Shows
Behavioral Grooves PodcastMake Great Decisions | Elspeth KirkmanFeeling indecisive? Ever wondered what it takes to master the art of decision-making? Join us on a thrilling journey with Elspeth Kirkman, the brilliant mind behind the groundbreaking book 'Decision Scape: The Art of Getting Perspective.'
In this episode, Kurt and Tim dive deep into the captivating world of decision-making as Kirkman takes us on an adventure through the intricacies of perspective. What if decision-making was more than just a process – what if it was an art form? Prepare to be captivated as we explore the four pillars of perspective – distance, viewpoint, composition, and frame – and uncover...
2024-02-191h 18
Behavioral Grooves PodcastWhy Sleep Is Vital for Academic Success | David Creswell PhDWe all know we need a good night’s sleep but sleep researcher, David Creswell PhD has studied how our performance is actually affected by sleep. He has even found a predictive correlation between student’s college GPA scores and their sleep duration.
David Creswell is a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and has published numerous studies on mindfulness-based interventions and their impact on well-being. He is a prominent researcher specializing in health psychology, mindfulness meditation, and stress management.
Earlier this year David co-authored a paper in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences called, “Nightly sleep du...
2023-10-3050 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving on Knowing Thyself: Why Figuring Out Who I Am is Easier Than You Thought.“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Are you tired of that ditty? We are. How are you supposed to know what you love if we don’t 100% know who we are?
“Know thyself” is a maxim that has been central to Western civilization for the last 2500 years. It has been pervasive in philosophy over the ages and more recently in psychology. Who are we? Who am I? These questions blend nicely with understanding why we do what we do, a foundational question in behavioral science. And it is with this curiosi...
2023-10-0242 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastVolunteering for Well-Being: How Team Rubicon Helps Volunteers and Communities | David Burke and Patti NorbergVolunteering improves psychological well-being. Team Rubicon has researched this positive effect, not just on the communities it serves, but also on the well-being of its 170,000 volunteers. The organization applies military expertise and speed to provide fast response and social support to those who have suffered a disaster. We learn from David Burke and Patti Norberg about the many benefits they have found with volunteering.
David Burke is the Chief Program Officer at Team Rubicon, an organization that was founded by US armed forces veterans in 2010 with the purpose of voluntarily joining together to work on m...
2023-09-1146 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastImperfectly Perfect: The Science of Human Decision Making | Lionel PageHumans have limited information processing abilities and cannot possibly evaluate all possible options when making a decision. However, describing people merely as irrational paints an inaccurate picture. There can be benefits to the biases we hold.
Author of Optimally Irrational: The Good Reasons We Behave the Way We Do Lionel Page PhD, joins Kurt Nelson and Tim Houlihan on Behavioral Grooves Podcast to talk about his book. Lionel is a French-born economist who is currently working as the Director of the Behavioural and Economic Science Cluster at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Among the to...
2023-08-2143 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastAll The Ways Into Behavioral Science (And No, You Don’t Need a PhD) | Merle Van Den AkkerThe world of applied behavioral science has never been better. So how do you get your foot in the door to have a career in the field? You may be surprised to learn that it doesn’t have to involve getting a PhD. Merle van den Akker discusses her career journey from academia into the corporate world, and what we can learn from it.
Merle van den Akker grew up in the Netherlands and studied in the UK before moving to Australia to start her current job at the Commonwealth Bank. Though she got a lot out of...
2023-07-311h 01
Behavioral Grooves PodcastAre You A People Pleaser? Learn To Say No More with Vanessa Patrick PhDSaying yes to tasks that we want to say no to is a common problem. But how do we decide which requests to turn down? Dr Vanessa Patrick PhD strategically breaks down asks into 4 useful categories. Learn to say yes to requests that align with your identity and how to communicate an empowered refusal.
“A no that stems from your identity is a much more empowered no”
Dr Vanessa Patrick PhD is a Professor of Marketing and the Associate Dean for Research at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Hous...
2023-06-1954 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastWhat Do You Think? How To Improve Your Perspective And Your Life | Woo-Kyoung Ahn PhDUnderstanding how we think can change our thinking. From confirmation biases, to uncertainty, to overconfidence, we are all blessed with the same thinking patterns that affect our decision making. Yale professor, Dr Woo-kyoung Ahn walks us through the latest cognitive research on “thinking problems”, and most importantly, how we can overcome them.
Woo-kyoung Ahn is a psychology professor and the director of the Thinking Lab at Yale University. Recently she wrote a riveting book titled “Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better.” On this episode of Behavioral Grooves, she joins Tim Houlihan and producer Mary Kali...
2023-06-121h 01
Behavioral Grooves PodcastHow We’re Missing The Point With The Gender Pay Gap | Alex Imas PhDIf you compare executive pay of men and women in C suite jobs, you will often not find a discrepancy in their wages. You will also be completely missing the point. The gender pay gap exists because it is more difficult for women to reach executive level success. Throughout their career progression, but particularly early on, women face more discrimination than men, and so fewer women are ultimately promoted to the highest level of an organization.
Gender discrimination is one of the recent topics covered by Alex Imas PhD, in his research. Alex is a be...
2023-06-0555 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGroove Track | Why It Takes More Than Willpower To Reach Your GoalsBetween setting your goals and reaching your goals, there is a void that we assume willpower can fill. But to achieve success, it takes more than willpower alone. Thankfully there are some well researched tools that we can set in place to help us flourish.
Hosts of Behavioral Grooves Kurt Nelson and Tim Houlihan sit down for a succinct Groove Track episode summarizing the myths about willpower, what other factors are at play when striving for our goals, and the tools we can use to help us succeed.
Key takeaways:
Willpower is not enough on...
2023-05-1521 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastWhat Do You Really Want? Understand The Desires We All Share | Charlotte Fox WeberWith curiosity we can figure out what we actually want. Sometimes what we desire makes us feel uncomfortable, and as a therapist, our guest Charlotte Fox Weber makes space for that discomfort. Join us as she highlights her observations from the therapist's chair.
“I think curiosity is a life force. It engages us, it galvanizes us, it's inspiring, and it gets us to pay attention.” ~ Charlotte Fox Weber
Many people see a therapist to help them work through psychological issues. But have you ever considered what the dynamic is like from the point of view of t...
2023-04-1050 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastA Guide To The Ambitious Future of Behavioral Science with Michael Hallsworth PhDWhat lies ahead for applied behavioral science? How can we learn from the massive growth in the field over the last 15 years? Our guest, Michael Hallsworth, has very recently published a manifesto on the future of behavioural science and we’re privileged to discuss this landmark publication with him on this episode.
Dr Michael Hallsworth PhD has been on the forefront of thought leadership and scholarship in behavioral science for many years. Having earned his PhD in Behavioural Economics from Imperial College in London, he has since spent most of his career working in either pub...
