View of Iraqi Conflict Considered For Prestigious Economic Award By JON E. HILSENRATH Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Why do they hate us so much? The question nagged at Edward Glaeser, a 35-year-old Harvard University economist, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Hatred is hardly the typical domain for economic research. But Mr. Glaeser approached the question from an economist's perspective. He studied everything from Nazi anti-Semitism to American racism to anti-Americanism in the Arab world and wrote down complex mathematical formulas for the supply and demand of hate. In the process, he found a supply-side thread: Hatred was often supplied, or promoted, by groups that profited politically by fueling the emotion. To understand hate, the economist reasoned, you have to understand the politics that allow hate-filled groups to supply it and benefit from it.
"An enterprising political entrepreneur of hate whips people up into a frenzy against a group that is seen as a threat," says Mr. Glaeser.
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