Questioning Behaviour

Questioning Behaviour is the podcast in which Sarah Bowen and Merle van den Akker talk about all things behavioural science and sometimes even PhD!

In this episode, Sarah and Merle review 2020. Going through the research that was given life thanks to the pandemic, working from home, changes in the PhD, the surge of WEIRD, diversity and awareness of gender effects. And casting an eye away from academia into the practitioning side of behavioural science. 

As always, we also get nice and personal, talking about our own journeys and some personal successes and epic fails during 2020.

Thank you for your time and support of our podcast. We hope you have just 2020 to recalibrate. And that you may use 2021 to rebuild and rejoice!

Links mentioned:

University of Nottingham staff-student relationships policy: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/hr/guidesandsupport/universitycodesofpracticeandrules/documents/staff-and-student-personal-relationships-policy-11-2020.pdf

GAABS: https://gaabs.org/

Habit weekly award winners 2020: https://samuelsalzer.medium.com/the-best-content-creators-of-2020-222671ce9935

Questioning Behaviour Socials:

Music: Derek Clegg “You’re the Dummy”

In this episode, we bring you the second half of our conversation with Colin Camerer! Sarah and Merle discover the 3 behavioural topics that have captured Colin's imagination, so much so, he tells us he won't be working on anything else!

Finding Colin Camerer

• http://camerergroup.caltech.edu/

Questioning Behaviour Socials:

In this episode, Sarah Bowen and Merle Van Den Akker interview Colin Camerer about how he became interested in behavioural science and neuroscience, what it was like to be a part of the BeSci inner circle in the early days, and discuss some innovative and creative experiments in and around the field. Tune in next week to hear the rest of the conversation - you don't want to miss it!

Questioning Behaviour Socials:

In this episode, Sarah Bowen and Merle Van Den Akker talk to Rory Sutherland. The conversation takes many interesting twists and turns including: How does innovative thinking and knowledge accumulation differ in business compared to academia? What is the problem with data (particularly big data)? Why did it take a pandemic for people to start working from home? Listen to the episode to discover what is it that connects cryptic crosswords, a keen interest in true crime, evolutionary, and behavioural science!

Links mentioned:

Rory’s reading list

The books that sold Rory on behavioural science

• “The Economic Naturalist” by Robert Frank: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0054ZBXFM/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_jvXGFbM69XH6A

True Crime and the Golden State Killer:

• “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” by Michelle McNamara: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0792LVP7T/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_4BXGFb888R69X

Other links

Soviet innovation methodology TRIZ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ

Why the hell does a kangaroo jump? https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/when-did-kangaroos-start-hop

Follow @quaesita (Cassie Kozyrkov, Head of Decision Intelligence @ Google) on twitter: https://twitter.com/quaesita

Finding Rory Sutherland:

Rory’s twitter (@rorysutherland): https://twitter.com/rorysutherland

Nudgestock (@nudgestuck)

• Watch the 2020 event on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObFrZImxYeI

Questioning Behaviour Socials:

Finding Wim Steemers:

• Rosevalley family funds: https://rosevalleyfunds.com/about-us/

Links mentioned:

“The End of Behavioral Finance” by Richard H. Thaler: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4480205?seq=1

Questioning Behaviour Socials:

In this episode, QB co-hosts Sarah Bowen and Merle Van Den Akker invite Professor Paul Dolan (London School of Economics) on the pod to discuss the behavioural science of happiness and wellbeing. We discuss the implications of a prescriptive approach to happiness maximisation in a policy context, how to define and measure happiness, and the ways in which the subjectivity and heterogeneity of human experience pose challenges and opportunities for the future of behavioural science.

Finding Paul Dolan:

• Check out Paul’s personal website (https://pauldolan.co.uk/) and twitter account (https://twitter.com/profpauldolan)

Questioning Behaviour Socials:

Finding Nick Hobson:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickmhobson?lang=en

Links mentioned:

• Bridge study and the misattribution of arousal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0aMEkGlcQE&ab_channel=Coolpsychologist

Questioning Behaviour Socials:

Check out Elspeth and Michael’s new book “Behavioral Insights (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)”: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B084V8CQLY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Questioning Behaviour Socials: 

In this episode of Office Hours Sarah Bowen and Merle van den Akker discuss the importance of role models in their decisions to begin PhDs, the stereotypes associated with being an “academic”, and diversity and inclusion (or the lack thereof) within universities.

Links you should check out after listening:

• Angela Saini “Superior: The return of race science” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Superior-Return-Science-Angela-Saini/dp/0008341001

• Economics is a disgrace (Macromom blog) – Claudia Sahm http://macromomblog.com/2020/07/29/economics-is-a-disgrace/

• Racism in academia and why the little things matter – Kevin N. Laland https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02471-6

• Navigating LGBTQ+ discrimination in academia: where do we go from here? – Karim Boustani http://wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/blog/imperial-medicine/2020/06/10/navigating-lgbtq-discrimination-in-academia-where-do-we-go-from-here/

• A collection of resources about instances of harassment, bullying and discrimination within the academy https://www.dobetteracademia.co.uk/index.php