Psychologists have long understood that social environments profoundly shape our behavior, sometimes for the better, often for the worse. But social influence is a two-way street — our environments are themselves products of our behavior. Under the Influenceexplains how to unlock the latent power of social context. We are building bigger houses, driving heavier cars, and engaging in a host of other activities that threaten the planet — mainly because that's what friends and neighbors do. In the wake of the hottest years on record, only robust measures to curb greenhouse gases promise relief from more frequent and intense storms, droughts, flooding, wildfires, and famines. Robert Frank describes how the strongest predictor of our willingness to support climate-friendly policies, install solar panels, or buy an electric car is the number of people we know who have already done so. Frank and Shermer also discuss:

luck and how lives turn out
circumstances of behavior
peer pressure and pressures on peers
free will, volition, and self-control
positive behavioral exernalities, e.g., solar panels
happiness vs. purpose/meaning/comfort
utilitarianism vs. natural rights theory
abortion, capital punishment, polygamy, prostitution, and the selling of organs
behavioral contagions: smoking, problem drinking, obesity, tax cheating, bullying, and wasteful energy use.
same-sex marriage and other areas of moral progress
arms races: good and bad
climate change
belief in god and religion in decline, and
UBI (universal basic income)

Robert H. Frank received his M.A. in statistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971, and his Ph.D. in economics in 1972, also from U.C. Berkeley. He is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1972 and where he currently holds a joint appointment in the department of economics and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has published on a variety of subjects, including price and wage discrimination, public utility pricing, the measurement of unemployment spell lengths, and the distributional consequences of direct foreign investment. For the past several years, his research has focused on rivalry and cooperation in economic and social behaviour.

Listen to Science Salon via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.

A Godly Man's Journey

Mentioned by

Mentioned in 1 episodes

The AI-powered Podcast Player