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New Harris Poll Survey in Partnership with WNYC Reveals What Unites...

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WHO Designates Video Game Addiction As A Mental Health Disorder

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WSJ Top 25 Tech Companies to Watch 2018

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Now: We wrap up our series on The Eights by taking a look at what divides Americans in 2018 with @HarrisPoll's @MBDAntonio and @SykesCharlie. Tune in on https://t.co/JE6GnVgu5p.

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Tune in now to @WNYC: @BrianLehrer wraps up the "The Eights" series on culture wars in America with new research from @HarrisPoll feat @MBDAntonio https://t.co/jA7fpmKDJm

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New Harris Poll Survey in Partnership with WNYC Reveals What Unites And Divides Americans...

For the past seven weeks, WNYC's daily call-in program, The Brian Lehrer Show, has partnered with The Harris Poll on a new series called "The Eights", which seeks to understand how America arrived at For the past seven weeks, WNYC's daily call-in program, The Brian Lehrer Show, has partnered with The Harris Poll on a new series called "The Eights", which seeks to understand how America arrived at its current highly polarized state by dissecting the country's culture wars in years ending in 8: 1948, 1958, 1968, 1978, 1988, 1998, 2008. In 2018, we continue the trail with a new Harris Poll survey for WNYC that reveals what elements unite and divide Americans, and why.

The findings of the new survey were disclosed at a live taping of the show with The Harris Poll's executive editor, Michael D'Antonio, and Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University. According to the poll, current factors that largely unite Americans include: making healthcare more affordable, being open to alternative viewpoints, being involved in local community, having more things for sale that are made in America, less discrimination based on people's beliefs or identities, women having more power in society and more power and respect for African Americans (70% of whites said they would feel more included if African Americans had more power).

However, when Americans were asked if social justice movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo would have a positive or negative impact on society, 70% of African Americans said the movements were having a positive impact, but only 47% of whites agreed. Furthermore, half of white Americans (50%) said the movements were doing more harm than good.

D'Antonio explained that some views indicate aspirational notions as people are often hesitant about disclosing their biases to pollsters; similar sentiments about social justice campaigns were echoed during the civil rights movements of the 60s. In theory, Americans seem to like these aspirational values and desire conversations, but in practice (as we see with The Harris Poll's GLAAD study on LGBTQ acceptance in America) there is a disconnect; they don't follow up on those things they claim they value.

Additionally, almost every year since 1966, The Harris Poll has conducted the alienation index to determine how alienated Americans feel from the country's leadership. By asking Americans, among other things, if they feel people running the country don't care about them and the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer, we try to discern people's sense of agency and their wellbeing to estimate how alienated they feel. The country's alienation index was 29 when it started in 1966 and it has risen steadily ever since. It reached a record-high of 70 in 2014 and 2016, during the Obama years and dropped by three points in the first year of Donald Trump's presidency. As Antonio pointed out, people sense of alienation are largely influenced by who is in power.

Greer added that the the U.S is still a country that has four pillars: capitalism, anti-black racism, white supremacy and patriarchy. "For white Americans equity equals discrimination," she said.

The history of post-World War II America is a history of a cycle of social progress and backlash. Former president Barack Obama put it aptly in his 2016 commencement address at Rutgers University:

"...America’s progress has never been smooth or steady. Progress doesn’t travel in a straight line. It zigs and zags in fits and starts. Progress in America has been hard and contentious, and sometimes bloody. It remains uneven and at times, for every two steps forward, it feels like we take one step back."

Tune in to The Brian Lehrer Show airing today from 10am-noon on WNYC 93.9 FM, AM 820 and wnyc.org to hear the last episode of "The Eights" which will explore what elements divide the country and why Americans are stuck in their political tribes.

4 min Read

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Gender Equality and Female Leadership Take Center Stage At Cannes Lions Festival

In the era of #MeToo and the renewed calls for women's rights, it was no surprise that raising visibility for female leadership was spotlighted at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity In the era of #MeToo and the renewed calls for women's rights, it was no surprise that raising visibility for female leadership was spotlighted at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Monday, June 18. The theme was featured in a session titled: “The New Small Forces Impacting Women, Female Entrepreneurship and Gender Equality.” Organized by the Shelley Zalis of The Female Quotient and Girls Lounge collective, the panel unveiled relevant research from The Harris Poll's CEO, John Gerzema, and MicroTrends Squared, a book by Stagwell's founder Mark Penn.

