Cass Sunstein

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. These days, Americans don’t think a lot about Taiwan. That’s a shame. A thriving democracy in a region with too few of them, Taiwan also faces unique challenges, not least because of its ambiguous legal status and the possibility that it will eventually be absorbed into China -- perhaps by force. Elections next month, which a pro-independence party is expected to win, could mark a turning point. Americans have plenty of reason to pay attention.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. Behavioral science has become the usual term for psychological and economic research on human behavior, often designed to explore people’s biases and blunders. For that research, 2015 has been a banner year, with an unusually large number of important books. Five of them stand out -- and two of these weren’t even written by social scientists.

It was a galactic head fake from one of Harvard’s eminent legal scholars. Cass Sunstein wowed a crowd at Harvard Law School during a talk on his love for one of the 20th century’s cultural touchstones: “Star Wars.” Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor, said the film that spawned both prequels and sequels — including “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” out Dec. 18 — was a seminal source of inspiration in his life and career. “I became a political science major only because of those ‘Star Wars’ movies. You saw those movies, and you had to focus on political science,” said Sunstein, adding that his love of behavioral science grew out of his fascination with the film’s storm troopers. He said that Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom he clerked after law school, was his substitute for the film’s all-knowing mentor, Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi. Then, Sunstein let his listeners in on his joke.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. Do you think that this is a profound statement? “Intention and attention are mystery’s manifestation.” What about this one? “Hidden meanings transform unseen beauty.” Both statements are, of course, bullshit, understood in a particular sense: not a lie, but a kind of verbal smokescreen, designed to suggest depth and insight but actually vague, vacuous or meaningless. As we’ll see, an understanding of pretentious-sounding gibberish and its frequent power tells us something important about contemporary politics. But we need a little social science first.

The force was strong at Harvard Law School on Tuesday during a talk by professor Cass R. Sunstein ’75, who discussed his upcoming book, “The World According to Star Wars.” The talk drew more than 200 people, filling a conference room decorated in honor of “Star Wars.” Sunstein presented from in front of a podium alongside life-sized cardboard cutouts of characters, including General Leia Organa and Finn from the upcoming movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Harvard professor Cass Sunstein is a prolific writer, but his books tend to be a bit wonkish. With titles like “After the Rights Revolution: Reconceiving the Regulatory State,” “Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict,” and “The Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle,” Sunstein’s collected works aren’t likely to be at our bedside. But that may be changing. According to the trade mag Publishers Weekly, Sunstein, whose wife is Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has inked a deal to write about pop culture. Well, sort of. Called “The World According to Star Wars,” the book will explore the George Lucas film franchise as it relates to the arc of history, rebellions, politics, law, economics, fatherhood, and culture. The new “Star Wars” movie, called “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” opens next month.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. The intensifying focus on terrorism, and on Islamic State in particular, poses a fresh challenge to the greatest American contribution to the theory and practice of free speech: the clear and present danger test. In both the U.S. and Europe, it’s worth asking whether that test may be ripe for reconsideration.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. When a federal court of appeals struck down a key part of President Barack Obama's immigration reform last week, it wasn't just a blow to the administration's goal of assuring the parents of U.S. citizens that neither they nor their children will be deported. It was a challenge to the way federal agencies operate -- one that could change how future administrations make policy. The central issue in the case has nothing to do with the separation of powers, or with the widespread objection that Obama has “bypassed Congress.” The only question is this: When do executive agencies have to give the public an opportunity to comment on their policies before those policies go into effect?

