NewHavenBIZ

n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 9 BEYOND THE HEADLINES Calculating the cost, and impact, of YNHH neuroscience center T he construction of a state-of- the-art neuroscience center on the campus of the former Hos- pital of St. Raphael is expected have economic consequences that ripple well beyond the Yale New Haven Hospital footprint and downtown New Haven. In April YNHH announced plans to establish the new center at the intersection of George Street and Sherman Avenue, a five-year endeavor that carries a staggering price tag: $838 million. e project is the largest and most extensive development project in downtown New Haven in decades. Its impact will be an even larger number. In late September YNHH announced results of a study to calculate the economic impact the project is expected to generate for the city and state — more than $1 billion. "e new neuroscience center is clearly going to be a win-win situation," said Marna P. Borg- strom, CEO of both Yale New Haven Health and Yale New Haven Hospital. "Not only will patients in our region have access to the most advanced neurological care, but the state and its residents will benefit economically from the project and its associated impact." e 505,000-square-foot project, which is scheduled to open in 2024, will include two new patient facilities on the St. Raphael campus that will focus on collaboration between the Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital. e facility will house 204 inpatient beds for patients seeking treatment from movement disorders to neuro-regeneration. e project also includes a significant expansion of the Emergency Department on the St. Raphael campus. Encompassing demolition of existing structures, renovation and new construction, the project all told is expected to support in excess of 6,400 jobs in its host city and the region. Yale New Haven Health is already the city's largest employer, supporting some 25,000 jobs. Now that number will grow. "e increase in production across the state and household spending [will] ripple through Connecticut's economy," according to the announcement. In addition to direct employment impact, the project will stimulate the region's retail, hospitality, rental, house- hold-services and other sectors of the economy as well. "Partnering with Yale New Haven Hospital on this exciting project is a no-brainer for Con- necticut," said Gov. Ned Lamont. "is state-of-the-art facility is yet another example that YNHH and New Haven are leaders in medicine and research. I know the neurosci- ence center on the Saint Raphael Campus will yield incredible results not only for future patients, but for the greater New Haven community and for the state as a whole." "Partnering with [YNHH] on this exciting project is a no-brainer for Connecticut," said Gov. Ned Lamont. "is state-of-the-art facility is yet another example that YNHH and New Haven are leaders in medicine and research." e neuroscience center will be constructed within the existing footprint of the hospital campus. It will relocate the main entrance of the hospital from Chapel Street to George Street. An existing park- ing garage on Orchard Street will be extended to George Street to accommodate patients and a new 200-space underground garage will support the facility. n Artist's rendering of planned Yale New Haven Health neuroscience center, slated for completion in 2024. W hen hiring for responsible positions, companies evalu- ate job candidates based on education, experience and a host of tangibles that factor into making one candidate stand out from the rest. at includes the face-to-face in- terview. But what if job applications are judged not just on what they say, but how they say it? A new study by Yale researchers provides evidence that interviewers evaluate job candidates based on their social status — just seconds aer they begin to speak. e study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates that people can accurately assess a person's socioeconomic position — defined as income, education, and occupation status — based on brief 'Class' action: Sizing up socio- economic status in job interviews speech patterns and shows that these perceptions influence hiring managers in ways that favor job applicants from higher socioeco- nomic strata. "Our study shows that even during the briefest interactions, a person's speech patterns shape the way people perceive them, includ- ing assessing their competence and fitness for a job," said Michael Kraus, assistant professor of organi- zational behavior at the Yale School of Management. "While most hir- ing managers would deny that a job candidate's social class matters, in reality, the socioeconomic position of an applicant or their parents is being assessed within the first sec- onds they speak — a circumstance that limits economic mobility and perpetuates inequality." e researchers based their findings on five separate studies. e first four examined the extent that peo- ple accurately perceive social class based on a few seconds of speech. ey found that reciting seven random words is sufficient to allow people to discern the speaker's social class with above- chance accuracy. ey discovered that speech adhering to subjective standards for English as well as digital standards — i.e., the voices used in tech products like the Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant — is associated with both actual and perceived higher social class. e researchers also showed that pronunciation cues in an individ- ual's speech communicate their social status more accurately than the content of their speech. "We rarely talk explicitly about social class, and yet, people with hiring experience infer com- petence and fitness based on socioeconomic position estimated from a few seconds of an appli- cant's speech," Kraus said. "If we want to move to a more equitable society, then we must contend with these ingrained psychologi- cal processes that drive our early impressions of others. Despite what these hiring tendencies may suggest, talent is not found solely among those born to rich or well-educated families. Policies that actively recruit candidates from all levels of status in society are best positioned to match opportunities to the people best suited for them." Kraus co-authored the paper with graduate students Brittany Torrez and Jun Won Park, and re- search associate Fariba Ghayebi. n SOM's Kraus: Seven deadly words.

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