2023-03-271h 09
Behavioral Grooves PodcastSurprising Ways To End Poverty and Solve Climate Change with Erik Angner PhDWhat if there was a way to end poverty and solve climate change, that might actually work. Shouldn’t we try it? Our guest Erik Angner thinks economics holds the solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems but that economists have done a woeful job of PR! He’s on a mission to change that.
Erik Angner PhD is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University. He holds, not one but two PhDs – in Economics and in History and Philosophy of Science – both from the University of Pittsburgh.
Erik joins us on Behavioral Grooves to...
2023-03-201h 16
Behavioral Grooves PodcastYou Work. You Parent. But Can You Also Thrive? | Yael Schonbrun PhDWorking and parenting often feel like being pulled in two different directions. But what if we could reframe our thinking and actually appreciate that our experiences in one role can enhance the quality of life in the other. We explore the ways you can reframe your mindset with author and podcaster Yael Schonbrun.
“If we’re able to see that there are opportunities for our roles to feed each other, then we're more likely to to access those experiences and benefit more from them.” ~ Yael Schonbrun, Episode 346
Yael Schonbrun is an assistant professor of psychology at Bro...
2023-03-061h 07
Behavioral Grooves PodcastThe Tools You Need To Embrace Uncertainty | Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon FurrWe all face uncertainty at some point in our lives. But do we embrace it or resist it? Our thoughts about uncertainty and ambiguity shape the actions we take when we are faced with change. If we reframe how we view uncertainty, we can rewrite the story we tell ourselves.
“The way we describe something to ourselves and others, shapes how we think, decide and act.”
Our guests on this episode are the most delightful husband and wife team, Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon Furr who have written a fantastic book together, “The Upside of Uncert...
2023-02-271h 12
Behavioral Grooves PodcastWhy The Best Choice Can Sometimes Be An Imperfect Choice | Michelle Segar PhDContext heavily influences our behavior (regular listeners of the show know our “context matters” mantra well!). Sometimes, because of what life throws at us, we have to re-evaluate our options. The best choice isn’t always the perfect choice.
For instance, in an ideal world, we might be planning a 5 mile run after work. But instead we need to collect our sick child from school early and have to settle for a 2 mile run on the treadmill in the basement, or some dancing in the kitchen while we unload the dishwasher. It’s the perfect, imperfect choice, or what...
2023-01-231h 07Behavioral Grooves PodcastThe 3 Steps To Getting Your Groove Back In The New YearFinding your groove - ever wondered what that actually means? And why is this podcast really called Behavioral Grooves?! Kurt and Tim explain what it means to get in your groove and the 3 foundational steps that will help you get there. If you need to find your groove again in 2023, listen to this expert advice.
It’s a long running joke on the podcast, that when settling on the name “Behavioral Grooves” for the show it meant two different things to hosts Kurt and Tim. While getting “in the groove” has parallels to being in a state of...
2023-01-0222 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastMake It Scale: How To Drive Behavior Change Initiatives | Neela Saldanha PhDScaling behavioral science initiatives from a small research study to a large population is a topic we have enjoyed delving into this year with John A. List in Episode 296. And we are delighted to be joined on this episode by Neela Saldanha PhD who focuses her work on developing the science around scaling policy interventions.
Neela is the Executive Director of the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE) which focuses on researching complexities of scaling policy interventions and bringing together global experts to overcome the challenges of scaling. Her work history touches academia, non-profits and th...
2022-12-2651 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastHow Do Incentives Actually Impact Motivation? | Dr Indranil Goswami PhDIncentives can improve motivation. But what actually happens when the incentive is removed? An influential body of research previously suggested that extrinsic rewards have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation. However, more recent studies show this not to be the case over the long term. Our guest, Dr Indranil Goswami PhD, talks us through the longer term effects of temporary incentives and the implications for motivating behavior change.
Indranil is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University at Buffalo. The research that we focus on in this episode is the paper he co-wrote with Dr Oleg U...
2022-08-081h 01
Behavioral Grooves PodcastThe Psychological Benefits of Using a Process to Achieve an Outcome | Joseph Keebler PhD & Peter KraskProcesses decrease our cognitive load and increase our productivity. On Behavioral Grooves we have talked with out guests a lot about habits and routines, but not so much about the processes behind them. In this bitesize episode we discuss the psychological benefits of using processes and how you can leverage them in your life.
To illustrate the use of processes to achieve different outcomes, we are joined by both a practitioner and a researcher on this episode. Joseph R. Keebler is a Researcher and a Professor of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University...
2022-04-2723 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastMindset Matters Most: Top Tips from The Sales Evangelist, Donald C. KellyCreating a motivating mindset is the most important component of any sales role. In fact, it’s a critical component of everything we do, but Donald C. Kelly enthusiastically reminds us in this episode that it’s a vital step in the sales process. Adopting a sales mindset can elevate you from a good sales person to a great sales person. Learn from Donald about how to get into the zone of a sales mindset.
Donald has an extremely passionate, dedicated, and infectious personality. As producer and host of the extremely popular podcast, The Sales Evangelist, Donald live...
2022-03-2358 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastFocus More on HOW to Think, and Less on WHAT to Think | Dr. Howard Rankin PhDIf we are open minded, we challenge our beliefs and accept that our thinking can, at times, be misguided. After all, our thoughts are merely a function of our personal habits, experiences and internal communication. Dr Howard Rankin PhD encourages us to recognize the value of critical thinking, and become more aware of our own consciousness.
To conclude our November series on Conspiracy Theories, our guest on this episode, Dr. Howard Rankin PhD, talks about how our consciousness has been conditioned. By understanding how the thinking process works and being aware of our own consciousness, we gain...
2021-11-281h 08
Behavioral Grooves PodcastNeed a Laugh to Get Through Your Workday? Dan HillNeed some respite from the work day grind? Join the fun on this episode for a light-hearted take on workplace humor. Dan Hill delivers a real tongue-in-cheek take on the corporate lingo and jargon that infiltrates our workplaces. But with every joke he makes, there is a pang of truth: “emojis; the feelings you would be having at work if they were allowed.”
Dan’s new book; “Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo” (https://amzn.to/3nB3hYB) is written in collaboration with over 50 contributors from across the world (including our one and only Tim Houlih...
2021-11-2437 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastHalloween Special: Grooving on Scary BiasesListen to Kurt and Tim’s spooky Halloween Special about some common biases that can seem a bit scary. But don’t fear, the scariest thing about this episode is actually Kurt and Tim’s jokes! Find out why some biases are a bit spooky, what makes us susceptible to them, and most importantly how we can overcome them.
Thanks for taking the time to learn a bit about how to overcome the biases you may find impacting your life. If you’d like to support our work further, please consider donating a treat (no tricks please!) on our Pa...
2021-10-3118 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastWhy Does Rude Behavior Really Bother Us So Much? | Trevor Foulk PhDRudeness is contagious, in a similar way to a virus. When experiencing a rude encounter, our brain perceives it like a threat. And once we’ve tuned in to this low-level threat, we’re more likely to notice it around us, and therefore more likely to display rude behavior ourselves.
