Stanford Psychology Podcast (Stanford Psychology)
Explorez tous les épisodes de Stanford Psychology Podcast
| Date | Titre | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03 Feb 2022 | 31 - Tom Gilovich: Judging Individuals, Judging Groups | 00:42:52 | |
Eric chats with Tom Gilovich, Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. Tom’s Judgment and Belief Lab studies how people evaluate the evidence of their everyday experience to make judgments, form beliefs, and decide on courses of action. Why do people make seemingly wrong decisions? When do they misread evidence? Tom’s research has been widely cited around the world, and he is the author of multiple books, including The Wisest One in the Room, co-authored with Lee Ross. Paper on inequality
| |||
| 10 Feb 2022 | 32 - Ethan Kross: Why We Talk to Ourselves and How to Make Our Inner Voices Work in Our Favor | 00:46:11 | |
Kate chats with Ethan Kross, an award-winning professor of Psychology and Management & Organizations at the University of Michigan, and the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. Ethan’s research focuses on the inner conversations people have with themselves and the impacts of such conversations on health and well-being. In this episode, Ethan shares insights from his best-selling book Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It. Ethan talks about the reasons why we all silently talk to ourselves, explains how our inner conversations can go awry, and shines light on some of the powerful tools we can use to harness our inner voices. Ethan also discusses a new project in which he partnered with curriculum experts to bring the science of the brain and mind into the classroom. Check out Chatter: https://www.ethankross.com/chatter/ Learn more about Ethan and his work: https://www.ethankross.com | |||
| 17 Feb 2022 | 33 - Jon Jachimowicz: Should You Follow Your Passion? | 01:07:02 | |
Eric chats with Jon Jachimowicz, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School. Jon studies people’s passion for work, specifically how people can pursue, fall out of, and maintain their passion over time. He also studies how people perceive inequality. Jon has won numerous academic awards and was listed as a Poets & Quants 40 under 40 honoree and Forbes 30 under 30.
| |||
| 24 Feb 2022 | 34 - Fiery Cushman: The Possibility of Violence | 00:47:06 | |
Joseph Outa chats with Professor Fiery Cushman, professor of psychology at Harvard University. Fiery directs the Moral Psychology Research Lab where he investigates how people make decisions in social contexts; he focuses on questions like why and how did punishment evolve, what are the emotional systems that prevent us from doing harm, and how do humans make sense of each other’s behaviors. He received his BA and PhD from Harvard University and has been bestowed with various awards and fellowships including the APA Distinguished Award for Early Career Contributions, the Stanton Prize from the Society of Philosophy and Psychology, just to name a few. He has written over 50 journal articles and is published in prestigious journals like Cognition, Psychological Science and the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and his research has been continuously funded by organizations such as NSF, the Templeton Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. | |||
| 03 Mar 2022 | 35 - Diego Gambetta: Trust, Distrust, and Cynicism | 00:55:07 | |
Eric chats with Diego Gambetta, social scientist and Carlo Alberto Chair at the University of Turin. Diego has studied topics as diverse as trust, the mafia, and violent extremism. His work has been widely cited around the world. Diego has held past appointments at numerous universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, and Stanford.
| |||
| 10 Mar 2022 | 36 - Gillian Sandstrom: Talking to Strangers | 00:47:18 | |
Kate chats with Gillian Sandstrom, a Senior Lecturer in the Psychology of Kindness at the University of Sussex and the Director of the Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness. Gillian’s work focuses on the benefits of minimal social interactions with “weak ties” and strangers, and the barriers that prevent people from connecting with others. In this episode, Gillian tells Kate about the misconceptions that prevent people from talking to strangers and the surprising benefits that can come from engaging in fleeting interactions with strangers, even if we will never see them again. Check out Gillian’s paper, Why do people avoid talking to strangers? A mini meta-analysis of predicted fears and actual experiences talking to a stranger, which received an Honorable Mention in the Journal of Self and Identity’s 2021 Best Paper Award, here. You can learn more about Gillian’s exciting research on her website: gilliansandstrom.com. You can also connect with her directly on Twitter @GillianSocial. | |||
| 17 Mar 2022 | 37 - Molly Crockett: Moral Outrage, Trust During Covid, And Incentives in Academia | 00:54:52 | |
Eric chats with Molly Crockett, Associate Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Molly studies how people make moral decisions, both in the lab and in everyday life. Their lab’s research has won numerous awards around the world, and Molly will be moving their lab to Princeton University in summer 2022.
| |||
| 24 Mar 2022 | 38 - Angie Johnston: How Studying Dogs (!) Helps Us Understand Human Social Learning | 00:44:58 | |
In this episode, Anjie chats with Dr. Angie Johnston, who is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College, where she directs the Canine Cognition Center and Social Learning Laboratory. Her works take a comparative approach: comparing human learning to domestic dogs’ learning, as a way to examine which aspects of human learning are unique and which are shared among species. In this episode, we are going to talk about one of her recent works that try to answer a question that many dog owners may have: why does my dog sometimes look back at me? You can check out the paper we discuss here: Johnston, A. M., Chang, L. W., Wharton, K., & Santos, L. R. (2021). Dogs (Canis familiaris) prioritize independent exploration over looking back. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 135(3), 370. To learn more about Angie’s research, you can visit her personal website and her lab’s website. She is also on Twitter as @AngieMJohnston
| |||
| 31 Mar 2022 | 39 - Robert Rosenthal: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies And The Pygmalion Effect | 01:30:17 | |
Eric chats with Robert Rosenthal, Professor of Psychology at University of California Riverside. Bob is the former Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard. Bob has gained worldwide fame for his work on self-fulfilling prophecies: “When we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur.” | |||
| 07 Apr 2022 | 40 - Ashley Thomas: How Children Use Saliva Sharing to Infer Close Relationships | 01:07:53 | |
Joseph and Ashley talk about how infants, toddlers and children think about social relationships, how they track who is connected and how they are connected, what we can learn about children from studying animal behavior, and how children in other cultures might think differently about social relationships. | |||
| 14 Apr 2022 | 41 - Vanessa Bohns: You Have More Influence Than You Think | 00:50:31 | |
Eric chats with Vanessa Bohns, social psychologist and Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University. Vanessa studies how people influence one another, and how they can underestimate how much influence they really have. Vanessa has been a Visiting Scholar at the NYU Stern School of Business and has taught at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. | |||
| 21 Apr 2022 | 42 - Anuj Shah: Knowledge of Strangers and Community Policing | 00:51:04 | |
Joseph speaks with Prof. Anuj Shah about a lab experiment on social perceptions, in particular how when we learn a few details about a stranger, we seem to feel like they know and understand us too. They also talk about a field experiment in the New York City housing developments which affected social perceptions and was linked to lower rates of crime after people were provided with some details about neighborhood police officers. Anuj is an associate professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. His research uses psychology and behavioral science to examine social issues such as poverty, youth violence, and crime. Anuj’s personal website: http://theslab.uchicago.edu/anuj/ | |||
| 28 Apr 2022 | 43 - Henrike Moll: The Nuances of Theory of Mind - How Young Children Understand Others' Perspectives and Beliefs | 00:42:33 | |
Bella chats with Dr. Henrike (Henny) Moll. Henny is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, where she directs the Minds in Development lab. Henny's primary research focus lies in children's understanding of perspectives and their ability to engage in joint attention. She studies how infants and young children come to understand the world and the role that others play in introducing them to the world. Her studies are informed by insights from philosophy of mind, education, and anthropology. In this episode, we discussed Henny's research on theory of mind, young children's perspective taking, especially when other people's beliefs clash with their own beliefs or with reality, and how the concept of experiential record plays an important role in children's ability to understand other people's beliefs. Henny also shared the lab's future directions and some exciting upcoming projects. *We are currently conducting a survey to get to know our listeners better and to collect any feedback and suggestions so we can improve our podcast. If you have 1 minute, please click the link here to submit your anonymous response: https://forms.gle/dzHqnWTptW8pSVwMA. Thank you for your time and support! | |||
| 05 May 2022 | 44 - Lasana Harris: Moving Beyond Stereotypes When Encountering Strangers | 00:53:34 | |
Joseph chats with Dr. Lasana Harris about how using traits rather than stereotypes when thinking about strangers can help combat social bias. They also address questions like when is it useful to make a situational versus a dispositional attribution, what are the differences between social and personality psychology, and some advice for academics entering psychology.
