Very interesting results reported by Christopher Poliquin and Young Hou at CLS Blue Sky Blog.
In our new working paper, we conduct two experiments on 500 elected officials from across the U.S. to examine whether policymakers are moved by CEO stances on contentious issues. In the first experiment, we asked the officials about their support for police reform after randomly exposing half the sample to a Business Roundtable message advocating for the reforms. In the second experiment, we measured their’ willingness to engage with a CEO who was considering relocating to their community, and we varied whether the CEO was described as publicly expressing views on social issues that clash with those of the officials’ constituents.
CEO advocacy for police reform ineffective: Exposure to the CEO message supporting police reform didn’t sway the opinions of local elected officials. While support for police reform was highest among Democrats and lowest among Republicans, members of neither party reported higher levels of support after seeing the Business Roundtable statement. Furthermore, this pattern held regardless of a community’s exposure to police shootings, Black resident share, or history with Black Lives Matter protests or the self-reported views of the community’s policmakers on police-community relations in their area.
Lower willingness to engage with activist CEOs: Strikingly, local policymakers are reluctant to engage with CEOs who speak out on social issues. Policymakers who were told a CEO expressed controversial opinions were less willing to meet privately with the CEO and less willing to publicly advocate for the relocation of the CEO’s company.
In short, there's little potential upside to social justice warrior activism by CEOs and plenty of potential downside.