Our guest on this episode is Dr Trevor Foulk PhD, Assistant Professor of Management & Organization at the University of Maryland. His well published research on deviant workplace behaviors and workplace power dynamics, has been featured in Time magazine, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
Tr...
2021-10-271h 11
Behavioral Grooves PodcastLeading Human™: How to Avoid Burnout and Create a Positive OrganizationEmployee burnout, The Great Resignation, Office Covid Regulations; these are all major concerns for leaders in the workplace right now. But how can managers successfully navigate these stresses, while still maintaining productivity among staff?
At the start of the pandemic, Behavioral Grooves began a series of podcasts with researchers and practitioners to understand the organizational shifts we were seeing. Over the course of our interviews, we discovered big changes in the way business was being conducted and that managers, specifically, were really caught off guard. They didn’t have a coach or a guide to help them th...
2021-09-1919 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastStanford Prison Experiment, 50 Years On: What Have We Really Learnt? With Dr Philip ZimbardoThe Stanford Prison Experiment has been the topic of movies, newspaper articles, textbooks and TV shows. Extensively published controversy has surrounded the social psychology experiment ever since it was conducted in 1971. Now on the 50th Anniversary, we invite you to listen to a very unique interview with the man who orchestrated it all; Dr Philip Zimbardo PhD.
Was the Stanford Prison Experiment designed to measure the corruption of power?
Were participants influenced by the context of the experiment itself and pressured into performing a role?
How exactly did the environment influence the behavior of the participants, including Dr P...
2021-08-1540 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastDonating Our Money Is Irrational, So Why Do We Do It? Tim Kachuriak Explains Our MotivationsTim Kachuriak is the founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for NextAfter (https://www.nextafter.com/), a fundraising research lab and consulting firm that works with businesses, nonprofits, and NGOs to help them grow their resource capacity.
By his own admission, Tim is not a behavioral scientist, but what we love about Tim’s work is that he is using knowledge and research from the world of behavioral science and applying it to improve the efficiency of gift giving for nonprofit organizations. And not only does he use behavioral science techniques, he tests the theories in...
2021-05-121h 02
Behavioral Grooves PodcastShare, Like, Comment: Sandra Matz PhD Exposes The Truth Behind your Digital FootprintOur guest this week, Sandra Matz PhD exposes the truth behind our online presence. In our conversation, Sandra reveals that with simple analytics, the digital footprints we leave behind online (our Facebook Likes, our credit card transactions, our Google Map searches) add up to paint a very revealing picture of our personality and state of mind.
Sandra Matz PhD is an associate professor at Columbia Business School. She takes a Big Data approach to studying human behaviour. Her methodologies use psychology, computer science and data collection to explore the relationships between people’s psychological characteristics and their di...
2021-04-251h 13
Behavioral Grooves PodcastHow Shelley Archambeau Flies Like an EagleShellye Archambeau is the author of “Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms.” It’s part memoir, part inspiration, and career guidebook. While Shellye argues it’s for everyone, we reckon it’s really best suited for the most ambitious among us. In the book, Shellye shares how she went from being the only black girl in her high school to being the CEO of a Silicon Valley tech firm, MetricStream. And it’s an amazing tale of an amazing woman.
In our conversation with Shellye, she talked with us about the challeng...
2021-02-071h 07
Behavioral Grooves PodcastThe Counterintuitive Persuasion of The Catalyst with Jonah BergerJonah Berger is a marketing professor in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the internationally best-selling author Contagious and Invisible Influence. He consults with some of the largest corporations in the world and derives great insights from his interactions with business leaders wrestling with strategic issues.
In this episode, we caught up with Jonah to discuss his most recent book called The Catalyst. His book takes a counter-intuitive view on persuasion by focusing on reducing barriers to change rather than learning just the right lines, information, or coercive measures to use. Jonah advocates for...
2021-01-1748 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastSuccessful New Year’s Resolutions in 4 Quick TipsIf you’re like the rest of us, your new year’s resolutions don’t last beyond St. Valentine’s Day. That’s okay – it’s normal. The trouble is it’s not what you want.
If you WANT success with your resolutions – to accomplish your goals – then listen to this podcast. We’ve broken down the best behavioral science advice into 4 easy-to-follow tips that will help you achieve what it is you’re passionately committed to at the start of the year.
We’ve incorporated research from some of the best work in the field is combined with the...
2020-12-3020 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastReflecting on the Best Podcast Insights from 2020This is THE episode to listen to if you have missed the last 90 episodes.
We can all agree that 2020 has been one hell of a year. Many people have been severely impacted by the pandemic, by financial uncertainty, with civil unrest, and the general malaise that the year seemed to have. Many are excited to say, “Good riddance!” The same goes for us, but Kurt and Tim have also used 2020 to surpass several milestones that we’d like to share with you.
#1 Best Behavioral Science Podcast as voted by listeners of Habit Weekly (which was very, very c...
2020-12-2349 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastIMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY BY MAKING YOUR WORKFORCE PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE[NOTE: This episode was originally published as a Weekly Grooves podcast. We wanted to share it with our Behavioral Grooves listeners and we hope you enjoy it.]
We were inspired by a recent article on CNBC’s website by Cory Steig, called “ ’Psychological safety’ at work improves productivity–here are 4 ways to get it, according to a Harvard expert.” The piece reviews some research on psychology safety that Kurt and I have been focused on for years.
Psychological safety is a concept that was identified by Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson from work in the 1990’s. Professor Edmo...
2020-11-2016 minBehavioral Grooves PodcastIowa Caucus Conspiracy Theories – How to Inoculate Yourself[NOTE: This episode was originally published under our sister-podcast, Weekly Grooves. In our effort to share relevant behavioral science information, we are republishing it here. We hope you enjoy it.]
Listeners, especially in the United States, are already aware of the debacle from the Iowa Caucuses and how the Iowa Democratic party used a new app to help streamline the caucus results. You’re probably also aware that the processes and technologies failed, and results were not available for days afterwards.
The delay has caused a plethora of online conspiracy theories and that’s our topi...
2020-11-0524 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastEugen Dimant, PhD: What To Do About Bad Apples[NOTE: Republished in its entirety from original episode #104 on December 15, 2019.]
Eugen Dimant, PhD is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences Department and a Senior Research Fellow at the Identity and Conflict Lab, Political Science Department – both at the University of Pennsylvania.
His research is rooted in economics and sits at the crossroads of experimental behavioral economics, behavioral ethics, crime, and corruption, with much of his recent work focusing on the ways “bad apples” (people will malintent) can be thwarted. This is also manifest in his research on behavioral contagion of pro- a...
2020-08-3055 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastSteve Wendel, PhD: Designing for Behavior ChangeStephen Wendel, PhD is an applied behavioral scientist who studies how digital products can help people take action more effectively. He currently serves as Head of Behavioral Science at Morningstar, leading a team of behavioral scientists and practitioners who conduct original research on saving and investment behavior.
