If you were sent an exclusive invite to a secret society, would you accept? The “hype artist” Michael F. Schein, talks with Kurt and Tim about the allure of joining an exclusive, secret club.

The web was intended to be a way of creating genuine connections with others, but we’re all sadly familiar with the detrimental ways it can be used to spread misinformation. A team of experts at Prosocial Design Network is now using evidence-based behavioral insights to redesign social media interactions, to bring out the best of us online.

Would you help change a stranger’s tire? How about if they offered you $20?  Or, what if instead of money, they offered you some candy? Kurt and Tim take a deep look at James Heyman and Dan Ariely’s landmark study called, “Effort for Payment: A Tale of Two Markets” in this fun Groove Track.

We find it easy to condemn wrongdoers, after they’ve been called out. But why do we often let unethical behavior occur around us, and not speak out? If we take a step back from the idea of there being one “bad apple”, we realize that with any wrongdoing, there is a collection of people who have been complicit in the behavior. World famous behavioral scientist Max Bazerman discusses why there is so much fear about speaking up.

How we think about the world can drastically influence how we navigate through it. Cutting edge research proves that reframing our mindset to be more positive, even in the light of negative events, can significantly alter how our brain responds. Join bestselling author David Robson for a deep dive into his new book The Expectation Effect.

Cheating is all around us. Is it on the rise? It appears to be so, but why? Christian Hunt, the founder and host of Human Risk Podcast, and Koen Smets, a London-based behavioral scientist, discuss the dodgy travails of the human condition using examples of cheating in chess, walleye fishing, cycling, and even among behavioral scientists.  Join us for an invigorating discussion on why we cheat - and we all do - from Abbey Road Studios in London.  Human Risk Podcast: https://www.human-risk.com/podcast  Koen Smets on Medium: https://koenfucius.medium.com/ Fishing Scandal: https://youtu.be/xSta3wFK15Y  Chess Scandal: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/05/1126915049/hans-niemann-is-accused-of-cheating-in-more-than-100-chess-games-hes-playing-tod  Bike Race Scandal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_doping  DataColada on Bad Behavioral Science: https://datacolada.org/98

Learning ALL the parts of our country’s history can be very uncomfortable. Not just in the US, but around the world, there are usually very dark parts of our past that many of us would rather brush over because it doesn’t marry up with the sterilized version of what we were taught when we were younger. Our wonderful guest on this episode, Dolly Chugh discusses her wonderful new book “A More Just Future: Psychological Tools for Reckoning with Our Past and Driving Social Change”.

People don’t hate change, they hate the ambiguity that comes with change. Organizational psychologist, Dr Debbie Sutherland PhD shares the tools we can use, both in business settings and in our personal lives, to overcome our discomfort with ambiguity and to thrive in uncertain environments.

Walking away is never easy. Whether it’s quitting a job, a relationship or an expedition to the peak of Mount Everest, we have a real problem with knowing when to stop. And ironically, when we do quit, we often wish we’d done it earlier. So why do we find it so difficult to quit? Annie Duke addresses the psychological reasons that prevent us from quitting, and how we can overcome them.

Conversations are vital to our existence - after all, we talk with people every day. But have you ever dissected what makes a conversation effective? We talk with Chuck Wisner about the art of conscious conversations - the steps to cultivating more productive connections, and how to avoid the common pitfalls that often derail our discussions.