OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF VESTED INTEREST by Bala Muhammad [email protected] Dept. of Mass Comm....

OVERCOMING THE FEAR OFVESTED INTEREST

by

Bala Muhammad [email protected]

Dept. of Mass Comm.Bayero University, Kanoand Weekly Trust, Abuja

at

Annual Zaria Higher Institutions Convention of Muslim Students (ZHICOMS) with the

AIM: “Exposing Muslim Students of Higher Institutions To Research Writing And Public

Speaking”

Large Lecture Hall School of Nursing, ABUTH T/Wada, Zaria

Sunday August 24, 2014/Shawwal 29, 1435

AGENDA

Vested InterestFear

Mortal? Of Failure?

What Object? Writing/Speaking/Research/

Da’awah?‘Overcoming’

Only Through Unity

VESTED INTEREST - MSS 219/04/23

VESTED INTEREST

Vested interest is a communication theory that seeks to explain how influences affect behaviour. It refers to the amount that an attitude object is deemed relevant by the attitude holder. In the theory of vested interest (espoused by Crano 1995) “an attitude object that has important perceived personal consequences for the individual will be perceived as highly vested. Highly vested attitudes will be functionally related to behaviour.”


VESTED INTEREST – cont’d

Simply put, when people have more at stake with the result of an object (like a law or policy) that will greatly affect them, they will behave in a way that will directly support or defy the object for the sake of their own self-interest.


VESTED INTEREST – cont’dKey Factors

Involvement A key factor to consider with vested interest is the level

or type of involvement the individual has with a particular attitude object. This can be broken up into three main involvement components: Value-relevant, Impression-relevant, and Outcome-relevant. Value-relevant involvement concerns behaviours which support/reinforce values of the individual. Impression-relevant involvement relates to those behaviours which serve to create or maintain a specific image of the individual. This could, in some ways, be compared to a low-self monitor. Outcome-relevant involvement concerns those behaviours which hold direct personal consequences at a premium for the individual and as a result, corresponds most closely to vested interest (Crano, 1995).

5VESTED INTEREST - MSS19/04/23


EgoThe way people view vested interest as distinct from ego involvement, is a construct that has been the topic of social psychological research for many years (Sherif & Hovland, 1961). In a study conducted by John Sivacek and William D. Crano, they prove that the aforementioned statement of ego involvement and vested interest are indeed separate. Sivacek and Crano state, "It was possible to have circumstances that an individual would perceive as involving but that it would not arouse his or her vested interest.” Ego-involvement’s main focus points are on individual’s psychological attitudes that are experienced as being a part of “me”. The more emotionally connected people are to an idea, concept, or value, minor differences in beliefs can be viewed as significantly large and perhaps make harsh judgments or have stronger reactions.

6VESTED INTEREST - MSS19/04/23


AttitudeThe factor to consider with vested interest and its application towards attitude-consistent actions is attitude importance. Attitude (or issue) importance concerns not only matters of personal consequence, but also matters of national or international interest (Crano, 1995). While both of these can fall in line with each other, vested interest and attitude importance are not the same. For example, consider the plight of an African nation that has been ravaged by an influenza epidemic. Although an individual in America may consider this objectively important, because of the low probability of personal consequence—i.e., vested interest — his resultant behavior may not be indicative of his attitude towards the epidemic. In other words, since the issue is of little hedonic relevance to the perceiver, the amount of vested interest is low, and is therefore unlikely to produce attitude-consistent actions. Geographic distance and cultural differences are also a factor in attitude importance. Tragic circumstances halfway around the world or shocking behaviors by members of a culture different from the perceiver, will most likely never result in attitude change. The physical distance or cultural difference of an occurrence directly correlates to the vested interest of the perceiver. Things too far away or customs perceived to be too strange will almost never trigger a vested interest.



ComponentsThere are five key components that may diminish or enhance the effects of vested interest on attitude-behavior consistency. These are (a) stake, (b) attitudinal salience, (c) the certainty of the attitude outcome link, (d) the immediacy of attitude-implicated consequences, and (e) the self-efficacy of the individual to perform an attitudinally implicated act. Attitudes affect behaviour.

19/04/23 VESTED INTEREST - MSS 8


Summary

Each of the five components (stake, salience, certainty, immediacy, and self-efficacy) co-exist within an individual’s realm of conscious judgment. If it creates a sufficiently strong attitude, any of these components can cause an individual to adopt or reject a certain position. All five are considered any time an individual is presented with a message that attempts to influence or persuade him to adopt a certain position or perform an action. The process of evaluating these components can range from almost instantly to taking several years. At any rate, all five are considered (consciously or subconsciously) before making a decision with implications of vested interest.


