MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Luke J Matthews
Members are at the heart of what we do which is why we want to amplify their work and profile. Every week we are spotlighting one of our members. This week we are spotlighting Luke J Matthews.
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What is the name of your organization?
Luke J Matthews: RAND Corporation.
Why the focus on international affairs?
Luke J Matthews: I have long been interested in how culture and networks influence political movements across countries. Most recently I have examined how misinformation dynamics are affecting both domestic and international politics.
What are you working on these days?
Luke J Matthews: I have been researching policies for civic education and vaccination messaging that would counter misinformation by engaging with the cultural factors that make people susceptible to it.
What made you join the Pacific Council?
Luke J Matthews: I joined Pacific Council after seeing some of the pioneering work they were doing to combat misinformation in order to improve the public discourse.
What’s your biggest takeaway?
Luke J Matthews: The cultural values and networks of relationships people bring to an emergent problem, like COVID-19, are among the biggest determinant of how they will respond to calls by their leaders for action. Policy makers need to message based on those values and networks. This means appealing through very different messengers (e.g. scientists versus religious leaders) and different values (e.g. individual liberty versus the collective good) in different cultural contexts.
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