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CAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE HELP IN FLINT?
The New Yorker: A week after Donald Trump’s election, a thirty-year-old cognitive scientist named Maya Shankar purchased a plane ticket to Flint, Michigan. Shankar held one of the more unorthodox jobs in the Obama White House, running the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, also known as the President’s “nudge unit.” When she launched the team, in early 2014, it felt, Shankar recalls, “like a startup in my parents’ basement”—no budget, no mandate, no bona-fide employees. Read the whole story: The New Yorker
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National Cancer Institute Seeks Psychological Scientists for a 3-Day “Ideas Lab”
https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/brp/hbrb/sandpit.html The National Cancer Institute (NCI), the US’s leading federal agency for cancer research, seeks psychological scientists interested in studying five behaviors related to cancer: tobacco use, alcohol consumption, dietary behavior, physical activity, and UV
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When a “Golden Opportunity” to Bribe Arises, It’s Hard to Pass Up
Studies led by researchers at VU Amsterdam suggest that the path to corrupt behavior may sometimes be a steep cliff instead of a slippery slope, contrary to popular belief.
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Justice Department Turns to Psychological Science to Improve Eyewitness Identifications
The US Department of Justice draws on psychological research to identify best practices in eyewitness identification procedures.
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Pay Up: The Trick to Getting People to Pay Parking Tickets
Behavioral scientists collaborated with cities in Australia and the US to find cognitive cues to prompt drivers to pay their parking tickets.
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Why Narcissistic Leaders Are Prone to Overconfidence
Research suggests that overconfidence is strongly linked with narcissism and is particularly likely to emerge when highly narcissistic people feel powerful.