FEAR


FEAR - MORTALHow To Conquer Your FearFear is not always bad. I always heard that if something is present and potent there is cause to be afraid. That is the emotion that you are supposed to feel. An example of this is, if you are in an earthquake, then it is present and potent and you should feel afraid. But, if you are thinking of an earthquake and it is not present and potent, then you should not be afraid. Fear Can Overshadow LivingI am surrounded by people that live by fear. They live in fear of sickness, fear of germs. They live in fear of their losing their job. They live in fear of losing their spouse. None of these are present or potent. It is being afraid of something that may or may not happen. Living in fear is not living. It is just waiting for something bad to happen. You can conquer your fears by understanding why you are afraid.“My mother's fear of losing me was taking over my childhood.”


FEAR - MORTALI was born with four holes in my heart and, by a miracle, I am here today, 37 years later. When I was a child, my mother lived in fear. She didn’t want me to play too hard and always asked if I was okay. It was understandable because she had lost me once on the operating table, and the doctors brought me back to life. Neither she nor the doctors had much hope in my long-term survival. Needless to say, I had a sheltered childhood. I remember my parents having an argument when I was 9 about me playing soccer. My father understood that I needed a chance to be a kid. I played soccer for 13 years, coached it for 2 and refereed for a season. Today I still play indoor soccer a few times a month. My father understood that my mother's fear of losing me was taking over my childhood. Fear had taken over her and was affecting the way that she was raising me.


FEAR - MORTAL

Five years ago, I went into the doctor because my heart had a small leak. I thought that I should get it fixed before it got worse. My doctors decided to run some tests. Right before the test they had me sign a waiver because there was a risk of death. At that point, I became afraid and so did my wife. The chance of dying and leaving her unprepared, without enough money to support herself and our two kids made me very afraid. I hid my fear from everyone and was rolled into the operating room. There I learned that I was going to be awake for the entire test. “It can’t be that bad,” I thought. “This should be easy.” But in the back of my mind, was the fear that something was going to go wrong. My fear was present and it was potent and that was okay.I heard the doctor say, “we are going to pace your heart and we need you to count backwards from 20.” So I started 20…19…18…17… I really didn’t like the feeling in my chest; my heart was responding, and I was just lying there. 16… 15…14… I started to feel woozy. 13… My mind was rushing. What if something goes wrong? How is she going to survive without my pay check? My kids are not going to have their father. What are they going to do? I am going to miss so much…


FEAR - MORTAL

“There was no more fear, no more 'what if?'”Then nothing… There was no more fear, no more “what if?” Just nothing… Then something… I started to hear something. I must be waking up. I started to hear music, wonderful music that not only pierced every fiber of my being. It was the kind of music that never ended and you never wanted it to end. Before I knew it, I was surrounded in waves of peace... peace that canceled everything out... peace that passes understanding... peace that tells you that you are okay... peace that removes fear... the fullness of peace that is immeasurable and all-consuming and peace that reminds you that everything is going to be okay, because it is from God.“Mr. Emineth?” I heard, “Are you okay? Can you hear me? Just nod your head.” My eyes slowly opened, and I had the strangest sensation that my body was moved without me knowing it. Tears rushed down my cheeks and the peace that I was feeling slowly faded. The last feeling I remember was the reassurance that God had me, that He has my family and that there is nothing to fear.


Freedom from FearI literally had to die to conquer my fear, and it wasn’t just the fear of losing my family or how to provide for them after death but all of my daily fear. I don’t advise dying to conquer anything, but the lesson I learned in how to conquer fear is really simple.“How to conquer fear is really simple.”There really is nothing to be afraid of when you place your life into God’s hands. God is everywhere, all the time, and knows everything. What better place is there to put your life? What better person to give your fear? Releasing your fear and giving it to God allows you to live in trust. God knows you, knows what you will do, knows where you will go, your future, your past, the things you hide from everyone else. There is nothing to fear in handing your fear over to Him. You can hold on to your fear of “what if?” or you can give it to the One who knows what will happen. If you are living in fear, you are not living in trust.


BUT ACTUALLY, OUR GREATEST FEAR IS FEAR OF FAILURE



FEAR OF FAILUREThe French have a proverb: “Only he who does nothing makes no mistakes.” When philosophers and management experts discuss Failure, one would think they are discussing its opposite term; Success. When one visits modern management sites, the rags to riches stories one reads seem to always suggest and reinforce the feeling that there is no Success UNLESS there is a Failure preceding it. Advocates of Failure as a great learning and management tool towards success always mention that even Genghis Khan lost some early battles. To wit, the first two years of Genghis’ rise as to the khanate were abysmally horrible; even his wife was abducted.


