Suggested News and Media

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  BSP Special Issue: COVID-19

  If you haven’t had the chance already, it would be well worth your while to take a moment to check out the recent publications in Behavioral Science & Policy. The journal is specifically edited to be accessible to policy makers and lay audiences, so even if you’re not an expert you can dive right in.

  The COVID-19 Special Issue features nine articles from leading experts on critical pandemic-related issues ranging from insights into improving policy to control contagion, a review of the psychological predictors of prevention behaviors, to a series of articles tackling issues of improving work-life balance inequalities, preserving employee trust, managing remote work and minimizing loneliness.

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  Thinking More Deeply About Positive Thinking

  People like feeling in control of where their lives are headed, and the pandemic has made it especially difficult to feel this way. There’s little we can do to change the harsh realities of the current crisis, but professor Arthur C. Brooks describes how we can adopt a more positive mindset to better cope with these realities in The Atlantic. Is positive thinking always the answer to our problems, or can it sometimes lead us astray? In SPSP’s Character and Context blog, professor Trysh Travis describes some of the less-known perils of positive thinking-- for example, someone who has uncritically internalized a belief in thinking positively may feel it’s their own fault if they remain marginalized from systemic racism. Finally, Annie Duke weighs in on the power of negative thinking.

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  The Psychological Burden of Remote Learning

  The pandemic has taken education out of its social context, and schools haven’t fully accounted for the psychological burden this imposes on students, writes psychologist Tess Wilkinson-Ryan for The Atlantic. Remote learning also exacerbates racial and economic gaps in achievement, reports the LA Times.

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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?