Behavioral Scientist

11/26/2025

Why is the hiring process such a “bureaucratic quagmire” at so many organizations, and how can it be better? That’s the subject of our first piece this week.

Torben Emmerling, who leads the behavioral science consultancy Affective Advisory, shares lessons from his work building a better hiring process over the past five years. He explains how hiring commonly goes wrong and what organizations can do to improve their processes using best practices and research.

What organizations overlook too often, Emmerling says, is how trust—which we know is critical to team performance—factors in during the hiring process. “When organizations fail to define roles and procedures, set unclear timelines, and communicate poorly, they erode trust with their potential employees all before their first day at work,” he writes.

How can hiring processes build trust instead? Find out here: https://behavioralscientist.org/the-trust-equation-its-not-just-who-you-hire-its-how-you-hire/ (You might even have rejected candidates singing your praises.)

11/26/2025

We recently published a piece which asked: “Why don’t people return their shopping carts?” We received a lot of emails in response. As you head out for your holiday shopping, keep the article in mind and keep your eye out for what’s happening with shopping carts at your local store. Then get in touch with us to share your perspective: https://behavioralscientist.org/email-us

https://behavioralscientist.org/why-dont-people-return-their-shopping-carts-a-somewhat-scientific-investigation/

11/25/2025

What if organizations decided to treat their entire hiring process (not just who they hire), as a competitive advantage rather than a wearisome chore?

The Trust Equation: It’s Not Just Who You Hire, It’s How You Hire by Torben Emmerling

11/19/2025

Behavioral Economics, Then and Now: A Conversation With Alex Imas

https://behavioralscientist.org/behavioral-economics-then-and-now-a-conversation-with-alex-imas/

11/19/2025

Our recent piece this isn’t quite a whodunnit, but Hannah Waldfogel evokes the same zany intrigue in her meticulous analysis of one of her biggest pet peeves: why don’t people return their shopping carts?

11/11/2025

Why Don’t People Return Their Shopping Carts? A (Somewhat) Scientific Investigation

For reasons I can’t fully explain, people’s failure to return their carts bothers me more than it probably should. But then I realized I can do something about it.

11/11/2025

Richard Thaler and Alex Imas teamed up to update The Winner's Curse, a landmark book in behavioral economics. In doing so, they chart where behavioral economics began, where it is now, and where it could go next.

Alex Imas and Richard Thaler teamed up to update a landmark book in behavioral economics. In doing so, they chart where behavioral economics began, where it is now, and where it could go next.

11/04/2025

During last year’s presidential election, Omar Parbhoo wrote about the Civic Action Time Capsule, a tool to connect people’s motivated, voting selves to their future selves during off-year elections.

Recognizing that civic engagement tends to fizzle over time, we developed the Civic Action Time Capsule, a tool that enables people to capture and share their civic motivation at its peak with their future selves.

10/31/2025

What If We Thought of Our Daily Commute as a Team Sport? By Hannah B. Waldfogel

Better street design, safer cars, and driver education programs offer promising paths to safer roads, but their success still depends on something more fundamental—the decisions we make behind the wheel.

Better street design, safer cars, and driver education programs offer promising paths to safer roads, but their success still depends on something more fundamental—the decisions we make behind the wheel.

10/30/2025

What’s the Goal of the Goal? By Dan Heath

When we lock into a particular goal too quickly, we blind ourselves to alternate routes forward that might have been better and easier. We can avoid this trap by asking ourselves one simple question.

When we lock into a particular goal too quickly, we blind ourselves to alternate routes forward that might have been better and easier. We can avoid this trap by asking ourselves one simple question.

10/30/2025

"For our politics to function, we must find a balance between letting all hypocrisy slide and trying to eradicate hypocrisy completely. It’s fairly obvious why we can’t let all hypocrisy slide. But we have a blind spot when it comes to understanding the effects of calling out hypocrisy relentlessly and trying to stamp out hypocrisy completely. And it’s a blind spot that erodes our trust in our political institutions and can mean we end up electing even more deceptive politicians." — Michael Hallsworth

Our Hypocrisy Blind Spot: https://behavioralscientist.org/our-hypocrisy-blindspot/

10/29/2025

How Zero-Sum Beliefs Get in the Way of Fairness By Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi

The more we are stuck in the fixed-pie mentality, the harder it is to spot the opportunities to expand the pie.

The more we are stuck in the fixed-pie mentality, the harder it is to spot the opportunities to expand the pie.