David McRaney is a writer and podcaster who has been covering important work in psychology for many years. Although he was a guest on Opinion Science a few months ago (Episode 58: How Minds Change with David McRaney), I also used the opportunity to ask him about his process for communicating psychological research to the public. So, the first 15 minutes of this episode is a repeat of his earlier...
Meryl Horn is a producer at Science Vs from Gimlet Media and Spotify. Science Vs is a popular science podcast that pits timely claims against scientific evidence. It’s a great show. You should listen to it. Before being a podcast producer, Meryl got her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California San Francisco. She shares how she went from being a graduate...
Joss Fong is a senior editorial producer at Vox. She produces science videos on a variety of topics, pushing the medium in ever more creative directions to convey interesting and important ideas.We spend a lot of our time talking about her most recent video: “How American conservatives turned against the vaccine” Here are some of the other videos we talked about in this...
G. Elliott Morris is a data journalist for The Economist. In July 2022, he’s releasing his first book, Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them. The book takes a critical look at the history and current use of public opinion polling and the role it plays in democracy. Morris also contributed to The Economist’s 2020 presidential election forecasts. We talk about how he got involved...
Robin Nabi is a professor of communication at the University of California-Santa Barbara. She studies how emotional appeals can (and cannot) lead people to change their thoughts and behaviors. She’s published important research on the effects of anger, humor, and guilt, and she’s also developed integrated theories about how emotions can work together in the persuasion process. We talk about all...
Linda Skitka is a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She’s been studying people’s moral convictions–the opinions that we connect to our core sense of moral right and wrong. Two people might agree about universal healthcare, for example, but they might disagree about how much their positions on this issue are drawn from their personal...
Adam Hahn spends a lot of time thinking about how well people know their own biases. Sure, people often refer to “implicit bias” as social biases that exist unconsciously. But do they really? How strongly can we claim we’re unaware of these attitudes and is there any reason to think people can readily tell you what their gut reactions are when they encounter people of...
Mark Brandt studies a bunch of things. He’s an assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University. These days, he’s been exploring how we can think about belief systems as a network of interconnected opinions. Using mathematical simulations that specify how people’s opinions can be connected, Mark and his team have been able to establish a core model that explains a bunch of findings...
David McRaney is an author and host of the podcast You Are Not So Smart. In June, he’s releasing a new book—How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion (you can pre-order it now). In the book, David goes on a wild journey to understand the mechanics of persuasion. He combines research in psychology with stories of persuasion on the ground to arrive at an...
Sohad Murrar studies how media and norms affect people’s opinions about social groups. Does media representation matter? Can infotainment aimed at reducing misconceptions really work? In this episode, Sohad gives us a glimpse into what the research says, her own experiences consulting with Hollywood creatives, and how conveying social norms can be a potent way of addressing prejudice...
I'm a social psychologist.