A new review from Team Scientist @minzlicht.bsky.social and co-authors finds a paradox in how people perceive AI: AI-generated responses are often rated as more empathic than human-written ones, but when people learn a response came from AI, they rate it as less empathic. https://bit.ly/4wfdhrk

What is a nudge? @casssunstein.bsky.social (BCFG Team Scientist and co-author of Nudge) explains in this clip from BCFG’s archives. #nudge #behavioralecon #behavioralscience

New research by BCFG Co-Director @angeladuckworth.bsky.social and co-authors tracked kids' self-regulation throughout the school day. Kids who got squirmier as the day went on were rated as more disruptive and completed fewer years of education by adulthood. https://bit.ly/4b4P6DH

New research by Team Scientist Marissa Sharif and Shannon Duncan finds a simple way to help people bounce back from small goal setbacks: encourage them to make up for it. https://bit.ly/4pa415b

As LLMs are used more in behavioral science, researchers are grappling with how to transparently report their use. Team Scientists @jayvanbavel.bsky.social and Robb Willer join a large group of co-authors to propose a checklist for reporting the use of LLMs. https://bit.ly/4baPuAo

When might adding friction be a positive? Posing a question before sharing the answer can spark curiosity and boost engagement with health information. BCFG-supported work on this topic–led by Team Scientist @erika_kirgios featured in @whartonknows: https://whr.tn/4eYvl1v

Learn more about Jens Ludwig, a professor at the University of Chicago and Team Scientist who uses behavioral science to answer questions about crime, gun violence, and education policy. Visit his webpage here: https://bit.ly/3QUszT7

An article by Anna Dreber and Team Scientist Séverine Toussaert argues that more transparency around study design, implementation, and analysis would improve the replicability, credibility, and generalizability of findings. https://bit.ly/4aLX8Bh

Team Scientist Judd Kessler explains the "hidden market" in Fortune Magazine: when official prices are below what some fans will pay, the gap gets filled by bots, resellers, and fees—unless the rules of the resale market are designed to prevent markups. https://bit.ly/4ghE0i5

Telling potential donors "the last 5 people in a row donated" may be more effective than mentioning "80% of people donated". New research by Team Scientist Michael Norton finds "collective streaks" outperform traditional social norm messages at encouraging giving. https://bit.ly/4v49sEJ

Is targeting the most well-connected people in a network always the best strategy for spreading behavior change? Not necessarily, according to new research by Yuan Hsiao and Team Scientist @nachristakis.bsky.social. https://bit.ly/4ehy4CK

The June edition of our newsletter is out now, featuring the latest from BCFG and a Q&A with Team Scientist Leslie John on the power of oversharing. bit.ly/4vwNQBv

A randomized controlled trial by Team Scientist Eugenia South and collaborators tested whether street cleaning reduces gun violence in Philadelphia. Cleanups reduced visible litter, but did not significantly reduce gun violence or serious crime. https://bit.ly/4nNMgbm

In a @jamanetworkopen.com commentary, Team Scientist Mitesh Patel and Joshua Liao argue that health systems should align patient outreach with how people actually communicate today—mobile and asynchronous. https://bit.ly/4dAPlXl

Learn more about Tatiana Homonoff, an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Service at NYU Wagner and Team Scientist whose research applies behavioral economics to public policy challenges in poverty, taxation, and consumer finance. Visit her website: https://bit.ly/4dL8eIy

When does punishing free riders help groups cooperate, and when does it backfire? A Science Magazine paper by Team Scientists @dgrand.bsky.social, Duncan Watts, Abdullah Almaatouq & co-author suggests the answer depends heavily on context. https://bit.ly/4uqUZm0

A new article by Team Scientists Hengchen Dai, Silvia Saccardo, Kevin Volpp & collaborators synthesizes research on improving health outcomes by redesigning patient & clinician decision environments. https://bit.ly/4tTHbQ7

A new @nature.com paper co-led by Team Scientist @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social had 457 researchers reanalyze 100 social and behavioral science studies. Most reanalyses reached the original conclusion — but reanalysts fully agreed with each other on only 34% of studies. https://bit.ly/4fABu5X

A new @pnas.org paper by Co-Director @angeladuckworth.bsky.social, team Scientists Dr. Robert Cialdini & Christophe Van den Bulte, and collaborators finds that across 126,000 conversations, persuasion principles increased LLM compliance with objectionable requests. https://bit.ly/4uqTk00

Team Scientist podcast roundup: Greg Walton on Hidden Brain: www.hiddenbrain.org/podcast/do-y... Abby Sussman on Speaking of Psychology www.apa.org/news/podcast... @rthaler.bsky.social on Choiceology www.schwab.com/learn/story/...

