Choiceology with Katy Milkman

By Charles Schwab

Society & Culture Business Investing Social Sciences

What's Choiceology with Katy Milkman about?

Can we learn to make smarter choices? Listen in as host Katy Milkman--behavioral scientist, Wharton professor, and author of How to Change--shares stories of high-stakes decisions and what research reveals they can teach us. Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab, explores the lessons of behavioral economics to help you improve your judgment and change for good.

Season 1 of Choiceology was hosted by Dan Heath, bestselling author of Made to Stick and Switch.

Podcasts are for informational purposes only. This channel is not monitored by Charles Schwab. Please visit schwab.com/contactus for contact options. (0321-1S88)

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A Cup of Knowledge: With Gu...

09.11.2023

Why do people think they understand things better than they actually do?

Choiceology with Katy Milkman episodes:

09.11.2023 A Cup of Knowledge: With Guests A.J. Jacobs & Steven Sloman Why do people think they understand things better than they actually do?
08.28.2023 The Golden Misfits: With Guests Gary Lawless & Erika Kirgios Grouping choices together so that you make a bunch of selections all at once can seem daunting, but it can help you reach your goals faster.
08.14.2023 An Accidental Experiment: With Guests Steven Levitt, Solomon Ezra & Stephen Spector How can events outside of our control create opportunities for accidental insights?
06.05.2023 The Superforecasters: With Guests Leon Panetta, Peter Bergen & Barbara Mellers Are there proven ways to improve our predictions?
05.22.2023 Survey Says: With Guests W. Joseph Campbell & Emily Oster One of the most common mistakes we make with data involves choosing the wrong population to study.
05.08.2023 (BONUS) From Ripple Effect: Does Diversity Training Work? with Katy Milkman How effective is diversity training, and what can be done to eliminate hiring bias?
04.24.2023 Brave on the Waves: With Guests Bianca Valenti & Katherine Coffman How can you strike the right balance between risk tolerance and risk aversion, and why do women and men so often view risk differently?
04.10.2023 Fan Fictions: With Guests Hannah Sung, Crystal Tai & Anuj Shah How can feeling connected to someone who is essentially a stranger impact your decision-making?
03.27.2023 The Beanie Bandwagon: With Guests Robert Cialdini & Yemisi Brookes How can the fear of missing out on a trend have lasting consequences?
03.13.2023 The Power of Do-Overs: With Guests Jeff Ryan & Marissa Sharif When faced with a challenging goal, is it better to give yourself some slack?
11.07.2022 Mesmerized: With Guests Mara Rockliff & John List It seems like every other week there's a news report about how coffee will help you live longer or will shorten your life. There are similar reports about vitamins and water consumption and any number of other health-related studies. So ...
10.24.2022 The Bad with the Good: With Guests Uzma Khan & Gustav Källstrand You've probably caught yourself indulging after a workout or a game or a stretch of healthy eating. Maybe it was a pint or two after a soccer game or an extra piece of cheesecake after a vigorous hike. These indulgences ...
10.10.2022 Rebroadcast: Silver Linings: With Guests Annie Duke, Kassia St. Clair & Adam Grant If you’ve ever lost a job, or been through a breakup, or failed an exam, you’ll know that the aftermath can be painful and disorienting. But for some percentage of those who experience these disappointing outcomes, unforeseen opportunities will arise. ...
09.26.2022 So Much in Common: With Guests Samantha Futerman, Anaïs Bordier & Kareem Haggag When we feel angry or excited, or happy or sad, the reasons for those emotions may seem obvious. Angry? It was that argument with a spouse. Excited? It was that promotion at work. Happy? Must've been that delicious meal. Sad? ...
09.12.2022 How You Spend It: With Guests Joshua Fields Millburn & Cassie Mogilner Holmes “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” A quintessentially American phrase from the Declaration of Independence. That “pursuit of happiness” takes many forms, but it turns out that some approaches are more likely to be successful, according to science. In ...
08.29.2022 Not by a Long Shot: With Guests Katia Jordan & Craig Fox Humans can easily distinguish between a zero-chance event (e.g., the Washington Nationals winning the World Series in 2022) and a sure thing (e.g., the sun coming up tomorrow). But in between those two clear outcomes, it turns out that we’re ...
08.15.2022 Fail Better: With Guests Joseph Herscher & Lauren Eskreis-Winkler You hear it a lot in contemporary education, the tech world, and the arts: that it's important to fail, to make mistakes so that you can learn from them and get better at whatever you do. But that generally accepted ...
05.23.2022 Under Pressure: With Guests Svetlana Savranskaya, Gary Slaughter & Modupe Akinola If you've ever been faced with an important decision when time was scarce, information was incomplete, or tempers were running high, you'll know that it's difficult to make a good choice. Now imagine a decision that has implications for the ...
