Have you ever been caught in an avalanche or spoken to someone who survived? In this episode, you’ll hear what living through an avalanche is really like. Audun Hetland (a psychologist) and Andrea Mannberg (an economist) are researchers at the White Heat Project in Tromsø, Norway. The project is a collaboration between The Arctic University of Norway, Montana State University, and Umeå University, in Sweden. Their international team also includes researchers in geography, snow science, and polit...
Jan 11, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Ep 201•Transcript available on Metacast Joel Weinberger is a Professor of Psychology at the Derner Institute at Adelphi University with Postdoctoral training in motivation at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and of the American Psychological Association. His research has focused on unconscious processes and worked closely during his post-doc with motivation guru David McClelland. Joel is the founder of the consulting firm Implicit Strategies, where he helps political campaigns, non-profit...
Jan 03, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep 200•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re like the rest of us, your new year’s resolutions don’t last beyond St. Valentine’s Day. That’s okay – it’s normal. The trouble is it’s not what you want. If you WANT success with your resolutions – to accomplish your goals – then listen to this podcast. We’ve broken down the best behavioral science advice into 4 easy-to-follow tips that will help you achieve what it is you’re passionately committed to at the start of the year. We’ve incorporated research from some of the best work in t...
Dec 30, 2020•21 min•Ep 199•Transcript available on Metacast Max Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Strauss Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and is the author of “Better, Not Perfect.” It is the latest in a string of 21 books Max has authored and stands on the platform of hundreds of peer-reviewed papers on decision-making, negotiations, and ethics. Max began by discussing the Myth of the Fixed Pie problem, which is quite common in negotiations. The Myth of the Fixed Pie indicates that we tend to rely on the way a problem is initi...
Dec 27, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep 197•Transcript available on Metacast This is THE episode to listen to if you have missed the last 90 episodes. We can all agree that 2020 has been one hell of a year. Many people have been severely impacted by the pandemic, by financial uncertainty, with civil unrest, and the general malaise that the year seemed to have. Many are excited to say, “Good riddance!” The same goes for us, but Kurt and Tim have also used 2020 to surpass several milestones that we’d like to share with you. #1 Best Behavioral Science Podcast as voted by li...
Dec 23, 2020•50 min•Ep 198•Transcript available on Metacast Pretty much everyone around the world agrees that 2020 was a challenging year and we’re glad it’s all but over. However, 2020 was a year we upped the number of guests (to 90), upped our reading habits (20+ books for the show), and had more authors as guests than in any previous year. In short, Kurt and Tim read a lot of new books. And because we read bunches of them, we’re here to save you time by offering you our view of the top 10 books – 5 from Kurt and 5 from Tim – on behavioral science from...
Dec 20, 2020•33 min•Ep 196•Transcript available on Metacast Are the new COVID-19 vaccines are safe? It will probably take time to know for sure; however, this week Kurt and Tim discuss the behavioral aspects of the transition. Kurt was engaged by an article in Bloomberg called “Vaccines May Have Social Side Effects,” by Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University. Professor Cowen raised the idea that the mere presence of vaccines may give people an unwarranted boost in confidence and lead to less mask-wearing and social distancing. I...
Dec 16, 2020•8 min•Ep 194•Transcript available on Metacast Amy Bucher, PhD is the Vice President of Behavior Change Design at Mad*Pow and the author of “Engaged” a new book on how to apply behavioral science to the design and development of products. At Mad*Pow, she designs motivating interventions to help people live healthier and happier lives and, in her spare time, knocks 150 books off her reading list every year. (OMG!) Amy was recently recognized as one of 10 behavioral scientists you should know in Forbes magazine. While we did spend a bit of tim...
Dec 13, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep 193•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan McShane is the President and CEO of HR Evolution, a consultancy that designs systems that support employee alignment to organizational purpose through HR best practices, organizational development initiatives, and professional development solutions. We discussed a variety of HR related topics including psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and what can be done when it comes to improving the mindset of leaders. Ryan stressed that WIIFM (what’s in it for me) is central to the impetus ...
Dec 06, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Ep 192•Transcript available on Metacast Cornelia Walther has spent most of her professional career with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP). She was the head of communications in large-scale emergencies in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. She earned her PhD in Law and is a certified yoga instructor and her current work is a remarkable amalgam of her studies and her life’s journey. In recent years, she developed POZE as a way of exploring the world to help uncover deeper levels ...
Nov 27, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep 191•Transcript available on Metacast Kevin Vallier, PhD is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University, where he directs their Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law programs. Kevin’s interests span a wide spectrum including political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of religion, politics, and economics. He is the author of peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles, and his recent books include Must Politics Be War? Restoring Our Trust in the Open Society (Oxford UP 2019) and, his newest book, Trus...