Steve has authored “Designing for Behavior Change,” “Improving Employee Benefits,” and “Spiritual Design.” He is also a co-founder of the non-profit Action Design Network that focuses on educating the public on how to apply behavioral research to product development with monthly events in fifteen cities.
In our conve...
2020-07-261h 17
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: On the Principle of Scarcity[NOTE: This episode is republished from #74 in June 2019.]
This episode is a discussion on the principle of scarcity. Kurt and Tim attempt to illuminate the power of this very fundamental effect in behavioral science with some real-world examples. Simply put, the scarcity effect is that people want more of those things they can have less of. It’s terribly powerful and is evident in many aspects of our lives.
“Sale ends tomorrow” is one of the strongest tools in a marketer’s handbook, and Kurt and Tim discuss that and others and the ways they impact b...
2020-07-1509 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastKaty Milkman, PhD: Using Behavior Change for Good[NOTE: This is a republished episode from #99 in November 2019.]
Katy Milkman is no ordinary behavioral scientist. She’s a Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at Wharton. She has a secondary faculty appointment in the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical School in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. She’s Co-Director, with Angela Duckworth, at the non-profit Behavior Change for Good Initiative. She’s the host of one of our favorite podcasts, called Choiceology, she is in the middle of writing a book, and she’s a Mom and Partner all at the same time!
We a...
2020-07-1258 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Caroline Webb, Senior Advisor at McKinsey, on The Value of Where We Place Our Attention and Amplifying CertaintyCaroline Webb, a Senior Advisor at McKinsey, is an executive coach, author, and speaker specializing in insights from behavioral science to improve our lives at work. Her book on that topic, How To Have A Good Day, has been published in 14 languages and in more than 60 countries. One of her past jobs was to contribute to the world economic forecast, and she is fluid in her ability to speak with authority on a wide spectrum of topics. This session was recorded in February 2020 in the early days of the lockdown and we realize Caroline's words of encouragement to identify e...
2020-07-0554 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Margaret Robinson Rutherford, PhD on Perfectly Hidden DepressionMargaret Robinson Rutherford, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice with more than twenty-five years of experience treating individuals and couples for depression, anxiety, and relationship issues.
She also offers her compassionate and commonsense therapeutic style to the general public through her popular blog and podcasts, with the goal of decreasing the stigma around psychological treatment. Her podcasts and shows on perfectly hidden depression (PHD) have reached thousands, as she sheds light on this overlooked presentation of the disease.
She is also the author of PERFECTLY HIDDEN DEPRESSION: How to Break Free from the P...
2020-06-281h 08
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Howard Friedman, PhD on The Value of Human LifeHoward Friedman is a data scientist, health economist, and writer with decades of experience in both the private and public sectors, as well as academia. He is widely known for his work as a statistical modeler and he currently lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.
Howard's new book, Ultimate Price: The Value We Place on Life, is about how the monetary values assigned to our lives by governments, medical professionals, and insurers can determine who will survive during times of crisis.
We talked to Howard about different models for the valuation of...
2020-06-0753 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Chris Pfeiffer on Tips for Adjusting Sales Comp PlansChris Pfeiffer is a Senior Business Analyst at Tegra Analytics. Chris specializes in salesforce effectiveness in the life science industry, which includes incentive compensation, targeting and segmentation, sales force sizing and optimization, statistical analysis, and business intelligence.
Chris graduated from The Johns Hopkins University, where he received his Master of Science in Government Analytics, and La Salle University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (major in Finance with a minor in Economics).
We spoke to Chris about some of the challenges brought on by the coronavirus crisis. We discussed sales quotas an...
2020-06-0346 minBehavioral Grooves PodcastDan Hill, PhD: On the Facial Coding of Trump, Hendrix, Prince, Gretzky and the BeatlesDan Hill, PhD is an internationally recognized expert on the role of emotions in politics, business, sports, and popular culture. He pioneered the use of facial coding (the analysis of facial expressions) in market research and has done work for over half of the world's top 100 consumer-oriented companies. He’s even received seven U.S. patents related to facial coding and he is an author on top of that.
We talked to Dan about one of his recent books called Famous Faces Decoded: A Guidebook for Reading Others. Unless you’ve never been lied to in your life...
2020-05-311h 00
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Claire Bidwell Smith on Grief During the CrisisClaire Bidwell Smith is a licensed therapist specializing in grief and the author of three books of nonfiction, most recently ANXIETY: The Missing Stage of Grief. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and a variety of other publications.
She received her Master’s Degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University, and has recently transitioned her therapeutic practice to the East Coast of the United States while working with clients around the globe.
Our discussion with Claire focused on how a crisis is unique in its ability to generate grief...
2020-05-2746 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Kristen Berman on Remote Work, Quaranteams and MarinadesKristen Berman is the co-founder of Irrational Labs and co-founder and principal at Common Cents Lab, a non-profit behavioral consulting company, with Dan Ariely. They work focuses on the financial well-being of low-to-middle-income Americans.
She was also on the founding team for the behavioral economics group at Google and hosts one of the top behavioral change conferences globally, StartupOnomics. She co-authored a series of workbooks (with Dan Ariely) called Hacking Human Nature for Good: A Practical Guide to Changing Behavior.
Our conversation with Kristen began with some straightforward tips on boosting productivity while working in i...
2020-05-2444 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Stephen Curtis on Neuroplasticity and Creating the IdealStephen Curtis, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist with a doctorate in Neuroscience Experimental Psychology. He specializes in Performance Psychology with professional and college athletes, musicians, and corporate leaders to help them reach their highest levels of performance.
Steve is the author of the proprietary Clarity Survey which has become a business research best practice instrument with Fortune 500 companies. Clarity uses common language answers to detect what consumers and employees consider their ideal CX and EX experiences, and in so doing, it offers tremendous insights for business leaders.
In this episode, we focused on the ways in...
2020-05-1958 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGary Latham, PhD: Goal Setting, Prompts, Priming, and SkepticismGary Latham, PhD is the Secretary of State Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Rotman School of Management in the University of Toronto. His research in the field of organizational psychology has yielded over 200 peer-reviewed publications and he has written several books on the topic of goal setting. He and his lifelong research partner, Ed Locke PhD, are responsible for Goal Setting Theory, prized by both the scientific community and sales leaders around the world.
He is the only recipient of both the Distinguished Contributions to Science award and the Practice award from SIOP. Top it off...
2020-05-171h 39
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Mariel Beasley on Increasing Short Term Savings During the CrisisMariel Beasley is the Co-Director of the Common Cents Lab at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University. She works on applications of behavioral research, primarily in the financial services sector and public policy arena. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University and her previous work experience includes a variety of nonprofits and charitable foundations.
As the leader of Common Cents Lab, she often develops partnerships with financial institutions to put behavioral science to good use through improving products, services and experiences for low-to-moderate households.
We talked to Ma...