In conversation with Axios co-founder Mike Allen, Zalis and Gerzema, Penn explored micro-trends from his book that are affecting working women today. One of these small forces is "Second-Fiddle Husbands," which reveals a microtrend of men who by choice or circumstance are not the primary bread winners in the family. As more American women enter the workforce, the traditional notion of the man as the breadwinner is fading. A Harris Poll-TFQ survey reports that 42% of women are the family breadwinners. Attitudes toward parenting and work are reflecting a more egalitarian outlook towards child care and career. Consequently, there is growing comfort with the idea of women as breadwinners, and it is especially prevalent among millennial men.

The trend can be beneficial to both men and women. While men learn not be solely defined by their jobs, women receive the marital support they need to attain self-actualization, thrive and even lead in the workplace. This is a plus for society at large, especially aspiring female leaders. Research from the Harris Poll and The Female Quotient found that visibility of female leaders is critical to empowering other women to lead. 81% of women say when they see women in leadership positions, they're encouraged to believe that they can also have a leadership position.

Beyond the changing family dynamics, the panel discussed workplace harassment, rewriting the rules of the workplace, the role of HR in creating healthy work environments where all workers can succeed, the rise of the American side hustle, and the age-old question: Can women really have it all? Harris Poll CEO, Gerzema, pointed out that 92% of Americans say drastic changes need to be made to create equality, the most important changes falling on HR include tackling gender norms, harassment training and taking a stance.

On rewriting workplace rules, Zalis added: “HR departments and leaders are not set up to succeed. Even just the name needs to change. We should evolve to a Chief Diversity Officer or Chief Belonging Officer.”

Over 9 in 10 Americans are calling for drastic changes in human resources, demanding a true commitment from these departments to create gender equality in the workplace.

3 min Read

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WHO Designates Video Game Addiction As A Mental Health Disorder

On June 18, the World Health Organization added video game addiction, or "gaming disorder," to its latest revised draft of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), with the classificatio On June 18, the World Health Organization added video game addiction, or "gaming disorder," to its latest revised draft of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), with the classification expected to become official in 2019. Playing video games for hours on end doesn't necessarily mean you have the disorder, but as WHO reports, the disease emerges "when the pattern of gaming behavior is of such a nature and intensity that it results in marked distress or significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning."

Many parents have long complained about the impact of video game addiction on children and WHO's recent designation appears to validate their concerns. In fact, the issue has become so pronounced that a growing number of psychologists across the United States have begun to specialize in treating children who struggle with compulsive gaming.

Back in 2007, the Harris Poll conducted a study for researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University, which was one of the earliest revelations that children could become addicted to playing video games. The study found that 8.5 percent of American youths ages 8 to 18 who play video games showed multiple signs of behavioral addiction.

To determine gaming addiction, Gentile modified diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling into questions on video game use. Gamers were considered "pathological" if they reported at least six of the 11 symptoms, which included spending increasing amounts of time and money on video games to feel the same level of excitement, irritability or restlessness when play is scaled back, skipping chores or homework, etc. Four times as many boys as girls were considered "pathological gamers."

Children deemed pathological gamers did worse in school, had trouble paying attention in class and reported feeling "addicted." They were twice as likely to report attention-deficit disorder or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The study also found that 88 percent of the American children ages 8 to 18 play video games and the findings also suggest that 3 million children in that age range in the country are addicted "or at least have problems of the magnitude" that require help.

The subject, however, doesn't just affect children. Today, 2.6 billion people around the world play video games, including two-thirds of American households, according to the Entertainment Software Association. And despite the rising fears about gaming addiction, tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter are increasingly competing with each other in the $36 billion livestream video games industry. On the other hand, others like Google and Apple are working on “digital wellness” apps to try to deter excessive phone use.

WHO adds that health concerns associated with gaming behavior are not limited to gaming disorder, but also include other health problems—such as insufficient physical activity, bad diet, eyesight or hearing problems, musculoskeletal problems, sleep deprivation, aggressive behavior and even depression.

Including gaming disorder in ICD-11 was based on reviews of available evidence and a consensus of experts from different disciplines and geographical regions. As the New York Times reports the designation could also "make gamers more willing to seek treatment, encourage more therapists to provide it and increase the chances that insurance companies would cover it."

3 min Read

Brand

B2B Marketing Has Evolved Into Something Beautiful, And It’s Time For Marketers To Adapt

By Harris Poll CEO, John Gerzema | Forbes | When I started out (around the time Duran Duran roamed the planet), business-to-business (B2B) marketing was confined to the domain of the literal. The cus By Harris Poll CEO, John Gerzema | Forbes |

When I started out (around the time Duran Duran roamed the planet), business-to-business (B2B) marketing was confined to the domain of the literal. The customer was deemed rational and analytical, so the messaging was bland and unimaginative. B2B meant “boring-to-boring.” All the communications felt like PowerPoint presentations. We spoke in the native language of sales collateral and trade show jargon. And a bulk of the work seemed dependent on sales teams’ connections and cold calling target clients.

