Behavioral Grooves Podcast

Kurt Nelson, PhD and Tim Houlihan
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Nov 8, 2020 • 1h 12min

Elspeth Kirkman and Michael Hallsworth on Designing Behavioral Interventions

CORRECTION: In this episode, we incorrectly state that Michael Hallsworth started the BIT North American team.  In fact, the BIT North America team was founded in 2015 by Elspeth Kirkman. Under Elspeth’s leadership, the team delivered over 100 trials to cities across the US before she returned to the UK in 2018, which was when Michael Hallsworth came to Brooklyn to manage the group. We regret the error and thank Elizabeth Linos, PhD for calling attention to it. In their book, “Behavioral Insights,” Michael Hallsworth and Elspeth Kirkman took time to think through the critical steps in the design and execution of a behavioral intervention. It’s a framework that could be applied to any significant behavior change you might consider and it comes from a book that Kurt and Tim consider among the best of 2020. Michael Hallsworth is the Managing Director of the North American Behavioral Insights Team and has helped develop frameworks such as MINDSPACE and EAST. He is a thoughtful researcher with outstanding work to his credit; at the same time, he’s quick to point out when his research ideas don’t play out as he expected them to. Elspeth Kirkman helped open the North American BIT unit but is now back in London, where she is responsible for BIT’s work on health, education, and local government. We first featured Elspeth for her work on frameworks and models in Episode 166 and we're so happy to see that she and Michael co-authored what we consider one of the best behavioral science books of 2020. Their book, “Behavioral Insights,” was commissioned and published by MIT Press for their Essential Knowledge Series. The book very explicitly outlines HOW to design and implement a behavior change initiative. Their 10-step model carefully lays out this process and we were extremely happy to see that the first 7 steps are all about design. We discussed ethics and transparency in the way interventions are implemented. These considerations are central to much of the work that they do, especially when it comes to the development of governmental policies. We also discussed rationality and who gets to decide what is rational and what isn’t. This was a particularly powerful concept since we know that humans do a great job defending their actions. To what degree is it rational or rationalizing? Regrettably, due to time constraints, we were not able to chat about music. We’ll save it for next time. Right now, we hope you enjoy our conversation with Elspeth and Michael. © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links Michael Hallsworth: @mhallsworth Elspeth Kirkman: @karminker “Behavioral Insights”: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/behavioral-insights Menorca Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menorca Gerd Gigerenzer: https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/staff/gerd-gigerenzer Dan Ariely, “Predictably Irrational”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational Common Biases and Heuristics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit?usp=sharing Eugen Dimant, Episode 169: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/eugen-dimant-phd-what-to-do-about-bad-apples/ NYC Cab Driver Study (Loewenstein, Thaler, Babcock and Camerer): https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/loewenstein/NYCCabdrivers.pdf Behavioral Grooves Episode 41 on Hallsworth: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/michael-hallsworth-from-mindspace-to-east/ Behavioral Grooves 100th Episode: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/the-100th-episode-celebration-in-philadelphia/ Behavioral Grooves Episode 166 on Kirkman: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/elspeth-kirkman-best-models-for-identifying-a-problem/   Nudge.It North: https://www.nudgeitnorth.com/learn Kurt Nelson, PhD: @whatmotivates Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan
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Nov 5, 2020 • 24min

