"In most newsrooms around the world, if there’s no conflict, there’s no story." Credit: Flickr/Graham Holliday. Some rights reserved.Recently, Michael I. Norton from Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely from Duke University completed a fascinating study with extraordinary findings.
Respondents were given a scenario whereby they could not choose the financial situation into which they were born. Based on this scenario they were asked to choose between a list of principles and values that best described the society in which they would want to live. There was an “A” list of principles and values defining the US and a “B” list of those defining Sweden. An astonishing 92% of the 6000 Americans polled overwhelmingly chose the list based on the defining principles and values of Sweden. But it gets better.
Hidden within the report is a beautiful truth that could change our political culture. Should we discover this truth about ourselves it would guarantee the peaceful demise of the status quo in both the US and, one could argue, in Canada and many other top-heavy, corporatised democracies.
