Area: Behavioral Decision Making
As Few as Three Options Can Be Too Many for Online Shoppers
A large field experiment suggests two items is the sweet spot for converting motivated lookers into buyers
Young Adults, With an AI Bot, Chat With Their 60-Year-Old Selves
Research progresses on forging closer bonds with our future selves, encouraging behavior helpful to later lives
Future-self Nudge Works Even Better in Reverse
Starting with your future self and looking back to your current self increases likelihood of saving
Oversight of Borrowed Money Creates Animosity
Friends lending to friends, taxpayers bailing out businesses feel it’s still their money and have opinions on how it’s spent
In Pleas to Remedy Economic Inequality, Babies’ Faces Outperform Adults’
It’s harder to hold an infant responsible for being poor
Thinking in Days, Weeks, Years — Rather Than Minutes — Can Bring Contentment
A broader view of one’s time also changes how one spends it
Institutions Make Mistakes: Which Should We Seek to Prevent; Which Ought We Fix After the Fact?
In experiments, people endorsed seemingly harsh policies — only to reverse course after the fact
Major Adolescent Stress Reduces Connection to Future Self
And thinking less about one’s adult life can reduce the pursuit of higher education
The Case for Field Experiments in Behavioral Research
Nudges already proven to work in the real-world increased uptake of COVID-19 boosters; nudges based on lab findings and expert insights, not so much
Smartphone Records Reveal Racial Disparities in Neighborhood Policing
Police patrol Black areas more frequently than others with similar homicide rates and income levels
Experts Struggle to Accurately Forecast Societal Change
On COVID-19’s impacts, social scientists’ predictions weren’t much better than those of laypeople
Why We Think Differently About Money Than About Probabilities
Learning gradually versus all at once and how we estimate value
Overcoming Obstacles to Taking Better Care of Your Future Self
Hal Hershfield’s book offers research-backed methods to build a healthier, happier, more financially secure life
Kids Who Moved from Public Housing More Likely to Vote as Adults
Demolition of Chicago projects dispersed thousands to other areas
Another Political Trick? Inducing Forgetting By Mentioning Irrelevant Information
Positive views on, say, a social policy are more easily suppressed than negative ones
Lack of Urgency Can Undermine a Popular Behavioral Nudge
Encouraging pre-commitment to a future behavior helps people do hard things — but it can backfire