Iowa 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 topic for this week. In the absence of good data, we make it up. Some of the richest conspiracy theories Kurt and Tim found include: 1.) The Democratic party didn’t like the results that they were seeing, so they were changing them. 2.) The Russians or the Chinese had hacked the app and were messing with us. 3.) The Republicans had hacked the app and were trying to rig the election. 4.) Hillary Clinton had helped build the app and was using it to get back at Sanders. And our all-time favorite conspiracy theory (5.) involves the Illuminati and how they were controlling the outcome.  With all this swirling around, Kurt and Tim discuss why it’s humans to engage in conspiracy theories and some of their psychological underpinnings, the personality types that are most prone to believing a conspiracy theory, and what we can do to inoculate ourselves from this sort of thinking. We are reason-seeking machines and are more likely to ask “why” before we fully understand “what” happened. Join us for a quick review of why we experience conspiracy theories in the first place and what we can do about them. © 2020 Weekly Grooves / © 2020 Behavioral Grooves Kurt Nelson, PhD: @WhatMotivates Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan Links Online conspiracy theories flourish after Iowa caucus fiasco:  https://apnews.com/8ae0e5172130f81265172fbd3e65094a The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories, 2017, Douglas, Sutton and Cichocka:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963721417718261 The psychology of conspiracy theories: Why do people believe them, John Grohol PsyD: https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-psychology-of-conspiracy-theories-why-do-people-believe-them/ Closed Belief System: https://issuepedia.org/Closed_belief_system Conspiracy theories: the science behind belief in secret plots, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/sep/05/conspiracy-theories-science-belief-secret-plots Fundamental Attribution Error: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error Hanlon’s Razor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor Illuminati: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170809-the-accidental-invention-of-the-illuminati-conspiracy Lantian, A., Muller, D., Nurra, C., Douglas, K. (2017). “‘I know things they don’t know!’: The role of need for uniqueness in belief in conspiracy theories,” Social Psychology, 48, 160-173 Mercier, H. & Sperber, D., “Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory” BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2011) 34, 57–111 doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000968 Motivated Reasoning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning Oliver, Eric on “Big Brains” Episode 25: https://news.uchicago.edu/podcasts/big-brains/science-conspiracy-theories-and-political-polarization-eric-oliver Pareidolia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia Pattern Recognition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition_(psychology) Pattern Recognition: The Science Behind Conspiracy Theories, Steven Novella: https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/why-do-we-give-into-conspiracy-thinking/ Project Mogul: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mogul Resulting (Annie Duke): https://www.annieduke.com/how-to-make-the-right-decisions-even-when-you-dont-have-all-the-facts/
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Nov 1, 2020 • 1h 22min

Rippling with Jez Groom and April Vellacott

Jez Groom and April Vellacott, our guests in this episode, are co-authors of “Ripple - The Big Effects of Small Behavior Changes in Business.” It’s a practical, application-focused romp that uses a behavioral science lens to solve all sorts of real-world problems. Jez Groom is the founder of Cowry Consulting and has established himself as one of the world's leading practitioners in the field. Jez has played instrumental roles in projects like Babies in the Borough – which we featured in Episode 167 – that used murals of babies faces to fight crime, to changing handwashing behavior in a slaughterhouse in Santiago, to using bright pink walls to reduce unsafe behavior on a high-rise construction site in London. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Psychology at City University, London. April Vellacott is the Behavioral Consulting Lead at Cowry. Aside from being a dedicated and experienced practitioner, she holds degrees in Psychology and Behavior Change. Owning the heavy lifting for the book, April stole the show with some of the best lines (see “you can’t make a bucket without bucketloads of money”). We urge you to check out their book as it’s more than just informative, it’s also a pleasure to read. In our conversation with Jez and April, we discussed the salient points from the book, the case study format they used, the very international feel from those case studies, and some of the techniques they’ve used to get business professionals to adopt behavioral science. We also covered a key pillar of their personal and professional missions: to demystify and democratize behavioral science. It’s a terrific conversation and we hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did. © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links Jez Groom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jezgroom/ April Vellacott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/april-vellacott-68b08257/ Cowry Consulting: https://www.cowryconsulting.com/ “Ripple”: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49190518-ripple  Rory Sutherland: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorysutherland/ Daniel Levitin “This is Your Brain on Music”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Levitin Adam Hansen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adhansen/ Diversifi: https://www.diversifiglobal.com/ Episode 167 – Babies in the Borough: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/how-babies-faces-on-shop-doors-can-reduce-crime-with-tara-austin/   Musical Links John Legend “Wild”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=279RNoP5UyU House Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJk0Tq3JDU Stormzy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-EW4-B11hw Drill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_music Flava Flav: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavor_Flav Public Enemy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy Sade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcPc18SG6uA
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Oct 31, 2020 • 19min