Dr. Harris’ personal website: https://lt-harris.info/ | |||
| 12 May 2022 | 45 - Tiffany Brannon: Moving Toward More Inclusive Institutions through "Pride and Prejudice" | 00:48:09 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Tiffany N. Brannon, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA. She directs Culture and Contact Lab. Her research examines socio-cultural identities in negatively stereotyped groups such as African-Americans and Latino-Americans; and she investigates the potential for these identities to serve as a psychological resource— one that can facilitate a variety of individual and intergroup benefits. In this episode, we discuss her recent article titled “Pride and Prejudice” Pathways to Belonging: Implications for Inclusive Diversity Practices Within Mainstream Institution”. We also chat about what insights qualitative methods could bring us. | |||
| 19 May 2022 | 46 - Marlone Henderson: The Burden and Benefits of Scheduling Time for Charity | 00:46:41 | |
Joseph chats with Dr. Marlone Henderson about how people think about the burdens and benefits of giving time to charity. They also talk about people’s moral evaluations of volunteering and how journal guidelines may incentivize production of theoretical versus practical research. Dr. Henderson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. His research aims at understanding the role that basic cognitive processes play in promoting social harmony in the domains of social conflict, social judgment and prosocial behavior. Henderson, M. D., Jung, H., M Baker, E., & Wakslak, C. J. (2021). Anticipated effort and morality of segregated versus aggregated volunteering. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 34(5), 611-624 | |||
| 26 May 2022 | 47 - David Dunning: The Psychology of Trust and Unwarranted Cynicism | 00:47:02 | |
Eric chats with David Dunning, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Self and Social Insight Lab. The lab studies questions such as how well do people know themselves–and their competence and character? How and when do people successfully engage in self-deception? How good are people as amateur psychologists–trying to anticipate the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others? Most famously, Dave has worked on what is called the Dunning Kruger Effect, where the least competent individuals in a domain tend to be the most overconfident in their skills. In this episode, Eric chats with Dave about trust. Who do we trust? How accurate are we in assessing another’s trustworthiness? Why do we sometimes trust people we think to be selfish? Why do we distrust people who are actually kind? What does trust have to do with respect? Is our kindness actually driven be negative, not positive emotions? Finally, Dave shares how to find a research idea worth pursuing and gives general advice for young academics curious about a career in psychology. | |||
| 02 Jun 2022 | 48 - Nicholas Coles: Asking Big Question with Big-team Science | 00:39:30 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Nicholas Coles. Nicholas is a Research Scientist at Stanford University, the co-director of the Stanford Big Team Science Lab, and the Director of the Psychological Science Accelerator. He conducts research in affective science, cross-cultural psychology, and meta-science. | |||
| 09 Jun 2022 | 49 - Kurt Gray: Understanding Moral Disagreement | 00:52:37 | |
Joseph chats with Dr. Kurt Gray about what drives our moral judgments, how we reason about the morality of non-human agents, the factors underlying moral disagreement and how we can bridge partisan animosity. Dr. Gray is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he runs the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. His lab investigates people’s deepest beliefs and why they matter for society and organizations. | |||
| 16 Jun 2022 | 50 - Michael Kraus: The US Is More Unequal Than You Think | 00:48:56 | |
Eric chats with Michael Kraus, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management. Michael’s lab studies what behaviors and emotions maintain and perpetuate economic and social inequality in society. Michael’s research has appeared in Psychological Review, Perspectives on Psychological Science, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In this episode, Michael talks about his recent work on how much US-Americans overestimate how equal their country is. For example, why are some people motivated to deny the vast wealth inequality between Whites and African Americans? Michael then shares how he has successfully intervened to make people’s estimates somewhat more accurate. Finally, Eric asks Michael about advice for young researchers and how he comes up with interesting research ideas. If that is not exciting enough, Michael even performs a power analysis live on the podcast! But not of the statistical kind… | |||
| 23 Jun 2022 | 51 - Elika Bergelson: How Babies Learn Words | 00:43:50 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Elika Bergelson. Elika is a Crandall Family Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Her research aims to understand the interplay of processes during language acquisition. In this episode, Elika shares a recent perspective piece titled: “The comprehension boost in early word learning: Older infants are better learners”. Elika talks about how babies learn words, and how researchers get to know what babies know. You can read the article we discussed here: https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdep.12373 To learn more about Elika’s research, you can visit her lab’s website: https://bergelsonlab.com/ or follow them on twitter @bergelsonlab).
| |||
| 30 Jun 2022 | 52 - Jay Van Bavel: The Power of Us | 00:45:33 | |
Joseph chats with Dr. Jay Van Bavel, an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at the New York University. His research examines how collective concerns namely group identities, moral values, and political beliefs—shape the mind, brain, and behavior. In this episode we chat about his new book titled “The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony”. You can also find him in on twitter @jayvanbavel To learn more about Jay’s research you can visit his lab website, the Social Identity and Morality Lab: https://www.jayvanbavel.com/lab | |||
| 07 Jul 2022 | 53 - Mimi Liljeholm: The Neuroscience of Agency, Learning, and How It Helps Us Understand AI | 00:56:42 | |
Bella chats with professor Mimi Liljeholm. | |||
| 14 Jul 2022 | 54 - Mina Cikara: Hate Crimes Against Minorities | 00:37:50 | |
Eric chats with Mina Cikara, Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, where she directs the Intergroup Neuroscience Lab. The lab uses social psychological and cognitive neuroscience approaches to study how group membership and prejudice change the course of social cognition, studying phenomena such as schadenfreude, empathy, and dehumanization. Mina’s work has been covered in outlets such as the New York Times and Time Magazine. | |||
| 21 Jul 2022 | 55 - Jordan Starck: How University Diversity Rationales Inform Student Preferences and Outcomes | 00:47:11 | |
Joseph chats with Dr. Jordan Starck. Jordan is an IDEAL Provostial Fellow at Stanford University. His research focuses on the reasons organizations embrace diversity, examining the psychological factors shaping people’s preferred approaches and the downstream consequences of different approaches. In this episode they chat about diversity. What reasons do entities like universities give for proclaiming to embrace diversity and inclusion? To what extent do these reasons correspond to educational outcomes?
*We are currently conducting a survey to get to know our listeners better and to collect any feedback and suggestions so we can improve our podcast. If you have 1 minute, please click the link here to submit your anonymous response: https://forms.gle/dzHqnWTptW8pSVwMA. Thank you for your time and support! | |||
| 28 Jul 2022 | 56 - Daniel Gilbert: Stumbling Into Psychology | 00:50:20 | |
Eric chats with Dan Gilbert, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Dan is captivated by a single fact—the world is not as it appears—and he uses science to uncover the illusions people have about the world, themselves, and each other. He is a contributor to Time, The New York Times, and NPR's All Things Considered, and in 2014 Science named him one of the world’s 50 most-followed scientists on social media. His TED talks have been seen by more than 15 million people and remain among the most popular of all time. His popular book, Stumbling on Happiness, spent 6 months on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over a million copies worldwide.
| |||
| 04 Aug 2022 | 57 - Moira Dillon: Commonsense Psychology in Human Infants and Machines | 00:42:26 | |
Bella chats with professor Moira (Molly) Dillon. Molly is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at New York University, where she directs the Lab for the Developing Mind. Molly and her lab use cognitive, developmental, and computational approaches to study infant cognition, including the early emerging knowledge about objects, people, and places; symbolic thought and reasoning in geometry and logic; pictorial and linguistic production, and the relation between human cognition and machine intelligence. In this episode, we discussed Molly's new research on commonsense psychology in human infants and how this research helps advance our understanding of machine intelligence. Be ready to be amazed by what human infants are capable of understanding and doing. WE NOW HAVE A SUBSTACK! Stay up to date with the pod and become part of the ever-growing community :) https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Links Bella's website Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Let us know what you thought of this episode or the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 11 Aug 2022 | 58 - Susan Fiske: A Life of Studying Diversity and Stereotyping | 00:50:45 | |
Eric chats with Susan Fiske, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Professor of Public Affairs at Princeton University. Susan is one of the world’s leading scholars studying social cognition, having written more than 400 articles and chapters as well as several books, including Envy Up, Scorn Down, and The Human Brand. She has won more awards than could possibly be listed, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award. Susan’s biography is currently being highlighted in the 40 Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine exhibit at the National Academy of Sciences, to which she was elected in 2013. In this episode, Eric asks Susan about her latest work on how diverse environments paradoxically make us see different ethnic groups as more, not less similar. In the second half of the chat, Susan reveals why she brings exotic chocolate to lab meetings and how to find a research idea worth pursuing. She talks about her complicated journey into academia and how she developed her influential stereotype content model. She discusses the importance of female role models and the obstacles women face in academia. As if that is not exciting enough, she even gives dating advice! Links: Susan's paper on stereotype dispersion: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2000333117 Eric's website | |||
| 18 Aug 2022 | 59 - Kevin Binning: How to Foster Equity in College Science Courses | 00:49:06 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Kevin Binning, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Kevin studies diversity and equity in education, with the aim to both understand and improve pressing societal problems. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Links: Kevin’s paper on ecological intervention: Binning, K. R., Kaufmann, N., McGreevy, E. M., Fotuhi, O., Chen, S., Marshman, E., ... & Singh, C. (2020). Changing social contexts to foster equity in college science courses: An ecological-belonging intervention. Psychological Science, 31(9), 1059-1070. Kevin’s website: https://sites.pitt.edu/~kbinning/ Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod | |||
| 25 Aug 2022 | 60 - Robb Willer: Why Your Political Enemy Is Not as Violent as You Think | 00:53:16 | |
Eric chats with Robb Willer, Professor of Sociology, Psychology, and Organizational Behavior, and the Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab at Stanford University. Robb is also the co-Director of Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. He studies social forces that bring people together (such as morality and altruism), forces that divide them (such as fear and prejudice), and domains of social life that feature the complex interplay of the two (such as hierarchies and politics). Robb has published in top journals across different fields, and his lab’s work has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Vox, and Washington Post. In this episode, Eric chats with Robb about his latest work on false meta-perceptions. This line of work suggests something counter-intuitive: Democrats and Republicans might overestimate how violent the other party is. Such misguided perceptions can become self-fulfilling: each party risks reacting with violence to the overly violent picture they have painted of the outgroup. Robb also shares how he knows what research ideas to pursue and what other projects he is excited about these days. Finally, he talks about his less-than-straightforward journey into psychology and gives advice on how to teach psychology in a fun and engaging way. Links: Robb's Paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2116851119 Eric's website | |||
| 01 Sep 2022 | 61 - Chaz Firestone: Melting Ice With Your Mind | 00:42:58 | |
