Suggested News and Media

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  Choice Architecture 2.0: How People Interpret and Make Sense of Nudges

  In the third of week of The Behavioral Scientist’s Special Edition, Job Krijnen (UCLA) reviews what we’ve learned about choice architecture and suggests an updated framework for understanding this important facet of Nudge. Based on an article originally published in our journal, Behavioral Science & Policy, Krijnen’s article with David Tannenbaum and Craig Fox highlights the importance of considering the choicemaker’s motives and perspectives for designing effective interventions.

  Referring to a failed attempt to use an opt-out default nudge to improve Dutch organ donation, for example, “the proposed policy change may have been construed as an attempt at coercion—as a threat to the freedom of choice that people value so highly—which provoked many to rebuke that attempt by opting out as a way to signal their displeasure.” As we enter the second post-Nudge decade they suggest policymakers consider people’s interpretations of our nudging attempts.

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  Stanford’s CASBS is Looking for Fellows!

  Stanford’s Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is offering a residential fellowship for scholars from a diverse range of disciplines. They are seeking fellows who will be influential with--and open to influence by--their colleagues in the diverse multidisciplinary cohort they will assemble for an academic year. Funding is offered from a broad range of interesting partners for various topics.

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  Twitter’s Proposed Solution to Digital Political Polarization

  In recent Congressional testimony, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reviewed a “health” initiative for users, including how Twitter could serve as a space to reconcile political opposition. Yet Sociologist Christopher Bail (Duke) cautions against policy action to support Dorsey’s efforts. Bail’s work shows that Twitter may actually lead to further polarization.

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  Decision-Making as a Required Course in School?

  Behavioral science probably isn’t what comes to mind when you think of grade school curricula, but writer Steven Johnson is trying to change that. This week, Johnson makes the case for integrating decision-making courses into lower grades. Also, in the Behavioral Scientist, Tom Wein shows us how we can integrate behavioral science into “edutainment” to benefit people at different ages, from kids in school to adults making decisions for later in life.

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  RCTs, Workplace Wellness, and Drug Overprescription

  This week in health and behavioral science, Aaron Caroll defends the randomized controlled trial in the The Upshot by NYT, specifically using examples of workplace wellness studies.

  Also this week, The GSA’s Office of Evaluation Sciences shares promising results from two randomized studies that tested peer comparison letters to reduce overprescribing of drugs. Meanwhile in Aeon, a medical resident poses the question: will medicine ever recover from the perverse economics of drugs?

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  Why the Most Important Idea in Behavioral Decision-Making Is a Fallacy

  David Gal (UI-Chicago) argues that loss aversion is not a bigger motivator than achieving gains in the Scientific American. Beyond the fact that “price increases do not impact consumer behavior more than price decreases,” for example, we must “critically assess accepted beliefs and to be wary of institutional consensus in science and otherwise.”