Grooving: The Single Largest Driver of Misinformation

[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.] Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Noah Weiland of The New York Times wrote an article titled, “Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump.”  The article is based on research from the Cornell Alliance for Science that analyzed over 38 million articles around the world on the pandemic. They found that “Mentions of Trump made up nearly 38% of the overall “misinformation conversation,” making the president the largest driver of the “infodemic.” Of the 38 million articles on the pandemic, 1.1 million of them “disseminated, amplified or reported on misinformation related to the pandemic.”  The study found 11 topics of misinformation that were prevalent in these articles – ranging from the pandemic being a hoax facilitated by the Democrats to the virus being a deep state or bioweapon of China to the most common one – miracle cures. Kurt and Tim decided to break down the discussion into three parts: 1.) The psychology of misinformation.  2.) The messenger effect and 3.) The psychology behind why Donald Trump might be doing this. © 2020 Weekly Grooves / © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links “Study Finds 'Single Largest Driver' of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump”: https://news.yahoo.com/study-finds-single-largest-driver-120309389.html CORONAVIRUS MISINFORMATION: Quantifying sources and themes in the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’: https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Evanega-et-al-Coronavirus-misinformationFINAL.pdf What drove the COVID misinformation ‘infodemic’: https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/10/what-drove-the-covid-misinformation-infodemic/ “Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, and Why”: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/43522604  
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Oct 30, 2020 • 4min

Vote Now (for Behavioral Grooves)

The presidential election is going full tilt in the United States and we want to emphasize the importance of acting on your constitutional rights if you are eligible to vote here. However, Kurt and Tim’s Behavioral Grooves is in the running for Best Podcast and Best YouTube on Samuel Salzer’s Habit Weekly Annual Awards. We’d love it if you’d take this opportunity to cast a vote in our direction. Thank you!   Voting for Habit Weekly: https://samuelsalzer1.typeform.com/to/vDs1cWlD Voting in US Presidential Election: https://www.usa.gov/election
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Oct 28, 2020 • 1h 10min

Play, Reciprocity and Context: The Keys to Happy Communities with Jessica Mayhew

Jessica Mayhew, PhD teaches Biological Anthropology as well as Primate Culture & Cognition at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. She got our attention when her comments about how primates play together are related to the way humans play. Not that that in and of itself is a big surprise, but the way we play and the context we play in are – of course – highly influential in how we play. She reminded us about the important role reciprocity has in the animal kingdom, just as it does among humans. She talked about context and environment and she gave us a couple of key examples. She noted how primate communities that value cooperation with their juveniles end up with adults that cooperate. And the opposite is true as well. Highly competitive groups foster more competitive behaviors in their juveniles. Kinda gets you thinking about human communities, right? Jessica inspires us with her interdisciplinary focus and the way she’s always looking for ways to cross into new fields. That’s why we call her a hedgefox: she’s super deep into primatology, but she also likes to dabble in anthropology and other disciplines as well. And, in a related note, she reminded us that none of us are disconnected from the whole – we are all a part of the same ecosystem, and we can take a lesson from that. © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links Jessica Mayhew, PhD: https://www.cwu.edu/anthropology/jessica-mayhew Mia Hamm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Hamm Scottie Pippen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottie_Pippen Jane Goodall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall Dian Fossey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dian_Fossey Birutė Galdikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birut%C4%97_Galdikas “Clue” Movie on Monkey’s Brains: https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/dff98e0a-f5c1-42f9-9124-478c1e070e37 “Where the Wild Things Play,” by Erik Vance in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/parenting/animal-behavior-play-games.html Frans de Waal “Mama’s Last Hug”: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45894068-mama-s-last-hug “Homo Ludens”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens Michael Boden, Episode 136: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/covid-19-crisis-michael-boden-on-how-field-sales-reps-are-adapting-to-the-crisis/ Diversifi: https://www.diversifiglobal.com/ Jez Groom/Cowry Consulting: https://www.cowryconsulting.com/ Minneapolis Uses Opera to Reduce Crime: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2006/04/06/opera-fights-crime-on-block-e Todd Fonseca, Episode 8: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/the-value-of-understanding-microexpressions-for-leaders/   Musical Links Yo-Yo Ma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uiUHvET_jg Pablo Casals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhcjeZ3o5us Kendrick Lamar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvTRZJ-4EyI Planet Earth II Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpgvmHBpatA
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Oct 25, 2020 • 1h 21min