Joseph chats with Chaz Firestone, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Chaz’s lab studies how we see and think, and how seeing and thinking interact to produce sophisticated behavior. Recent projects in his lab have explored how our minds generate physical intuitions about the world, and other foundational questions about the nature of perception. Chaz has been named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science, and this year was awarded the Stanton Prize by the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, which recognizes one young scholar who has made significant contributions to research at the intersection of psychology and the philosophy of mind. In this episode Chaz talks about his recent publication in Psychological Science titled "Melting ice with your mind: Representational momentum for physical states”. The study found that participants who viewed objects undergoing state changes (e.g., ice melting, logs burning) remember them as more changed than they actually were. Chaz discusses the implications of these findings for our theories of event perception and memory. | |||
| 08 Sep 2022 | 62 - Carol Dweck & Matt Dixon: The Neuroscience of Intelligent Decisions | 00:50:22 | |
Eric chats with Carol Dweck and Matt Dixon. Carol is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford, world-renowned for her work on fixed and growth mindsets. Her nearly 40-page long CV could not possibly be summarized here and includes prestigious awards such as the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association. Matt is a postdoc at Stanford working with Carol and James Gross. He studies the psychological and biological basis of motivation, decision-making, and emotion regulation strategy use in healthy and clinical populations. In this episode, Carol and Matt discuss their recent paper on the neuroscience of intelligent decision-making. Have we misunderstood – and underestimated – the role of the amygdala? Is our prefrontal cortex as important as we think? What even makes a decision intelligent? Throughout the chat, Carol and Matt propose a new conceptualization of intelligence that includes human motivation, not just abstract problem-solving skills. Eric asks them about clinical applications and how their work casts a more positive, a more understanding light on why adolescents are the way they are. Finally, they share advice for young scholars. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Links: Paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Frev0000339 Eric's website | |||
| 08 Sep 2022 | Quick Announcement | 00:00:53 | |
We now have a Substack! https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com | |||
| 15 Sep 2022 | 63 - Anne Scheel: Why Most Psychological Research Findings Are Not Even Wrong | 01:09:27 | |
Joseph chats with Anne Scheel. Anne is currently a postdoc at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam but will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Methodology and Statistics at Utrecht University in mid October. Anne is a meta-scientist who is interested in which research and publication practices can improve the reproducibility of the published literature, and how researchers can be encouraged to design more falsifiable and informative studies. She did her PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology, followed by a postdoc project at VU Amsterdam and CWTS Leiden. Anne’s papers: Scheel, A. M. (2022). Why most psychological research findings are not even wrong. Infant and Child Development, 31(1), e2295 Joseph’s Twitter @outa_joseph Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 22 Sep 2022 | 64 - Claude Steele: How Trust Reduces Stereotype Threat | 00:49:19 | |
Eric chats with Claude Steele, Emeritus Lucie Stern Professor of Psychology at Stanford. He is world-renowned for his work on stereotype threat and its application to minority student academic performance. In 2010, he released his book, Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, summarizing years of research on stereotype threat and the underperformance of minority students in higher education. He is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He was Vice Chancellor and Provost at Berkeley and provost at Columbia and served as President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. In this episode, Eric and Claude chat about Claude’s most recent thinking about stereotype threat, where people fear fulfilling stereotypes about their social groups. When and why does it matter? How can we create more inclusive and non-threatening environments, from work contexts to classrooms? What does it have to do with Carol Dweck’s growth mindset? Claude proposes that trust is essential to reduce stereotype threat: when people trust they are not judged for their social groups, they perform better. Finally, Claude shares how his growing up on the South Side of Chicago still influences his thinking, how he circuitously stumbled into psychology – and what it was like having Ted Bundy as one of his students! If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Claude's book: https://wwnorton.com/books/Whistling-Vivaldi/ | |||
| 29 Sep 2022 | 65 - Viridiana Benitez: The Power of Predictability | 00:33:57 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Viridiana Benitez, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. Viridiana directs the Learning and Development Lab and studies how children learn about the world around them. In this episode, Anjie and Viridiana chat about one facet of learning: how predictability helps young children learn words. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Links: Viridiana’s paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982218307796?via%3Dihub Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 06 Oct 2022 | 66 - Shai Davidai: Pursuing Status in a Zero-Sum World | 00:51:02 | |
Eric chats with Shai Davidai, Assistant Professor in the Management Division of Columbia Business School. His research examines people’s everyday judgments of themselves, other people, and society as a whole. He studies perceptions of inequality and competitive, zero-sum beliefs about the world. Shai received his PhD from Cornell under Tom Gilovich’s supervision. His work has been published in various top-tier journals. In this episode, Eric and Shai discuss how people pursue status. When do people seek status through dominant aggressive bullying and when do they receive it due to their competence and a good character? Shai’s work reveals the role of zero-sum beliefs: people who believe one person’s gain is another’s loss choose more dominant strategies to gain status. Is this an adaptive response? Can such zero-sum perceptions be inaccurate and, even worse, self-fulfilling? What’s the way out of competitive zero-sum cultures? Shai shares how he stays optimistic despite such depressing research interests, discusses being an international scholar living in the US, and gives advice to his younger grad student self. He finally poses a puzzle for the listener: would you rather be extremely smart or extremely kind? If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Shai's paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-89563-001 | |||
| 13 Oct 2022 | 67 - Special Episode: Behind the Scenes of Paths to PhD | 00:37:45 | |
We are revisiting a special episode in celebration of the upcoming Paths to PhD event. Each year, Stanford's psychology department hosts Paths to PhD, a free, open-to-public information session on how to apply to PhD programs and research positions in psychology. This year’s event is scheduled to happen this Saturday, October 15th from 10:00 am-5:00 pm, and so far we have over three hundred people who signed up and are going to join us from across the world. In this episode that we did a year ago, we invited Lauren and Camilla, two graduate students who were pivotal figures in the shaping of this event. If you are a graduate student, a postdoc, or a faculty member who is interested in bringing an event like this into your department, you might find this episode to be particularly relevant. And if you are a past, current, or future applicant interested in learning more about the behind-the-scene of this event, you will also find this episode to be interesting. We talked about what this event is about, how it came to be, what will happen in the future, as well as the joy and challenges of organizing and planning events like Path to PhD. Event page: https://psychology.stanford.edu/diversity/paths-phd WE NOW HAVE A SUBSTACK! Stay up to date with the pod and become part of the ever-growing community :) https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 20 Oct 2022 | 68 - Special Episode: Join the BTS Conference! (Big Team Science, not the K-pop band.) | 00:40:54 | |
Next Thursday and Friday, October 27th and 28th, the first-ever Big Team Science Conference (BTS-CON for short) will be held virtually. The goal of BTSCON is to bring multidisciplinary groups of researchers, funders, and stakeholders to discuss advancements, challenges, and future opportunities related to big team science. The conference program spans two days, including a mixture of symposia, panels, hackathons, and talks. If you are new to this topic, you will find this episode particularly relevant. In this episode that aired earlier this year, Anjie chats with Dr. Nicholas Coles, the Director of Psychological Science Accelerator and one of the many amazing organizers behind BTSCON. They talked a little bit about what big team science is, and what are some real challenges that BTS practitioners would encounter. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. BTSCON official page: https://bigteamscienceconference.github.io/ Register now: https://opencollective.com/psysciacc/events/test-event-23392c94/contribute/registration-2022-big-team-science-conference-40278 Full conference program: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17m6t7or53uvFErIW_WHvegwlwV2Cq_rvG5ny-4cBkpM/edit?usp=sharing The paper discussed: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00150-2%0D?error=server_error Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 27 Oct 2022 | 69 - Robin Dunbar: How Many People Can You Be Friends With? | 01:12:46 | |
Eric chats with Robin Dunbar, Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford. Robin has famously studied the evolution of the human brain, arguing that our brain developed to understand the complex social world we have created for ourselves. Most know him for “Dunbar’s number,” or the limit to the number of individuals we can maintain stable relationships with. Robin has received more awards than could be counted, including the prestigious Huxley Memorial Medal. He has written various books, most relevant for this conversation a book called “Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationship.” In this wide-ranging episode, Eric and Robin discuss why Dunbar’s number is actually a whole series of numbers. Robin explains how he arrived at this number, why it is so relevant to everything from our globalized world and big cities to maintaining friendships. Do psychopaths need friends to be happy? If you don’t like people, should you move into the woods and never talk to anyone again? He explains why we gossip and what makes something funny. Finally, he shares some personal stories about his career and why his discovery of Dunbar’s number was actually an accident. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Robin's Friendship book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/friends-robin-dunbar/1138785864 | |||
| 03 Nov 2022 | 70 - Julia Leonard: Young children's effort allocation and persistence in learning | 00:53:14 | |
Bella chats with professor Julia Leonard. Julia is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Yale University, where she directs the Leonard Learning Lab. Julia and her lab use cognitive, developmental, and computational approaches to study the factors that support both children's approach to learning and their capacity to learn. In this episode, we discussed Julia's recent research on young children's persistence and the role that caretakers and teachers play in influencing the growth of children's persistence. Although the studies were done with children, you'll be surprised by how much insight her research can bring to all of us, even as adults! We also discussed the challenges we face in children's education and fostering environments that encourage the growth of children's persistence. In the end, Julia shares her personal stories about applying to graduate school and some important advice to anyone interested in pursuing a career in academia. If you found this episode interesting, please consider leaving us a good rating! It only takes a second, but it will allow our podcast to reach more people and hopefully get them excited about psychology. Links: Bella's website: https://bellafascendini.github.io/ Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Let us know what you think of this episode or the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 10 Nov 2022 | 71 - Tessa West: Dealing with Toxic Coworkers | 00:50:42 | |
Eric chats with Tessa West, Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University. Tessa is a leading expert in the science of interpersonal communication. Her work has been covered by various outlets such as the New York Times and Time Magazine. She is most recently the author of “Jerks at Work: Toxic coworkers and what to do about them.” In this episode, Eric and Tessa chat about why some people are jerks at work. How do you deal with them? Are there more jerks at work now than in the past? Can we find jerks in all cultures around the world? How can we detect jerks? Who is most likely to be taken advantage of by jerks at work? On the flipside of jerks, how can you turn coworkers into friends? Finally, Tessa talks about what it was like to write a trade book, whether that is harder than writing scientific papers, and how she tries to be optimistic about people despite this dark research topic. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Tessa's book | |||
| 17 Nov 2022 | 72 - Maria Arredondo: When babies need to learn two languages | 00:40:04 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Maria Arredondo, Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, and the Department of Psychology at University of Texas at Austin. Maria studies how infants, toddlers, and school-age children acquire their language(s). She is especially interested in why some children can become proficient bilinguals, while others struggle.
