In this episode Garth interviews Nick Epley from the University of Chicago in Chicago, IL. They discuss psychologists' migration to business schools and Epley's MBA course, "Designing a Good Life," an ethics-focused social psychology class that uses experiments on kindness, gratitude, and how doing good can feel good by increasing connection, competence, and autonomy. Epley describes his social cognition research on why people are "not social enough," underestimating how positive deep conversations, compliments, and reaching out to strangers can be; he recounts a robust demonstration in which participants predict awkwardness and low connection but experience the opposite. He notes that the calibration fades without routine practice and argues that missed connections stem from pessimism and the belief that others don't want to talk. He connects Mindwise to his new book, A Little More Social, advocating small, easy, routine social habits and "data-driven courage," illustrated by personal stories and deep canvassing.

[Portions of the show notes were generated by Descript AI.]