Kwame Christian: On Compassionate Curiosity, Social Justice Conversations, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Kwame Christian, Esq. is the author of “Nobody Will Play With Me: How to Use Compassionate Curiosity to Find Confidence in Conflict.” He is the host of two podcasts, “Negotiate Anything” and “Ask With Confidence.” He is a professor at The Ohio State University Law School and is the director of the American Negotiation Institute. Kwame’s educational background combines an undergraduate degree in psychology, a masters in public policy, and a juris doctor. Yup – a classic underachiever. (NOT) Kurt and Tim got to talk to Kwame about the behavioral science hidden in his practical techniques. For instance, we discussed how to be more effective in negotiations by managing our emotions and how to reframe our negotiations as opportunities. He went on to say that negotiations are really “the art of discovery.” We also discussed the decades-old myth of the win-win negotiation – you guessed right: it’s a myth! Kwame also dropped more sound-bite bombs in our conversation than any other guest. There are tons and tons of takeaways from this conversation that you can put to use in your work or home life right away. And if that’s not enough, he’s got the most eclectic musical tastes of any guest on Behavioral Grooves so far. Check it out. We are grateful to our friend Brian Ahearn who introduced us to Kwame in May 2020.   © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links Kwame Christian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwamechristian/ Kwame on Twitter: @KwameNegotiates Kwame on Negotiations: https://americannegotiationinstitute.com/ Kwame (and Kai) on Instagram: KwameNegotates Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54736049-finding-confidence-in-conflict Kwame’s Podcast Negotiate Anything: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/negotiate-anything/id1101679010 Kwame’s TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Zg65eK9XU Kwame as Ohio State Law Professor: https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/faculty/kwame-christian/ Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/cognitive-behavioral-therapy/about/pac-20384610 Matthew Walker, “Why We Sleep”: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep Them-Us-Fit-Action: https://blog.cmbinfo.com/crc-2018-how-to-engage-todays-corporate-research-buyer   Musical Links Bob Marley “Wait in Vain”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtgP0EQmWVk Calypso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpUh5wUBkbM Soca (Soul Calypso): https://medium.com/@jada.steuart/soca-then-and-now-d5674e9f2b0c Reggae: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyscBx0UWkY Dub Step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ1txLdu6qg Hip-hop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t-BLUi3eAI Rap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGj3nv36M1o Ska: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Weu3b8Nd40 Smooth Jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--cmYzvVASc AC/DC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC/DC “Under the Graveyard” by Ozzie Osbourne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuzyA5gDa4E Major Lazer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqeW9_5kURI The Clash “Should I Stay or Should I Go”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGIFublvDes The Police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4VjsqR5Vbc George Benson “Breezin”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVc5rCl0BIs Grover Washington “Just the Two of Us”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqX7WX6jFdw David Benoit “Lucy and Linus”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOg17QnLGVs Earl Klugh & Bob James: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTOZxnBEPJA Lee Ritenour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMXCSiufPYA The Rippingtons: https://www.rippingtons.com/
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Oct 18, 2020 • 1h 35min

Matt Johnson & Prince Ghuman on Mid-Liminal Marketing and the Ethics of Applied Neuroscience

