech industries and succession issues in the context of family businesses.

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Credit-Card Autopay Can Benefit Consumers (a Little)

Nudging consumers to use autopay might seem like a straightforward way to help them pay down their credit card debt, but the reality is more complex. Recent studies suggest that while autopay can encourage some cardholders to make more than the minimum payment, the impact on overall debt reduction is minimal. For instance, many consumers set their autopay amounts only slightly above the minimum, leading to little progress in reducing their balances.

“We hoped nudging cardholders to adopt autopay would help them passively repay a bigger portion of their outstanding balance and this would reduce their debt, but that’s not what happened,” says Benedict Guttman-Kenney, assistant professor of finance.

“Repaying credit-card debt is hard for consumers, as is designing policies to try to help them do so,” says Guttman-Kenney. “A key reason for this is consumers frequently have little spare cash available to pay down their debt even when nudged to do so.” So, he adds, even when enrollment choices change, “it’s not sufficient to change the desired outcome —reducing credit-card debt.”

Aug. 7, 2024 | Lisa Ward

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Safety Should Be A Performance Driver

Safety is viewed as a fundamental right, yet many companies mismanage it, treating it as a compliance issue rather than a strategic priority. Despite significant investments in safety measures and regulatory oversight, workplace accidents and product recalls remain frequent. In 2023 alone, the U.S. saw 3,300 product recalls and 5,486 fatal work injuries.

Safety mismanagement occurs because executives frequently view it as a cost to be minimized, rather than as an opportunity to enhance performance and competitiveness. New research by Rice Business professors Vikas Mittal and Alessandro Piazza shows that when companies integrate safety into their core strategy, it can drive customer satisfaction, employee welfare and even financial returns. In one of their studies, 11,451 customers across 1,785 companies in 65 industries found that safety is associated with a 9% increase in overall customer satisfaction.

This satisfaction, in turn, drives a 13% increase in sales. By shifting their mindset and treating safety as a driver of value rather than a constraint, companies can not only protect their employees and customers but also gain a significant competitive advantage, turning safety into a key component of their success.

Sept–Oct, 2024 | Vikas Mittal, Alessandro Piazza and Sonam Singh

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The 4 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Saying ‘Yes’ To A Job Offer

Ask yourself whether you’ll enjoy crafting the new role ... Obviously, enjoying your job or role is important for life satisfaction and growth. Ask the following question from the decluttering guru Marie Kondo and Rice Business professor Scott Sonenshein — does this (part of the) role “spark joy”? Now to be clear, there will be parts of the role that are less “joy sparking” than others. Can you automate these less desirable tasks, using AI or similar tools?

In short, you can “craft” the role in a way that sparks more joy. Scale-ups and fast-growing startups are perfect places for job crafting. Many times, scale-up leaders only have a prototype conceptualization of your job. As one scale-up executive put it to me, “you really need to ask lots of questions to make sure what you think the role is matches what the scale-up thinks the role is. There is also a lot of room for negotiation.”

You might be asking yourself, do I have to completely love the new role? The answer is — it depends. If some answers are a clear no, then you know what to do. Just remember that these questions may inspire negotiation and “job crafting,” which in turn allows for the role to create hyper-growth for you, your career, and the organization.

May 10, 2024 | David Sluss

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Could a Change to the Goodwill Rule Boost Private Equity?

Accountants have been wringing their hands for decades over how to treat a business’s goodwill — the value of customer loyalty, human capital and synergies — when a company changes hands. Should it be allowed to sit on the books perhaps indefinitely, or should an acquirer write it off over a defined period of time?

Changing the rules to require that buyers amortize, or gradually expense, goodwill over 10 years would slash buyout prices, dramatically shrink the $1.6 trillion-a-year U.S. mergers and acquisitions market, and push more businesses into the arms of private-equity buyers, according to Rice Business’ Stefan J. Huber and Chicago Booth’s Charles McClure.

“Such changes in the makeup of winners can influence the ownership of a substantial portion of the economy,” the researchers write. “Adopting an accounting standard that amortizes goodwill reduces the relative strength of strategic bidders” but “does not affect financial bidders’ values.”

They estimate that such a shift would increase the likelihood of a financial bidder winning the takeover from nearly 30 percent to about 37 percent.

