Opinion Science

Rhia Catapano studies what happens when people think of an opinion in terms of what they support versus what they oppose. It turns out that this simple difference carries important implications. Even if we're talking about the same basic opinion, something shifts when it's about support than opposition. In our conversation, Rhia shares her findings and what it means for people who want to communicate more effectively.At the top of the show, I discuss Issue 1 in Ohio from 2023. Most of the background details for that were drawn from this NYT article.Join me over at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OpinionScienceLearn more about Opinion Science and catch up on all the episodes at http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/.

Demi Oba, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School who studies communication and conversational influence. He talks about different kinds of hedges and how they shape persuasion. He explores personal versus general phrasing, how medium (text vs voice) changes language, and surprising effects of brand voice and anthropomorphism.

Jae-Hee Jung is an assistant professor at Rice University, where she studies party politics, political behavior, and political psychology in Western democracies. Her research focuses on the strategic use of moral rhetoric (i.e., appeals to fundamental notions of right and wrong) and how it shapes political competition and voter psychology.We talk about her work analyzing political manifestos, the psychological mechanisms like pride that mobilize a party's base, and the surprising finding that inclusive moral messaging can actually build sympathy across the aisle without causing a partisan backlash. Along the way, we see how framing policies around core principles rather than simple costs and benefits changes the way voters connect with political parties over the long haul.Dr. Jung's new book is Shared Morals: The Role of Moral Rhetoric in Party Politics.Join me over at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OpinionScienceLearn more about Opinion Science and catch up on all the episodes at http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/.

Jiaying Zhao, a climate behavioral scientist at UBC, and Elizabeth Dunn, a UBC social psychologist and happiness researcher, discuss linking joy to environmental action. They explore replacing guilt with positive emotions, finding joyful high-impact climate choices, habit change through rewards, and how happy behaviors spread socially to encourage broader uptake.

Yamil Velez, assistant professor of political science at Columbia who studies when and why opinions resist change, discusses belief versus attitude differences. He explains why fact corrections often fail. He shares how AI-generated, personalized arguments can shift beliefs but only some belief changes move attitudes. The conversation covers tailored persuasion, focal reasons, and implications for polarization and AI research.

Sylvia Perry is a social psychologist and Associate Professor at Northwestern University, where she directs the Social Cognition and Social Identity Lab. She studies the psychological mechanisms that shape how people recognize and confront their own biases, as well as how those biases are transmitted across generations.We talk about her research on racial socialization, specifically focusing on how white parents navigate—or frequently avoid—conversations about race with their children. Sylvia shares insights from her research on facilitating parent-child discussions about race and racism. We discuss why color-conscious messaging is more effective than "colorblind" approaches at reducing children’s implicit biases and how addressing subtle microaggressions can be more impactful for a child’s development than discussing overt prejudice alone.Along the way, we explore the privilege underlying the freedom to opt out of these difficult conversations and offer practical takeaways for parents looking to foster empathy and a sense of fairness in their own homes.Join me over at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OpinionScienceLearn more about Opinion Science and catch up on all the episodes at http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/.

Alex Kustov, associate professor of global affairs at Notre Dame and author of In Our Interest, studies public opinion and immigration policy. He discusses why immigration attitudes are surprisingly stable and how partisanship shaped the debate. He introduces the "altruist's dilemma" and explores which policies make benefits obvious, from skilled immigration to family reunification and private sponsorship.

Debra, an early NLP participant who worked with Bandler and Grinder, shares first-person recollections. She recalls intense workshop dynamics and a family-reconstruction breakthrough. She describes experiments in psychiatric settings and a Christmas party that crossed a line. She explains ethical breaches, power plays, and why she ultimately left the movement.

Steve Rathje, a behavioral scientist studying how people interact with social media and AI, explains why online content goes viral and why agreeable chatbots can be dangerous. He discusses outgroup-driven sharing, high-arousal negativity, algorithmic amplification, and experiments showing AI flattery increases certainty and enjoyment. The conversation also explores historical roots, measurement of virality, and open questions about long-term AI effects.

Greg Murphy, an emeritus professor and cognitive psychologist renowned for his work on categorization, dives into the fascinating world of how we classify concepts. He explores the impact of categories on our social perceptions and judgments, emphasizing their role in guiding expectations and potentially fostering prejudice. Murphy also discusses the flexibility of categorization, how individual knowledge can challenge broad categories, and debates the distinction between real and invented classifications. The conversation highlights the significance of language in shaping our understanding.