In his book, THE POWER OF FAILURE, Charles Manz says, “Failure is one of the most dreaded words in the English language. The very idea of failing is enough to stop most people in their tracks. It can cause the majority to simply pack up, turn around and retreat without even trying...Failure is not something to be feared [however, as] it contains a positive challenge for success...”

Joey Green, in the book THE ROAD TO SUCCESS IS PAVED WITH FAILURE, discusses how Walt Disney’s first cartoon production company went bankrupt, but Walt went on to become the famous creator of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland, and producer of such children’s animated delights as Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White and Pinocchio. Or John F. Kennedy who contested for class captain in his school days, and lost. Or Elvis Presley who scored a C in music, and his teacher told him he could never sing.


In a recent piece, the magazine Readers’ Digest discussed how people who have apparently failed in their first attempts have pieced things together and made another try, and made it. Failure is not the end of life, they suggest. They narrate the story of author J. K. Rowling who addressed the graduating class at Harvard last June. Rowling didn't focus on Success. Instead, she spoke about Failure. She related a story about a young woman who gave up her dream of writing novels to study something more practical. Nonetheless, she ended up as an unemployed single mom ‘as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.’ But during this rock-bottom time, she realised she still had a wonderful daughter, an old typewriter, and an idea that would become the foundation for rebuilding her life. Perhaps you've heard of Harry Potter? ‘You might never fail on the scale I did,’ Rowling told that privileged audience. ‘But it is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all--in which case, you fail by default.


A commentator once wrote, “All too often many people ask for success and prepare for failure. One of the ways we sabotage our success is procrastination. We talk about what we want to do without taking any steps in that direction. Plans are good. They help us to focus, and to put our ideas in some semblance of order. But there is no use keeping all of your talents and potential to yourself. It wouldn't be fair to you, the world or the purpose for which you were born. Sometimes you just have to go out and make a few mistakes. It's all right. Practice makes perfect, remember? Feel the fear, and do it anyway. You will never overcome the fear of success unless you take the first step. That is how your journey to success begins. The rest is a lot easier.


“Maybe you feel that you've aimed too high [say, six thousand megawatts by December 2009] and that it could not possibly happen. Aiming high is a good thing. If you reach for the sky, you just might touch the stars. In fact, you might even become a star. Fear is a part of our Shadow Self and it should be faced and embraced. That is one good way to get in touch with your fear. To acknowledge it. To become one with it. To know that it is a part of you and it is not bad, just there. By doing this, you will have removed most of the energy of fear and failure. You would have transmuted it into something positive and productive.”


Let us ponder this famous Eastern story about Focus as elixir to success. Its broad title runs: ‘When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the Way.’

The story runs: “A young boy traveled across Japan to the school of a

famous martial artist. When he arrived at the dojo, he was given an audience by the sensei. “What do you wish from me?” the master asked. “I wish to be your student and be the finest karateka in the land,” the boy replied. “How long must I study?” “Ten years at least,” the master answered. “Ten years is a long time,” said the boy. “What if I studied twice as hard as all your other students?” “Twenty years,” replied the master. “Twenty years! What if I practice day and night with all my effort?” “Thirty years,” was the master’s reply. “How is it that each time I say I will work harder, you tell me that it will take longer?” the boy asked. “The answer is clear,” says the master. “When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the Way.”

Finally, Genghis Khan had told his troops some basic truths: “Only a fool

fights a battle he knows he cannot win." He also said: “A man who seeks power needs friends who have power." And he also added: “Men are loyal only to a strong leader. A warrior does not win a battle by virtue of his birth."




The Faith Triumphant is the title of Chapter Eleven in one of the most important books of the Islamic Movement, Ma’alim fit Tariq (Milestones), written by the Movement’s leading intellectual and Martyr, Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966).

In Milestones, Qutb wrote: “Allah says, ‘Do not be dejected or

grieve. You shall be the uppermost if you are Believers’ (3:139). The first thought which comes to mind on reading this verse is that it relates to the form of Jihad which is actual fighting; but the spirit of this message and its application with its manifold implications, is greater and wider than this particular aspect. Indeed it describes that eternal state of mind which ought to inspire the believer’s consciousness. It describes a triumphant state which should remain fixed in the Believer’s heart in the face of everything, every condition, every standard and every person; the superiority of the Faith.


“It means to be above all the powers of the earth which have deviated from the way of the Faith, above all the values of the earth not derived from the source of faith, above all the customs of the earth not coloured with the colouring of the faith, above all the laws of the earth not sanctioned by the Faith, and above all traditions not originating in the Faith. It means to feel superior to others when weak, few and poor, as well as when strong, many and rich. It means the sense of supremacy which does not give in before any rebellious force.