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. For Republican presidential contenders challenged by the media, the go-to answer has become a claim of victimhood: You are biased against us. As Marco Rubio put it at the CNBC debate last month, “The Democrats have the ultimate super-PAC. It’s called the mainstream media.” Are media outlets really biased against Republican candidates? One of the most careful studies, by Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro of the University of Chicago, doesn’t find much evidence of that. Its central conclusion is that readers have a strong preference for like-minded news -- and that newspapers tend to show a slant in a direction that is consistent with the preferences of their readers.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. The attorney general of New York, Eric T. Schneiderman, is investigating Exxon Mobil for possible legal violations in connection with its public statements about climate change...While the legal issues are likely to be technical and complex, the investigation also raises fundamental questions about the ethical responsibilities of corporate officials, both to their investors and to the public as a whole.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. One of the less-noticed provisions of the Affordable Care Act requires calorie labels at all chain restaurants and similar retail food establishments, following similar efforts in New York City and elsewhere. A new study raises doubts about whether those labels will make much difference to public health. The right response isn't to abandon the effort, but to improve it, and consider new approaches.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. In 2009, prominent Republicans, skeptical of requiring people to buy health insurance under the legislation that became Obamacare, proposed an alternative approach: making large employers automatically sign employees up for health insurance, while also allowing them to opt out. A version of this idea made its way into the Affordable Care Act. But as a result of this week’s budget deal, it is now out -- and Republicans are celebrating. How come? The answers shed new light on some thorny issues in behavioral economics, and also on contemporary politics.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein: At least in theory, one of the best ways for Congress to protect consumers and investors is by requiring companies to disclose information. Credit card providers must inform you about potential late fees; new cars are sold with fuel-economy stickers; calorie labels are being required at chain restaurants. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau even has a slogan, which orients much of its work: Know Before You Owe. Last August, an unreasonably aggressive ruling from a three-judge panel of a federal court of appeals cast doubt on the constitutionality of such disclosure requirements. The full court is now deciding whether to review the panel’s decision. If it refuses to do so, the Supreme Court should intervene.  

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. So far as I know, no neurosurgeon has ever written a book about the U.S. Constitution. But then again, no neurosurgeon has ever made a serious run for the presidency. Combining personal graciousness and plain exposition with some wild right-wing clichés, Ben Carson’s slim volume tells us a lot about the sources of his appeal. Like the man himself, the book is not what you might expect.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. Presidential candidates from both parties are focusing, as usual, on the middle class. But what’s that? And why, exactly, does it deserve such attention? Princeton’s Angus Deaton, who on Monday was announced as the latest winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize for economics, has offered some intriguing answers. The most important is this: If you care about how people actually experience their lives, you should be concerned about people who earn less than $75,000 per year. Above that amount, Deaton’s evidence suggests that more money may not particularly matter.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. After yet another gun-related tragedy, the U.S. is in the midst of a flurry of new efforts to control people’s access to firearms. As before, those efforts are running into serious trouble. The major problem is simple: The Second Amendment has come to be seen as a constitutional barrier, and perhaps even more, a political one. Somewhat awkwardly, presidential candidate Ben Carson captured a widespread view: “I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.” No one should take away people’s rights. But with respect to “the right to arm ourselves,” we have lost sight of our own history.

“Choosing Not to Choose: Understanding the Value of Choice,” by Professor Cass R. Sunstein ’78 (Oxford). Choice, while a symbol of freedom, can also be a burden: If we had to choose all the time, asserts the author, we’d be overwhelmed. Indeed, Sunstein argues that in many instances, not choosing could benefit us—for example, if mortgages could be automatically refinanced when interest rates drop significantly.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. This week’s decision by the Environmental Protection Agency, imposing a new limit on ground-level ozone at 70 parts per billion, was eminently reasonable -- an impressive vindication of both law and science. The loud objections, coming from both the business community and environmental groups, are unconvincing.

‘So if we are going to be kind,” wrote the South African author J. M. Coetzee, “let it be out of simple generosity, not because we feel guilty.” The notion that we should give our time and resources to others because we enjoy being benevolent is a compelling ethos. But research shows that it is not that simple: Oftentimes when we feel bad about ourselves, we are, in fact, more likely to do good things...Cass Sunstein and I found a similar result — that guilt is a powerful motivator — in a recent experimental study at Harvard Law School. We surveyed some 1,200 Americans and asked them whether they would be interested in enrolling in a green energy program if their state government offered them the opportunity to join one. The respondents who said that they would feel guilty if they did not enroll had a higher likelihood of being interested in signing up.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. There is unprecedented momentum for a real international agreement at the Paris climate talks in December: The U.S. is on track to make significant cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, China has announced a cap-and-trade program and many others have made commitments of their own. The biggest obstacle? Justice -- or at least two ideas about justice. The first involves redistribution.