05.09.2022 Out of Proportion: With Guests Damon Lesmeister & Kelly Shue Many of the decisions we make require us to compare numbers. Which car is most fuel efficient? How is a stock performing relative to the market? How risky is one medication versus another? A problem arises when we fail to ...
04.25.2022 Choiceology's Guide to Nudges Nudges are all around you. They might help you choose your meal at a restaurant, navigate a busy airport terminal, or start saving for the future. But nudges are often subtle, so you might not notice them until they’re pointed ...
04.11.2022 More Than a Feeling: With Guests Jamie Wall, Mona Krewel & Alex Edmans While it’s nice to think of ourselves as rational decision-makers, more often than not, emotion plays a role in how we decide. Some people may spend more on a new car when the weather is nice. Others may take bigger ...
03.28.2022 Second-Guessing First Impressions: With Guests Allen Sarven & Richard Nisbett When we judge someone, rarely do we stop to consider how their particular situation likely played a large role in guiding their actions.
03.14.2022 Less Is More: With Guests Ryan McFarland & Gabrielle Adams Supply chain issues and income inequality notwithstanding, we live in an age of abundance. Our closets overflow with clothing. Many children have more toys than they could possibly enjoy. Garages are filled with sporting gear. Offices are cluttered with gadgets. ...
01.01.2022 A Clean Slate: With Guests John Beshears, Richard Thaler & Ray Zahab (Rebroadcast) For many people, the start of a new year is an occasion to re-examine their lives, to set new goals and to give up old habits. Making New Year’s resolutions is something of a social ritual, but we see similar ...
10.25.2021 The Power of Negative Thinking: With Guests Annie Duke, Mike Richard & Kelvin Wu Anticipating and planning for obstacles can sometimes be more powerful than adopting a positive mindset. A positive attitude is important when embarking on any new endeavor. However, as you may have heard in previous episodes of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, ...
10.11.2021 The Good Fight: With Guests Adam Grant & Tom Crouch Most of us would prefer to avoid an argument at work or at home. But there are times when arguments—at least when they’re civil—can help surface important information for decision-making. In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look ...
09.27.2021 Expect the Unexpected: With Guests Abigail Sussman, Howie Jeon & Greg Golden Perhaps this scenario seems familiar. Let’s say you generally do a good job of sticking to your monthly budget, but a rare opportunity arises—maybe a favorite musical artist is in town, or you’ve been invited to a friend’s 25th anniversary ...
09.13.2021 What’s the Big Idea? With Guests Robert Rydell & Don Moore When young children imagine their future lives, they’re often very optimistic. They’ll say things like “I’m going to be an astronaut!” or “When I grow up, I want to be a movie star!” These outcomes are, of course, quite rare. ...
08.30.2021 Not Just Another Statistic: With Guests Carol Quirke & Deborah Small You may notice that charity campaigns tend to focus on the stories of one or two individuals or families, and that those stories are often rich with emotional content but light on information and statistics. There’s a reason for that. ...
08.16.2021 Big Goals, Little Steps: With Guests Shannon Miller & Hal Hershfield Most people wouldn’t attempt a marathon or a climb up Mount Everest without first working through some less audacious objectives. And yet there are countless examples of ambitious goals—new businesses, academic degrees, career changes, athletic feats—that were abandoned because they ...
06.07.2021 Scientist Mode: With Guests Adam Grant & Luca Parmitano Important decisions can be complex and difficult to make. We’re at the mercy of certain behavioral biases, and we often face a degree of uncertainty. And while it’s helpful to be aware of our shortcomings and mindful of our incomplete ...
05.24.2021 Judge the Judges: With Guests Daniel Kahneman, James Hutchinson & G.M. Pucilowski Many episodes of this podcast deal with cognitive biases that can hinder our decision-making abilities. In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look at a different kind of error: how completely irrelevant information can negatively influence our judgments, ...
05.10.2021 Silver Linings: With Guests Annie Duke, Kassia St. Clair & Adam Grant If you’ve ever lost a job, or been through a breakup, or failed an exam, you’ll know that the aftermath can be painful and disorienting. But for some percentage of those who experience these disappointing outcomes, unforeseen opportunities will arise. ...
04.26.2021 Hold That Thought: With Guests Sarah-Louise Miller, Warren Reed, Todd Rogers & Angela Duckworth You probably have a list of reminders somewhere. Maybe you have a calendar with important dates marked. And likely a mental to-do list. And shopping lists. And gift ideas. And you’ve got to remember to get your taxes filed. And ...
