Society
Fake News: Why Does it Persist and Who’s Sharing it?
Fake news is a pervasive threat to civil society, but behavioral science can provide some crucial insights into why it resonates with readers and spreads so rapidly.
“500+ Connections”: Inundation, Addiction, and Delusion in Social and Professional Networking
Our favorite networks are constantly nudging us to expand our circles of interaction. Scientifically speaking, just how big can our networks get?
The Post-Truth Problem
What is it about today’s moral climate that seems so explosive? In our hyper-connected, digitalized world, a Victorian-era essay provides surprisingly relevant guidance.
To Vote or Not to Vote?
By understanding the psychology of decision-making, candidates and politically engaged individuals can design more effective messages to get constituents and friends out to vote.
AI and the Future of Lie Detection
With advances in AI, it is very likely that we will soon live in a world where we know how to detect truth.
Tempting the Creation of Habits
Habitual behavior is neither inherently good nor bad; it is simply a powerful tendency of our brain that can turn us into iced tea junkies or flossing fanatics.
Towards Augmented Decision-Making (2/2): Fighting Irrationality with Nonrationality
Data is the new oil, and algorithmic decision-making, as means of commoditizing data, is here to stay.
Towards Augmented Decision-Making (1/2): The Case for Cognitive Prosthetics
Our cognitive functions are increasingly being outsourced to algorithms.
Do Dating Apps Affect Relationship Decision Making?
Despite making dating more convenient, dating apps may provide some behavioral barriers to our emotional health and decision making.
A Brain-Changer: How Stress Redesigns our Decision-Making
Workplace stress is commonplace, but research shows the damaging effect it can have on our long-term decision making and goal seeking behaviour.
Why is Changing Behavior So Hard?
Decision makers often continue with the status quo, despite the irrationality of it. Why is changing behavior so hard, and what can be done about it?
Can Emojis Prevent People From Speeding?
When it comes to designing traffic signs, it may make sense to use emojis instead of words.
Selfish Altruism: A Win-Win?
Many of those who go out of their way to assist others are motivated by something more than just providing social support.
Learning Within Limits: How Curated Content Affects Education
The impact that this curation will have, through social media, trigger warnings, and other cues is a progressive and compounding narrow mindedness.
New Year’s Resolutions: Why We Make Them and How to Keep Them
New Year’s is a popular time to “turn over a new leaf” and bring about positive behavioural changes, but many of us fail in doing so.
The Devil You (Expect to) Know: Political Reconciliation
Seeing the person on the other end of that Twitter argument as a human being could be a powerful antidote to the demonization of our political rivals.
Beating Bias: Debiasing Strategies for Everyday Decisions
Debiasing may not be a one-size fits all solution — but used in the right contexts, it can have a significant impact on how we make decisions.
Unitasking: How to Get More Done in Less Time
Multitasking, once perceived as an elusive virtue, has been shown to adversely impact brain regions responsible for higher cognitive abilities.
Why Machines Will Not Replace Us
Rather than undermining humans, we are much better off thinking hard about how to upskill ourselves and learn how to work alongside machines.
Charity, Parochialism, and the Inefficiencies of Altruism
Whilst research has focused on altruism and the science of giving, the issue of why we donate our money to the places that we do has been neglected.
Overconfidence: From PacMan to ‘Ghost’ Torpedoes
This article explores the behavioural phenomenon of overconfidence and its consequences for officials who call the shots on decisions to wage war.
Texting Our Way to the Polls, Three Friends at a Time
Campaigners can build on behavioral science research and shape a new generation of civic engagement.
Implicit Bias, Gender – And Why We Are All Culprits
We are still in the early stages of of understanding the ways in which implicit biases shape our behaviour, and the ways we can actively combat them.
Should You Donate to Disaster Relief?
Disasters capture our attention and emotions, but we may do more good by ditching empathy as a moral guide.
A Nudge for Coverage: Last-Mile Problems for Health Insurance
Choosing health care coverage would likely be financially more beneficial than forgoing it. Yet many do not take action despite efforts increase enrollment.
How Barcelona Took City Streets Back From Cars
Barcelona leveraged behavioural science to create a more walkable city for its citizens. Could a similar approach work in the U.S?
I Think I Am, Therefore I Am
The concept is quite simple: act how you want others to perceive you and, over time, you will come to see yourself that way.
Gender and Self-Perception in Competition
Recognizing and combatting perceived gender differences remains critically important in ensuring economic efficiency.
How Does Society Influence One’s Behaviour?
Although we like to think of our choices as our own, in fact, they are often profoundly impacted by the choices and views of our peers.
The “Mystery” of Intuitive Decision Making
How should you use your intuition, described as "knowing without knowing", to best effect?
