Law, Business And Politics

Rick Santorum is the favored candidate in Tennessee as the state approaches its Super Tuesday primary election March 6, according to a new poll from the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University. Read More

George W. Bush can probably look forward to an upswing in popularity as time goes by, say two Vanderbilt political scientists. A poll by CBS News and The New York Times near the end of Bush’s 2001-2009 presidency showed his approval rating at 22 percent, making him one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history. Read More

The conventional wisdom about Newt Gingrich's troubles at the Iowa caucuses may be mistaken, says John Geer of Vanderbilt University. Blaming a barrage of attack ads aimed at the former House speaker for his decline in the polls may be inaccurate, Geer believes. Read More

Groundbreaking new legal research from a team of Vanderbilt University and other researchers suggests that juror confusion over how to apply the Model Penal Code in criminal trials could cause major, unnoticed and life-altering sentencing errors. Read More

When the Republican presidential candidates ramp up anti-immigrant rhetoric this campaign season, they are likely to alienate conservative-leaning Latinos. Read More

Management professor David Owens of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management says that business and other leaders need to understand exactly which of the constraints are working against them to help create conditions that foster innovation instead of killing it. Read More

Applications are being accepted for the second class of Vanderbilt University’s innovative Ph.D/J.D. program combining the study of law and neuroscience. Vanderbilt launched the first such program in the country in 2010 when it enrolled Bowdoin College alumnus Matthew Ginther to be the first to take on the challenging curriculum that alternates classes at Vanderbilt Law School and the university’s graduate program in neuroscience. Read More

Economist Joni Hersch has calculated the first measures of sexual harassment risks at work by industry, age group, and sex. Hersch finds that female workers are six times more likely than male workers to experience sexual harassment on the job. Read More

New research by Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management professor Bruce Cooil and his coauthors finds that for all the attention companies pay to achieving high satisfaction levels among their customers, what matters most is how well a company ranks in comparison to rivals. No matter how much a customer likes a company or product, if they don’t like it more than the competition, they don’t always put their money where their mouth is. Read More

The struggle against juvenile crime may come down to one simple question, says a Vanderbilt University researcher: Do we want revenge or do we want results? If we want results, says legal expert Christopher Slobogin, we should dramatically reform the system to stress community-based treatment over incarceration. Read More

Larry Bartels, arguably the most influential political scientist of his generation, researches a mix of psychology and democracy for a holistic understanding of the political process. Read More

Consumers adopt innovation only when the costs—and risks—are low, says Vanderbilt marketing professor Steve Hoeffler. Read More

Research by Vanderbilt and Claremont political scientists show a significant number of American voters remain biased against Mormons and other religious minorities. Read More

The legal safeguard habeas corpus is being used in ways it was never intended, resulting in a costly waste of scarce legal resources and taxpayer dollars, according to two researchers who have studied thousands of habeas cases. Read More

The reason Volkswagen’s Star Wars-themed Super Bowl ad featuring a lovable little Darth Vader worked so well may lie in its narrative complexity, says Vanderbilt marketing professor Jennifer Escalas. Read More

Legal experts Nancy J. King and Joseph Hoffmann propose a new approach to habeas corpus cases, in this op-ed which ran in the April 17, 2011, New York Times. Read More

A private carbon labeling system could help make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions by leveraging consumer purchasing power. Read More

A clear safety culture and “conceptual toolkit” are needed to reduce medical mistakes, research from Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management finds. Read More

Researchers discover corporations gain clear financial benefits when individual employees make political donations. Read More

African Americans have continually crossed the color line and assimilated into white communities since the 17th century, without science or surgery. A new book reveals how, and why. Read More