If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe to our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Links: Maria’s paper:
Maria’s Twitter @MMArredondo_ Maria’s lab website: https://sites.utexas.edu/childslab/
Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 24 Nov 2022 | 73 - Juliana Schroeder: Mistakenly Seeking Solitude | 00:46:50 | |
Eric chats with Juliana Schroeder, Associate Professor in the Management of Organizations at Berkeley Haas. She studies how people think about the minds of other people, and how they are often wrong trying to understand what others are up to. Her work has been discussed in outlets ranging from Vice to The Atlantic and Forbes. In this episode, Eric and Juliana chat review her exciting recent work on “undersociality.” Talking to other people is often meaningful, not just for extraverts, and yet we hesitate to talk to others, making overly pessimistic predictions about how awkward and unpleasant such interactions would be. This leads us to “mistakenly seek solitude.” Juliana discusses what we can do to motivate ourselves to talk to others more, why that is so beneficial, and why she herself struggles to do it.
Juliana's review paper on undersociality: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661322000432?casa_token=KI1Vjeg9NKUAAAAA:aTAEDP2eF1ay3I0rGI74FHNW21s83r_KvXCQMvr5auCxaVnhEah82tbASwjzwfc-68D54q8Kc2E Juliana's key empirical paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/a0037323 Juliana's Twitter | |||
| 01 Dec 2022 | 74 - Johannes Eichstaedt: Is Social Media to Blame for Mental Illness? | 00:47:16 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Johannes Eichstaedt, an Assistant Professor in Psychology, and the Shriram Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University. Johannes directs the Computational Psychology and Well-Being lab. His research focuses on using social media (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, …) to measure the psychological states of large populations and individuals to determine the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that drive physical illness (like heart disease), depression, or support psychological well-being. In this episode, Anjie and Johannes chat about how social media could be a lens to understand mental illnesses such as depression. Johannes also shares his thoughts on the emerging trends in social media, and how some powerful technocrats in Silicon Valley might have some huge blind spots in understanding human nature. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substackand consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Links: Johannes’s Twitter: @JEichstaedt Johannes’s lab website: https://cpwb.stanford.edu/
Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com
| |||
| 08 Dec 2022 | 75 - Russ Poldrack: What can neuroimaging research tell us about the brain and why is reproducible neuroscience important? | 00:54:45 | |
Bella chats with professor Russ Poldrack. Russ is the Albert Ray Lang professor of psychology at Stanford University, where he directs the Poldrack lab. Russ also serves as the director of the Stanford Center for Reproducible Neuroscience and the SDS center for Open and Reproducible science. Russ and his lab use cognitive, computational, and neuroimaging approaches to study how decision-making, executive control, and learning and memory are implemented in the human brain. If you find this episode interesting, please leave us a good review on your podcast platform! It only takes a few minutes, but it will allow our podcast to reach more people and hopefully get them excited about psychology and brain sciences. Links:
Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod | |||
| 15 Dec 2022 | 76 - Robert Cialdini: A Life of Influence | 00:52:32 | |
Eric chats with Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and the world’s leading scholar on the psychology of influence. His books on influencing and persuading others have been translated into 44 languages and have sold over 7 million copies. In this episode, Eric and Bob talk about Bob’s adventurous and amusing journey into psychology and studying influence. If you want to influence others, what can you do? Can these strategies be used for unethical purposes? Do people underestimate how easily they are influenced by others? How has Bob used these strategies in his own life? How can academics have more influence and design better experiments? Finally, how can I influence our wonderful listeners of this podcast to leave a review and spread the word?
Bob's personal website | |||
| 22 Dec 2022 | 77 - Melissa Kibbe: How do infants represent objects and agents? | 00:57:09 | |
Bella chats with professor Melissa Kibbe. Melissa is an associate professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Boston University, where she directs the Developing Minds lab. Her lab studies infants and children’s development of object, numerical, and future-oriented cognition. She is also a passionate advocate for promoting equity and justice in science and academia. In this episode, we discussed Melissa’s research on how infants and children perceive, understand, and remember objects and agents. For example, what do babies remember about objects when they are out of view? And does this memory about objects change when they see other people interacting with those objects? Melissa also shares fascinating findings from the work in her lab that even babies as young as 6 months old already have an impressive working memory. In the end, Melissa shares personal advice with people who are in the process of applying to graduate school about how to find a program that is the best fit for them. If you find this episode interesting, please leave us a good review on your podcast platform! It only takes a few minutes, but it will allow our podcast to reach more people and hopefully get them excited about psychology and brain sciences. Links: Melissa's lab: https://www.bu.edu/cdl/developing-minds-lab/ Papers mentioned in this episode:
https://www.bu.edu/cdl/files/2019/01/2019-KibbeLeslie-PsychScience.pdf
https://www.bu.edu/cdl/files/2021/09/2021-BlankenshipKibbe-JECP.pdf
Bella's Twitter: @BellaFascendini Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ | |||
| 29 Dec 2022 | 78 - Laura Schulz: The journey of becoming a cognitive scientist and what babies and children have taught us about their cognition | 01:00:27 | |
Bella chats with professor Laura Schulz. Laura is a Professor of Cognitive Sciences in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT. She is also the director and principal investigator of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab. Laura’s research focuses on understanding the infrastructure of human cognition and how it’s constructed during early childhood. For example, Laura and her lab study children’s causal reasoning, social cognition, emotion understanding, and the connection between play and learning. Laura has also received numerous scientific awards, such as the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology and the National Academy of Sciences Troland Award. In this episode, Laura shares personal stories about her journey in science and fascinating research projects that she and her students conducted with infants and children over the years. We also discussed the open science online platform for developmental research called Lookit, first developed by Kim Scott, who was one of Laura’s PhD students. Laura also shared her vision for gearing the field towards a more open, accessible, and collaborative environment where data sharing is made possible among institutions across continents.
Links: Laura’s lab: https://eccl.mit.edu/ Lookit: https://lookit.mit.edu/ Bella's website: https://bellafascendini.github.io/ Bella's Twitter: @BellaFascendini Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode or the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 05 Jan 2023 | 79 - Delroy Paulhus: Psychopathy, Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Sadism (WITH TRANSCRIPT) | 00:46:13 | |
AN INTERACTIVE TRANSCRIPT IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS EPISODE: https://share.descript.com/view/PDj7Wi7M2oS or on OUR SUBSTACK In this episode, Eric and Delroy chat about how these dark personalities manifest in everyday life. How are they similar, and how are they different? How does Delroy study something like sadism in the lab? Where in society do these dark individuals flourish, and do they ever benefit society? Are they more intelligent? Do we have more psychopaths and narcissists among us now than in the past? Finally, Delroy shares if he is still able to see the good in people after studying dark personalities for so long.
Interactive transcript | |||
| 12 Jan 2023 | 80 - Hu Chuan-Peng: Building Open Science in China | 00:37:21 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Hu Chuan-Peng, a faculty member of the School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include self-cognition (i.e., how humans process self-related information) and mental health, his team uses three broad approaches: meta-science, modeling, and measurement. In addition, he is also one of the founding members of the Chinese Open Science Network, a grassroots network for promoting awareness of reproducibility and open science in China. In this episode, Chuan-Peng shared how the network was initiated, the events that a network run by volunteers can organize, and lessons learned through promoting open science in a developing country. Links: Chuan-Peng’s paper: https://psyarxiv.com/ac9by/ Chuan-Peng’s twitter: @hcp4715 Chuan-Peng’s website: https://huchuanpeng.com/ Chinese Open Science Network’s website: https://open-sci.cn/
Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com
| |||
| 26 Jan 2023 | 81 - Sa-Kiera Hudson: Social Dominance, Empathy, and Schadenfreude | 00:51:27 | |
Eric chats with Sa-Kiera Hudson, Assistant Professor at University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business. Kiera studies hierarchies: How hierarchies are formed, how they are maintained, and how they intersect. In this episode, Eric and Kiera chat about her work on social dominance orientation. Why do some people feel justified to discriminate against minorities? Kiera explains that a desire for social dominance leads to less empathy and more schadenfreude towards minorities. Finally, Kiera shares what it was like working with the late Jim Sidanius, a legend in psychology, and how she stumbled into psychology research. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Kiera's pre-print | |||
| 02 Feb 2023 | 82 - Kimberly Chiew: How Do People Remember Election Night 2016? | 00:37:08 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Kimberly Chiew with us. Kimberly is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver. She directs the Motivation, Affect, & Cognition Lab. She is broadly interested in examining affective and motivational influences on goal-directed cognition. In this episode, Kimberly chats bout her paper “Remembering Election Night 2016: Subjective but Not Objective Metrics of Autobiographical Memory Vary with Political Affiliation, Affective Valence, and Surprise”. She also shares how she came up with the idea of this natural experiment, and how different factors such as emotion, or feelings of surprise may influence the way we remember things.
