Behavioral Grooves Podcast

It’s the time of year for setting New Year’s resolutions. But how can you set goals that you will actually achieve? Will you look back at the end of 2022 and feel a sense of accomplishment? The first step to reaching your goals is actually knowing how to set yourself up to succeed.  In this fun Grooving Session with Kurt and Tim, they break down the steps needed to create motivating goals in 2022. Using insights from past guests, plus their own expertise in behavioral science, Kurt and Tim break down the skills behind successful goal setting. In addition, they dispel some ill-advised myths. Think willpower is enough to help you lose weight? Sorry, but creating healthy habits takes more than just good intentions.  If you want to better your health, your relationships or your organization in 2022, listening to this fun and informative episode will start you off on the path to success.  Links Gary Latham PhD, Episode 147: Goal Setting, Prompts, Priming, and Skepticism: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/gary-

What a year for books 2021 has been! It seems like authors, editors and publishers have all been working overtime this year to bring us some incredible new content. Books that have challenged our beliefs, calmed our anxieties and transformed our habits.  To help us with the mammoth job of summarizing the best behavioral science books from 2021, we are joined by the incredible Louise Ward, who has read over 100 books this year! Louise is the co-host of the Behavioural Science Club, a LinkedIn group established in June 2020 now with over 5,000 members. If you haven’t yet joined the club, you definitely should. Today. Alongside co-host Prakash Sharma, the Behavioural Science Club interviews top authors each week about fascinating new insights in human behavior. In our discussion with Louise, we noticed some trends among our favorite books. One is that we are moving past the presumption that humans are flawed and irrational. Books such as Useful Delusions and Nudge focus instead on the evolutionary usefulness of

Applying Behavioral Science insights at work takes more than just another checklist or document, it’s about creating an environment that enables people to make good decisions. Torben Emmerling specializes in innovative, evidence-based strategies for behavior change. We discuss with him the nuances that differentiate applied behavioral science from academic behavioral science.  As a consultant for both private and public organizations, Torben doesn’t focus on a specific industry. Instead, he's a human behavior expert. What motivates people and what prompts individuals to change their behavior can be applied in any industry. For example, the same contextual factors that make us forget to buy milk on the way home from work, can be applicable in organizational decisions and performance. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Torben and if you do, please leave a short review of our podcast. Reading your comments, never fails to put a smile on our faces! Topics (4:44) Welcome to Torben Emmerling and speed round. (

Where and how we listened to music shifted during the pandemic. But the music industry itself had to quickly adapt in 2020 to how music was recorded and produced. Our very musical conversation with guest Mark Thorley delves into the changes that COVID brought to remote working and how people’s relationships with music have changed in recent months. There is no greater joy for Tim than discussing music with our guests, and you can see from the musical links on this episode, that our conversation with Mark covers a multitude of musical genres! Our relaxed discussion with Mark swings off into many musical tangents and Mark even manages to turn his own speed round question back on Tim and Kurt. Listen in to find out which musical star they both would choose to have dinner with! Mark has coined the phrase “remotivity” to embody the concept of working on music, whether it be recording or producing, in a remote setting. But this goes further than just having a working WiFi connection or a Zoom meeting set up. There

Habit Weekly, a wonderful organization founded by Samuel Salzer, is asking people to weigh in on their favorite podcast by casting a vote at https://www.habitweekly.com/awards. Kurt and Tim are asking for your vote since you (and lots of other people) voted for Behavioral Grooves in 2021 making it the Number One Behavioral Science Podcast in 2021. We’d like to maintain that spot in the upcoming year and all we need is your vote.  It takes less than 10 seconds.  With more than 260 episodes under our belt and listeners in more than 120 countries, we hope you find some things about Behavioral Grooves to be worth voting for.  Please cast your vote for your favorite podcast at: https://www.habitweekly.com/awards 