Behavioral Science 101: The Next Frontier Of Social Progress
Behavioral science research has thus far been mostly confined to labs and academia. We want to buck that trend by applying these lessons to the social sector.
Behavioral Science Is Quietly Revolutionizing City Governments
Understanding why people make certain choices allows city leaders to influence them toward behaviour that increases city efficiency.
Professional Women And Stereotypes: Moving Past Them
Women, especially those pursuing careers in traditionally male-dominated professions, are often the targets of gender-infused stereotypes.
The Game That Keeps On Giving
How can we distinguish between altruistic donors that give without any expectation of reciprocation versus ‘warm-glow’ donors who give to receive rewards?
One Unconscious Bias Is Keeping Women Out Of Senior Roles
One unconscious bias – affinity bias – may lead people to favour candidates who are like themselves, research shows.
Mind Your Heart: Irrationally Giving
Research shows that identifiable aid recipients elicit more empathy than otherwise unidentified individuals in need. In this article, the implications of an emotional nudge are discussed further.
Why You Might Not Be Sticking To Your Plans
We plan almost every aspect of our daily lives. But despite all of this planning, we often don’t complete our plans. Find out how to make them stick.
Society’s Biggest Problems Need More Than a Nudge
When it comes to many of the big decisions faced by governments – and the private sector – behavioral science has more to offer than simple nudges.
Nudges: Social Engineering or Sensible Policy?
Nudges don't mandate behaviors like laws, but are nudges manipulating people into decisions they would not endorse upon reflection?
Why Overheads Go Over Our Heads
Donors’ aversion to overheads significantly impedes charitable contributions. In this article, solutions sourced from behavioral insights are offered.
Why More Choice Means Less Freedom
Many corporations abstractly uphold that more choice leads to more customer utility. Upon closer inspection, the inadequacies of this line of thinking begins to unfold.
How Culture Affects The Way We Work
In addition to teaching concepts and skills, culture also shapes more subtle aspects of thinking.
Globalization Policy (2/2): Winners, Losers, And Solutions
In a world that seems directed towards more closure, can we find solutions that are both efficient, fair and, most importantly, inclusive?
Consumer Patterns Of The New American
US consumers feel better about their financial situation than they did a year ago, but they’re still hesitant to spend too much.
What If Your Neighbours Knew Whether You Voted?
Our voting records are public. In this article we explore how we can use behavioral insights to leverage this in order to fix the problem of low voter turnout.
Overcoming The Allure Of Fake News
Many have claimed after this election that we now live in a post-truth society. Yet like many fake news stories, that narrative is, at best, incomplete.
Globalization Policy (1/2): Is The Negative Narrative Justified?
In a world that seems directed towards more closure, can we find solutions that are efficient, fair and, most importantly, inclusive?
Need Not Greed: Bonuses, Risk–Taking And Evolution
Why would we seemingly be willing to take risks to earn more? What actually motivates and drives risk–taking? The answer may lie in how we have evolved.
To Marry Or Not To Marry? A Behavioral Science Perpsective
Roughly 39,000 children are married every day, pushing them further into poverty and despair. In this article, we explore how behavioral science can help.
More Slacking, Less Tracking: How Scarcity Affects the Working Poor
Insights from behavioural economics are used to explain why the poor are not poor simply by virtue of their bad decisions.
Is it too late for Trump and Clinton to become more likeable?
According to the old adage, one never gets a second chance to make a first impression. Might that hold true for the presidential candidates?
Can We Design An Environment That Facilitates Honesty?
Recent research on visual perception suggested to us that it may be possible that visual disorder could play a role in rule-breaking and honesty.
Improving Criminal Profiling With Decision Science
Forensic psychologists are working with law enforcement officials to integrate decision science into criminal profiling.
Your Vote Counts, But Does It Matter?
A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election. Why does voter turn out continue to be an issue?
Decision-Making Parallels Between Humans And Animals
How do animals make choices, and is their decision-making process anything like that of humans?
To Be Right or Liked? Evaluating Political Decision-Making
We can share our worldview like never before, yet we often feel worlds apart when assessing our shared reality.
Behavioral Economics on Fairness and Reciprocity
What defines what is fair or which actions are morally right? The answer to this question might come from a very promising science - behavioral economics.
Bridging The Divide Between Decision Science And Policy
The vast majority of decision scientists lack the resources, time, access, and incentives to directly influence policy decisions. We propose a solution to this issue.
Signs That The Government Is Embracing Behavioral Science
President Obama ordered government agencies to use behavioral science insights to “better serve the American people.”
How To Create Lasting Change
Human decision making is like a tiny rider on a massive elephant. The rider may think he’s in charge, but the elephant’s will always win.