Stigler believed intellectual popularity and influence worked against each other

Evidence

Although Director and Stigler did much to shape the research program of their colleagues and students, they largely avoided public engagement. Director rarely published, and Stigler remained unconvinced of the merits of public advocacy, arguing that popularity and infl uence were usually “rivals, not partners.” Friedman became the public rhetorician of the jaundiced view of government intervention that increasingly characterized Chicago economics. Here, too, the Volker Fund played an integral role. Its program offi cers carefully monitored the participants in the events they sponsored and sought to engage them in its other related activities whenever synergies were apparent. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 437

Categorization

• QUESTION: Stigler’s ‘popularity and influence are rivals’ aphorism deserves unpacking — did he just not want to do public advocacy, or did he have a real theory of how credibility works?
• XREF: Tracks the division of labor within the MPS milieu: scholarly producers vs. popularizers — echoes similar dynamics in other movements. — connects to: Stigler sought patron influence by reshaping economics itself rather than public opinion. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 152; Intellectual originality can be a product of marginal social position — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 10; Stigler doubted that the public’s demand for economic science was significant. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 146 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Stigler sought patron influence by reshaping economics itself rather than public opinion. #expands (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 152
• Intellectual originality can be a product of marginal social position #qualifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 10