In 2021, people started to trust business organizations more than governments, NGOs or the media, according to global research by the Edelman Trust Baraometer. The Covid pandemic has seen people around the globe question their trust in all forms of leadership. What impact does this have on business leaders? Can organizations rebuild trust? What are the building blocks of trust? Sandra Sucher, co-author of “The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It” (https://amzn.to/3pny7Uu) draws back the layers of what trust actually is, how to build it, how to maintain it through adversity, and most importantly, how to rebuild it when it’s been shattered. Along with her co-author, Shalene Gupta, Sandra has devised the four key foundations of trust; competence, motives, means and impact. We ask Sandra about the significance of these steps, how they can be harnessed, as well as the impact on trust that Covid has had, specifically how vaccine mandates have affected it. Throughout our conversation and her b

If we are open minded, we challenge our beliefs and accept that our thinking can, at times, be misguided. After all, our thoughts are merely a function of our personal habits, experiences and internal communication. Dr Howard Rankin PhD encourages us to recognize the value of critical thinking, and become more aware of our own consciousness. To conclude our November series on Conspiracy Theories, our guest on this episode, Dr. Howard Rankin PhD, talks about how our consciousness has been conditioned. By understanding how the thinking process works and being aware of our own consciousness, we gain more perspective on our beliefs. So we should focus more on HOW to think, and less on WHAT to think.  Howard is an inspirational educator on the subjects of mind-body medicine, spirituality, neuropsychology and cognitive function, personal change and transformation. Frequently appearing on radio, TV and podcasts, Howard is also an author. His latest book, "I Think Therefore I Am Wrong: A Guide to Bias, Political Corr

Need some respite from the work day grind? Join the fun on this episode for a light-hearted take on workplace humor. Dan Hill delivers a real tongue-in-cheek take on the corporate lingo and jargon that infiltrates our workplaces. But with every joke he makes, there is a pang of truth: “emojis; the feelings you would be having at work if they were allowed.” Dan’s new book; “Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo” (https://amzn.to/3nB3hYB) is written in collaboration with over 50 contributors from across the world (including our one and only Tim Houlihan!) who have collectively provided almost 600 definitions of how the workplace really operates. Our conversation with Dan is not just hilariously funny, he also cracks open the truth on workplace humor being an effective way of tackling serious goals. With this "snarky" book Dan wants to bring the issues of bullying and inequality in the workplace to the forefront of peoples minds. So why use humor to address such momentous issues? In Dan's own words, h

Misinformation is like a virus, spreading quickly and propagating in a way that doesn’t benefit its host. Andy Noman describes harmful ideas as acting like “mind parasites” that deploy clever tactics to infect our thinking by circumventing our mental immune systems. And we’re even more susceptible to bad ideas than we realize.  So how do we immunize ourselves against mind parasites? Can we reach herd immunity? Can we critically think our way out of this epidemic of unreason? After 30 years of research on this topic, Andy has concluded that the traditional models of critical thinking are not up to the task in our hyper-connected world. We need a more comprehensive framework for inoculating our minds against viral nonsense.  Andy Norman is an award-winning author who teaches philosophy at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. He has recently published his new book, “Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think”: https://amzn.to/3o6OjbU. We are thrilled to welcom

How do you respond to someone who says “the earth is flat” or “Covid is a hoax”? Before we can try and reason with conspiracy theorists, we must first understand the reason they have ventured down that path. Lee McIntyre has spent years researching science deniers and has found a common set of traits in their behavior. He also argues that we shouldn’t sit back and assume conspiracy theories are harmless. Find out more from Lee in this episode about how to talk with science deniers and how even to change their minds about the facts. Our Conspiracy Theories Series continues this month with Lee McIntyre, author of the new book “How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason”: https://amzn.to/3qaV134. To gather research for the book, Lee attended a flat earth convention to understand more about the followers who believe in the flat earth conspiracy. His findings are enlightening.  Lee is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of S