Nov 22, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep 190•Transcript available on Metacast [NOTE: This episode was originally published as a Weekly Grooves podcast. We wanted to share it with our Behavioral Grooves listeners and we hope you enjoy it.] We were inspired by a recent article on CNBC’s website by Cory Steig, called “ ’Psychological safety’ at work improves productivity–here are 4 ways to get it, according to a Harvard expert.” The piece reviews some research on psychology safety that Kurt and I have been focused on for years. Psychological safety is a concept that was iden...
Nov 20, 2020•17 min•Ep 189•Transcript available on Metacast Bill von Hippel, PhD is an evolutionary psychologist from Alaska who has lived in Australia for more than 20 years. Bill teaches at the University of Queensland and his body of research is so wide we struggled to focus our conversation. We spoke with him about his research into the ways in which our species’ behaviors have evolved over millions of years into the behaviors we see in our present-day lives. His insights are clever, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. We talked about reciprocity, col...
Nov 15, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep 188•Transcript available on Metacast World Kindness Day is November 13th and has been celebrated in many countries around the world since 1998. World Kindness Day was developed to promote good deeds in communities and focus on how kindness binds us together. Around the world are efforts to encourage “random acts of kindness” for others and acting in a more kind way. We decided to look at kindness in general through a behavioral science lens. Webster’s definition of “kind” is “of a sympathetic or helpful nature; being gentle.” In ot...
Nov 13, 2020•15 min•Ep 187•Transcript available on Metacast [NOTE: This episode was originally published under our sister-podcast, Weekly Grooves. We are republishing it here to share relevant behavioral science information. We hope you enjoy it.] 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? W...
Nov 11, 2020•17 min•Ep 185•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Nov 08, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep 186•Transcript available on Metacast [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 day...
Nov 05, 2020•24 min•Ep 184•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Nov 01, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep 182•Transcript available on Metacast [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 pan...
Oct 31, 2020•19 min•Ep 183•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Presi...
Oct 30, 2020•4 min•Ep 181•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Oct 28, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep 180•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Oct 25, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep 179•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Oct 18, 2020•2 hr 35 min•Ep 178•Transcript available on Metacast 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, an...
Oct 11, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep 177•Transcript available on Metacast 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 prese...
Oct 05, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep 176•Transcript available on Metacast Eli Finkel, PhD is a social psychology professor who studies interpersonal attraction, marriage, and how our social relationships influence our goal achievement. He is the author of the bestselling book The All-Or-Nothing Marriage: How the Best Marriages Work and is a professor at Northwestern University, where he has appointments in the psychology department and the Kellogg School of Management. In his role as director of Northwestern’s Relationships and Motivation Lab (RAMLAB), he has publishe...
Sep 27, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep 175•Transcript available on Metacast [NOTE: You may or may not know that Kurt and Tim host a sibling podcast called Weekly Grooves. We thought this was such an important topic that we wanted to share it with the Behavioral Grooves community.] We got a call recently from Eugen Dimant, a friend of ours who is an associate professor in behavioral and decision sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, about how the University of Michigan was trying to let students know that they should only gather in groups of 25 of less. Eugen sugge...
Sep 23, 2020•14 min•Ep 174•Transcript available on Metacast Eric Oliver, PhD is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Although the majority of his work is squarely in the realm of how we view our political systems and make political decisions, some of his work echoes moral psychology and sociology, and we find it fascinating. And, frankly, some of it is just downright fun to talk about. Eric’s observations come from more than 20 years of research, dozens of peer-reviewed papers, and he is the author of 5 books on political scienc...
Sep 20, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Ep 173•Transcript available on Metacast Roy Baumeister, PhD is a world-renowned researcher known for his work on the subjects of willpower, self-control, and self-esteem and how they relate to human morality and success. Most recently, he is the author of The Power of Bad, with John Tierney, which explores how powerful bad experiences can be and how life is better when we seek out the good. We discussed a bit of the new book as well as some of his highly researched topics. Roy’s peer-reviewed papers have been cited more than 200,000 t...
Sep 12, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Ep 172•Transcript available on Metacast Susan Hunt Stevens is the Founder and CEO of WeSpire, a technology platform that helps achieve the company’s goals through better employee engagement. WeSpire delivers applications at scale including sustainability, diversity and inclusion; moreover, they enable employees to be recognized for shaping a welcoming community both inside and outside the firm. We talked to Susan about her observations on the value of building diverse teams, the creation of the psychologically safe workplace, and most...
Sep 06, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep 171•Transcript available on Metacast 
