In the latest episode of the Behavioral Design Podcast, we are excited to launch Season 4 with an in-depth exploration of how behavioral science and AI converge, setting the stage for an engaging and thought-provoking season.

This episode tackles big questions around AI’s growing influence, offering insights into both its promise and its challenges, especially as they relate to human behavior and decision-making.

Join co-hosts Aline Holzwarth and Samuel Salzer as they introduce key themes for the season, including the profound implications of AI on behavioral science and society at large. The episode opens with breaking news from the AI world, such as the significance of neural networks, which serve as the foundation of modern AI systems. The hosts explain how neural networks work and contrast them with the extraordinary complexity of the human brain.

The episode covers essential concepts for behavioral scientists, including large language models (LLMs), the backbone of generative AI, as well as prompt engineering and AI agents. These tools are transforming fields from healthcare to customer service, and the hosts break down their real-world applications, highlighting how they are used to enhance decision-making, automate workflows, and drive personalized interventions.

Samuel and Aline debunk several common myths about AI, such as whether generative AI truly enhances creativity or if more complex models are always better. They also explore algorithmic bias versus human bias, discussing how AI can both amplify and address societal inequities depending on how it is designed and implemented.

In “To AI or Not to AI”, this season’s quickfire round, the hosts weigh in on whether they’d trust AI for tasks like driving their kids to daycare or offering relationship advice, sparking a thought-provoking discussion on AI’s role in everyday life.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the evolving relationship between behavioral science and AI, offering both high-level insights and detailed explorations of the real-world implications of these technologies.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction to the Behavioral Design Podcast 02:36 Breaking News 04:30 Understanding Neural Networks 09:38 The Beauty and Complexity of the Human Brain 17:37 Season Preview 21:53 Meet Your Hosts 29:00 Nuanced Behavior 30:43 AI 101 for Behavioral Scientists 44:14 Debunking AI Myths 01:02:15 To AI or Not to AI: Quickfire Round 01:14:45 Final Thoughts

LINKS:

• Geoffrey Hinton’s Talk on AI and John Hopfield’s Contributions to Neural Networks
• Sherry Turkle’s Memoir “The Empathy Diaries”
• Marvin Minsky and the Concept of the Brain as a Machine
• Cassie Kozyrkov’s Blog on Machine Learning
• Sendhil Mullainathan’s Paper on Algorithmic Fairness
• Nuance Behavior Website

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Interesting in collaborating with Nuance? If you’d like to become one of our special projects, email us at [email protected] or book a call directly on our website: nuancebehavior.com.

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Every Monday our ⁠⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ shares the best articles, videos, podcasts, and exclusive premium content from the world of behavioral science and business. 

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The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro⁠

We've reached the end of Season 3! 🎉

In this finale, we give you the inside scoop on topics behavioral design from 2023. From our favorite resources to AI to films, we explore all things behavioral design, so you too are in the inside scoop! All resources are linked below. Enjoy!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for supporting us throughout the year! We appreciate you! 🙏 🙌

Gratitude:

• A systematic review of the strength of evidence for the most commonly recommended happiness strategies in mainstream media | Nature Human Behaviour (Dunigan Folk & Elizabeth Dunn)
• No Sweat book - Michelle Segar
• Preregistering, transparency, and large samples boost psychology studies’ replication rate to nearly 90% | Science
• High replicability of newly discovered social-behavioural findings is achievable | Nature Human Behaviour

Favorite Resources:

• BehaviorBytes
• Women in Behavioral Science and the Women in Behavioral Science LinkedIn group – Darcie Piechowski
• Lesson on Fraud and Whistleblowing – Zoe Ziani
• Choice Overload: It’s not about the number – Hassan & Roos
• 7 Routes to Applied Behavioural Science Experimentation and Observation – Affective + OECD
• Mapping Behavioural Journeys – Common Thread
• A Manifesto for Applying Behavioral Science – The Behavioural Insights Team
• Behavioral Science as a Specialization – Connor Joyce
• The Science of Context – Jared Peterson

Top 10 films:

1. Fallen leaves
2. Close
3. Passages
4. Luxembourg, Luxembourg
5. Past Lives
6. Beau Is Afraid
7. One Fine Morning
8. Barbie
9. Oppenheimer
10. Infinity Pool

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Support the podcast by joining ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly Pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🚀. Members get access to extensive content databases, calls with field leaders, exclusive offers and discounts, and so much more.

Every Monday our ⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly newsletter⁠⁠⁠ shares the best articles, videos, podcasts, and exclusive premium content from the world of behavioral science and business. 

Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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Welcome to the latest Product Deep Dive! ⁠💊

In this bonus series of the Behavioral Design Podcast, we take a closer look at the seemingly simple, yet tremendously important, pill bottle.

Previous guest, Aarthi Rao, took her stab at designing the best pill bottle, so we decided to deep dive into all things behavioral design in the pill bottle world, ourselves! Easy, attractive, social, personalized...tune in to learn more, this one was a lot of fun!

Thank you to all of our listeners for supporting our podcast. Tune in next week for our Season 3 finale!
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Support the podcast by joining ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly Pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🚀. Members get access to extensive content databases, calls with field leaders, exclusive offers and discounts, and so much more.

Every Monday our ⁠⁠Habit Weekly newsletter⁠⁠ shares the best articles, videos, podcasts, and exclusive premium content from the world of behavioral science and business. 

Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro⁠

Aarthi Rao leads behavioral insights at Cityblock Health, as their Vice President of Behavioral Insights and Strategic Engagement Innovation. Aarthi also founded the Design and Innovation Lab at CVS Health.

