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When Consumers See It Coming: How Anticipation Affects the Domestic Cost of Tariffs
Get PDFTariffs implemented by President Trump in 2018 were unexpected and significant, incurring large costs to U.S. consumers. This study examines the effect of tariff anticipation on price, quantity, and value effect on imports in the United States. Specifically, it focuses on tariffs implemented during Obama’s second term in office from 2012 to 2016 on the automotive, technology, and manufacturing industries. The findings present a significant divergence from the literature on the effects of 2018 tariffs, finding a near full pass-through of tariffs to foreign exporter prices rather than U.S. consumers. Specifically, a one percent increase in tariffs resulted in a drop in consumer prices, quantities, and values. Additionally, this study found that anticipation at the six-month, but not three-month, level significantly mitigated tariff short-term effects on consumers, suggesting consumers preemptively build inventories to shield themselves from anticipated higher prices. This study reveals that selected tariffs from 2012 to 2015 generated a consumer deadweight loss of 8.2 billion for the U.S., indicating these tariffs’ short-term benefit. Further, I find that when consumers anticipate tariffs, the total cost to consumers is diminished
Perceiving Bias in the Age of AI: The Influence of AI-Generated Content and Warning Labels on Explicit Racial Biases
No full textAs Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly common, examining its influence on human cognition is important. Two experiments are proposed to investigate whether racially biased outputs from AI chatbots influence the users\u27 explicit racial attitudes and whether warning labels can mitigate this effect with one-time or repeated exposures. Based on the Schema Theory, Experiment 1 aims to examine the effect of a single exposure to biased AI-generated article summaries on explicit bias and whether a warning label would disrupt the process. Drawing from the Elaboration Likelihood Model, experiment 2 aims to test whether the warning label’s effectiveness declines across repeated sessions due to desensitization and cognitive fatigue. The findings are expected to demonstrate that biased content can potentially reinforce prejudice through familiar cognitive pathways, and warning labels, while initially effective, will lose impact over time. These proposed results have important implications for theories of persuasion and human-AI interaction, and they emphasize the need for user-centered interventions in responsible AI designs for chatbots
Living Networks: Reimagining Social Capital Beyond Institutions
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the decline of social capital in the United States and explores how community connection can be rebuilt outside of traditional government institutions. Motivated by the question of whether social capital can be rebuilt within bureaucratic structures, the research evaluates the role of alternative, agile models such as local volunteer organizations, mutual aid networks, third spaces, and NGOs. Using a comparative case study approach and qualitative analysis, I examine initiatives across different cultures that foster social trust and connection beyond the limitations of formal systems. The findings illustrate that adaptive models of social capital that are not based in formal government institutions tend to be more effective in building social capital. This is because unlike government structures, they align with the inherently relational and dynamic nature of social capital. When social capital declines, so do individual health and wellbeing, trust in public institutions, and democratic norms. On the other hand, when social capital is flourishing, societies experience greater individual and collective wellbeing, and increased trust in democracy. This thesis argues that the most promising responses to the erosion of social capital lie not in formal governmental structures, but rather in reimagining and amplifying the living networks that already sustain human connection at the ground level
Competitive Effects of Targeted School Vouchers: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Study of Arizona’s ESA Program
Get PDFThis thesis examines the competitive effects of Arizona’s targeted Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, which operated from 2012 to 2022, on public school performance. Under this program, students attending D-rated or F-rated schools were made eligible for school vouchers. I analyze both short-term (2015) and longer-term (2019) impacts. Using a sharp regression discontinuity design centered on the threshold between C- and D-rated schools under Arizona’s A–F school rating system, I estimate the effect of voucher eligibility on standardized test outcomes in English Language Arts and Math, as measured by the AzMERIT assessment. The results show that voucher eligibility led to statistically significant and sustained improvements in Math proficiency rates, with more modest gains in English. Effects were strongest in 2019, suggesting that accountability-linked voucher programs may produce cumulative positive effects over time. These findings contribute to the broader debate over school voucher policy by providing evidence that small, targeted, and accountability-driven voucher initiatives can produce sustained, positive competitive effects in public schools. This study underscores the importance of program design in shaping voucher policy outcomes, particularly for students who remain in public schools
Motor Expertise and Sensorimotor Action Simulation: An EEG Study
No full textFrom social situations to competitive sports, humans move their bodies in distinct ways to accomplish specific goals. Research suggests that this motor expertise may influence how we view others’ movements as well, with highly trained dancers and athletes showing increased brain activity in sensorimotor circuits when observing movements from their specific motor repertoires. These results are consistent with action simulation theory, the idea that we understand others’ mental states by internally recreating their movements with our own sensorimotor systems. Supporting this idea, electroencephalography (EEG) of the mu rhythm, a brain oscillation over sensorimotor cortex between 10 and 12 Hz, shows reductions both when executing one’s own movements and observing the actions of others. However, the combined effects of action familiarity and motor expertise on the mu rhythm have not been previously explored. Here we examined mu suppression during the observation of movements that varied in action familiarity (Own vs. Other) in participants median split by self-reported athletic and/or dance experience (High vs. Low). Participants (N = 36) completed two separate sessions in which their movements were digitized using motion capture and their brain activity to the resulting animations recorded with 128-channel EEG. Mu suppression was measured between 10 and 12 Hz for sensors of interest defined by a motor execution task (bimanual finger tapping) in a separate sample. Contrary to our predictions, we found no significant differences in mu suppression to own vs. other movements between individuals reporting high (median years = 13.6 ± 1.98) versus low motor expertise (median years = 2.33 ± 2.79), in part due to limited statistical power due to the small sample size of this study. While further data should be collected to enhance statistical power, these results suggest that enhanced action simulation in individuals with expertise may be limited to highly trained movements