Host of Hidden Brain podcast, Shankar Vedantam talks with us about the powers: both useful and harmful, of our delusional thinking. Nations are an example of useful delusions; they are an entirely human-made construct, yet they can present us with a unifying, shared identity.  There is a tipping point, however, at which our beliefs can become harmful to someone else. Shankar defines conspiracy theories as a particular type of self deception which can easily escalate into harmful behavior. Our conversation with Shankar touches on the Capitol Riots in Washington DC on January 6th 2021, and how conspiracy theories influenced the behavior of the rioters. “Conspiracy theories, I think are a sort of special case of self deception, which...can easily take over into things that are deeply harmful.” The challenge most of us face though, is how to talk to our friends and family who believe in conspiracy theories. And on that point, Shankar explains the Illusion Of Explanatory Depth and how conversations with our loved

Listen to Kurt and Tim’s spooky Halloween Special about some common biases that can seem a bit scary. But don’t fear, the scariest thing about this episode is actually Kurt and Tim’s jokes! Find out why some biases are a bit spooky, what makes us susceptible to them, and most importantly how we can overcome them.  Thanks for taking the time to learn a bit about how to overcome the biases you may find impacting your life. If you’d like to support our work further, please consider donating a treat (no tricks please!) on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves. Your financial support helps with all our production costs. Links Behavioral Grooves Twitter: @behavioralgroov Kurt Nelson Twitter: @motivationguru Tim Houlihan Twitter: @thoulihan Common Biases and Heuristics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit Scary Biases: https://blog.lanterngroup.com/scary-biases  Behavioral Grooves Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves

Rudeness is contagious, in a similar way to a virus. When experiencing a rude encounter, our brain perceives it like a threat. And once we’ve tuned in to this low-level threat, we’re more likely to notice it around us, and therefore more likely to display rude behavior ourselves. Our guest on this episode is Dr Trevor Foulk PhD, Assistant Professor of Management & Organization at the University of Maryland. His well published research on deviant workplace behaviors and workplace power dynamics, has been featured in Time magazine, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal. Trevor walks us through what rude behavior actually is, what our evolutionary response to it is and how we can take steps to mitigate the effects of it. We are also delighted to talk about Trevor’s research around the way power changes our behavior, and what impact a feeling of paranoia can add to the dynamics. And to Tim’s delight, Trevor also boosts our understanding of how music affects work performance.  Truth be told, our

How do we make decisions? What factors influence the final outcome? Do default settings change our preferences? Every decision we make; from choosing something on a menu to deciding whether to be an organ donor, is influenced by our environmental context and the default selections presented to us.  Professor Eric J. Johnson has distilled the latest behavioral science research into his newest book, The Elements of Choice: Why the Way We Decide Matters, and we are thrilled to talk with him about it on this episode of Behavioral Grooves. Eric is Director of the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School at Columbia University. He examines the interaction between Behavioral Decision Research, Economics and consumer decision making. The implications of his research come together in real world applications such as public policy and marketing. Eric talks with us about how options are presented to decision-makers and how framing affects choices. Our decisions are “assembled”, as Eric likes to put it, i

Anxiety in the workplace has always been present, even pre-pandemic but rates of anxiety, particularly among young employees, have worsened since 2020. So what obligation do organizations have to their employees' mental health? How can managers recognize the signs of anxiety, and how can we help our colleagues with those feelings? Following our incredibly popular first episode with Chester Elton in July 2021, on showing gratitude (episode 238), we are thrilled to be talking with him again about anxiety in the workplace. As a best-selling author, speaker and executive coach, Chester, and his co-author Adrian have shown over and over again, that the key to really successful companies is really successful relationships with employees. And because of the pandemic, we wanted to talk with Chester about their most recent book; Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done: https://amzn.to/3dr7gBK. Thank you to all of you who have subscribed to our show, written

