Stanford Psychology Podcast

Bella chats with Prof. Dave Lagnado, a professor of Cognitive and Decision Sciences in the Department of Experimental Psychology at UCL. Dave's research focuses on how people use causal models to draw inferences and make decisions. He has written over 100 articles and co-authored a textbook on the psychology of decision making. He has worked with US intelligence, the UK government and various legal and financial institutions, looking at methods to improve reasoning and decision making. In this episode, Dave discusses his new book on the human capacity for causal reasoning and the challenges we face in evaluating evidence using criminal cases. Bella and Dave talk about how Bayesian Inference and Pearl's hierarchy are applied in the legal domain as well as the pros and cons of using causal models in decision making. Dave also shares his views on how causal models could potentially improve the performance of Artificial Intelligence systems. Dave's Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/experimental-psychology/person/david-lagnado/Book Explaining the Evidence - How the Mind Investigates the World https://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Evidence-Mind-Investigates-World/dp/0521184819 

Marianne and Eric chat with Professor Richard Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham. Richard is author most recently of the book The Inner Level, and co-founder of The Equality Trust. In this episode, Richard shares his research on the detrimental and wide-ranging psychological effects of income inequality. He discusses how inequality impoverishes everyone's health, trust, and psychological well-being, even for those "winning" in the income distribution. Richard argues that while positive psychology needs to better understand societal predictors of when people flourish, the field already has discovered many insights that are plainly ignored by policy makers and other shapers of society. Finally, he shares how income inequality is visible and impactful on an everyday basis, and why a more equal society would also do a better job at fighting climate change.If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.Links:Book The Spirit LevelBook The Inner LevelMore information: www.inequality.org Richard's  @ProfRGWilkinsonMarianne's websiteMarianne's Twitter @MarianneReddanEric's websiteEric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsyPodcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPodLet us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Joseph chats with Brian Nosek, co-Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Open Science. The Center's mission is to increase the openness, integrity and reproducibility of scientific research. Brian is also a professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia where he runs the Implicit Social Cognition Lab. Brian studies the gap between values and practices with the goal of understanding why the gap exists, its consequences and how to reduce it. Brian co-founded Project Implicit, a collaborative research project that examines implicit cognition - thoughts and attitudes that occur outside our awareness. In 2015, he was named one of Nature’s 10 and to the Chronicle for Higher Education Influence list. He won the 2018 Golden Goose Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science - only the 2nd time a psychologist has won the award. Brian received his PhD from Yale University in 2002. In this episode, Brian discusses his 2021 Annual Review piece titled Replicability, Robustness and Reproducibility in Psychological Science; the paper reflects on the progress and challenges of the science reform movement in the last decade. Brian and Joseph talk about measures researchers and institutions can take to improve research reliability; they also reimagine how we fund and publish studies, share lessons learnt from the pandemic, and share resources for learning more about the reform movement. Paper: Nosek, B. A., Hardwicke, T. E., Moshontz, H., Allard, A., Corker, K. S., Almenberg, A. D., ... & Vazire, S. (2021). Replicability, robustness, and reproducibility in psychological science. Accessible preprint: https://psyarxiv.com/ksfvq/

Eric chats with Paul Rozin, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Paul is one of the world’s leading experts in a variety of fields, ranging from cultural to moral to social psychology. He has twice been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recipient of the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for 2007. In this episode, Paul gives an update on his influential 2001 paper “Social Psychology and Science: Some Lessons from Solomon Asch,” which criticized the way psychology was conducted at the time (and is still being conducted today). In a far-reaching conversation, Eric and Paul discuss what natural and social sciences can learn from each other, why psychology should identify with both, what Paul’s relationship with Solomon Asch was like, why people’s tendency to focus on the negative is especially dangerous in the moral domain, and what it is like studying ethnic conflicts. Finally, Paul announces his new and upcoming book!If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.Links:Paul's Solomon Asch PaperEric's websiteEric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsyPodcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPodLet us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Natalia, a former CSLI intern, chats with Erica Yoon, the teaching coordinator for the CSLI Summer Internship Program. Along with hearing from other former interns, they go over the structure and overarching goals of the program, and how it fits into the overall mission of the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI). Erica is particularly excited about attracting diverse students to the program and offers some insight into the application process.  For more information on CSLI, you can visit the center's webpage (https://www-csli.stanford.edu/) or follow the official Twitter feed (@StanfordCSLI). For detailed information about applying to the summer internship, please visit the application page (https://www-csli.stanford.edu/csli-summer-internship-program-2022)The CSLI Internship Program is headed by Michael  Frank (Principal Investigator) and Christopher Potts (Co-Principal Investigator). It is funded by the NSF's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program (Award #1950223).Special thanks to participating alumni:Nicholas Wright, College of William & MaryJiayi Wang, Boston UniversityJon Saad-Falcon, Georgia Institute of TechnologyShayan Hooshmand, Columbia University

