Stanford Psychology Podcast - Stanford Psychology

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35 - Diego Gambetta: Trust, Distrust, and Cynicism Mar 03, 2022

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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.
In this episode, Eric and Diego chat about trust, distrust, and cynicism. Diego explains what it means to trust someone, and how distrust is more complex than a mere absence of trust. Whom do we trust and why? Can we trust our instincts? Is trust always desirable? Does everyone want to be seen as a trustworthy person? How does the Mafia manage to cooperate despite its distrustful outlook? Finally, Diego responds to Eric’s research ideas on cynicism. How to build trust among the most cynical? Are some people just hopelessly distrustful?
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:
Book Codes of the Underworld
Paper on trust

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

34 - Fiery Cushman: The Possibility of Violence Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

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.
In this episode, Joseph and Fiery talk about an unpublished manuscript titled "The Possibility of Violence" which examines how our morals constrain the possibilities we consider when making decisions, as well as a case study of a violence-reduction program in the Chicago Public School system.

33 - Jon Jachimowicz: Should You Follow Your Passion? Feb 17, 2022

Show notes

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.
In this episode, Eric and Jon chat about passion narratives at work and in life more generally. Jon discusses his new, not-yet-published research on how passion one day can lead to more work on that day but cause exhaustion the next day. Jon argues that people do not have a fixed level of passion and that the link between passion and productivity is more complex than we might think. He then discusses how to maintain passion in the long run, at work and outside of work. Should we even pursue our passions? What does it mean to engage in “passion shaming”? How can passion narratives lead to more inequality? Do passion narratives vary across the world?
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:
Jon's website
Jon's Twitter @jonj

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

32 - Ethan Kross: Why We Talk to Ourselves and How to Make Our Inner Voices Work in Our Favor Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

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

31 - Tom Gilovich: Judging Individuals, Judging Groups Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

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.
In this episode, Tom discusses his recent work on how people judge groups differently than individuals. For example, people want individuals to have longer streaks of success than groups. Or people are more tolerant of inequality when discussing a society of unequal individuals than a society of unequal groups. Finally, Tom talks about what he has learned, and how he has changed as a person, in collaborating with 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.
Links:
Paper on success

Paper on inequality

Book with Lee Ross

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

30 - Claudia Haase: Emotion Regulation in Couples Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

Kate chats with Claudia Haase, Associate Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Claudia’s research examines pathways towards happy and healthy development across the life span with a particular focus on emotions and emotion regulation. In this episode, Claudia shares insights from her work on romantic couples and how they navigate the emotional ups and downs of close relationships. Claudia also offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the methods her lab uses to study couples' interactions and outlines key directions for future research on interpersonal emotion regulation.
Check out recent publications from Claudia's Life-Span Development Lab: https://haaselab.sesp.northwestern.edu/publications/

29 - Axel Cleeremans: The Study of Consciousness, Cognition, and Decision-Making Jan 20, 2022

Show notes

Bella chats with Prof. Axel Cleeremans, professor of Cognitive Science and research director with the National Fund for Scientific Research at the Free University of Brussels. He directs the Center for Research in Cognition & Neuroscience and leads the Consciousness, Cognition and Computation Group. He is also the field chief editor at the Frontiers in Psychology journal, which by far has the most multi-disciplinary editorial board with more than 11,000 researchers from all over the world. He has given hundreds of talks and has been featured in many TV interviews and the extraordinary science documentary, The Most Unknown on Netflix.

In this episode, we discuss Axel's research on consciousness, the seminal philosophical debates on consciousness, and the current challenges and future direction of the field. Axel also shares his experience as a cast member on The Most Unknown.

More about the Most Unknown here: https://www.themostunknown.com

We would love to hear what you think of this episode, or if you have any other suggestions for guests or topics for our podcast. You can reach us at stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com. You can also connect with us on Twitter @StanfordPsyPod. Finally, if you enjoy this podcast, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcast or elsewhere so more people can find us. Thank you so much!

28 - Kateri McRae: How Emotions are Generated Jan 13, 2022

Show notes

Kate chats with Kateri McRae, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Denver and the director of the Automaticity, Affect, Control & Thought Lab. Kateri's work focuses on emotion, cognition, and the interplay between them. In this episode, Kateri shares insights from her recently published quantitative case study of specific phobia for clothing buttons. Kateri also discusses the broader implications of her work for research on the different ways in which emotions can be generated: relatively automatic responses compared to the more "slow-burning" mental processes.

Paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1077722920300857

27 - David Lagnado: How Causal Reasoning Can Help Us Make Better Judgments and Solve Criminal Cases Jan 06, 2022

Show notes

Bella chats with Prof. Dave Lagnado, a professor of Cognitive and Decision Sciences in the Department of Experimental Psychology at UCL. Dave's research focuses on how people use causal models to draw inferences and make decisions. He has written over 100 articles and co-authored a textbook on the psychology of decision making. He has worked with US intelligence, the UK government and various legal and financial institutions, looking at methods to improve reasoning and decision making.
In this episode, Dave discusses his new book on the human capacity for causal reasoning and the challenges we face in evaluating evidence using criminal cases. Bella and Dave talk about how Bayesian Inference and Pearl's hierarchy are applied in the legal domain as well as the pros and cons of using causal models in decision making. Dave also shares his views on how causal models could potentially improve the performance of Artificial Intelligence systems.
Dave's Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/experimental-psychology/person/david-lagnado/
Book Explaining the Evidence - How the Mind Investigates the World https://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Evidence-Mind-Investigates-World/dp/0521184819

26 - Richard Wilkinson: Inequality, Health, and Positive Psychology Dec 30, 2021

Show notes

Marianne and Eric chat with Professor Richard Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham. Richard is author most recently of the book The Inner Level, and co-founder of The Equality Trust.
In this episode, Richard shares his research on the detrimental and wide-ranging psychological effects of income inequality. He discusses how inequality impoverishes everyone's health, trust, and psychological well-being, even for those "winning" in the income distribution. Richard argues that while positive psychology needs to better understand societal predictors of when people flourish, the field already has discovered many insights that are plainly ignored by policy makers and other shapers of society. Finally, he shares how income inequality is visible and impactful on an everyday basis, and why a more equal society would also do a better job at fighting climate change.
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:
Book The Spirit Level
Book The Inner Level
More information: www.inequality.org
Richard's @ProfRGWilkinson
Marianne's website
Marianne's Twitter @MarianneReddan

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

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