What life habits keep our brain healthy? How does our mind respond to trauma? And why does the way we talk about suicide and mental health make such a difference to those who are struggling? We discuss all these topics with neuroscience researcher Dr Daniel Almeida. To mark World Mental Health Day on Sunday, Oct 10, 2021, we decided to delve into the science behind mental health. And who better to help us with this topic than Daniel who has been named as one of Forbes 30 under 30 in science. His incredible work as a neuroscience researcher in the Douglas Research Centre at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, involves psychological autopsies to understand the molecular impacts of severe childhood abuse on the brains of individuals who died by suicide. As you can imagine, this episode is full of difficult yet important topics. But what struck us most about Daniel was how upbeat and positive he is about his work and the difference it’s making to people’s lives. Daniel kindly shares his top 5 healthy brain hab

The clearest indicators of our financial solvency are based on the behaviors we exhibit with our investments. Dr. Daniel Crosby PhD is a psychologist, behavioral finance expert, asset manager and bestselling author of four books including “The Behavioral Investor”: https://amzn.to/3Bl4s3t. We examine with him the question of whether financial success ultimately brings us happiness? Surprisingly it can, but not in the ways that we think it does.  Having studied the growing list of 200 odd behavioral biases and heuristics, Daniel has whittled them down to what he describes as the four “Big Daddy” biases: ego, emotion, attention and conservatism. We learn about why these matter so much and interestingly what Coke Zero can teach us about our biases! Daniel touches on his other bestselling book “You’re Not That Great”: https://amzn.to/3ifiRFC which refreshingly embraces the fact that we are in fact all fairly average! That self esteem is built not by awarding prizes for participation, but by taking a risk, working

To be influential you do not require power, but wielding your influence is powerful. Vanessa Bohns, social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University, joins us to discuss her enticing new book “You Have More Influence Than You Think”: https://amzn.to/39vCDIN. She draws from her research to illustrate why underestimating our influence can lead us to miss opportunities or worse yet, to misuse our power. Vanessa challenges us to examine our powers of persuasion and to recognize that we have more influence than we even realize. We learn exactly why it’s so hard for us to say no, even when we’re uncomfortable with saying yes. And why we should focus on communicating more with people face-to-face. As with all of our episodes, we leave you with a Grooving Session discussion focusing on how we can use Vanessa’s research to improve our lives, our relationships and our workplaces. Maybe this episode will influence you more than you realize? If it does, please support our ongoing work by

Employee burnout, The Great Resignation, Office Covid Regulations; these are all major concerns for leaders in the workplace right now. But how can managers successfully navigate these stresses, while still maintaining productivity among staff? At the start of the pandemic, Behavioral Grooves began a series of podcasts with researchers and practitioners to understand the organizational shifts we were seeing. Over the course of our interviews, we discovered big changes in the way business was being conducted and that managers, specifically, were really caught off guard. They didn’t have a coach or a guide to help them through all the changes. We decided to change that. And so, we created Leading Human™. In this Grooving Session with Kurt Nelson PhD and Tim Houlihan, they sit down to discuss the following topics about Leading Human™: What is Leading Human™? Who is Leading Human™ going to benefit?  Why did the Behavioral Grooves team feel inspired to write Leading Human™? While Leading Human™ was initiated by t

How can behavioral science aid the mammoth task of vaccination the world against Covid? What common barriers cause vaccine hesitancy in populations around the globe? And how can behavioral design overcome them?  Born out of frustration, while trying to eliminate Polio from Pakistan, the global behavioral design agency Common Thread (www.gocommonthread.com) was born. They use findings from psychology, anthropology, economics and sociology, to identify and analyze behavioral insights. Bringing a people-centered approach to the world's toughest public health problems. We are delighted to be joined on this podcast episode with the co-founder, director and lead storyteller of Common Thread, Michael Coleman. He talks with us about his new publication, “The Little Jab Book: 18 Behavioral Science Strategies for Increasing Vaccination Uptake” (www.vax-up.org) and the global projects that he is currently collaborating on. Topics (6:24) Speed round questions. (8:55) Applying behavioral science to global health concerns