“Steadfastness and strength on the battlefield are but one expression

among many of the triumphant spirit which is included in this statement of Almighty God. The superiority through faith is not a mere single act of will nor a passing euphoria or a momentary passion, but is a sense of superiority based on permanent Truth centred in the very nature of existence.


“The person who takes a stand against the direction of the society – its governing logic, its common mode, its values and standards, its ideas and concepts, its error and deviations – will find himself a stranger, as well as helpless, unless his authority comes from a source which is more powerful than the people, more permanent than the earth, and nobler than life.

“Conditions change, the Muslim loses his physical power and is

conquered; yet the consciousness does not depart from him that he is most superior. If he remains a Believer, he looks upon his conqueror from a superior position. He remains certain that this is a temporary condition which will pass away and that faith will turn the tide from which there is no escape. Even if death is his potion, he will never bow his head. Death comes to all, but for him there is martyrdom. He will proceed to the garden while his conquerors go to the fire. What a difference!”


So wrote Sayyid Qutb. Let us now end today’s treatise with the following story on Challenge, the type the Palestinians are facing: “The Japanese love fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the catch. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.

“To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their

boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem?


“To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. Because they are challenged, they kick and protest and ultimately arrive fresh. Or martyred.”

Allah has put a tiny shark (Israel) in the Arab tank. Only

some fish called Hamas and Hezbollah are kicking. The others are frozen stiff. RIP. After all, L. Ron Hubbard had once written: "Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment.”

Being fair wa lau ala anfusikum Being just I’idilu huwa aqrabu lit taqwa Being brave – qualul haqq inda sultan ja’ir


''TEAMWORK, SINE QUA NON FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP


Allah (SWT) also tells us in the Quran: "And adhere to the Bond of Allah, together, and do not be divided...(Al-Imran, 103)


Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said: "Stay with the group (of righteous Muslims), for the wolf eats the sheep that strays away from the herd" (Ahmad and Al-Tirmidhi)


”Where there is unity, there is always victory.“

–Publilius Syrus, Roman author, 1st century BC)

"In an army you need unity of purpose" (Emmeline Pankhurst).

“Build for your team a feeling of oneness of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity.”

–Vince Lombardi, football coach



Teamwork guarantees success





Unity is strength Unity is the state of being undivided and

unbroken Unity is the state or quality of being one;

singleness Unity is the state or quality of being in

accord Unity is harmony Unity: United we stand, divided we fall



So, in my opinion, our vested interest So, in my opinion, our vested interest in NOTin NOT

Secular MuslimsSecular Muslims Confrontational non-MuslimsConfrontational non-Muslims Old-guard politiciansOld-guard politicians Israel, US, the WestIsrael, US, the West IT IS OUR DISUNITYIT IS OUR DISUNITY


Crano, W. D. (1983). Assumed consensus of attitudes: the effect of vested interest. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 9, 597-608.

Crano, W. D. (1995). Attitude strength and vested interest. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and Consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 131–158.

Crano, W. D. (1995). Components of vested interest and attitude-behavior consistency. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 1-21.

Crano, W. D. (1997). Vested Interest, Symbolic Politics, and Attitude-Behavior Consistency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 3, 485-491.

Green, D., & Gerken, A. (1989). Self-interest and public opinion toward smoking restrictions and cigarette taxes. Public Opinion Quarterly, 53, 1-16.

Miller, D., & Ratner, R. (1998). The Disparity Between the Actual and Assumed Power of Self-Interest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1, 53-62.

Sherif, M., & Hovland, C. (1961). Social judgment: Assimilation and contrast effects in communication and attitude change. Yale University Press.

Sivacek, J., & Crano, W. D. (1982). Vested interest as a moderator of attitude behavior consistency. 'Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 210-221.

Thornton, B., & Knox, D. (2002). Not In My Back Yard: The Situational and Personality Determinants of Oppositional Behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 2554-2574.


Bala [email protected]

Lecturer, Bayero Univerisity Mass CommCommunication Consultant

Columnist: *Weekly Trust (Saturday Back Page)

ABRIDGED CV:Education

Bayero University, Kano (Mass Comm/Broadcasting) American University, Cairo, Egypt (Mass Comm/Journalism)

University of Westminster, London (Telecoms) University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (Film)

Work Consultant, World Bank; DFID; USAID

Lecturer, Bayero Univerisity Mass Comm Producer/Presenter, BBC World Service London

Correspondent, Deutschewelle Radio, Cologne, Germany Press Secretary to Vice President Atiku Abubakar

Pioneer Director General , Directorate of Societal Reorientation (A Daidaita Sahu), Kano State


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