04.12.2021 In the Face of Risk: With Guests Jeff Elison & Ido Erev For many, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic was terrifying. Descriptions of the outbreak in Europe and Asia led to panic buying and sheltering in place here at home. But, as time passed and people became acclimatized to life with ...
03.29.2021 Mindful of Mindsets: With Guests Erik Vance & Alia Crum Have you ever visited your doctor to deal with a minor health issue and then left the office with nothing more than the doctor’s calming reassurance? Chances are good that you felt a bit better, physically, just by virtue of ...
03.15.2021 Some Assembly Preferred: With Guests Mike Norton & Michael Ojo Hardware stores and home improvement shows often promote do-it-yourself projects. And while it’s challenging to make your own projects look as good as the ones on TV or in glossy brochures, building something yourself can be a very rewarding experience. ...
10.12.2020 If Only …: With Guests Stirling Hart & Colin Camerer In a past episode titled “Spoiled for Choice,” we looked at how decision-making can be hampered by our desire to avoid the painful emotion of regret. In fact, regret aversion can cause people to abandon certain decisions entirely. In this ...
09.28.2020 I Don’t Want to Know: With Guests Amelia Boone & Emily Ho For some people, the check engine light on their car dashboard means an immediate trip to the repair shop. But for others, it represents a nagging unpleasant feeling that’s best to be avoided. So they put it out of their ...
09.14.2020 A Successful Failure: With Guests Cass Sunstein, Kirabo Jackson & Andrew Chaikin You’ve probably had the annoying experience of going to a store to pick up a few things, only to leave having forgotten at least one of them. That’s likely due to the challenge of holding more than one piece of ...
08.31.2020 Fair Is Fair: With Guests John Thorn & Richard Thaler “Mom! Janey got more ice cream than me! Not fair!” For kids—and many adults—the notion of what’s fair or not often involves comparing quantities of some valuable thing. But there’s another, more nuanced concept of fairness that crops up in ...
08.17.2020 Spoiled for Choice: With Guests Barry Schwartz & Jen Glantz Traditional economic theory says that more choice should always be better than less. After all, if the cereal aisle has corn flakes, honey nut corn flakes, toasted coconut corn flakes, chocolate corn flakes, multi-grain flakes, and all the rest, you’ll ...
08.03.2020 A Bundle of Nerves: With Guests Alison Wood Brooks & Steven Osborne The rapid heartbeat. The shaking hands. The flushed face. The symptoms of pre-performance jitters are common. For some people, nervousness before a big test or important presentation is normal and temporary. For others, it can be debilitating. Typical suggestions for ...
05.25.2020 A Spoonful of Sugar: With Guests Ayelet Fishbach, Dan Ariely, Lynne Gauthier & Nancy Strahl “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and snap, the job’s a game!” So says Julie Andrews’ character in the Disney film Mary Poppins before she launches into the famous ...
05.11.2020 Bidder Beware: With Guests Max Bazerman & Glenye Cain Oakford Have you ever bid in a competitive auction—say, on eBay—and won the item, only to see a similar item for sale elsewhere at a lower price? If so, you may have fallen prey to the winner’s curse. In this episode ...
04.27.2020 A Choice Apart: With Guests Max Bazerman & Vivienne Wagner Have you ever purchased a car or a motorcycle or a boat, based on some particular quality it had that made you fall in love? Maybe it was candy apple red. Maybe it had sleek lines. Maybe the engine made ...
04.13.2020 So Close to the Prize: With Guests Oleg Urminsky & Brian Zinn If you’ve ever signed up for a frequent flyer program, chances are good that you were awarded a certain number of bonus points to start. Those bonus points feel like a nice little gift, but they also serve another purpose: ...
04.06.2020 Coping Amid the Crisis: With Guest Laurie Santos An unprecedented global health crisis has overwhelmed healthcare systems, disrupted economies and financial markets, and radically altered our daily lives. And while social distancing is the responsible thing to do to slow the spread of disease, it also heightens the ...
03.30.2020 The Simple Choice: With Guests Shlomo Benartzi & Eric Sink We are inundated with decisions in the modern world. What to wear, what to buy, what to watch, where to work, what to eat, who to call, where to live, what to study, when to exercise, how much to save, ...
03.16.2020 Judge the Judges: With Guests Daniel Kahneman, James Hutchinson & G.M. Pucilowski Many episodes of this podcast deal with cognitive biases that can hinder our decision-making abilities. In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look at a different kind of error: how completely irrelevant information can negatively influence our judgments, ...

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