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Big name corporations more likely to commit fraud

Researchers from Washington State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Miami University examined the characteristics of more than 250 U.S. public corporations that were involved in financial securities fraud identified in Securities and Exchange Commission filings from 2005-2013. They were then compared to a control sample of firms that were not named in SEC fraud filings.

Jennifer Schwartz.
Schwartz

“Prestigious companies, those that are household names, were actually more prone to engage in financial fraud, which was very surprising,” said Jennifer Schwartz, WSU sociologist and lead author on the study. “We thought it would be companies that were struggling financially, that were nearing bankruptcy, but it was quite the opposite. It was the companies that thought they should be doing better than they were, the ones with strong growth imperatives—those were the firms that were most likely to cheat.”

“What these companies were doing was essentially fudging the numbers, lying to investors, other companies and the SEC,” said Schwartz. “Eventually, you have to make up for the money that was lost, that really never existed, so shareholders lose money, people lose retirement plans, people lose jobs. It’s very, very damaging.”

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Fast Company
The Ladders

What makes songs go viral? Experts at Washington State University explain

To climb to the top of the charts, artists aren’t turning to the radio anymore. They’re using social media platforms to get noticed.

The song Drivers License, which is number one in the world at the moment, became hugely popular on TikTok before it went to the top of the charts.

Dean Luethi.
Luethi

“I think if you have a high aesthetic response to a piece of music, it helps it stick,” said Dean Luethi, Director of WSU’s School of Music.

Luethi says producers try to write hooks every seven seconds, because that’s how quickly listeners tune out.

“The thing that makes it stick is the simplicity of it and perhaps something that reminds you of something,” Luethi said.

It’s easy to think videos you see on social media are just for fun, but it could be the next hit you hear on the radio.

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abc10

Conspiratorial thinking: Why conspiracy theories are difficult to eliminate – even before Donald Trump

The beliefs that prompted hundreds of people to violently break into the U.S. Capitol earlier this month are not the kind that can be easily explained away.

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

Conspiracy theories exist across the political spectrum, said Cornell Clayton, director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University. But Republicans, he argued, have ignored the calls from some within the party – including, famously, the conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr. in the 1960s – to reject conspiratorial factions.

“This has been going on, on both the left and the right, but it’s been asymmetrical,” Clayton said.

Experts say rooting it out once it’s taken hold is a difficult, if not impossible, task. Clayton pointed to the current movement by social media outlets to remove accounts that peddle in conspiracy theories as a good first step.

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The Spokesman Review

Top WSU research stories 2020

From “murder hornets” to life on other planets, the most popular Washington State University research coverage in a year dominated by COVID-19 was largely tangential to the pandemic—playing on questions of how things could get worse, or how we might leave this troubled planet altogether. Other stories that saw wide audiences involved the pandemic more directly or research so novel it could not be ignored like the creation of the first-ever surrogate sires, male livestock able to pass on the most-desired genetics of donor animals.

This was not a typical year, but the news stories about WSU research that did the best still had a focus on real-world impact. Health-related stories, in particular, did well, such as whether parents should hide their stress from kids, the potential benefits of cannabis or whether exercise helped people deal with their pandemic fears.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch.
Schulze-Makuch

Among many top articles about important research happening in the College of Arts and Sciences, the idea of “superhabitable” planets, worlds that might be better than our own, caught a lot of people’s imaginations across the globe. Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an adjunct WSU professor in the School of the Environment and also with the Technical University in Berlin, and his colleagues came up with a set of characteristics that are better for life and found 24 of these potentially wonderful planets.

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WSU Insider

Cannabis use both helps and hurts entrepreneurial creativity

When entrepreneurs dream up ideas for new businesses, cannabis use might help, and hinder, their creativity, according to a new study in the Journal of Business Venturing by Washington State University researchers.

The study found that cannabis-using entrepreneurs generated new business ideas such as a weightless, gravity-free virtual reality workout, that were more original, but less feasible, compared to those who do not use cannabis.

Emily LaFance smiling while holding a cute puppy.
LaFrance
Carrie Cuttler.
Cuttler

The study was conducted by a team of WSU researchers, including Carrie Cuttler, assistant professor of psychology, and Emily LaFrance, recent WSU psychology Ph.D. graduate.

As legalization of cannabis continues across the country and the stigma of the drug fades, the researchers hope their work will help paint a clearer picture of the implications of cannabis use among entrepreneurs.

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