Behavioral Grooves Podcast

We 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... . . .   Annie Duke’s latest book, Thinking in Bets, Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, is a masterful mash-up of her life as a researcher, poker player and charitable organization founder. In it, she explores new ideas on how to make better decisions.  Our interview with her expanded beyond the book and we talked extensively about probabilistic thinking and having people hold us accountable for our decision making. As expected, our interview covered an eclectic mix of behavioral biases, sociology, language development and, of without fail, music.   We used the movie The Matrix and the blue pill/red pill metaphor for looking at the world as accurate vs. inaccurate, rather than right or wrong. We discussed how tribes can offer us distinctiveness and belongingness but also confine us with the tribe’s sometimes negative influences. We also examined learning pods and how they can be used to keep our decisions more in line with reality.   If you like this episode, please forward it on to a friend or colleague and help Kurt win his bet with Tim for who pays the donation to How I Decide. You can find more information on or donate to this wonderful non-profit at www.howidecide.org.    Links Anna Dreber: http://www.sverigesungaakademi.se/en-GB/755.html Phil Tetlock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_E._Tetlock Jonathan Haidt:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Haidt Lila Gleitman:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_R._Gleitman  Syntactic Bootstrapping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_bootstrapping Jack White: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_White Willie Nelson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Nelson Jonathan Richman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Richman Prince: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician) Alex Chilton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Chilton Violent Femmes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Femmes Kurt Nelson: Kurt@lantergroup.com Tim Houlihan: Tim@behavioralchemy.com  Behavioral Grooves 100th Episode Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Behavioral-Science-Meetup-Group/events/264495763/  

Groovers, a couple of announcements for you: 1. Kurt and I are hosting a meetup immediately after Customer Focus North in Minneapolis on September 19, 2019: https://www.customerfn.com/. Rodd Wagner will be speaking! Make sure you use this code to get 10% Off your registration to Customer Focus North: BEHAVIORAL 2.  We're celebrating our 100th Episode and want you to join us in Philadelphia at the live event. Annie Duke will be onstage for our discussion! The link for the 100th Episode Meetup in Philadelphia on October 17, 2019: https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Behavioral-Science-Meetup-Group/

Christian Hunt is the founder of Human Risk, a Behavioral Science Consulting and Training firm specializing in the fields of Risk, Compliance, Conduct & Culture. Before this, he was the head of Behavioral Science at UBS and before that, Chief Operating Officer of the Prudential Regulation Authority, a subsidiary of the Bank of England responsible for regulating Financial Services. Christian shared his 5 principles of human risk – myths that humans cling to that don’t help us do what we ought to be doing. They are all founded on the notion that very few people are doing things they shouldn’t be doing – and yet most of the rules in corporate culture are created to prevent, rather than uplift. And Christian’s biggest beef is that many, many people are NOT doing the things they SHOULD be doing – again, in part because of context and culture. We encountered some internet gremlins that mucked up the portion of our discussion with Christian that was about music. Regrettably, we are unable to bring you Christian’s Top 10 Behavioral Science Hits but we promise to return to it in the future.  In our grooving session, we discuss the implications of the mental algorithms and what we can do about them. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Christian Hunt.   Links Christian Hunt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/humanrisk/ Human Risk: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/interested-behavioural-science-subscribe-now-human-risk-hunt/ Harley Davidson: https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/index.html BMW Motorcycle: https://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/en/home.html#/filter-all Royal Enfield: https://www.royalenfield.com/ “Predictably Irrational,” by Dan Ariely: http://danariely.com/books/predictably-irrational/ Franz Kafka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka Daniel Kahneman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman Prison Experiment: https://www.prisonexp.org/ Game of Thrones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones Chernobyl (TV Show): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries) Henrik Ibsen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen Somerset Maugham: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham Sinclair Lewis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis Inner Emigration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_emigration William Shakespeare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare Othello: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello “The Culture of Responsibility” Netflix: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36417234 “Shawshank Redemption,” by Stephen King: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Hayworth_and_Shawshank_Redemption E.A.S.T.: http://38r8om2xjhhl25mw24492dir.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BIT_Update-Report-Final-2013-2015.pdf Buckminster Fuller: https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/biography   Kurt Nelson: @motivationguru  Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan Check out the Behavioral Grooves website: https://behavioralgrooves.com/