Yet, over the past decade, we’ve seen B2B marketing evolve into “business-to-beautiful” marketing -- marketing that illuminates the beautiful stories behind businesses today, expressing their visions and values in society. Suddenly, some of the best work is aimed at procurement executives through thought leadership, branded content, social media and content marketing strategies that drive a wonderful overhead appeal to shareholders and lovers of great narratives.

The shift was inevitable, in my opinion, given the rise of the internet and social media. What we’ve realized through social is that businesses are inherently emotional beings, they are creations of our imaginations, rivers of human growth and determiners of where we build our future communities. B2B marketing is no longer isolated in the ivory tower, creating empires unknown by the general public. Instead, “B2Beautiful” marketing has made the connection between B2B storytelling and our human growth potential. These B2Beautiful stories captivate our imaginations and trigger emotional resonance -- key ingredients in building that residual stickiness factor in an attention-deficit world.

My company, The Harris Poll, recently released the Reputation Quotient study (registration required), which reports that contemporary drivers are found in today’s consumer desires, and many of the storytelling strategies employed by B2C marketers are becoming increasingly applicable to B2B marketing.

We see brilliant examples of brands implementing B2Beautiful campaigns today and engaging communities even in functional, low-interest categories. Maersk, for instance, is humanizing logistics services by personifying its giant cargo ships and documenting their travels through stunning visual images on Instagram. Cisco’s award-winning documentary, The Network Effect, highlights telecom development stories, while companies such as Salesforce and The Mosaic Company have created engaging podcasts. The Mosaic Company’s podcast, “The Great Yield Mystery,” featured a dramatic audio play about two farmers trying to understand why their harvest came short -- it even offered listeners clues to solve the mystery and win prizes.

Read more at Forbes.

2 min Read

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WSJ Top 25 Tech Companies to Watch 2018

By Dave Pettit | The Wall Street Journal | Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity. Startups working in these hot areas of the technology industry take more than half of the spots on By Dave Pettit | The Wall Street Journal |

Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity.

Startups working in these hot areas of the technology industry take more than half of the spots on this year’s Wall Street Journal listing of 25 technology companies to watch. The list identifies startups that show signs of becoming emerging leaders in the tech industry.

“Those three make a lot of sense,” says Charles Moldow, a general partner at Foundation Capital, a venture-capital firm in Palo Alto, Calif. “These are the areas we are most focused on,” he says.

Artificial intelligence has benefited from advances in processing power and analysis that are opening myriad new ways to create products. Meanwhile, growing attention to cryptocurrencies has helped persuade a crop of highly skilled entrepreneurs to work on putting the underlying blockchain technology to various uses.

As for the third: “Cybersecurity should be a perennial anchor on the list,” Mr. Moldow says. “So long as there are black hats, there will need to be white hats.”

The Journal 25 isn’t a ranking of every company working in the hot corners of tech. Nor does it consist of companies with billion-dollar valuations; far from it. Rather, the list spotlights young companies—all founded since the start of 2013—that have attracted the attention of the tech community, and cash from venture-capital investors. These are companies that have expanded their workforces and, in some cases, have prominent backers and founders with prior entrepreneurial success.

Outside of the three predominant technology fields, companies on the list include those working in areas such as health care, financial services, education, and business solutions such as drones.

Tech Companies to Watch starts with a survey of technology-industry watchers. Nominations were taken in an online survey conducted by the Harris Poll among executives and others who make technology purchasing decisions for businesses, as well as a survey that included readers of certain Wall Street Journal publications and attendees of Journal technology conferences. Survey participants were asked to identify young companies that are innovative, growing fast and expected to continue to grow fast. Only those with valuations of $50 million to $500 million were considered for the list.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

2 min Read

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New Harris Poll Survey in Partnership with WNYC Reveals What Unites...

Gender Equality and Female Leadership Take Center Stage At Cannes Lions...

WHO Designates Video Game Addiction As A Mental Health Disorder

B2B Marketing Has Evolved Into Something Beautiful, And It’s Time For...

WSJ Top 25 Tech Companies to Watch 2018

THP Archives

New Harris Poll Survey in Partnership with WNYC Reveals What Unites And Divides Americans...

Gender Equality and Female Leadership Take Center Stage At Cannes Lions Festival

WHO Designates Video Game Addiction As A Mental Health Disorder

B2B Marketing Has Evolved Into Something Beautiful, And It’s Time For Marketers To Adapt

WSJ Top 25 Tech Companies to Watch 2018

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