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CAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE HELP IN FLINT?
The New Yorker: A week after Donald Trump’s election, a thirty-year-old cognitive scientist named Maya Shankar purchased a plane ticket to Flint, Michigan. Shankar held one of the more unorthodox jobs in the Obama White House, running the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, also known as the President’s “nudge unit.” When she launched the team, in early 2014, it felt, Shankar recalls, “like a startup in my parents’ basement”—no budget, no mandate, no bona-fide employees. Read the whole story: The New Yorker
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When a “Golden Opportunity” to Bribe Arises, It’s Hard to Pass Up
Studies led by researchers at VU Amsterdam suggest that the path to corrupt behavior may sometimes be a steep cliff instead of a slippery slope, contrary to popular belief.
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Pay Up: The Trick to Getting People to Pay Parking Tickets
Behavioral scientists collaborated with cities in Australia and the US to find cognitive cues to prompt drivers to pay their parking tickets.
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Why Narcissistic Leaders Are Prone to Overconfidence
Research suggests that overconfidence is strongly linked with narcissism and is particularly likely to emerge when highly narcissistic people feel powerful.
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The Friendship That Created Behavioral Economics
The Atlantic: The term “the economic man,” or homo economicus, is attributed to John Stuart Mill. It represents one way economists have studied people for decades—as rational, self-interested actors whose behaviors and actions can be modeled. But then came the psychologists. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky are often referred to as the fathers of behavioral economics, for demonstrating that the human brain relies on mental shortcuts and biases in decision-making, which often leads people to irrational ends.
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To Rate How Smart Dogs Are, Humans Learn New Tricks
The New York Times: Pam Giordano thinks her dog is quite intelligent, and she has proof: Giorgio, an 11-year-old Havanese, has diplomas stating he has a bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. from Yale. The bumper sticker on Ms. Giordano’s car announces, “My dog made it to the Ivy League.” The honors were bestowed on Giorgio and Giuliana, his sibling, for participating in the university’s Canine Cognition Center. “I wanted to know how much they know and how smart they are,” Ms. Giordano, a real estate broker in Branford, Conn., said. “I think Giuliana really just goes for the treats. But Giorgio rises above it. He is very bright. I would say he knows over 100 words.” ...
