Keeping in mind Dr Herbert Simon’s words, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention“, we present to you the best of 2021.
Interviewing the pioneers-
Thought-provoking articles -
It’s okay to worry, just have a little faith!: In this article, the author explores the intriguing relationship between religion, tolerance of uncertainty and levels of well-being. He explains why Pakistan and Sweden have very similar and high life satisfaction scores despite being culturally, economically and religiously different.
The Psychology of Attraction and Its Influence on Branding and Advertising: In this article, the author enlightens us on how branding and advertising use the psychology of attraction like integrating the misattribution of arousal and the Halo effect to gain our attention.
Can Money Buy Happiness? A Deeper Dive: In this article, Triumph Kerins tries to answer the age-old question - can money buy happiness, and if so, to what degree? The author busts the “The $75,000 myth”, explains the concept of the hedonic treadmill, the role of repeated rewards and feelings of progress.
What magic teaches us about misinformation: In this article, Tim Harford explains why people accept and spread misinformation, our intuitive overconfidence and how the art of stage magic can help us study this concept from a different perspective.
Choose Your Memes Carefully. They Might Change Your Mood: We often scroll through social media reacting to and sharing memes. In this article, Rebecca Ruiz discusses the research and findings describing the power of memes over people.
Selected Podcasts -
Mastering Indistraction: Are you trapped in mindless scrolling as minutes become hours? The Knowledge Project’s Nir Eyal: Mastering Indistraction can help you understand and overcome such instant gratification tasks. (Listen here).
Angela Duckworth: Grit and Human Behaviour: In this episode of The Knowledge Project podcast, Angela Duckworth discusses mindsets that can help us be successful in life, how circumstances shape personality, perennial learners and more. (Listen here)
Blindsight and Neuroscience of Marketing: What is blindsight? How can we deal with tech addictions as individuals? The Behavioral Design Podcast featuring Prince Ghuman and Matt Johnson can help you understand these questions. (Listen here).
The Behavioural Science Behind Spotify Wrapped’s Viral Success
Using data to tell you about yourself has worked well for Spotify and its users. “Wrapped has been described as a best-in-class marketing campaign”. In this article, from personalization to the bandwagon effect to the excitement, the authors have covered all the important behavioural science aspects of this successful campaign.
How ‘Greedy Work,’ More than Bias, Explains the Persistent Gender Wage Gap
In this article, Elizabeth Weingarten is in conversation with Claudia Goldin. Together they discuss Gender Wage Gap, ‘Greedy Work’, Women’s progress, and the gender equity solutions to encourage. In Goldin’s new book, Career and Family, she argues the wage gap is the symptom of a far greater problem, one that is not due to labour market discrimination but instead is related to one’s own family.
Why It’s Good to be Good: The Power of Altruism
“There are several reasons why we cannot easily give resources away to others. There are also reasons why we should try to do it every once in a while“. In this article, Glen William Spiteri explains the behavioural science behind why altruism is hard and yet we must strive to include it in our daily lives. Spoiler alert: This article is very Christmassy!
Don’t listen to this show - What do you mean by the pratfall effect? Why do people embrace flaws? How can that work as a social media strategy? To know more about the pratfall effect and how to use that social media strategy, listen to this episode of Nudge - Marketing Strategy Simplified. (Listen here).
Existential Questions - How to reduce misinformation on social media? What is the importance of communities? How does existentialism work in behavioural science? How necessary are experiments for behavioural design? To know answers to these questions and much more on behavioural design, listen to this episode of The Behavioural Design Podcast. (Listen here).
Sludge with Cass Sunstein - What is Sludge? How does it affect institutions, government, citizens? How does it affect customer experience? How to deal with Sludge? To know answers to these questions and much more such as sludge, friction, and how to make the world a better place, listen to this episode of Brainfluence. (Listen here)
Explore. Inform. Nudge. Benefit.
Brought to you by India Behavioural Economics Network
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Editors: Divya Purohit, Simran Odrani, Junofy Anto Rozarina