2020-05-131h 05
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Kaveh Yasdifard on Uniting Innovators from TehranKaveh Yazdifard is the Chief Innovation Officer at Sahab Pardaz located in Tehran, Iran. He is also the Director of Urban Innovation for the city and COO of Avatech Accelerator, a firm focused on empowering business startups through a values-driven culture.
While much of Kaveh’s work is focused on collaborating and creating value through Innovation, we were particularly interested in speaking with him about the way he applies Cognitive Psychology and Data Science to his work.
And at this writing, Kaveh and his teams are developing initiatives in Iran to help individuals and businesses surv...
2020-05-0552 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Gretchen Chapman, PhD on The Psychology of VaccinationsGretchen Chapman, PhD researches how we make decisions about vaccines. She is a Professor in the Social & Decision Sciences department at Carnegie Mellon University and works across disciplines in both fields of judgment and decision making as well as health psychology.
She is the recipient of an APA early career award and an NJ Psychological Association Distinguished Research Award, a fellow of APA and APS. She is a former senior editor at Psychological Science, a past president of the Society for Judgment & Decision Making, the author of more than 100 journal articles, and the recipient of 20 years of c...
2020-05-0357 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Jules Nolan on The Kids are Alright - Insights on Coping Through the CrisisJules Nolan, PhD is a psychologist, speaker, and author. She is the president of the Minnesota School Psychology Association and chairwoman for the Human Diversity Committee for the International School Psychology Association.
Her research, which has been conducted and published internationally, focuses on behavior, achievement, and wellbeing for school-aged children. She consults with parents and educators on how to manage family life and classrooms to help all children thrive.
We talked to Jules to get her thoughts into how she assists families with the unfamiliar experience of being together constantly. Jules delivered insightful comments, terrific re...
2020-05-011h 10
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Greg Davies, PhD on the Fetish of OptimizationGreg Davies, PhD is a specialist in applied behavioral finance, decision science, impact investing, and financial wellbeing. He founded the banking world’s first behavioral finance team at Barclays in 2006, which he led for a decade. In 2017 he joined Oxford Risk to lead the development of behavioral decision support software to help people make the best possible financial decisions.
Greg holds a PhD in Behavioural Decision Theory from Cambridge; he has held academic affiliations at UCL, Imperial College, and Oxford; and is author of Behavioral Investment Management. Greg is also Chair of Sound and Music, the UK’s na...
2020-04-281h 20
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Anurag Vaish on Risk is a Feeling, Not a NumberAnurag Vaish is the co-founder and director of The FinalMile in Mumbai, India. In building the company's practice of Behavior Architecture, Anurag led the conceptualization and development of digital games as a platform for research.
Anurag brings over 17 years of experience in strategic planning, research and marketing communication. Our conversation with him allowed him to highlight some of the work FinalMile is doing with the Indian government.
More importantly, Anurag and his team are building a Pandemic Playbook (link below) which is an archive of data points, interventions, communication, trends in activities and observations and...
2020-04-2046 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Michael Boden on How Field Sales Reps Are Adapting to the CrisisMichael Boden is the Head of U.S. Crop Protection Sales at Syngenta, a global agrochemicals and seeds firm based in Basel, Switzerland. He joined the company in 1986 and has held global sales and marketing positions throughout his career. Michael grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and is currently based in Syngenta’s North American headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Michael shared a vivid image of his business: it’s what he calls belly-to-belly relationships his reps and agronomists have with growers (farmers), retailers and distributors. He also shared an insight about the need for corporate redundancy that...
2020-04-1737 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Alessandro del Ponte on Moral Dilemmas with Economic ConsequencesAlessandro del Ponte is a research fellow at the National University of Singapore working in the Behavioral Change program at the Global Asia Institute. He recently earned his PhD in behavioral political economy from Stony Brook University in New York. His recent research uses simple video games to understand how people feel about making tradeoffs between jobs and paying off national debt, or between saving lives in the national healthcare system or paying off the national debt.
We decided to connect with Alessandro because of President Trump’s recent comment: The cure shouldn’t be worse than the...
2020-04-1441 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Cristina Bicchieri – Messaging Rules For Improving Social BehaviorCristina Bicchieri, PhD is the S. J. Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics, a Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, a Professor of Legal Studies at the Wharton School, the Head of the Behavioral Ethics Lab, the Director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program, and is the Faculty Director of the Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research with UNICEF keeps her busy around the world, as well.
Our discussion with Cristina offers more than just a few tips (noted below). Cristina’s o...
2020-04-111h 18
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: The Impact of Temporal DiscountingIn this grooving episode, Kurt and Tim discuss Temporal Discounting and it’s closely related cousins. Temporal discounting is where we tend to value events in the near term more than similar events that are off in the distance. Another way to say it is that we discount – or reduce – our perceived value of events scheduled far off in the future. (The “timing” element is what gives it the name “temporal.”)
This is a very common bias and is closely related to Hyperbolic Discounting, which is the tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payo...
2020-04-0514 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Aline Holzwarth on Our Behavioral Immune SystemAline Holzwarth is the head of Behavioral Science at Pattern Health in Durham, North Carolina and a writer who supplies work to Behavioral Scientist and Forbes and has well as her blog on Medium. And she is also Principal of Dan Ariely’s Center for Advanced Hindsight, where she is responsible for directing the strategy, operations and communications for the Duke University research center.
Our conversation with Aline was relaxed and built on the underpinnings of abundance and gratitude. We talked first about some the great tips she offers for handwashing messages and how our behavioral immune sy...
2020-04-0347 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Brad Shuck, PhD on Pausing, Building Capacity and "Not Business as Usual"Brad Shuck, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Evaluation and Organizational Development at the University of Louisville. He is also the Program Director of the Center for Human Resource and Organizational Development. Brad has been researching employee engagement for many years and is a featured speaker at conferences on employee engagement around the world.
Talking to Brad was like having a friendly counselor talk you off the ledge while we covered meaningful topics starting with the fact that this is definitely NOT business as usual. His take on intentionality, deliberate action and...
2020-04-021h 06
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Eugen Dimant, PhD on the Roles of Social Norms and Good ScienceEugen Dimant, PhD is an Associate Professor of Practice in Behavioral and Decision Sciences, which is part of the new Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics under Cristina Bicchieri, Ph.D.’s leadership at the University of Pennsylvania. Much of his work is focused on how social norms are formed and impact our lives.
We talked about how social norms drive individual behaviors in different ways and how research on coronavirus-related behaviors is being completed at record speeds – but not necessarily all in good ways. He recommends slowing down, working across disciplines, and being clear on rese...
2020-03-3148 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Wendy Wood, PhD on Habits, Productivity and Being Gentle with YourselfWendy Wood, PhD is a social psychologist whose research addresses the ways that habits guide behavior. She researches and teaches at USC both in psychology and in the business school and is a world-renowned expert on breaking old habits and creating new ones. Her book, “Good Habits, Bad Habits” is a New York Times bestseller and delivers a terrifically readable and scholarly approach to habits.