If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Links:
Kimberly’s paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-68985-001 Kimberly’s twitter: @kimberlychiew Kimberly’s lab’s website: http://dumaclab.org/
Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com
| |||
| 09 Feb 2023 | 83 - Dacher Keltner: The Science of Awe | 00:48:28 | |
Eric chats with Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley and Co-Director of the Greater Good Science Center. Dacher has worked on many topics such as compassion, power, and social class. He has introduced hundreds of thousands of people to “The Science of Happiness” through his online course and podcast with the same name. He has written multiple best-selling books, most recently on awe. In this chat, Eric asks Dacher about all things awe, from traveling to psychedelics to Beyonce. Does everyone feel awe? Should everyone feel it? What is the most common form of awe? How can awe help people through grief? What does it have to do with ASMR? Does awe make people naïve? Finally, Dacher shares what it was like to work on movies such as Inside Out and adds some kind words about his former advisor and psychology legend, the late Lee Ross. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Dacher's new book on awe | |||
| 16 Feb 2023 | 84 - Martha Nussbaum: Justice for Animals | 00:56:13 | |
Eric chats with Martha Nussbaum, Distinguished Service Professor in law and philosophy at the University of Chicago. She is one of the most influential philosophers alive and has written about various topics such as Roman philosophy, existentialism, feminism, and emotions. She has won more awards than could be listed here, including the prestigious Berggruen Prize and Holberg Prize. Most recently, she is the author of “Justice for Animals.” In this chat, Eric asks Martha about what it means to be just to animals. Should we be just to all animals equally? Why can people be so cruel to animals? What do wonder, anger, compassion, and hope have to with animal justice? Can people be too compassionate? Martha talks about Avatar’s role in promoting compassion for animals and gives recommendations for documentaries. Finally, she shares what a day in her life looks like and how she stays so productive. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Martha's new book | |||
| 23 Feb 2023 | 85 - Wayne Wu: Attention, from a philosophical point of view | 00:39:11 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Wayne Wu. Wanye is an associate professor at the Department of Philosophy and the Neuroscience Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He works on attention, perception, action, and schizophrenia at the interface between philosophy and cognitive science. In this episode, Wayne shares his recent work “On Attention and Norms: An Opinionated Review of Recent Work”. He also talks about attention in real life – for example, how do we thrive in a world where social media algorithms constantly fight for our attention? Finally, Wayne also shares a preview of his upcoming book Movements of the Mind, which explores topics related to mental actions. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Links: Wayne’s paper: https://psyarxiv.com/83qva/ Wayne’s twitter: @attninaction Wayne’s website:https://www.waynewu.net/ Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 02 Mar 2023 | 86 - Cameron Ellis: Using fMRI to study what it is like to be an infant | 01:00:29 | |
Bella chats with professor Cameron Ellis. Cameron is an assistant professor in the psychology department at Stanford University, where he leads the Scaffolding of Cognition Team. Cameron’s research focuses on understanding the infrastructure of human cognition and how it’s constructed during infancy. In other words, what is it like to be an infant? To study this, Cameron and his team use neuroscience and cognitive science methods such as fMRI. In this episode, Cameron discussed his research in studying infants’ memory and attention, how he overcame the challenges when doing infant fMRI, and directions for his newly formed lab at Stanford. Later on, Cameron also shared personal stories about his background and journey in academia. Links: Cameron’s lab: http://soc.stanford.edu/ Cameron’s Twitter: @CameronTEllis Bella's website: https://bellafascendini.github.io/ Bella's Twitter: @BellaFascendini Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode or the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 09 Mar 2023 | 87 - Marilynn Brewer: Social Identity and Intergroup Conflict | 00:54:41 | |
Eric chats with Marilynn Brewer, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Ohio State University. Marilynn is one of the world’s leading scholars on social identity, intergroup relations, and social cognition. She has been president of various psychological associations and former Director of the Institute for Social Science Research at UCLA. In this episode, Eric and Marilynn talk about why people care so much about belonging to a group. How do people balance belonging to a group and being a unique individual at the same time? Does love for the ingroup really always lead to hatred of the outgroup? How can we overcome intergroup conflict? Finally, Marilynn shares how she stumbled into psychology and what she loves about the field of social psychology. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Marilynn's paper on ingroup love and outgroup hatred | |||
| 16 Mar 2023 | 88 - Christina Barbieri: Do examples help students learn math? | 00:32:53 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Christina Barbieri. Christina is an Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware’s School of Education within the Educational Statistics and Research Methods Ph.D. program and the Learning Sciences specializations. Her work focuses on applying and evaluating the effectiveness of instructional strategies and materials based on principles of learning from cognitive and learning sciences on improving mathematical competencies. In this episode, they chat about her recent paper, A Meta-analysis of the Worked Examples Effect on Mathematics Performance. She talks about how worked examples could help students learn maths, and how sometimes they might fail. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Links: Christina’s paper: https://tinyurl.com/BarbieriEtal Christina’s twitter: @c_barbieri_d Christina’s website: https://sites.udel.edu/barbieri/ Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 23 Mar 2023 | 89 - Edouard Machery: What Is a Replication? (REAIR) | 00:41:29 | |
This week, we revisit one of our favorite episodes from last year (with improved audio quality!). In this episode, Anjie chats with Edouard Machery, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science. Edouard's main research focuses on the intersection between cognitive science and philosophy. In this episode, Edouard shares his recent work on a topic that is extremely important for psychology today: replication. In an era of the replication crisis, it is more important than ever to understand the concept of replication. What are we really talking about when we are talking about replication? Is preregistration the cure-all magic for the crisis? Why is scientific reform so difficult? These are the questions Edouard ponders. You can learn more about his research on his personal website. | |||
| 30 Mar 2023 | 90 - Elliot Aronson: Cognitive Dissonance, Cooperation, And Juicy Stories About the History of Psychology | 01:02:06 | |
Eric chats with Elliot Aronson, Professor Emeritus at UC Santa Cruz. Elliot is one of the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century. He is known for his work on cognitive dissonance, where people do crazy things but not for crazy reasons, as he puts it, and the Jigsaw Classroom, intended to establish cooperation in competitive environments. He is the only person ever to receive all major awards from the American Psychological Association: for writing, research, and teaching. In this chat, Eric and Elliot go into a deep dive into the history of psychology and Elliot’s role in it. What was it like working with the influential psychologists Abraham Maslow and Leon Festinger? Why did these two people dislike each other so much? How did racial segregation motivate Elliot’s research? How can research ever address big social problems? Why are the 2010s the “decade of dissonance”? If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Elliot's book on dissonance and self-justification | |||
| 06 Apr 2023 | 91 - Casey Lew-Williams: From Infant-directed Speech to Infant-directed Communication | 00:38:19 | |
Anjie chats with Dr.Casey Lew-Williams. Casey is a Professor at Princeton University, where he also directs the Princeton Baby Lab. He studies how babies learn, with a particular focus on language and communication. In this episode, we chat about a recent preprint he co-authored with Dr. Jessica Kosie titled "Infant-Directed Communication: Examining the multimodal dynamics of infants’ everyday interactions with caregivers". Casey shares his thoughts on why it is important to study and how to study infant-directed communication.