Brian 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 intended as an academic replay of all the aspects of the science of persuasion. While the science is foundational, the book focuses on the practical aspects of application with lots of great examples and case studies, many of them from Brian’s personal experiences. We recommend you check it out if you’re uninterested in the science but care deeply for the “how-to” part of the story. We also returned to music and revisited Brian’s eclectic playlists. We focused on his predilection to combine Frank Sinatra and Coldplay into a single “clean” playlist that he uses in client workshops and presentations. In our grooving session, we discussed whether the tool can be held accountable or is it only the user of the tool? And are you familiar with the Wilhelm Scream? Listen in to find out. For those of you listening before October 2019, Kurt and Tim will be celebrating our podcast’s 100th episode in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Performing Arts on October 17th. Our lead guest will be Annie Duke.   Links Brian Ahearn: https://www.influenceatwork.com/about/trainers/brian-ahearn/ Influence PEOPLE: https://www.amazon.com/Influence-PEOPLE-Powerful-Everyday-Opportunities/dp/1733178503 Daniel Kahneman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman Robert Cialdini: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini Dan Ariely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Ariely Ellen Langer study: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-wise/201310/the-power-the-word-because-get-people-do-stuff Record Store: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_shop Michael Kerrison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-kerrison-760a778/   100th Episode Meetup in Philadelphia on October 17, 2019: https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Behavioral-Science-Meetup-Group/ Kurt Nelson: @motivationguru  Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan Check out the Behavioral Grooves website: https://behavioralgrooves.com/   Artists Hamilton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5VqyCQV1Tg Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsl3gBVO2k4 Frank Sinatra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra  Coldplay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldplay Boston: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_(band) Johnny Cash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash Ministry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_(band)

Alex 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 United States are under supervision and government data indicate that roughly two-thirds of those released from prison will be arrested within 3 years. Roughly 50% of the arrests are for rule violations (the other 50% for committing new crimes). Alex and his colleagues at ideas42 are researching ways to change the context of the world the parolees return to with the hope of reducing recidivism. We talked about the novel interventions they’re testing. We also discussed a brief history of Jamaican music with an emphasis on the rich catalog of the island nation’s artists, emerging near the middle of the 20th century. In our grooving session, Kurt and Tim cover the implementation-intention framework and how reminders via association can be more powerful than specific triggers, especially when triggers are difficult to identify. We hope you enjoy our discussion with Alex Blau.    Links Alex Blau: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-blau-2271788/ ideas42: https://www.ideas42.org/ Annie Duke: https://www.annieduke.com/ Todd Rogers & Katy Milkman “Reminders through Association” https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/todd_rogers/files/rogers_milkman_rta.pdf Sendhil Mullainathan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sendhil_Mullainathan Laurie Santos, GI Joe Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GimHHAID_P0 Reggae: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggae Ska: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ska Rocksteady: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocksteady Mento: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mento Fugue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue David Hussman episode #17: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/the-accidental-behavioral-scientist-with-david-hussman/   Kurt Nelson: @motivationguru  Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan Check out the Behavioral Grooves website: https://behavioralgrooves.com/   Artists Bob Marley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhJ0q7X3DLM Desmond Decker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtfdH3-TQ4 Toots and the Maytals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nqqp5XoyLE Koffee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8HoEvDh70Y

Steven Sisler may not be a household name, but he should be. Steve is a Master Level Behavioral Profiler and the lead Behavioral Analyst at The Behavioral Resource Group. He consults on personality, career strategy, leadership strategy, culture, spiritual growth, relationship management, and temperament strategy. We were introduced to Steve by one of our listeners and we were happy to invite him on the show. His wit and wisdom were both entertaining and rewarding in ways that only a guy who has held jobs as diverse as roofing a house to authoring seven books and speaking at conferences can be. Steve’s behavioral focus emerges from his work with personality assessments, and this brought a fresh perspective us as we rarely dive into the tools of the trade. We discussed the value of understanding who we are as individuals to help us better understand how others are. As Steve said, “We don’t see people as they are, we see people as we are.”  We hope you enjoy our conversation with Steve and we’ve shared links to many of the references – and there were many – for those unfamiliar with this field of study.   Links   Steven Sisler: https://behavioralresourcegroup.com/about-us/about-steve-sisler/ King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 9:11): https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/04/race-swift/ Descriptive Self: https://positivepsychology.com/self-concept/ Normative Self: https://philarchive.org/archive/SILAAN-4 The Prince of Egypt (Disney): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_of_Egypt Robert S. Hartman, PhD: http://www.athenaq.com/about-us/robert-s-hartman-phd/ Axiology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiology Bad Players Make Great Coaches: https://www.thesportster.com/entertainment/top-15-horrible-athletes-who-made-great-coaches/ Turning into a Skid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXHtODehHk Dave Ramsey (radio host): https://www.daveramsey.com/ John G. Geier & Dorthey E. Downey, Aristos: http://www.geierlearning.com/aristos.html DISC Assessment: https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/ Hyper Empathy: https://exploringyourmind.com/hyper-empathy-syndrome-much-good-thing/ Emotional Intelligence: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/emotional-intelligence GI Joe Fallacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GimHHAID_P0 Mirroring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirroring_(psychology) Pinky & The Brain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_and_the_Brain “Quiet” by Susan Cain: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8520610-quiet “9 Lies About Work” by Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall: https://hbrascend.org/topics/9-lies-about-work/ Meyers Briggs Personality Assessment: https://www.businessinsider.com/myers-briggs-personality-test-is-misleading-2014-6 Kimberlé Crenshaw – Intersectionality: https://blackwomenintheblackfreedomstruggle.voices.wooster.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/210/2019/02/Crenshaw_mapping-the-margins1991.pdf   Music “A Star is Born” soundtrack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Star_Is_Born_(2018_soundtrack) Lady Gaga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJjwHAIny4 Foreigner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSOtCMYJqOw Electric Light Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQUlA8Hcv4s Queen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbvyNnw8Qjg Dredg “The Pariah, the Parrot, the Illusion”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Wt-jhBdtA “Down to the Cellar”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDIVA2sDnek “The Times They Are A Changing” by Bob Dylan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ “Purple Rain” by Prince: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9X2R_YF4Qc “Love Will Never Do Without You” by Janet Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KCvVsNstjE “Candy Apple Gray” by Hüsker Dü: https://nl.qwerty.wiki/wiki/Candy_Apple_Grey The Replacements: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Replacements_(band) The Suburbs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Suburbs_(band)  