Aarthi has successfully merged human-centered practices, such as design thinking, with behavioral science at Cityblock. She is a strong advocate for merging qualitative and quantitative methods to better design patient experiences. Today we spoke to Aarthi about how to reach hard-to-reach communities, designing the perfect pill bottle that fits into a patient’s healthcare ecosystem, and so much more. Enjoy!

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Support the podcast by joining ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly Pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🚀. Members get access to extensive content databases, calls with field leaders, exclusive offers and discounts, and so much more.

Every Monday our ⁠Habit Weekly newsletter⁠ shares the best articles, videos, podcasts, and exclusive premium content from the world of behavioral science and business. 

Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro⁠

Steph Habif is known for a range of health behavior research and strategy, and for leading behavioral science at Tandem Diabetes. Today we chat with Steph about what she’s doing at Tandem to design for diabetic patients, working at the intersection of behavioral science and human-computer interaction. We also went over what Steph called behavioral science's branding problem.

Do you know someone who would enjoy Behavioral Design? Please tell them about us! Thanks for listening!

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Support the podcast by joining ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly Pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🚀. Members get access to extensive content databases, calls with field leaders, exclusive offers and discounts, and so much more.

Every Monday our Habit Weekly newsletter shares the best articles, videos, podcasts, and exclusive premium content from the world of behavioral science and business.

Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]

The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro⁠

Welcome to the latest Product Deep Dive! 🗓️ In this bonus series of the Behavioral Design Podcast, we take a closer look at the all-so-famous, yet simple, calendar. Previous guests, Laurie Santos, Linda Babcock & Ashley Whillans all spoke to us about time, so we decided it was "time" (get it) to discuss it in more detail! Tune in to learn more about our love/hate relationship with the calendar, the pros and cons between more or less calendar, and so much more! Who knew calendars were so much fun? -- Support the podcast by joining ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly Pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🚀 The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]

In this episode, we speak with Linda Babcock, Professor of Economics and former dean at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). She’s also the founder and faculty director of the Program for Research and Outreach on Gender Equity in Society (PROGRESS), also at CMU.

Linda has a new book, The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women's Dead-End Work. During our conversation, we speak with Linda about why and what leads women to take on more "non-promotable tasks", how the work environment influences this and why the expectation is there in the first place. Happy listening!

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The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]

In this episode, we speak with Mitesh Patel, a leading expert on the use of nudges, gamification, and wearables to improve health. Mitesh founded and led the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit and is currently the Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at Ascension.

During our converstation, Mitesh discusses examples of behavioral design in the wild and how they can be used to encourage people to engage in healthy behaviors. Together we explore the topic of gamification and its potential use in encouraging exercise and discuss the application of behavioral science in healthcare. The episode includes a product deep dive into gyms and how they can be optimized using behavioral design principles. We hope you enjoy this episode!

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Support the podcast by joining ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly Pro⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🚀

The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]

Welcome to the latest Product Deep Dive! 🚗

In this fun bonus series of the Behavioral Design Podcast, we take a closer look at products discussed in past episodes of the show. In this episode, we are discussing the product "Autonomous Vehicles", following up on our conversation with Nick Chater from last week.

Tune in to learn more about how we would re-design Autonomous Vehicles, our own behavioral considerations, and what we can learn from this as behavioral designers. Happy listening!

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PS. The If books could kill podcast episode on nudging can be found here.

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We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic and ideas for future episodes! Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠

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The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

In this episode, we're thrilled to host Nick Chater, an esteemed Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. Nick is a leading figure in his field, focusing his research on the cognitive and social foundations of rationality. He is the co-founder and Director of the research consultancy Decision Technology Ltd, and has written engaging books like "The Language Game: How Improvisation Created Language and Changed the World" and "The Mind is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain".

Join us as we delve into a captivating conversation with Nick on the application of behavioral science to public policy. We discuss the fascinating interplay between various branches of behavioral science and their implications in real-world policy decisions, bridging the gap between theory and practice. For our product deep-dive, we navigate the intriguing world of autonomous vehicles, examining their design and impact through the lens of behavioral science. In addition, we explore Nick's provocative paper co-authored with George Loewenstein on I frames vs. S frames.

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The song used is ⁠⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠

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In this episode we are delighted to welcome Paul Bloom, a distinguished developmental psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. Paul has authored seven books, including Aginst Empathy and his most recent, Psych: The Story of the Human Mind. He is one of the leading thinkers in psychology and has dedicated his career to exploring how people, both children and adults, make sense of the world through language, morality, pleasure, pain, and religion.

Join us as we engage in a thought-provoking conversation with Paul about the different subfields of psychology and what they can bring to the real world, from neuroscience to developmental psychology, cognitive, social, and clinical. This discussion evolves into a stimulating debate on the extent to which academia can truly contribute to industry.

For our product deep-dive, we challenge Paul to consider how concepts and methods from behavioral science could be used to improve the Bible, and delve into his perspective on the age-old question of nature versus nurture in shaping our lives. This episode should be a fascinating listen for anyone interested in the human mind, behavioral science, and the intersection between academia and industry.

Relevant links

• Paul's website
• Buy Psych: The Story of the Human Mind
• Check out Paul's podcast series Psych, hosted with our friend Dave Pizarro exploring concepts from his book

Support the podcast by joining ⁠⁠⁠Habit Weekly Pro⁠⁠⁠ 🚀

The song used is ⁠⁠⁠Murgatroyd by David Pizarro.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠

Get in touch via ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]