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Understanding today’s headlines with behavioral science. This weekly podcast breaks down topical news stories and explores the human behaviors that impact them.
Episodes
Saturday Feb 22, 2020
Saturday Feb 22, 2020
How do you deal with someone reclining their airline seat while you’re trying to read? And how do you deal with someone behind you who doesn’t want you to decline your seat? This very small encounter can create heated exchanges, as seen in the video links below.
The resolution could be very simple when viewed through a behavioral lens. The first question is about ownership: who owns the space – the person wanting to recline or the person wanting to read?
In this week’s episode, we apply the behavioral lens to a situation that need not be so difficult if the drink and snack cart is handy.
© 2020 Weekly Grooves
The video that sparked the conversation: https://www.today.com/video/viral-video-shows-airline-passenger-punching-woman-s-reclined-seat-78666309643
The Endowment Effect and other biases: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit#
How to Resolve Seat Disputes: Use Behavioral Economics. https://evonomics.com/resolve-fights-reclining-airplane-seats-use-behavioral-economics/
41% of Fliers Think You’re Rude: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/airplane-etiquette-recline-seat/
Don’t Want Me to Recline My Airline Seat? You Can Pay Me: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/upshot/dont-want-me-to-recline-my-airline-seat-you-can-pay-me.html
The Knee Defender: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knee_Defender
Tale of Two Markets: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00757.x
Coase Theory: https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/the-coase-theorem/
Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan
Kurt Nelson, PhD: @WhatMotivates
Friday Feb 14, 2020
Friday Feb 14, 2020
We saw an article in The Atlantic that caught our attention because of its hook into behavioral science: our willingness to believe disinformation. In this week’s episode, we talk about the underlying behavioral science into why we humans are so susceptible to information that is not accurate.
What can we do? We can use the OODA loop to interrupt our too-quick decision to simply accept suspicious content: Observe – Orient – Decide – Act. The OODA loop, in a very simplistic manner, uses these four elements in this way: to take in and observe the context in which you’re seeing this information; orient yourself with the source in a critical way; make a decision by asking, “if this is from someone I might not trust, would I still believe it?”; and take action by deleting content created to DIS-inform you.
And since our podcast is relatively new, we are very interested in knowing how you think we’re doing. Please leave us a review or drop us a line. @THoulihan or @WhatMotivates
© 2020 Weekly Grooves
Links
“The Billion Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President,” by McKay Coppins in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/
Disinformation: “False information, which is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power or the media.”
Misinformation: “False or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive.”
Conspiracy Theory: “A belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.”
The Donation of Constantine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Constantine
The National Enquirer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Enquirer
The Daily Mail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail
The Messenger Effect: https://www.nber.org/papers/w25632.pdf
OODA Loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
Leveraging the OODA Loop with Digital Analytics to Counter Disinformation, by Jami Carroll (2019): https://search.proquest.com/openview/0a78c42e27ef89dab1bd4969bd6d0974/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=396497
Viktor Frankl: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl
FactCheck.org: https://www.factcheck.org/
Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/about-snopes/
Gallup Polls Believing in the Media: https://news.gallup.com/poll/267047/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx
Friday Feb 07, 2020
Friday Feb 07, 2020
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 afterward.
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
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/
Friday Jan 31, 2020
Friday Jan 31, 2020
Weekly Grooves is the podcast where we explore topical issues through the lens of behavioral science. Tim Houlihan and Kurt Nelson, PhD have worked in the world of behavioral interventions for more than 20 years and we each run our own consultancies. In Weekly Grooves, we view the headlines through the lenses of behavioral science.
The Iowa caucuses are on February 3, 2020, and the media is abuzz with who will win Iowa and take the “front runner lead” for the Democrats. So while we’re interested in the politics of this, we’re actually more interested in the psychology of being the “front runner” and what that entails.
There are a number of behavioral factors that make the front-runner a great position: The Bandwagon Effect – people want to be part of the winning team. The Availability Bias where the front runner gets more media exposure, making them more immediate in memory. The Mere Exposure Effect is how we tend to develop a preference for things merely because we are familiar with them. The Hot Hand Fallacy could also positively impact the person who wins – or even who beats expectations. But being the front runner does not always lead to victory. In this episode, we’ll discuss how these play a role in our behaviors.