Our 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 topic we have discussed in the past: Music and its relationship to getting work done. Is music a stimulant to creativity or is it a buzz kill? Does it enhance the work experience or drown it out? You’ll have to listen to see what Chris has to say about this. In our grooving session, we focused on the dynamics of why we connect so easily with some people and others, not so much. And we also covered some of the challenges of a digital, high-social-media age where the lines of work and life might be more like how our ancient ancestors live: it’s just life. Or is it?  We hope you enjoy our conversation with Chris. And please share your thoughts with us and stay in touch. Links Chris Matyszczyk:https://www.zdnet.com/blog/technically-incorrect/ and https://www.inc.com/author/chris-matyszczyk and https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-matyszczyk-935b604/ Brexit: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brexit.asp John Cleese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cleese Fawlty Towers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcEws7il4EY On Privacy: “Privacy and human behavior in the age of information,“ by Alessandro Acquisti, Laura Brandimarte, and George Loewenstein https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/loewenstein/PrivacyHumanBeh.pdf Marvel comics: https://www.marvel.com/ Work-Life Balance was Episode 59 with Jeanie Whinghter and Afra Ahmad: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/jeanie-whinghter-and-afra-ahmad-balance-vs-harmony/ Charlotte Blank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-blank-52554a2/ Roger Dooley: https://www.rogerdooley.com/   Kurt Nelson: @motivationguru and https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtwnelson/ Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan and https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-houlihan-b-e/ Check out the Behavioral Grooves website: https://behavioralgrooves.com/   Cold Play: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldplay Pink Floyd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd Ludwig Van Beethoven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven Beethoven’s Violin Concerto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cg_0jepxow

Because 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 was early among researchers, including Itamar Simonson at Stanford, to note that part of what makes a thing a 'reward' is its difficulty to be justifiable. In other words, the best reward is something that we would NOT justify spending our own money on.  Scott took an interesting turn with his theme song and we had also talked about how employee engagement platforms are 'dollarizing' the relationship between the employer and the employee. Scott also brought up Max Bazerman's "Arguing with Yourself and Losing" model which coaxed a spirited discussion among us. We groove on holiday eats, since we originally recorded this in December and lots of geeky stuff in this episode. We hope you enjoy.   Links Scott Jeffrey, PhD: https://www.monmouth.edu/directory/profiles/scott-a-jeffrey/ Justifiability: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8da9/c17cecfba7806e00a966009c67e11f14e13f.pdf A Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith: https://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_MoralSentiments_p.pdf Cognitive Misers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_miser Dragon’s Den: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons%27_Den Max Bazerman, PhD: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6420 Dan Ariely, PhD: http://danariely.com/ Source Attribution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_(psychology) Behavioral Grooves: https://behavioralgrooves.com/ Kurt Nelson: @motivationguru and https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtwnelson/ Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan and https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-houlihan-b-e/  

Kurt and Tim groove on where behavioral science shows up in popular music. Social norms, loss aversion…all at its best. The human condition is redolent in popular music and we hope you notice some of your own. Let us know what songs YOU think are great for demonstrating behavioral science principles.   Links Aretha Franklin, “Think”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsL9UL9qbv8 Linkin Park “Numb”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYiU_JCYtU Cheap Trick, “Surrender”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sAm5UCJ9vA  Joan Jett, “Bad Reputation”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAQXg0IdfI George Jones, “She Thinks I Still Care”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UquXUYfHYok Dan Hicks, “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Ever Leave Me”: https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/1136477/Original+Recordings/How+Can+I+Miss+You+When+You+Won't+Go+Away  

We 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’s district and we were motivated by the situation to groove on the cognitive dissonance that Dr. Vohs wrote about. In this short grooving session, we talk about politics, politicians and cognitive dissonance. We also explore the age-old philosophical question about whether or not a piece of art can be viewed (and appreciated) without the context of the artist. Links Kathleen Vohs, “The psychological phenomenon that blinds Trump supporters to his racism,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-psychological-phenomenon-that-blinds-trump-supporters-to-his-racism/2019/07/18/29789344-a8ac-11e9-ac16-90dd7e5716bc_story.html?utm_term=.3cd14b5c4d4b Kathleen Vohs, PhD: https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/faculty/kathleen-vohs Leon Festinger, PhD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Festinger Cognitive Dissonance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance Picasso: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso Kurt Nelson: @motivationguru and https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtwnelson/ Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan and https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-houlihan-b-e/ Check out the Behavioral Grooves website: https://behavioralgrooves.com/