In our conversation with her, she shared what habits are and how habits get formed. We talked about how now could be a time for more pro-social behavior. And she reminded us to b...
2020-03-3039 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastDeborah Small, PhD: Processing Probabilistic Events and Making DonationsDeborah Small, PhD is a professor of marketing in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research crosses the intersections of psychology and economics, examining fundamental processes that underlie human decision making. In recent years, her work has focused on both altruistic and self-interested motivations for philanthropic behavior. She has examined impediments to effective altruism, bragging about prosocial behavior, and the downsides of conspicuous consumption.
A NOTE TO OUR LISTENERS: We recorded this discussion with Deborah on March 6, 2020, and it was one of the last recordings that Kurt and Tim made in the studio together. O...
2020-03-291h 15
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Rodd Wagner on The Zen of Staying SafeRodd Wagner is a Forbes columnist and bestselling author of books on leadership, employee engagement and collaboration. Rodd’s books have been published in 10 languages and his articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, USA Today, ABC News, as well as Globe and Mail in Canada. One of his books was even parodied in Dilbert.
In our conversation, we discussed how humans perceive risk, regulation (by the self and by the government), and cumulative probabilities. We’ve known Rodd for many years and always find his perspectives fresh and ripe with curi...
2020-03-2859 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Annie Duke on Hedging and the Last Disaster SyndromeAnnie Duke is an author, corporate speaker, and consultant in the decision-making space. Her most recent book, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, quickly became a national bestseller and landed on the Behavioral Grooves Top 10 list for 2018!
Prior to her career as a professional poker player, Annie was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the co-founder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education.
And...
2020-03-271h 17
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Ali Fenwick, PhD on Leveraging the Crisis for GoodAli Fenwick, PhD is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Hult International Business School in London and Dubai. He specializes in applying behavioural traits and behavioral interventions for business improvement, government policy design, communication effectiveness and, among other things, psychographic profiling.
According to Ali, “Bulk buying is caused by various psychological and environmental cues which throw rational-thinking out of the window. When in survival mode, we let mainly our emotions drive decisions and are more susceptible to social influences. So, we will rush out and buy more because we believe others are doing the same.”
We dis...
2020-03-251h 01
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: James Brewer on Changing His MindJames Brewer is the Director of Marketing Platforms and Global Customer Operations for Eli Lilly and Company. Over the years, Kurt and Tim have worked with James on applying behavioral science insights to his work, and many of his colleagues’ work, at Eli Lilly. James is an avid behavioral science practitioner and also a friend.
We started our discussion with James about how his views have shifted from being someone who thought the media was overhyping the pandemic, to being someone who is taking the threat from the coronavirus very seriously. This naturally integrated James’s personal story...
2020-03-2459 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Don’t Outsource Your Critical Thinking with Christian HuntChristian Hunt is the founder of Human Risk, a Behavioral Science consulting and training firm specializing in risk, compliance, conduct & culture. Previously, Christian was the head of Behavioral Science at UBS and Chief Operating Officer of the Prudential Regulation Authority. He is an expert on risk and how people perceive risk.
We wanted to talk to Christian about how we perceive risk and whether or not our human biases are overblowing (or undervaluing) the current pandemic. We also chatted about a concept introduced to us by Deborah Small, a professor at Wharton, called distorted risk perception.
...
2020-03-2358 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Barry Ritholtz on Keeping PerspectiveBarry Ritholtz is the CIO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and the host of the Bloomberg podcast Masters in Business, where he talks almost as much about markets, investing and business as he does about the behavioral science behind WHY we do what we do. Our first conversation appears in the ever-popular Episode 47.
This week, we discussed the financial implications of the financial crisis resulting from the pandemic. It’s not, as Barry notes quite clearly, a one hundred year flood. The market is reacting the way it normally does. While the shifts are dramatic, they were unforeseen an...
2020-03-2256 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastCovid-19 Crisis: Emotional Impact of WFH with Liz FosslienLiz Fosslien was our guest on Episode 56 and we asked her back to kick off our series on the behavioral aspects of how life is changing with quarantines, sheltering in place and working from home. Liz is the Head of Content at HUMU, a firm that combines people science and machine learning to create breakthroughs on a wide variety of people-centric measurements. Liz is also the co-author and illustrator of No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work.
We discussed how this crisis has impacted our emotional wellbeing and how to get along while wo...
2020-03-2145 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastChiara Varazzani: Behavioral Science Needs More NeuroscienceChiara Varazzani, PhD is the Principal Advisor at the Behavioral Insights Unit in the Victorian Government's Department of Premier and Cabinet in Australia. Chiara is Italian born, French-educated, and employed in Australia, adding her to the list of Italian-born behavioral scientists we’ve had on our show (Cristina Bicchieri, Francesco Gina, and Silvia Saccardo, in case you’re counting).
She blew us away with her passion for behavioral science as well as her comments about the way our brain calculates the ratio between effort and reward with dopamine and noradrenaline. It was a reminder that there is hard...
2020-03-151h 07
Behavioral Grooves PodcastJohn Fuisz: Tracking Emotional VectorsJohn Fuisz is co-founder of Veriphix and a marketer who believes in building great brands. He does so with a sophisticated system that, on the surface, appears simple and direct; however, it’s built on his astute observations of consumer behavior, the clever use of data, and most importantly, it’s related to Annie Duke’s use of bets to measure future behaviors.
We wanted to talk to John because his work tracks the seemingly subtle, yet extremely powerful, ways our buying and voting behaviors can be influenced.
Veriphix connects brands with users with three primar...
2020-03-081h 14
Behavioral Grooves PodcastAndrew Wagner: The Economics Inside Online GamesAuthor and economist Andrew Wagner’s new book, The Economics of Online Gaming, shares how economic decisions get made by players of online games. We discuss how reputations and player behaviors impact success in the game.
For instance, a very positive reputation could lead other players to work with you, but it also could lead them to take advantage of you. Andrew discovered, in this game, that while a bad reputation sets people against you, it also provided unforeseen benefits in the game, economically speaking, of course.
We agree with Andrew that economics can be in...
2020-03-011h 10
Behavioral Grooves PodcastEthical Application of Behavioral Science in the WorkplaceIn this special edition, bestselling author and Forbes contributor, Rodd Wagner, organized a question-and-answer session with Kurt and Tim in front of a live audience to discuss whether behavioral sciences could be applied to corporate environments in ways that allow leaders to manipulate their employees. And, if so, where does that land on the ethical spectrum?
Rodd has grown increasingly intrigued and sometimes concerned that behavioral science has reached a point of refinement and adoption that it could create an unprecedented and unfair imbalance in the social contract between companies and the people who work at them.
2020-02-231h 08
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: The Behavioral DiagnosisIn this grooving session, Kurt and Tim share how to conduct a behavioral diagnosis. A behavioral diagnosis is a tool we use to uncover the underlying drivers of behavior inside an organization to bring about meaningful change, all with the use of applied behavioral science.