Eric chats with Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford who specializes in understanding the mind-body connection. She is the best-selling author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress. Her TED talk, "How to Make Stress Your Friend," is one of the most viewed TED talks of all time, with over 27 million views. Kelly’s latest book, The Joy of Movement, explores why physical exercise is a powerful antidote to the modern epidemics of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. In January 2020, Oprah Magazine named Kelly the first ever O! Visionary, people whose groundbreaking way of seeing the world mean a better future for us all. In this episode, Eric and Kelly chat about science communication, and the joys and challenges that come from engaging with the public about the latest findings from psychology at a time where many distrust science, and where psychologists themselves have become skeptical about the accuracy of their findings.If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.Links:Kelly's latest book The Joy of MovementKelly's TED talk on stressKelly's Twitter @kellymcgonigalEric's websiteEric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsyPodcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPodLet us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Kate chats with James Gross, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and the director of the Stanford Psychophysiology Lab. His work focuses on emotions: What they are, how they unfold over time, and how people regulate them in different contexts. In this episode, James shares insights from a recent study examining the effects of brief emotion regulation interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic across 87 countries. James also discusses the broader implications of his work and talks about how people can learn to work with their emotions instead of fighting against them. Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01173-x 

Eric chats with Jillian Jordan, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Jillian’s work has focused on human morality and the role that reputation plays in shaping cooperative behavior. Her fascinating research has integrated methods from psychology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary game theory and has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Guardian. In this episode, Jillian discusses her new paper on the Virtuous Victim Effect: victims of wrongdoing are seen as more moral than nonvictims. She explains this finding with what is called the Justice Restoration Hypothesis: seeing victims as morally good people makes the wrongdoing seem unjust, which motivates people to help the victim and punish the perpetrator. Jillian then chats about the philosophy guiding her research, and why appealing to people’s concerns about how others see them can be a powerful way to make the world a better place.If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.Links:Jillian's paperJillian's Twitter @Jill_JordEric's websiteEric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsyPodcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPodLet us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Anjie chats with Dr. Michal Strahilevitz. Michal is currently a marketing professor at Saint Mary’s College of California. Her research focuses on how emotions affect decision-making in a variety of contexts. In addition to being an enthusiastic researcher, Michal is an amazing teacher. She has won teaching awards from three different universities. blogs for Psychology Today and is often quoted in the global media outlets. She is particularly passionate about helping people become happier, healthier, and more resilient. In today's episode, Michal shares her journey both creating and teaching her favorite course: The Science of Happiness and Well-Being. To hear from five scholars whose research and teaching focuses on happiness, watch Michal’s recent panel discussion on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Az9N0eBUY Learn More About Michal and her Work:Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/michal-ann-strahilevitz-phd and https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-money-and-your-heart Saint Mary’s College Profile: https://works.bepress.com/michal-strahilevitz/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingprof/ Twitter: @MarketingProf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marketingprof/ 

Eric chats with Abigail Marsh, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Georgetown. Her work has focused on phenomena as diverse as empathy, altruism, aggression, and psychopathy. In 2017,  Abby published her book, The Fear Factor, describing her fascinating research with extreme altruists on the one hand and individuals with psychopathy on the other. She is the former President of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. In this episode, Abby challenges the common assumption that individualism means selfishness. Instead, she has found that individualism predicts more kindness, just like being healthy and wealthy predicts being kinder to others. Eric and Abby discuss if our understanding of individualism is wrong, if kindness might look different in individualistic versus collectivistic cultures, and if people are too cynical these days.If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.Links:Abby's paperAbby's book The Fear Factor Abby's Twitter @aa_marshEric's websiteEric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsyPodcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPodLet us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com