Matt Johnson, PhD and Prince Ghuman are the authors of “Blindsight: the mostly hidden ways marketing shapes our brains.” We caught up with them to discuss the book, basketball, ethics, and old school hip hop. Matt is a professor at Hult International Business School and he likes to explore the intersections of neuroscience, psychology, and consumerism in his graduate and undergraduate classes. Prince is also at Hult International Business School where he teaches marketing. He is also the founder of PopNeuro, a firm that helps companies to ethically apply neuroscience to their marketing strategies. In our conversation, Matt and Prince introduced us to a new term in neuromarketing they call mid liminal. Not subliminal, but mid liminal. We also talked about the natural partnership between neuroscience and marketing and we covered one of our favorite linguistic games – the Kiki and Bouba studies. Most importantly, we discussed their views on the ethical application of neuromarketing. We also want to note that Prince and Matt are hosting the World’s First Neuromarketing Certification Bootcamp. It will be held live on December 4th through the 6th of 2020. They will be condensing years of neuroscience and marketing insights into a three-day Bootcamp with the intent of outfitting professionals with the latest tools in neuromarketing. Best yet for those looking to build credibility at work: successfully completing the Bootcamp earns you a certification. They also shared a link to the Bootcamp along with a special code (GROOVES) to save $500 off of the registration fee. Use the link in the notes below and type in GROOVES to receive your discount. Of course, this fantastic discount code is ONLY available to listeners of Behavioral Grooves. We encourage you to check it out as we think these guys have a lot to share. Thanks for listening and we hope you go out and find your groove this week.   © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links Matt Johnson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjohnsonisme/ Prince Ghuman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/princeghuman/ “Blindsight”: getbook.at/blindsight Neuromarketing Certification Course: https://www.popneuro.com/neuromarketing-bootcamp Special Discount Code: GROOVES Master Classes: https://www.popneuro.com Nick Van Exel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Van_Exel Steph Curry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Curry Klay Thompson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klay_Thompson Wine Shop Study: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232593421_The_Influence_of_In-Store_Music_on_Wine_Selections Kiki and Bouba Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect Phillip Kotler: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kotler OCEAN/BIG 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits Cass Sunstein on Ethics: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/papers/pdf/Sunstein_809.pdf Charlotte Blank on Don’t Be Creepy episode 9: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/dont-be-creepy-data-transparency-with-charlotte-blank/ Porsche: https://www.porsche.com/usa/ Breitling: https://www.breitling.com/us-en/ Purple: https://purple.com/ Serta: https://www.serta.com/ IKEA: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/ Sleep Number Bed: https://www.sleepnumber.com/ Onomatopoeia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBQCgjo1QTU   Kurt Nelson, PhD: kurt@lanterngroup.com Tim Houlihan: tim@behavioralchemy.com   Musical Links “Old Town Road” remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ysFgElQtjI Grandmaster Flash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PobrSpMwKk4 Busy Bee Starski: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busy_Bee_Starski Tribe Called Quest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tribe_Called_Quest Van Morrison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Morrison The Beatles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYvkICbTZIQ Al Green “Let’s Stay Together”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSu6tcbMOu0 Beatnick Music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatnik Flora Cash: https://www.floracash.com/ Sea Wolf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF3sOmW6jCA Iron & Wine: http://ironandwine.com/ Angus & Julia Stone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7MqreuccI Ministry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fx_IkuTRp0 Debussy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ip64cG7gK4 Hank Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yCQraOX4Bw The Romantics “What I Like About You”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqnw5IfbZOU  
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Oct 11, 2020 • 1h 24min

