David Halpern is the President & Founding Director of the Behavioral Insights Team. It started as a “nudge unit” in the British government but has gone on to become its own company with offices around the world. We talked to David in 2021 when we were gathering interviews for our podcast series, They Thought We Were Ridiculous: The Unlikely Story of Behavioral Economics. But he...
Daniel Kahneman was a titan in social science. He transformed our understanding of decision-making, he taught a generation about social psychology, he won a Nobel prize. It’s hard to overstate his influence. He passed away last week, and the field is mourning the loss. Along with the hosts of the podcast Behavioral Grooves, I interviewed Kahneman back in 2021, and we...
Andy Guess studies how social media platforms shape people’s political views. He’s an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. Last summer, he was part of a big team that released four papers on their analyses and experiments in social media all at the same time. The research was in collaboration with Meta, the company responsible for Facebook and Instagram...
Sendhil Mullainathan does a lot of things, and he does them well. He’s a professor of Computation and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. I originally talked to Sendhil for our podcast series, They Thought We Were Ridiculous. He was well-positioned to give his perspective on a contentious, interdisciplinary field of social science called “behavioral...
The Unlikely Story of Behavioral Economics Two great podcasts. Three years of recording and research. Interviews with the Nobel Laureates, esteemed professors, and policymakers at the heart of a movement. It all combines to tell the unlikely story of how a group of tenacious thinkers pushed back against tradition and built ideas with impact. Across this five-part series, we tell the story of how...
Jack Dovidio‘s work is at the heart of how we currently understand the psychology of prejudice. He’s spent his career considering where prejudice comes from, how people express it, how it biases people’s judgments and behaviors, and what we could do to address it. He’s an emeritus professor at Yale University, and he’s also just a really pleasant guy to talk to. In...
Jim McNulty is a professor of psychology at Florida State University. He studies close relationships, and in this episode, we talk about his research on “automatic partner attitudes.” When someone sees their romantic partner, their feelings about that person spring automatically to mind. And sometimes those feelings conflict with what they openly SAY they feel about their partner...
Happy New Year! For the first time in the show’s history, this episode’s a day late. Sorry, dear listeners.So it’s 2024, and what better way to kick off the new year than to dive into some nostalgia for 2023 already? As has become tradition around here, I compiled some clips of favorite moments on the podcast from the last year. As I say every year, it’s not truly a “best of”...
Elizabeth Dunn studies the psychology of happiness. One of her major research areas has looked at generosity’s effects on well-being. We’re happier when we spend money on other people. But studying happiness has its challenges, especially if we want to build strategies that help people feel happier. So, she shared a snapshot of her research on happiness and a new paper with...
Mikaela Spruill studies juries and the legal system’s role in sustaining social inequalities. She’s a postdoctoral fellow in criminal justice with SPARQ at Stanford University. In our conversation, Mikaela shares the benefits and drawbacks of juries in the courtroom, how scientists study jury decision-making, and how jurors apply very specific legal standards to interpreting the facts of a case...
