Emory in the News

WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE A DOG?

Emory neuroscientist Gregory Berns studies how dogs think and believes that there are a lot more similarities between dogs and humans than previous-ly realized. His new book, What It’s Like to Be a Dog, sparked a nationwide conversation about man’s best friend in outlets including Good Morning America, the New York Times, and Scientific American.

THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF FOX NEWS

Channel-surfing voters who stumble across Fox News first in their cable news channel lineup are more likely to vote for a Republican presidential candidate, according to a study from Emory political scientist Gregory Martin. The study capitalized on a previously documented quirk of cable viewers—they’re more likely to watch stations with a lower channel number—to study the effect that watching cable news has on their votes. While many viewers of Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC may select that channel based on existing political ideology, some viewers may select a channel simply because it’s the first news channel they hit while clicking their remotes. In zip codes where Fox News had a low channel position, voters had a higher probability of voting Republican in presidential elections. The study was covered by the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and Vox.

CHEERING FOR OUR TEAM, BUT WHY?

Erin Tarver, assistant professor of philosophy at Oxford College and the author of the new book The I in Team, wrote a piece for the New York Times about the motivations and moral contradictions behind football fandom. “The extraordinary reach of football into fans’ lives makes perfect sense when we see it for what it is: the most popular mechanism in contemporary America for cultivating a sense of self that is rooted in a community,” Tarver, a lifelong football fan, writes. “In a world of uncertainty, fragmentation, and isolation, sports fandom offers us clear winners and losers, connection to family and community—and at its best, the assurance that we are really No. 1."