If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Links: Casey's paper: https://osf.io/hyqp2/ Casey’s lab website: http://babylab.princeton.edu/ Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com
| |||
| 13 Apr 2023 | 92 - Paul van Lange: Trust, Cooperation, And Climate Change | 00:58:12 | |
Eric chats with Paul van Lange, Professor of Psychology at the Free University of Amsterdam and Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford. He is well known for his vast work on trust, cooperation, and morality, applying these themes to everything from Covid to climate change. He has published multiple handbooks and edited volumes on these topics. In this chat, Eric and Paul talk about the psychological barriers that stop people from fighting climate change. What do trust and cynicism have to do with it? What are barriers to cooperation more generally? Why do selfish people often believe others are selfish too, but kind people don’t think everyone is kind? Might most strangers actually be nice, despite all the stranger danger we always hear about? Finally, Paul shares if all his work on trust and cooperation has changed how he looks at the world and compares research in psychology in Europe to the US. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Paul's paper on climate change | |||
| 21 Apr 2023 | 93 - Moshe Hoffman: Altruism, irrationality, and the psychology of aesthetics | 00:49:34 | |
Rachel chats with Moshe Hoffman, a Lecturer and Independent Scholar at Harvard’s Department of Economics. Moshe uses game theory to explore the evolutionary bases of human behavior, from altruistic donations to our taste in music. His recent book, co-authored with Dr. Erez Yoeli, is “Hidden Games: The Surprising power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior.” Links: "Hidden Games: The Surprising power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior" "An Evolutionary Explanation for Ineffective Altruism" Bethany Burum, Martin Nowak, Moshe Hoffman (Appendix), Nature Human Behavior (2020)
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/hoffmanmoshe/
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
| |||
| 27 Apr 2023 | 94 - Josh Greene: Cooperation, Charity, and Effective Giving | 00:47:15 | |
Eric chats with Josh Greene, Professor of Psychology at Harvard. Josh is a leading researcher of moral judgment and is the author of Moral Tribes. Several graduating classes have named him their favorite professor at Harvard! In this chat, Eric asks Josh how he has raised over 2 million $ for charity through Giving Multiplier. Listeners are invited to give to both their favorite and some of the most effective charities - and have their donation matched at a higher rate than usual at this link! Josh also shares how he is trying to fight polarization with games, how to do the most good as a researcher, why cooperation is the story of life, what his next book is about, the future of moral psychology, and how his thinking has changed since he first started thinking about moral philosophy in high school. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Do good by donating through Giving Multiplier (with higher matching rate!) | |||
| 04 May 2023 | 95 - Meet the Hosts: Anjie Cao and Her Path to Science Communication | 00:36:26 | |
Bella chats with one of the co-founders of the podcast, Anjie Cao. Anjie is a 3rd-year graduate student in the psychology department at Stanford University, where she works with Dr. Mike Frank in the Stanford Language and Cognition Lab. In this episode, Anjie and Bella have a casual chat and talk about how Anjie and Eric started the podcast about two years ago and how this journey has been for her. Anjie also shares some behind-the-scene stories, such as where the name of the podcast comes from. And what is it like to be a graduate student researcher? If you find this episode interesting, please leave us a good review on your podcast platform! It only takes a few minutes, but it will allow our podcast to reach more people and hopefully get them excited about psychology and brain sciences. Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Website: https://www.stanfordpsychologypodcast.com/ Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Anjie’s twitter: @anjie_cao Bella's website: https://bellafascendini.github.io/ Bella's Twitter: @BellaFascendini Let us know what you think of this episode or the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 11 May 2023 | 96 - Jon Freeman: Reading Faces | 01:01:54 | |
Eric chats with Jon Freeman, Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia. Jon’s lab studies how we perceive other people, such as how we categorize others into social groups and infer their emotion or personality via facial cues. In this chat, Eric and Jon chat about how we rapidly make up our mind about another’s character in less than a second, and how such first impressions can be false and succumb to various biases. How do we perceive another’s personality and do people make the same inferences around the world? Do attractive faces seem more trustworthy? Finally, Jon talks about his recent efforts on behalf of the LGBTQ+ science community. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Jon's paper | |||
| 18 May 2023 | 97 - Ovul Sezer: The Case for Sharing Good News (REAIR) | 01:05:50 | |
This week, we revisit one of our favorite episodes! Eric chats with Ovul Sezer, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at UNC Kenan-Flagler. Ovul’s research focuses on impression mismanagement, or the mistakes we make as we try to impress others. Her research has been featured in outlets such as Time Magazine and Forbes Magazine. Eric's website | |||
| 25 May 2023 | 98 - Shinobu Kitayama: A Cultural Psychology for the Whole World | 00:54:40 | |
Eric chats with Shinobu Kitayama, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Culture and Cognition program at the University of Michigan. He is one of the world’s leading researchers on cultural differences and similarities in a variety of mental processes such as self, emotion and cognition. In this chat, Eric and Shinobu chat about how previous work in cultural psychology was limited mostly to differences between Westerners and East Asians. Shinobu summarizes work showing potential differences among understudied groups such as people from the Arab zone, Latin America, and South Asia. Finally, Shinobu clarifies that Western independence is not the same as selfishness and shares his own adventurous journey into the field. What was it like arriving in the US and feeling like most psychology findings did not make sense with his Japanese background? JOIN OUR SUBSTACK! Stay up to date with the pod and become part of the ever-growing community :) https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Shinobu's paper | |||
| 01 Jun 2023 | 99 - Deon Benton: What a Computational Model Can Tell Us About Babies' Inner (Moral) Life? (REAIR) | 00:48:23 | |
In this episode, Anjie chats with Deon Benton, an assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University. Deon directs the Computational Cognitive Development Lab, and he investigates causal learning in infants and children with a particular focus on those mechanisms and processes that support such learning. He uses both behavioral research and computational (connectionist) modeling to examine this topic. In this episode, he will share his recent research using a connectionist model to investigate infants’ understanding of morality. | |||
| 08 Jun 2023 | 100 - Paul Bloom: The Psychology of Everything | 00:53:15 | |
Eric chats with Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of seven books, including his latest “Psych: The Story of the Human Mind.” Countless people around the world have been introduced to psychology through his online courses “Introduction to Psychology” and “Moralities of Everyday Life.” In this chat, Eric and Paul discuss to what extent knowing about psychology actually helps us navigate everyday life with other people. Should psychology students still learn about Freud? Why would Paul never write a psychology textbook? Why is he writing a next book on perversity and something called “reactance?” How did he manage to become a successful professor while researching such a diverse range of topics? How to use Twitter without becoming a troll? Finally, Paul faces some surprisingly tough questions generated by ChatGPT. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Paul's latest book Psych | |||
| 15 Jun 2023 | 101 - Natasha Chaku: 100 Days of Adolescence | 00:38:13 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Natasha Chaku. Natasha is an assistant professor at the Department of Psychological and Brain Science at Indiana University Bloomington. Her core research interests involve understanding cognitive development in adolescence, its correlates, and the implications of its development for different populations, especially as related to puberty, psychopathology, and positive development. In this episode, Anjie and Natasha chats about Natasha’s recent work titled “100 Days of Adolescence: Elucidating externalizing behaviors through the daily assessment of inhibitory control”. Natasha took us through a deep dive into the how and why of studying adolescent cognition. She also shares her journey in studying this period of life. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Links:
Natasha’s twitter: @Natasha_Chaku Natasha’s faculty webpage: https://psych.indiana.edu/directory/faculty/chaku-natasha.html
Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com
| |||
| 23 Jun 2023 | 102 - Meet the Hosts: Joseph Outa's Journey Into Science Communication | 00:27:12 | |
Eric chats with one of the co-hosts of the podcast, Joseph Outa. Joseph is an incoming graduate student at Johns Hopkins where he will work with Dr. Shari Liu at the Liu Lab. He was previously a research coordinator in the psychology department at Stanford University. In this episode, Eric and Jo have a casual chat about what Jo has been up to at Stanford and his plans going into graduate school. Jo also shares how he got into science communication and about life as an international student.
Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Website: https://www.stanfordpsychologypodcast.com/ Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Joseph’s twitter: @outa_joseph Eric’s website: https://ericneumann96.wixsite.com/mysite Eric’s twitter: @EricNeumannPsy | |||
| 29 Jun 2023 | 103 - Neil Lewis, Jr.: What Counts As Good Science? | 00:33:17 | |
Joseph chats with Neil Lewis, Jr., Assistant Professor of Communication and Social Behavior at Cornell University, and Assistant Professor of Communication Research in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Neil also co-directs Cornell’s Action Research Collaborative, an institutional hub that brings together researchers, practitioners, community members, and policymakers to collaborate on projects and initiatives to address pressing equity issues in society. Neil’s research examines how people’s social contexts and identities influence how they make sense of the world around them, and the implications of those meaning-making processes for their motivation to pursue a variety of goals in life. In this episode Neil and I chat about his recent publication “What Counts as Good Science? How the Battle for Methodological Legitimacy Affects Public Psychology”. We explore the history behind the different methods used in basic and applied science, how the methods influence perceptions of legitimacy, and what lessons we can draw to address the current crisis of confidence in psychology. Lewis Jr, N. A. (2021). What counts as good science? How the battle for methodological legitimacy affects public psychology. American Psychologist, 76(8), 1323. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000870 Neil's website https://neillewisjr.com/ Joseph’s Twitter @outa_joseph Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 06 Jul 2023 | 104 - Special Episode: Marginalia Science | 00:27:08 | |
In this special episode, Anjie chats with Jordan Wylie and Eliana Hadjiandreou, who make up ½ of the incoming leadership of Marginalia Science. Marginalia science is a place to promote and learn about the work of social scientists who are women, gender non-conforming, BIPOC, LGBTQI, disabled, and/or in any other way not promoted by the status quo in academia. They send out monthly newsletters on their Substack highlighting the awesome work of their community, and they also hold events to create space for community members to gather.
Links: Subscribe to Marginalia Science’s newsletter via Substack! Marginalia science website: https://www.marginaliascience.com/ Marginalia science’s twitter: @marginalia_sci Check out Marginalia Science’s 2019 academic paper in Nature Human Behavior here Get in touch with Marginalia science: marginaliascience@gmail.com Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod | |||
| 13 Jul 2023 | 105 - Meet the Hosts: Eric Neumann on Podcasting and Studying Trust | 00:31:40 | |
Jo chats with one of the co-hosts of the podcast, Eric Neumann. Eric is a rising fourth year PhD student at Stanford, working with Jamil Zaki on trust and cynicism. He co-founded this podcast with Anjie in early 2020 during their first year of grad school. In this episode, Jo and Eric casually chat about overcoming social anxieties during podcasting and grad school, how Eric's research on trust is inspired by his own trust issues, and why Jo and Eric might actually be an artificial intelligence. Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Website: https://www.stanfordpsychologypodcast.com/ Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Eric’s website: https://ericneumann96.wixsite.com/mysite Eric’s twitter: @EricNeumannPsy Joseph’s twitter: @outa_joseph | |||
| 20 Jul 2023 | 106 - Amit Goldenberg: Collective Emotions and Social Media | 00:48:21 | |
Eric chats with Amit Goldenberg, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Amit studies emotions in social interactions, for example in political contexts and on social media. He was a journalist and author before becoming an academic. In this episode, Eric and Amit talk about how emotions operate in groups. Do crowds easily go “mad”? What emotions spread faster in groups? Why are we drawn to people more politically extreme than us? How is social media shaping our emotions and political behavior? Finally, Amit shares his journey from being a journalist to being a psychologist at a business school.
