Unless you’re a CPA or own a large business, it might be hard to see the relevance of accounting. While it’s true that the average person doesn’t necessarily need to be able to read a corporate balance sheet, Professor Ed deHaan says a deeper understanding of accounting — a greater fluency in the “language of business” — can help everyone get a grip on their finances and make more empowered decisions for their lives.

deHaan is a professor of accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society, he explores why accounting principles are crucial given money's centrality across personal and professional domains, and how by proactively fostering financial literacy, we can empower a generation of informed consumers and leaders equipped to harness money as a force for good.

Key Takeaways:

• Financial education should start early: deHaan advocates for teaching middle and high school students fundamental money management skills like understanding credit, interest, and risk. By equipping youth with financial knowledge before they face major decisions, we can set them up for long-term success and empowerment.

• Approach financial choices rationally: deHaan encourages individuals to cultivate an "economic lens" when making money decisions. This means objectively weighing not just immediate costs, but opportunity costs and long-term trade-offs too. In evaluating what to do with your money, he suggests asking: Would you advise a family member to do the same thing with theirs?

• Financial institutions have a systematic advantage: deHaan warns that financial service providers, like casinos, inherently have the upper hand over consumers. Lack of transparency and human biases like overconfidence often lead to predictable wealth transfers from individuals to financial institutions. Combatting this requires proactive financial education, regulatory protections, and individuals staying vigilant and informed.

More Resources:

• Ed deHaan, faculty profile
• "On a Mission to Teach the World the Basics of Personal Finance"
• "The Hidden Costs of Clicking the “Buy Now, Pay Later” Button"
• "Retail Investors Are Making Simple — Yet Costly — Mistakes When Trading Corporate Bonds"

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If we create good institutions, then we can live up to our good intentions.

Knowing and articulating our values is essential. But when the metaphorical Siren’s song fills the air, is knowing our values enough to ensure that we live by them?

According to Ken Shotts, a professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, having stated values is just expressing aims not necessarily actualizing them through concrete policies and practices. “We need those binding institutions to help us live up to those intentions,” Shotts says.

From incentive structures within organizations to regulatory bodies, laws, and civic organizations in society at large, Shotts explains how carefully designed institutions can ensure that we don’t just espouse good intentions, but that we actually live up to them.

Key Takeaways:

• Good intentions aren’t enough: While defining our values is essential, we need binding institutions to ensure those values are upheld at the personal level, organizational level, and in society at large.

• Keeping businesses on track: At an organizational level, key "institutions" include tangible incentive structures like compensation, promotion criteria, monitoring processes, and cultural norms around praiseworthy and unacceptable behavior.

• Keeping society on track: On a broader scale, societal institutions like regulations, laws, and civic groups provide crucial checks and balances to channel business activities toward positive societal impact beyond just profits.

More Resources:

• Ken Shotts is The David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of Political Economy.
• Ken Shotts, Stanford GSB Voices profile
• Leading With Values, by Ken Shotts and Neil Malhotra
• Ken Shotts on Think Fast, Talk Smart – Leadership and Ethics: How to Communicate Your Core Values

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member.

Find out more about If/Then.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Whether or not robots can feel is a question that, at least for now, might be better left to the philosophers. But what’s becoming increasingly clear, says Associate Professor Szu-chi Huang, is that robots do have the capacity to make us feel.

In this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society, Huang delves into the effect that robots can have not just on our emotions, but on our behavior.

Huang’s research shows that when people witness people helping others, they’re inspired to do the same. This is what she calls “pro-social” behavior. But she wondered: what happens when a robot is the one lending a helping hand? Are people inspired to by machines?

To find out, Huang designed a study where participants were shown various news reports about natural disasters and the measures being taken in response. In some stories, the “heroes” were human first responders; in others, they were robots.

“In both cases, we [explained] in detail what those heroes were doing,” says Huang. Whether dragging survivors out of ruins after an earthquake or disinfecting hospitals amidst a surging COVID-19 pandemic, “The actions are exactly the same, but the heroes are different.”

Following test subjects’ exposure to these stories, Huang measured their willingness to engage in pro-social behavior, like donating to support children in need. What she found was those who saw robot heroes were significantly less likely to donate than those who saw humans take the same actions. “The robot stories actually make people feel less inspired,” says Huang. “And that has important consequences. If using robots lowers our intention to help others, it could have a pretty big negative social impact.”

So what do we do as AI and robots play an increasing role in our lives? How do we embrace their benefits without downgrading our humanity and pro-sociability in the process? On this episode of If/Then, Huang explores how “humanizing” robots — highlighting their vulnerability, autonomy, and finitude — helps us connect with them and ourselves more deeply.

Takeaways

1. We are inspired to help people when we see others doing so. But what if it’s robots lending a helping hand? Are we still motivated to also help?
2. How we “humanize” robots — choosing features that highlight their vulnerability, autonomy, and finitude — could help us connect with them and ourselves more deeply.

More Resources:

• Robots or Humans for Disaster Response? Impact on Consumer Prosociality and Possible Explanations, Journal of Consumer Psychology
• Think Fast, Talk Smart: The Podcast: From Dreaming to Doing: How We Set and Achieve Goals

From Stanford GSB Insights:

• Why We See Rescue Robots as Helpers, Not Heroes
• Redefining Success: Adopt the Journey Mindset to Move Forward

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.