Kurt and Tim have been conducting behavioral diagnoses for many years and have found that leaders often don’t understand why their employees behave the way they do – particularly when it comes to employees response to changes in the workplace. Leaders all too often expect announcements of corporate changes will be met by ra...
2020-02-0228 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastRory Sutherland: The Opposite of a Good Idea is a Good IdeaRory Sutherland is a British advertising executive who became fascinated with behavioral science. Between his TED talks, books and articles, he has become one of the field’s greatest proponents. Rory is currently the Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne, after gigs as vice-chairman of Ogilvy Group UK and co-founder of the Behavioural Sciences Practice, part of the Ogilvy & Mather group of companies. He is the author of The Spectator’s The Wiki Man column and his most recent book, which we highly recommend, is Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life.
2020-01-071h 38
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: Kiki and Bouba MindsImagine that the two drawings below are called Kiki and Bouba in some alien language. If you had to guess which one was Kiki and which one was Bouba - without any other information, which one would be Kiki, and which one would be Bouba?
If you are like most people, the sharp angular shape (on the left) would be named Kiki while the curvier rounded shape (on the right) would be named Bouba.
This effect is called the Bouba/Kiki effect which highlights how we map sounds to visual shapes and was first observed by W...
2019-12-1113 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastKaty Milkman: Behavior Change for GoodKaty Milkman is no ordinary behavioral scientist. She’s a Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at Wharton and has a secondary faculty appointment in the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical School in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. She’s Co-Director, with Angela Duckworth, at the non-profit Behavior Change for Good Initiative. She’s the host of one of our favorite podcasts, called Choiceology, she is in the middle of writing a book, and she’s a Mom and Partner all at the same time.
We are grateful to her for taking time to record a c...
2019-11-2457 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastChris Brown: Avalanches and System 1 ThinkingChris Brown is in human risk management and practice is set in backcountry snow. He grew up outside of Philadelphia and after graduating with a degree in Urban Design/Architecture, he moved to Utah to pursue certification with the AMGA (American Mountain Guides Association) in avalanche training.
Chris works as a ski guide and avalanche/snow science professional, but his real job is helping skiers overcome their biases. He incorporates the work of Kahneman and Tversky, Richard Thaler and other great researchers into his classes and we found his intentionality in decision making noteworthy.
We ha...
2019-11-101h 33
Behavioral Grooves PodcastVictoria Shaffer: End of Life Decision ToolsVictoria Shaffer is a researcher and professor at the University of Missouri. Victoria focuses on applying decision psychology and behavioral economics to medical decision making. In particular, she is researching judgment and decision making and how they impact the design of patient decision support tools.
Tim and Victoria met working on a field research project with Dan Ariely, PhD because of her work on non-monetary rewards with Scott Jeffrey, PhD. She was pushing back on common sense preferences, such as money is the best motivator, just as she is today with her work in the medical field.
2019-10-271h 21
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: On GoalsGoals are often misunderstood. Goals are much more than just objectives that are handed down to subordinates. Rather, goals are self-determined in the best cases, and at the very least, are set collaboratively to get the most out of them.
We discuss Goal Setting Theory (GST), results from research that Tim conducted, and we address the three key elements that must be included to maximize the effect of the goals: 1. The goals must be perceived as achievable. Without perceived achievability, the goal is not accepted and, therefore, not a goal. 2. There must be some involvement with those...
2019-10-0919 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGina Merchant: Combating MisinformationGina Merchant, PhD is a behavioral scientist who wound her way through academia and into the corporate world for the purpose of improving the health of communities, not just individuals. Her work examines how online and offline social networks influence our health behaviors and healthcare decision-making.
Gina shared her insights through research she’s been conducting with promotores, the women who govern how information flows through Hispanic communities in Southern California. The research explores how the work these women do impacts the health and wellbeing of their communities.
Our discussion also included Gina’s thoughts on m...
2019-09-221h 14Behavioral Grooves PodcastAnnie Duke: Revisiting the MatrixWe are re-sharing our original September 2018 discussion with Annie Duke to announce the Behavioral Grooves 100th Episode on the evening of October 17, 2019 in the Historic Hamilton Auditorium at the Pennsylvania Academy for Performing Arts. It's a live event and we invite you to join us to hear Annie, Lila Gleitman and other guests discuss the application of behavioral sciences. Seating is very limited for this intimate engagement and we hope to see you there! Links below...
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Annie Duke’s latest book, Thinking in Bets, Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, is a mas...
2019-09-152h 02
Behavioral Grooves PodcastBrian Ahearn: Influencing People EthicallyBrian Ahearn is Behavioral Grooves’ first repeat guest. (He was first featured in Episode 39: The Heart of Reciprocity.) We recently reconnected with him to discuss his new book, Influence PEOPLE. The book explores the science behind the influence process – what drives people to take the actions you want them to take, without manipulation or trickery. The book is about changing people's behavior. Positive thoughts, and even agreement from others, only go so far – and seldom lead to a change in behavior. Our conversation with Brian focused on specific ways to make that happen.
Brian’s book is not intend...
2019-09-021h 04
Behavioral Grooves PodcastAlex Blau: The Implementation-Intention FrameworkAlex Blau is a vice president at ideas42 with projects in consumer finance, design and decision-making, and international development. In our discussion, we focused on a new project he’s working on in the area of supervision of people after they're released from incarceration, or what we commonly refer to as parole.
The cost of incarceration and supervision is more than just social – it comes with a big price tag. Nearly $7 billion is spent annually to supervise individuals coming out of the prison system and another $9 billion is spent on incarceration. More than 4.5 million people in the Unite...
2019-08-251h 12
Behavioral Grooves PodcastChris Matyszczyk: Listening to Music While You WorkOur guest in this episode is a prolific writer and observer of the human condition, Chris Matyszczyk (pronounced ma-TIS-chick). We talked with Chris about a variety of topics including
advertising, the psychology of who we are, including an unplanned psychoanalysis of Tim’s desire to be heard as a musician. We also talked about politics and referenced Brexit, life at Google and Facebook, and, hold the phone: how World War will be won by the best nerds.
All of this got started because we saw an article Chris wrote that caught our attention. It was a...
2019-08-121h 26
Behavioral Grooves PodcastScott Jeffrey: On JustifiabilityBecause we're taking a little break, we are republishing one of our favorite episodes: a conversation with Scott Jeffrey, PhD from Monmouth University in New Jersey, recorded in December 2017. Our conversation was so engaging that we wanted to make sure no one misses out on it. The original audio from this was only our third podcast we’d ever recorded, and it was a recorded with the simplest tools available. That said, we hope you enjoy the content.
In this episode, we discuss the concept of justifiability with one of its earliest researchers, Scott Jeffrey, PhD. Scott wa...
