Elfenbein's work empirically measures the ways in which people communicate emotional cues. She is compiling mounting evidence that these cues are culturally influenced. I.e., what represents anger in one culture may look like fear to another. If human beings misinterpret the cues of others in social interaction, bad things can happen. This research is relevant given the mess of things the United States government has made of things in Iraq, Afghanistan, and our other recent military travels.
The good congressmen however suggests...
“I am sure that some believe that these are very fine academic studies. That’s excellent. Within the realms of academic halls, they may think a number of things are fine academic studies. That’s not the question,” Campbell said on the House floor. “The question before us is, do these things rise to the standard of requiring expenditures of taxpayer funds in a time of deficits, proposed tax increases and raiding Social Security funds?”
Actually as a fiscal conservative, I share his enthusiasm for carefully considering how the government should spend citizens money. Yet, it strikes me as disingenuous to go after a $200,000 research grant supporting work that has great potential to improve foreign policy, while this idiot says nothing about the billions of dollars that we've squandered through mismanagement and hubris in Iraq. [And to my friends and family who are soldiers serving in Iraq, this is not meant as a criticism of you. You follow the orders that you're given. If only our political leaders shared your respect for our country.]
SeeInside Higher Ed's coverage for more details on this particular item. Certainly, there is no small degree of self-interest on my part in criticizing this no-nothing boob. But, to be clear, I've never received funding from the NSF. My work is not yet good enough to be funded by NSF. The federal funding of research is important. Without this kind of support ideas without an immediate financial payoff are unlikely to blossom.