June 7, 2024 | Francine McKenna

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Texas Stock Exchange Proposal Raises Profile Of Texas MBA Programs

The proposed Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas is a step to secure Texas’ position as an economic powerhouse. The business-friendly air of Texas, which is now home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state, extends to the TXSE. MBA programs in the state may see new opportunities to attract top talent and keep people in Texas.

Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice Business, said it is a little early to tell. But pointed to the boom in financial institutions in Texas.

“MBA applicants typically target schools near where they would like to work,” Rodriguez said in a phone interview. “An exchange in Texas would move the balance toward us. We would expect to see more hiring directly into Texas-based institutions and corporations from Texas MBA programs.”

“We are looking to expand our finance programs in anticipation of what we hope will be continued growth in the finance industry in Texas,” Rodriguez adds.

The new stock exchange boosts opportunities for ambitious people to train in state, work in state and grow the economy of the state of Texas.

Updated June 10, 2024 | Dr. Marlena Corcoran

(Check out our spring issue for students from our Ph.D., MAcc, Undergrad, Online and Hybrid programs.)
 

Mercedes Moncada-Garcia, Full-Time MBA ’25

Born in Mexico City, Mercedes grew up in Guadalajara and is now a resident of Houston. She’s currently reading “Disciplined Entrepreneurship” by Bill Aulet. During the summer, she worked on an entrepreneurial reef restoration project. Her favorite memory on campus so far was the Partio hosted by the Latin Business Student Association, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, followed by the Valhalla afterparty.

Lucas Spangler, PMBA Weekend ’25

Lucas works as a senior manager at commercialization at NRG in Dallas. He grew up in Ely, Minnesota. His favorite memory at Rice Business is when a classmate frantically took off his tie as they walked into Valhalla so it wouldn’t get clipped! He is listening to “Fareed Zakaria GPS” and “Acquired” podcasts.

Mark Yang, PMBA Evening ’25

Mark now lives in Houston, 8,000 miles from Chengdu, China, where he was born. He has experience in healthcare and medtech and will work in management consulting next. His favorite memory on campus was celebrating his birthday with faculty, staff and classmates during Partio. Mark is reading “Never Finished” by David Goggins and listening to “Planet Money” and “Everyday Driver.”

Denise Buckley, EMBA ’25

A seasoned small-business-owner-turned-EMBA, Denise is fully embracing the art of living in the moment and navigating her next chapter. Her favorite memory on campus was her 50th birthday, celebrated with classmates, professors and her daughter (Brianna Buckley ’22), who surprised her in class with bundt cakes, much like the cupcakes her mom used to bring to her school on birthdays. The native New Yorker is reading “Die With Zero” by Bill Perkins.

In this issue, you’ll read about the “50 Things We Love About Rice Business.” I know I’m a bit biased, but there’s a lot to love about this school — especially how much we’ve grown. What started as a gift from Houston Endowment in 1974 became 55 students with two program options in 1977. Since then, we’ve become a top-ranked business school offering nine programs, including an undergraduate degree. We now have over 1,100 graduate students and a booming population of undergraduates studying with our world-renowned faculty and an alumni network of over 10,000.

One of my favorite things about the school and university is that we’re not afraid to do things differently when the market dictates it. We launched Rice’s first online degree, MBA@Rice, and followed that with a Hybrid MBA program — one of the first of its kind —because we knew from market research that flexibility in MBA degrees was highly valued. We also knew undergraduates wanted a business education similar in strength to what we could offer at the graduate level, so we created the undergraduate business major (read about our first class of graduates). And now, we look forward to the completion of a new building in 2026 that will accommodate this growth. Our commitment is to attract more talented and innovative students, faculty and staff to Rice, who will further improve our programs and research capabilities. This wonderful new facility is critical to fulfilling that commitment.

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Members of the Rice community came together to celebrate these successes in September at our 50th Anniversary Gala. It was truly a night to remember. What an honor it was to stand at the podium and look out at the alumni, donors, staff and faculty who have made Rice Business what it is today — and who will have a hand in who we will become moving forward.

As we wrap up our anniversary year, I ask you to think about the things you love about your business school and the ways you can join us in building its future. I truly believe Rice is home to some of the best minds in business, but no single dean, faculty member, donor or student creates this kind of legacy on their own. Thank you for being a part of our incredible story.

— Peter