2019-08-051h 08
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: On Cognitive DissonanceWe met up with Kathleen Vohs, PhD at our Behavioral Grooves Meetup in Minneapolis on the evening that her op-ed article appeared in the Washington Post on July 18, 2019. She had been asked by the newspaper to write a piece explaining how supporters of President Donald Trump could continue backing him in light of his, “send them back” comment in a tweet.
The tweet referred to 4 first-term congresswomen of color. All of them are US citizens and only one of them was born outside the United States: Representative Ilhan Omar from Minnesota. Representative Omar is from Kurt and Tim’...
2019-07-2115 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastMatt Loper: Helping Patients Adhere to Medication PlansIn this episode, we spoke with Matt Loper, CEO and Co-Founder of Wellth, an app that helps people with chronic conditions improve their health through better adherence to their prescriptions. Matt’s company works with healthcare providers and insurers to provide rewards for patients who need small behavioral interventions to stay on track.
Wellth does this by “giving” patients money at the start of each month to take their pills. To prove they’re on track, they use the Wellth app to take a photograph of their medicines in the palm of their hand. But every day that the...
2019-07-141h 29Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: On LikingIn this episode, Kurt and Tim explore Robert Cialdini’s Fifth Principles of Influence: Liking. In it, we groove on the very powerful tool for influence and persuasion and give examples of how to apply it.
In short, we like people who like us and are more willing to do things for others who we like. We can find aspects of liking and similarity on a multitude of levels, and this subconscious bias impacts much of what drives our behavior. There are three key things to keep in mind when it comes to maximizing the impact of li...
2019-07-0710 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastNurit Nobel: De-Biasing the Recruiting ProcessIn this episode, we spoke with Nurit Nobel, who is living in Stockholm, Sweden where she’s working on her PhD. Nurit is a co-founder of Impactually, along with one of our favorite guests, Christina Gravert, PhD. Impactually is a behavioral science consultancy that is firmly grounded in both academic rigor and real-world experience.
Nurit, who is related by marriage to the family associated with the Nobel Prize, talked about Impactually’s BOOST model, which is a practical tool for behavior change. The majority of our conversation was focused on a client case study about de-biasing the recr...
2019-06-301h 20
Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving: On ScarcityThis episode is a discussion on the principle of scarcity. Kurt and Tim illuminate the power of this very fundamental effect in behavioral science with some real-world examples. Simply put, the scarcity effect is that people want more of those things they can have less of. It’s terribly powerful and is evident in many aspects of our lives.
“Sale ends tomorrow” is one of the strongest tools in a marketer’s handbook, and Kurt and Tim discuss that and others and the ways they impact behavior. We also talk about the implications of scarcity and how scarcity...
2019-06-0908 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastRoger Dooley: Friction and EngagementRoger Dooley is the author of Friction, his newest book that summarizes great examples of companies do good things to reduce friction for customers and some not-so-good things to increase friction. Roger is also the author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing.
He is the founder of Dooley Direct, a marketing consultancy, and frequent speaker on the topics of marketing and neuroscience. Roger even has ties to Carnegie Mellon as he earned his engineering degree there then went on to complete his MBA from the University of Tennessee.
In this episode, w...
2019-05-261h 26
Behavioral Grooves PodcastJulie Downs: From Sexual Health to the SahelJulie Downs, PhD is an associate professor of psychology in the Social and Decision Sciences department at Carnegie Mellon’s Dietrich College and fits perfectly into the cross-disciplinary culture of the group. Her interests have spanned anthropology to healthcare to economics and her zest for each of them is undeniable.
Our discussion with Julie started with some of her latest research on how to help women make the proper vaginal insertion of an HIV-prevention drug. While scientists at the University of Pittsburgh are developing the medicine, Julie is focused on the behavioral aspects including the proper way to...
2019-04-2852 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastSilvia Saccardo: Ethics of Decisions and Italian RapSilvia Saccardo, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Social and Decision Sciences department in the Dietrich College of Humanities & Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Our conversation with Silvia is the fourth in our series on Carnegie Mellon professors.
We sat down with Silvia in Porter Hall on a chilly day at CMU to discuss her findings on how motivated cognition and hidden biases shape our ethical (and unethical) decision-making. Her research on bribery and lying has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and we found her work with the Dictator Game particularly interesting, es...
2019-04-1756 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastAmit Sood: The Ultimate Happiness DoctorLooking for a simple 5-step plan to be happier? Our guest has one.
Amit Sood, PhD is an author and physician at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. He specializes in pediatrics, internal medicine and oncology and he also maintains certificates in acupressure, yoga and reiki. His books include two particularly relevant volumes that formed the basis of our discussion: The Guide to Stress-Free Living and Handbook for Happiness. He’s a remarkably well-rounded and humble healthcare practitioner as well as a highly productive author. It’s clear from talking with him that he cares deeply about his...
2019-03-311h 11
Behavioral Grooves PodcastFrancesca Gino: Curiosity and Rebellion Makes Your CareerImagine a company where 100% of the employees are rebels – would it be chaotic or wonderful? Our guest from the Harvard Business School, Francesca Gino PhD, argues that rebels are not just essential, but they can improve corporate effectiveness.
Francesca is a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School who describes herself as a curious behavioral scientist, passionate about teaching and helping leaders make wiser decisions that can improve their lives and those of the people around them. She’s the author of dozens of peer-reviewed articles on decision making and her books include Sidetracked (2013), and more recently, Rebe...
2019-03-241h 18Behavioral Grooves PodcastGrooving on ReciprocityThis is the second episode in a series on the 6 Principles of Persuasion as identified by Robert Cialdini, PhD, in his 1984 book, Influence. (The first episode in the series was on consistency – with the link below.) In this grooving session, Kurt and Tim discuss reciprocity, the first principle of influence, its roots and how it shows up in our world today.
Reciprocity is when we feel obliged to give back to people who have given to us. The operative word is given, to differentiate the experience from a contractual exchange like a loan or a quid pro qu...
2019-03-0615 min
Behavioral Grooves PodcastLiz Fosslien: The Smile FileLiz Fosslien is the co-author and illustrator of No Hard Feelings: The secret power of embracing emotions at work. The book is a wickedly funny guide to un-repressing your emotions at work, finding constructive channels even for jealousy and anxiety, demystifying coworker communication styles, and ultimately allowing readers to be the same person in work and in life. She recently joined Humu to develop nudges and behavior change models that make life at work better.
Our conversation with Liz, like all of our conversations, meandered from her book to her workout music (EDM), to her background in ma...
2019-03-041h 06
Behavioral Grooves PodcastSaurabh Bhargava: A More Serene Path to Financial WellbeingSaurabh Bhargava, PhD is a professor and researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and he joined us in the Behavioral Grooves studio during a visit to Minnesota over the holidays. Saurabh has also taught at the Booth School at the University of Chicago and worked in corporate consulting for McKinsey & Company.
His work history, and the fact that he hails from the very sensible state of Minnesota, adds credibility and practicability to his work. In recent years, much of his research has focused on examining policies and programs that shape financial and health wellness. His curiosities h...
2019-02-1845 min