Annie Duke on How to Decide

Annie Duke first guested on Behavioral Grooves on Episode 31, which was released on September 30, 2018. For some reason, the three of us hit it off and we’ve had the pleasure of each other’s company for several more episodes (more than any other guest). She even asked Kurt and Tim to provide some feedback on an early draft of her latest book. With that background, Kurt and Tim sat down with Annie to talk about the new book (hitting the store shelves on October 13, 2020), the key themes in it, and the decision tools a reader can put to use in their own life. We love it and we hope you get a copy of “How To Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices.” “How To Decide” is really the first of its kind as a book that offers decision tools that the reader can try out through Annie’s guided narrative and exercises. Better decision making can lead to all sorts of improvements in your life, including more happiness, and our guest is all about people living happier lives. As much as we love books describing the neuroscience behind decision making and the behavioral consequences of the biases and heuristics that impact our decisions, we find “How To Decide” to be a fantastic journey into the practical world of the tools to help you make better decisions. To emphasize these principles, Annie talked about the Archer’s Mindset, Free Rolls, and how negative thinking can be a boon to your goal setting and goal achievement. Of course, there’s a mention of Jack White, her musical hero, and lots of pop references from the mind of a certifiable news junkie (at least these days). We hope you enjoy our conversation with Annie, and we ask that you take a moment to subscribe to our Patreon page. For the price of one coffee per month, you can advance our mission to bring insights from thought leaders, researchers and practitioners to those who are curious about behavioral science. We hope you go out and find your groove this week with the help of Annie’s decision-making tools. [Photo of Annie by Jessica Evelynka] © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links Annie Duke: https://www.annieduke.com/    “How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices”: https://amzn.to/3FraukT  Alliance for Decision Making: https://www.alliancefordecisioneducation.org/ False Dichotomy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma Robert Cialdini, PhD: https://www.robertcialdinibf.com/ Michael Phelps on the Worst Case Scenario: https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/michael-phelps-uses-this-mental-trick-to-prepare-for-any-difficult-situation.html Cass Sunstein & Annie Duke on Free Rolling: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3658663  Common Biases & Heuristics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit Perry Mason (2020 TV series): https://www.hbo.com/perry-mason Elizabeth Schoenfelt, PhD study: http://www.wku.edu/Dept/Support/AcadAffairs/Spring03/Game.pdf   Lantern Group: www.lanterngroup.com BehaviorAlchemy: www.behavioralchemy.com Patreon Site: www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves   Musical Links Drake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_(musician) Jack White: https://www.today.com/popculture/saturday-night-live-jack-white-honor-eddie-van-halen-snl-t193951 The Beatles: https://www.thebeatles.com/
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Oct 5, 2020 • 1h 17min

Andy Luttrell: Pro’s and Con’s of Persuasion When Issues are Moralized

Andy Luttrell, PhD is an assistant professor of psychological science at Ball State University and the podcaster/host of Opinion Science, one of Kurt and Tim’s favorites. Andy’s research centers on people’s opinions, including when and how attitudes change. More importantly, Andy is curious about what happens when people moralize their attitudes and how moral arguments can sometimes be compelling and sometimes backfire. Our conversation focused on these areas and we loved the research Andy presented. We were particularly interested in hearing about how people who based their positions on careful analysis tend to be the ones who open enough to be persuaded with the right argument. So our willingness to be open to a fresh idea is in part based on how strong or weak the arguments were in coming to our own conclusions. We found the research fascinating that indicates that people with weak arguments are harder to persuade to new ideas. That was a head-scratcher. Our discussion also covered some thoughtful positions on the so-called Replication Crisis and Andy’s first-hand experience with replication – and non-replication – was insightful. We also want to remind you that Andy’s podcast, Opinion Science, is one of our favorite podcasts – period. We highly recommend it. © 2020 Behavioral Grooves   Links Andy Luttrell, PhD: http://www.andyluttrell.com/ Opinion Science Podcast: http://opinionsciencepodcast.com/episodes/ Richard Petty, PhD: https://psychology.osu.edu/people/petty.1 Arie W. Kruglanski, PhD: Need for Closure: https://psyc.umd.edu/facultyprofile/kruglanski/arie PSA (Public Service Announcement): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_service_announcement Matt Feinberg and Rob Willer on Moral Reframing: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337861541_Moral_reframing_A_technique_for_effective_and_persuasive_communication_across_political_divides Moral Foundations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_foundations_theory Registered Report Experiments: https://www.cos.io/initiatives/registered-reports RadioLab: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab 99% Invisible: https://99percentinvisible.org/ Petty, DeMarree, Brinol, Xia, “Documenting individual differences in the propensity to hold attitudes with certainty”: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-45471-001   Musical Links Weird Al Yankovic: https://www.weirdal.com/ Blue Man Group: https://www.blueman.com/ “Robots” Movie Sound Track: https://music.apple.com/us/album/robots-the-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/723430411

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