Are You Hitting Your Limit, or Getting Stronger? The Power of Reinterpreting Mental Effort
Doing the things we know we ought to do often requires effort. So how can we interpret it in a way that will help us persevere?
Psychology
Making Play a Habit
Pediatricians stress the importance of spontaneous play for children. Behavioral scientists understand the power of routine and predictability for busy parents. Where’s the middle ground?
Tight and Loose Cultures: A Conversation with Michele Gelfand
Life can look quite different when a culture’s enforcement of norms is tight or loose.
Simple Heuristics That Make Algorithms Smart
Although simple heuristics often yield “biased” decisions, they can deliver a better answers. What might this mean for today’s complex algorithms?
A Tale of Two Systems: 19th Century Behavioral Insights From Poe, Austen, and Dickens
Literature can open up a wider range of examples that illustrate core behavioral science principles.
A Fresh Approach to Understanding Sexual Assault: A Conversation with Betsy Levy Paluck
The stories we tell about sexual assault—the lone, serial predator—oversimplifies the truth and obscures the solution. Betsy Levy Paluck is one of the researchers trying to tell a more accurate story.