© 2020 Weekly Grooves
Kurt Nelson, PhD: @whatmotivates
Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan
Links
All Biases and Heuristics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit#
Importance of being inspiring: http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/resource/inspire-a-shared-vision-how-important-is-inspiring.aspx
Friday Jan 31, 2020
Friday Jan 31, 2020
Weekly Grooves is the podcast where we explore topical issues through the lens of behavioral science. Tim Houlihan and Kurt Nelson, PhD have worked in the world of behavioral interventions for more than 20 years and we each run our own consultancies. In Weekly Grooves, we view the headlines through the lenses of behavioral science.
This week, we were struck by the way people were talking about Kobe Bryant after his sudden death in a helicopter crash in which he and eight other people perished, including his 13-year old daughter, Gianna. Kobe was only 41 years old.
And while his life is abundant with great accomplishments, both on and off the basketball court, he spent some time in the headlines for not-so-nice things. And what Kurt and I want to look at today is how we remember them after they’ve died or how we think of people as they grow old.
© 2020 Weekly Grooves
Kurt Nelson, PhD: @whatmotivates
Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan
Links
Kobe Bryant Achievements: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_career_achievements_by_Kobe_Bryant
Kobe Bryant Sexual Assault Case: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant_sexual_assault_case
Human Memory, a book by Gabriel A. Radvansky. Third edition published in 2016. https://books.google.com/books/about/Human_Memory.html?id=AjglDwAAQBAJ
“Chapter 17 - The Amygdala and Emotional Arousal Effects on Object Recognition Memory” by Benno Roozendaal, Areg Barsegyan, Yanfen Chen. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128120125000173
“Praise is Fleeting, but Brickbats We Recall,” by Alina Tugend, The New York Times, March 23, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/your-money/why-people-remember-negative-events-more-than-positive-ones.html
Friday Jan 31, 2020
Friday Jan 31, 2020
This is Weekly Grooves' inaugural episode where we explore topical issues through the lens of behavioral science. Tim Houlihan and Kurt Nelson, PhD have worked in the world of behavioral interventions for more than 20 years and we each run our own consultancies. In Weekly Grooves, we view the headlines through the lenses of behavioral science.
We are not good at keeping resolutions. January 17th is the Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day – the day that it is attributed with having the most people abandoned their New Year’s resolutions. It is often a day of celebration, and among some people, it’s even considered a holiday. But according to a study conducted by US clinical psychologist Joseph Luciani, PhD, around 80 percent fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions.
What can be done? We have some ideas and we urge you to get re-engaged in your resolutions with tips in our super-fast episode on habits.
© 2020 Weekly Grooves
Kurt Nelson: @whatmotivates
Tim Houlihan: @THoulihan
Links
“A theory of goal setting & task performance.” Locke & Latham: https://tinyurl.com/trx5tg4
“Goal commitment and the goal-setting process: Problems, prospects, and proposals for future research.” John Hollenbeck, Howard Klein: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1987-26774-001
“Immediate Rewards Predict Adherence to Long-Term Goals” Kaitlin Woolley, Ayelet Fishbach: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167216676480?journalCode=pspc
“Wishful Seeing: More Desired Objects Are Seen as Closer” Emily Balcetis and David Dunning: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797609356283
“Executive function and the frontal lobes: a meta-analytic review.” Julie Alvarez, Eugene Emory: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16794878
“Writing Down Goals: Does It Actually Improve Performance?” Robert Weinberg, Deanna Morrison, Megan Loftin, Thelma Horn, Elizabeth Goodwin, Emily Wright, and Carly Block: https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/tsp/33/1/article-p35.xml
Benjamin Gardner, PhD: https://www.nirandfar.com/goal-setting-hack/
Bryan, Gharad, Dean Karlan, and Scott Nelson. "Commitment Devices." Annual Review of Economics 2.1 (2010): 671-98. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.economics.102308.124324
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/ditch-new-years-resolutions-day/
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/ditch-new-years-resolution-day
https://bestlifeonline.com/new-years-resolutions-ditch-date/
https://www.nirandfar.com/habits/
https://nesslabs.com/habits-routines-rituals
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180208120923.htm