If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Amit's paper on collective emotions | |||
| 27 Jul 2023 | 107 REAIR SUMMER - Josh Greene: Cooperation, Charity, and Effective Giving | 00:48:02 | |
In this chat, Eric asks Josh how he has raised over 2 million $ for charity through Giving Multiplier. Listeners are invited to give to both their favorite and some of the most effective charities - and have their donation matched at a higher rate than usual at this link! Josh also shares how he is trying to fight polarization with games, how to do the most good as a researcher, why cooperation is the story of life, what his next book is about, the future of moral psychology, and how his thinking has changed since he first started thinking about moral philosophy in high school. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Do good by donating through Giving Multiplier (with higher matching rate!) | |||
| 03 Aug 2023 | 108 REAIR SUMMER - Abigail Marsh: Surprising Predictors of Everyday Kindness | 00:47:38 | |
Welcome to Week 2 of our REAIR SUMMER! From this week till September 21st, we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes around topics related to personal development and self-improvement! Eric's website | |||
| 10 Aug 2023 | 109 REAIR SUMMER - Juliana Schroeder: Mistakenly Seeking Solitude | 00:47:29 | |
Welcome to Week 3 of our REAIR SUMMER! From this week till September 21st, we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes around topics related to personal development and self-improvement! In this episode, Eric and Juliana chat review her exciting recent work on “undersociality.” Talking to other people is often meaningful, not just for extraverts, and yet we hesitate to talk to others, making overly pessimistic predictions about how awkward and unpleasant such interactions would be. This leads us to “mistakenly seek solitude.” Juliana discusses what we can do to motivate ourselves to talk to others more, why that is so beneficial, and why she herself struggles to do it.
Juliana's review paper on undersociality: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661322000432?casa_token=KI1Vjeg9NKUAAAAA:aTAEDP2eF1ay3I0rGI74FHNW21s83r_KvXCQMvr5auCxaVnhEah82tbASwjzwfc-68D54q8Kc2E Juliana's key empirical paper: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/a0037323 Juliana's Twitter | |||
| 17 Aug 2023 | 110 REAIR SUMMER - James Gross: Building Emotion Regulation Skills During the Pandemic and Beyond | 00:46:35 | |
Welcome to Week 4 of our REAIR SUMMER! From this week till September 21st, we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes around topics related to personal development and self-improvement! Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01173-x
| |||
| 24 Aug 2023 | 111 REAIR SUMMER - Jay Van Bavel: The Power of Us | 00:46:12 | |
Welcome to Week 5 of our REAIR SUMMER! From this week till September 21st, we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes around topics related to personal development and self-improvement! You can also find him in on twitter @jayvanbavel To learn more about Jay’s research you can visit his lab website, the Social Identity and Morality Lab: https://www.jayvanbavel.com/lab | |||
| 31 Aug 2023 | 112 REAIR SUMMER - Dacher Keltner: The Science of Awe | 00:49:08 | |
Welcome to Week 6 of our REAIR SUMMER! From this week till September 21st, we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes around topics related to personal development and self-improvement! In this chat, Eric asks Dacher about all things awe, from traveling to psychedelics to Beyonce. Does everyone feel awe? Should everyone feel it? What is the most common form of awe? How can awe help people through grief? What does it have to do with ASMR? Does awe make people naïve? Finally, Dacher shares what it was like to work on movies such as Inside Out and adds some kind words about his former advisor and psychology legend, the late Lee Ross. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Dacher's new book on awe | |||
| 08 Sep 2023 | 113 REAIR SUMMER - Jon Jachimowicz: Should You Follow Your Passion? | 01:07:41 | |
Welcome to Week 7 of our REAIR SUMMER! From this week till September 21st, we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes around topics related to personal development and self-improvement!
| |||
| 14 Sep 2023 | 114 REAIR SUMMER - Gillian Sandstrom: Talking to Strangers | 00:47:58 | |
Welcome to Week 8 aka the LAST WEEK of our REAIR SUMMER! From this week till September 21st, we will be revisiting some of our favorite episodes around topics related to personal development and self-improvement! Check out Gillian’s paper, Why do people avoid talking to strangers? A mini meta-analysis of predicted fears and actual experiences talking to a stranger, which received an Honorable Mention in the Journal of Self and Identity’s 2021 Best Paper Award, here. You can learn more about Gillian’s exciting research on her website: gilliansandstrom.com. You can also connect with her directly on Twitter @GillianSocial. | |||
| 21 Sep 2023 | 115 - Matt Abrahams: Think Faster, Talk Smarter | 00:41:59 | |
Eric chats with Matt Abrahams, leading expert in the field of communication and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Matt is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and communications consultant. He has helped numerous presenters prepare for high-stakes talks, including Nobel Prize award presentations, and appearances at TED and the World Economic Forum. His online talks garner millions of views and he hosts the popular, award-winning podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart, The Podcast. In this chat, Eric and Matt discuss all things public speaking and stage fright, introducing Matt’s upcoming book Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot which provides tangible, actionable skills to help even the most anxious of speakers succeed when speaking spontaneously. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Matt's upcoming NEW BOOK | |||
| 28 Sep 2023 | 116 - George Mashour: How Psychedelics Can Shed Light on Consciousness | 00:39:13 | |
This week, Julia chats with George Mashour, the Robert B. Sweet Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan. Professor Mashour was the founding director of the University of Michigan Center for Consciousness Science and the Michigan Psychedelic Center. In this episode, Julia and Professor Mashour discuss the reinvigorated study of psychedelics and the light it may shed on different dimensions of consciousness. Professor Mashour weighs in on the ongoing normative debate about how psychedelic drugs should be defined. Should they be defined on a molecular level by their mechanism of action in the brain or based upon the subjective experience they produce in the user? He relates the results of an exciting recent study that uses psychedelic drugs as a tool to alter normal states of consciousness. This enables him to compare brain network dynamics in these altered states of consciousness with those dynamics in normal states of consciousness and with those in lowered states of consciousness induced by anesthesia. In some ways, this technique allows us to peer into the brain to find out what brain activity is associated with particular experiences. Professor Mashour also offers his perspective on two of the most prominent theories of consciousness and a groundbreaking ongoing adversarial collaboration evaluating them. JOIN OUR SUBSTACK! Stay up-to-date with the podcast and become part of the ever-growing community 🙂 https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ If you found this episode interesting, please consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a minute but will allow us to reach more listeners and make them excited about psychology. Links: Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode or of the podcast by sending us an email at stanfordpsychologypodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 05 Oct 2023 | 117 - Sho Tsuji: A blueprint for modeling how babies acquire language | 00:29:22 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Sho Tsuji, an Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo where she directs the IRCN baby lab. Her core research interests involve understanding how babies acquire language efficiently. In this episode, we chat about her recent work on approaching this question from a computational perspective, a paper titled “SCALa: A blueprint for computational models of language acquisition in social context”. Sho explained why a computational perspective is crucial for understanding language acquisition. She also shared her perspective on large language models as a human language acquisition researcher. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Sho’s personal website: https://sites.google.com/site/tsujish/home Sho’s lab website: https://babylab.ircn.jp/en/ Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 12 Oct 2023 | 118 - Josh Jackson: Morality, Culture, and Social Media | 00:50:33 | |
Eric chats with Joshua Jackson, newly minted Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. In his research, Josh studies how culture co-evolves with psychology. He is interested in how culture has shaped the mind throughout human history, and how it continues to shape human futures. He regularly publishes in the field’s best journals with innovative methods and is by many considered a rising star in psychology. In this chat, Eric and Josh discuss culture and morality. Why do some cultures have a crude view of another’s morality as either all good or all bad, when some cultures have a more nuanced view? Can we ever know how kind someone truly is? How does social media impact our sense of morality? Finally, Josh shares his exciting journey across the whole globe to find his identity as an academic and opens up about the hopes and anxieties he has over becoming a professor. JOIN OUR SUBSTACK! Stay up to date with the pod and become part of the ever-growing community :) https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Josh's paper | |||
| 19 Oct 2023 | 119 - Bryan Brown: Virtual Reality for Science Education | 00:41:46 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Bryan Brown. Bryan is a professor of teacher education at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. His research interest explores the relationship between student identity, discourse, classroom culture, and academic achievement in science education. In this episode, we chat about his recent work on adopting VR – Virtual Reality in the classroom. The title of the paper we discuss is Teaching culturally relevant science in virtual reality: “when a problem comes, you can solve it with science”. Bryan shares his insights on how VR could be a valuable tool to science education. He also talks about how he became interested in this topic. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology. Bryan’s paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1046560X.2020.1778248 Bryan’s personal profile: https://profiles.stanford.edu/bryan-brown Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 26 Oct 2023 | 120 - Steve Fleming and Nadine Dijkstra: Distinguishing Imagination from Reality | 00:38:17 | |
This week, Julia chats with two guests from University College London, Professor Steve Fleming and Dr. Nadine Dijkstra. Professor Fleming is the Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the Department of Experimental Psychology and Principal Investigator at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging where he leads the Metacognition Group. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the William James prize from the Association for Scientific Study of Consciousness. Dr. Dijkstra is a Senior Research Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at University College London. She earned her PhD in Artificial Intelligence at the Donders Institute in 2019, after which she moved to London to pursue a postdoc at UCL with Professor Fleming. In this episode, Dr. Dijkstra and Professor Fleming take us into the fascinating realm of how we distinguish, or at least attempt to distinguish, reality from imagination. They relate the details of a recent study, which indicates that our perceptions of reality might not be as different from our imaginations as we would like to believe. They suggest that this framework of perceptual reality monitoring could be a lens through which our brains interpret all of our experiences. In fact, this perceptual reality monitoring framework might provide an explanation of how we consciously experience the world. After discussing their recent experiment and relating it to the broader field of consciousness science, each of them shares details about their career journeys and their hopes for the future of the field. JOIN OUR SUBSTACK! Stay up-to-date with the podcast and become part of the ever-growing community 🙂 https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ If you found this episode interesting, please consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a minute but will allow us to reach more listeners and make them excited about psychology. Links: Link to the paper we discussed Check out more of Professor Fleming and Dr. Dijkstra’s work at the UCL Metacognition lab website! Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode or of the podcast by sending us an email at stanfordpsychologypodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 09 Nov 2023 | 121 - Joshua Hartshorne: Does a Similar Native Tongue Speed Up English Learning for Kids? | 00:44:32 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College where he directs the Language Learning Laboratory. He studies language learning from a variety of aspects, including but not limited to: bootstrapping language acquisition, relationship between language and commonsense, as well as the critical periods in learning new languages. In this episode, they chat about Josh’s recent work on second language acquisition: “Will children learn English faster if their native language is similar to English?”. Josh also shares some insights on the best way to teach language to kids and adults.