Where I Found: A Film About Stillness
No full textMy college years have not been easy to say the least. My freshman year, I experienced severe mental health issues that forced me to take a leave from college and ultimately led to a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Throughout my college years, it seemed that the only way for me to stay afloat at times was to sensitize to my environment and escape my logical brain. I sought out places that gave me permission to feel my emotions freely, and those places became my refuges. Chapman University, the Thompson Creek Trail, Studio A at Roberts Pavilion, Haldeman Pool, the Claremont Village, and Mt. Baldy provided space for me to be when I did not know how to exist comfortably in my body. Backed and inspired by media theory and video artists, I sought to create a film that expresses how I feel and think about these places. I aim to show vulnerability through a visual collage and poetry in hopes to inspire the audience to get in touch with their own vulnerability. A contribution to the portrayal of individual perception in media, I show the audience where I found stillness
Political Cults on College Campuses: How Universities Designed to Challenge Totalitarian Thinking May Now Enable It
Get PDFCults are typically associated with fringe religious or spiritual movements rather than political causes. Yet as American politics increasingly supplants religion as a central source of identity and belonging, our political culture has taken on more cult-like characteristics. This thesis develops a framework for identifying political cults by synthesizing scholarly work on ideological totalism, psychological manipulation, and group dynamics. It then applies this framework to assess the rise of anti-Israel protests on U.S. college campuses in the wake of the October 7th terrorist attack. While this thesis finds that this movement should not be classified as a political cult outright, it exhibits several cult-like tendencies—including binary worldviews, ideological totalism, and social isolation—that raise concerns about its trajectory. This analysis suggests that these groups, if left unchecked, have the potential to evolve more into a full-fledged political cult. Overall, this paper contends that political cults on college campuses pose a serious threat to democratic values, free inquiry, and individual autonomy, revealing how easily idealistic impulses can be co-opted into totalist frameworks that discourage dissent, rational debate, and independent thought
Public-Private Interests for a Circular Bioeconomy: Anaerobic Digestion in California’s Food Manufacturing Sector
No full textThis thesis argues that California’s next step toward reducing organic waste inefficiency lies in the food manufacturing sector, where integrated anaerobic digestion (AD) systems can turn waste streams into both energy and tools to improve soil health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and filter water and soil contaminants. Although California leads globally in environmental action, it struggles with fossil fuel reliance and organic waste exceeding the capacity of processing facilities. Encouraging on-site AD within industrial food facilities can substantially boost renewable energy production and grid resilience while advancing the state’s circular bioeconomy goals. To realize this potential, the state should simplify permitting processes, explicitly include AD systems in existing renewable energy funding programs, and strengthen public-private partnerships focused on research and development
Leisure for Justice, Virtue for Democracy: An Inquiry into Renewing the Soul of the Democratic Citizen
No full textIn this thesis, I aim to bring together two seemingly irreconcilable philosophical accounts: John Rawls’ political conception of justice as fairness and Alasdair MacIntyre’s communitarian moral theory. I argue that Rawls’ justice as fairness provides a strong political framework for the protection of basic rights and liberties, pluralism, and distributive justice. However, his account does not adequately articulate the mechanisms by which historically embedded individuals develop into communities of virtuous citizens capable of maintaining just institutions. In particular, Rawls’ conception of the moral agent’s two moral powers requires conditions and means for moral development that his framework does not sufficiently address. I will begin by reviewing Rawls’ theory of justice and highlight specific gaps and tensions within Rawls’ framework. To address these theoretical shortcomings, I will use MacIntyre’s conception of virtues, shared practices, and the narrative self, supplemented by the Aristotelian conception of leisure. I will demonstrate how aspects of MacIntyre’s account integrate smoothly into Rawls’ justice as fairness. I will then show how this joint framework provides the moral infrastructure for the development of a Rawlsian citizen through shared practices, virtues, and communal standards of excellence. For citizens to pursue essential shared practices, they must have discretionary time. Expanding the index of primary social goods to include leisure, and establishing a state responsibility to build civic infrastructure for shared practices, ensures all citizens may develop into moral agents capable of realizing Rawls’ highest-order interests. This complete liberal-communitarian account offers a corrective framework for democratic citizens’ moral development. Beyond theoretical philosophical inquiry, this thesis may suggest means for addressing the fragmentation and isolation plaguing contemporary liberal democracies
Closer to Equality, Further From Each Other: The New Gender Gap
No full textThis thesis explores an emergent paradox in American society: as gender equality has advanced over the past half-century, men and women have grown increasingly distant across crucial areas of life. Through a multi-dimensional analysis spanning education, politics, and interpersonal relationships, the study documents measurable divergences between the sexes. In education, women now surpass men at every level, raising questions about shifting cultural incentives and the evolving structure of opportunity. Politically, a steady gender gap has widened dramatically among younger generations, driven largely by a leftward shift among young women and a cultural realignment among young men. In interpersonal relations, mutual understanding and trust between the sexes are fraying, with data suggesting growing skepticism and misalignment about relationships, marriage, and gender roles. While not claiming a single causal explanation, this project demonstrates that the growing social distance between men and women is real, measurable, and consequential for the stability of American institutions and culture. Ultimately, the thesis warns that a society where men and women become alienated from each other is a fragile one that poses the danger of undermining both personal fulfillment and collective resilience