Do You Feel Loved? - Hidden Brain Media

What’s the difference between being loved and feeling loved?

hiddenbrain.org

Learn more about Paschal Sheeran, a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill and Team Scientist whose research explores how people translate intentions into action and what helps them achieve health behavior change. Visit his website: https://psheeran.web.unc.edu/

A megastudy by Team Scientist Jan G. Voelkel and collaborators tested 12 brief digital mental health programs in 7,505 adults with depression. Nearly all improved how people felt immediately, and 2 significantly reduced depression a month later. https://go.nature.com/4bV10AJ

New research by Team Scientist @ayeletfishbach.bsky.social and collaborators finds that giving to fewer people, rather than more, signals stronger social connection to each recipient, and makes gifts more valued and more likely to be reciprocated. https://bit.ly/4sUNwuI

Research in Science by Team Scientist @dgrand.bsky.social and collaborators found that Large Language Models are more persuasive when they pack their replies with facts. However, LLMs optimized for persuasion were less accurate. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea3884

The levers of political persuasion with conversational artificial intelligence

There are widespread fears that conversational artificial intelligence (AI) could soon exert unprecedented influence over human beliefs. In this work, in three large-scale experiments (N = 76,977 resp...

science.org

In a Nature study, Team Scientists @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social, Gideon Nave, Michael Inzlicht and collaborators attempted replications of 274 findings from social and behavioral science journals. 55.1% were successfully replicated. https://go.nature.com/3Q4YxuW

Investigating the replicability of the social and behavioural sciences - Nature

A large-scale study on the replicability of claims from social and behavioural science journals reports that about half of the results replicate in the same patterns as the original study.

go.nature.com

A megastudy by Team Scientists Jan G. Voekel, Robb Willer, and collaborators tested 10 different persuasive passages about climate change among 13,544 Americans. Emphasizing scientific consensus most strongly increased belief in climate change. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02536-2

A registered report megastudy on the persuasiveness of the most-cited climate messages - Nature Climate Change

How to effectively communicate climate change to the public has long been studied and debated. Through a registered report megastudy, researchers tested the ten most-cited climate change messaging str...

nature.com

Could your environment be the key to success? Learn about Co-Director @angeladuckworth.bsky.social’s newly announced book Situated–and what it shows about how shaping your environment can help bring out your best–in our April newsletter: bit.ly/4trUdF5

📅 April 23-24: @nationalacademies.org is hosting a virtual 2-day Workshop on Enhancing Scientific Integrity in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Free & open to the public. Register: www.nationalacademies.org/projects/DBA...

Team Scientist podcast roundup: Cass Sunstein & Laurie Santos on the Happiness Lab https://bit.ly/4sLhzVN @katymilkman.bsky.social's new season of Choiceology https://bit.ly/4do0I6I Leslie John on Hidden Brain https://bit.ly/4sJwrno Steve Levitt on Freakonomics https://bit.ly/47EUVpC

Why You’re Still Using Social Media (Even If You Want to Stop) with Dr. Cass Sunstein | The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

Why is social media so hard to quit? Dr. Laurie Santos talks to Dr. Cass Sunstein, co-author of Nudge, to explore a new concept from the 2026 World Happiness Report: the “product trap.” They unpack wh...

bit.ly

Team Scientist @casssunstein.bsky.social's chapter in the 2026 World Happiness Report on social media discusses the puzzling fact that many would pay to eliminate the use of social media platforms—but won't leave as long as their community keeps using them. www.worldhappiness.report/ed/2026/soci...