Josh’s paper: https://l3atbc-public.s3.amazonaws.com/pub_pdfs/Yun%20et%20al%202023.pdf Josh’s personal profile: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/psychology/people/faculty-directory/joshua-hartshorne.html Josh’s lab website: http://l3atbc.org/index.html Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 30 Nov 2023 | 122 - Michal Kosinski: Studying Theory of Mind and Reasoning in LLMs. | 01:08:13 | |
Xi Jia chats with Dr. Michal Kosinski, an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Michal's research interests recently encompass both human and artificial cognition. Currently, his work centers on examining the psychological processes in Large Language Models (LLMs), and leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Big Data, and computational techniques to model and predict human behavior. Michal's paper on Theory of Mind in LLMs: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.02083 Xi Jia's profile: https://profiles.stanford.edu/xijia-zhou Xi Jia's Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LauraXijiaZhou Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 07 Dec 2023 | 123 - Jacqueline Gottlieb: Are You Curious About Curiosity? | 01:00:05 | |
This week, Julia chats with Jacqueline Gottlieb, Professor of Neuroscience in the Kavli Institute for Brain Science and the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Institute for Mind, Brain, and Behavior at Columbia University in New York. Since joining the Columbia Faculty in 2001, she has spearheaded pioneering research on the neural mechanisms of attention and curiosity, using computational modeling combined with behavioral and neurophysiological studies in humans and non-human primates. In this episode, Professor Gottlieb unlocks the fundamental forces governing curiosity. She begins by explaining the ambiguity inherent in uncertainty and the balance between potential risks and rewards. Then, she reviews a recent study that suggests that we don’t always reason optimally about uncertainty. After discussing potential reasons why we might struggle with decision making surrounding uncertainty, she highlights key personality factors from the study that were associated with more successful decision making. Finally, she closes by sharing her hopes for the future of the field. JOIN OUR SUBSTACK! Stay up-to-date with the podcast and become part of the ever-growing community 🙂 https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ If you found this episode interesting, please consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a minute but will allow us to reach more listeners and make them excited about psychology. Links: Link to the paper we discussed Check out more of Professor Gottlieb’s work at her lab website! Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you think of this episode or of the podcast by sending us an email at stanfordpsychologypodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 12 Jan 2024 | 124 - Oriel FeldmanHall: Punishment, Forgiveness, and Predicting Emotions | 00:29:35 | |
This week, Rachel chats with Oriel FeldmanHall, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistics, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University. Oriel's lab leverages methods from behavioral economics, social psychology, and neuroscience to explore the neural bases of social behavior, and the role of emotion in shaping social interactions. She has won numerous awards, including the Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s Young Investigator Award for outstanding contributions to science, the Association for Psychological Science’s Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions, and the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology. In this episode, Oriel provides an introduction to the world of affective science, explaining how her team measures and studies emotion. She describes how the emotions that we expect to feel—and the inaccuracies in our predictions—shape our judgments and behavior, and the complex relationship between emotion and depression. We also discuss the hazards of sharing scientific findings on twitter, and how some of the best research questions originate in coffee shops. | |||
| 01 Feb 2024 | 125 - Marginalia Episode: Cristina Salvador on Cultural Psychology in Latin America | 00:36:11 | |
Marginalia Episode is a collaboration between Stanford Psychology Podcast and Marginalia Science, a community committed to including, integrating, advocating for, and promoting members who are not typically promoted by the status quo in academia. In each Marginalia Episode, we feature a guest who has been featured in the Marginalia Science Monthly Newsletter. In this episode, Anjie chats with Dr. Cristina Salvador, an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Cristina examines how culture interfaces with biology to influence our thinking, feeling, and behavior. She analyzes the influence of culture at multiple levels, including the brain, everyday language use, implicit measures, and big data. In this episode, we start our conversation on her recent paper titled “Emotionally expressive interdependence in Latin America: Triangulating through a comparison of three cultural zones.”. To learn more about Cristina, you can read the Marginalia Science Newsletter attached below. Episode on Marginalia Science: https://www.stanfordpsychologypodcast.com/episodes/episode/7927b876/104-special-episode-marginalia-science Marginalia Newsletter featuring Cristina:https://marginaliascience.substack.com/p/newsletter-september-2023 Cristina’s paper; https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2024-15733-001.pdf Cristina’s lab website:https://sites.duke.edu/culturelab/ Crstina’s twitter: @cris_esalvador Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 15 Feb 2024 | 126 - Michele Gelfand: Culture and Conflict | 00:50:16 | |
Eric chats with Michele Gelfand, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Michele’s culture lab studies the strength of cultural norms, negotiation, conflict, revenge, forgiveness, and diversity, drawing on many different disciplines. Michele is world-renowned for her work on how some cultures have stronger enforcement of norms (tight cultures), while others are more tolerant of deviations from the norm (loose cultures). She is the author of Rule Makers, Rule Breakers. In this chat, Eric and Michele discuss the latest insights into loose and tight cultures, what academic disciplines are tight versus loose, and how this framework explains phenomena as disconnected as Covid fears, the appeal of populist leaders, and why Ernie and Bert have so many disagreements. Michele then shares how she stays so passionate and productive, the barriers she has faced trying to be so interdisciplinary, how she deals with setbacks, and why she sometimes dresses up as a pickle. Links Book: https://www.michelegelfand.com/rule-makers-rule-breakers How tight or loose are you? https://www.michelegelfand.com/tl-quiz Tight vs loose cultures: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1197754?casa_token=P4iNAMuyYeQAAAAA:gyWMq9sohJJ0LsH-bBRg844OqN8-e9AwiVb649lkXe8cXzCP5jcSmqtAojp-1Lfvg5itKyD2nPP8J4g Culture, threat, tightness and looseness: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2113891119 | |||
| 29 Feb 2024 | 127 - Guilherme Lichand: Remote Learning Repercussions | 00:45:14 | |
Anjie chats with Dr. Guilherme Lichand. Guilherme is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, and a co-Director at the Stanford Lemann Center. His research interest explores the sources of education inequities in the global south, and in interventions with the potential to overturn them. In this episode, Guilherme talks about his recent paper titled “The Lasting Impacts of Remote Learning in the Absence of Remedial Policies: Evidence from Brazil”. He shares his insights on how remote learning could have negative, long-term impacts on the learning outcomes, especially in places without high quality access to the facilities required by remote learning. He also shares his thoughts on whether the same patterns could generalize to remote work – that is, does work from home have negative impacts on our productivity. If you found this episode interesting at all, subscribe on our Substack and consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Guilherme’s paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4209299 Guilherme’s personal website:https://lichand.info/ Anjie’s: website: anjiecao.github.io Anjie’s Twitter @anjie_cao
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com | |||
| 14 Mar 2024 | 128 – Halie Olson: How our Brains Care About our Personal Interests | 00:47:01 | |
In this episode, Adani chats with Dr. Halie Olson! Halie is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Her research explores how early life experiences and environments impact brain development, particularly in the context of language, and what this means for children’s outcomes. Adani’s website: adaniabutto.com | |||
| 28 Mar 2024 | 129 - Paul van Lange: Trust, Cooperation, And Climate Change (REAIR) | 00:58:12 | |
Eric chats with Paul van Lange, Professor of Psychology at the Free University of Amsterdam and Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford. He is well known for his vast work on trust, cooperation, and morality, applying these themes to everything from Covid to climate change. He has published multiple handbooks and edited volumes on these topics. In this chat, Eric and Paul talk about the psychological barriers that stop people from fighting climate change. What do trust and cynicism have to do with it? What are barriers to cooperation more generally? Why do selfish people often believe others are selfish too, but kind people don’t think everyone is kind? Might most strangers actually be nice, despite all the stranger danger we always hear about? Finally, Paul shares if all his work on trust and cooperation has changed how he looks at the world and compares research in psychology in Europe to the US. If you found this episode interesting at all, consider leaving us a good rating! It just takes a second but will allow us to reach more people and make them excited about psychology.
Paul's paper on climate change | |||