#25: Behavioral Scientist Dr. Kurt Nelson—Why We Do What We Do

Why do people do what they do? This fascinating question is the foundation of behavioral science, and in this episode, we speak about exactly that with behavioral scientist Dr. Kurt Nelson.

Kurt has a Ph.D. in Industrial & Organizational Psychology and is the founder of The Lantern Group, which uses behavioral science to help optimize companies and organizations. He is also the co-host of the podcast Behavioral Grooves where he—along with his co-host Tim Houlihan—interview experts in psychology and behavioral science.

So in this episode of Exploring Kodawari, we used Kurt's expertise to have a conversation about human behavior and psychology. We speak about the psychology of quarantine, mask-wearing, and other aspects of COVID-19 life. We also speak about stress, psychological priming, cognitive biases, the subconscious, and weird ways that the brain lies to itself.

And finally, we speak about a really important issue of modern life, the effect that social media is having on our psychology. While both Yankı and I have noticed for years how social media negatively affects our psychology, watching the recent Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma confirmed for us just how messed up social media can be.

Overall, it was a really great conversation and we're so happy that Kurt was able to join us. Enjoy!

**This episode includes a video on Youtube, click here to watch!**

Timestamps (clickable on webpage):

• [01:40] Kurt's background
• [03:43] What is behavioral science?
• [07:25] The psychology of COVID-19
• [12:33] The Wim Hof Method
• [16:49] The psychological effects of how governments handled covid-19 lockdowns
• [23:23] Cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and other ways that the subconscious affects behavior
• [27:40] Psychological/behavioral priming
• [38:08] Cognitive/perceptual biases and political orientation
• [42:13] The importance of zooming out and finding metacognition in politics
• [45:20] The Social Dilemma and the ways that social media affects our psychology
• [56:59] Bonus Questions

Links:

• Behavioral Grooves Podcast
• The Lantern Group
• Kurt's Twitter
• The Social Dilemma
• Behave: The Biology of Humans At Our Best And Worst by Robert Sapolsky

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