Ep 19: Prof. Kelly Goldsmith, PhD "The Manipulator"

Prof. Kelly Goldsmith, PhD is a brilliant researcher in the space of marketing and human behavior. She was the person who helped America understand why we were hoarding toilet paper at the start of the pandemic. It was her work to understand scarcity that helped people laugh at themselves in the midst of a stressful situation that was out of their control.

In this episode of AMPstigator, we talk through what the research says about setting goals, finding happiness and living with perceived scarcity. Goldsmith explains how to overcome our human nature to better pursue a life with more meaning and purpose.

PLUS! We delve into her 24-day stint on Survivor and her strategies for making it on and staying on the show. 

This episode is for you if: 
- You love witty fast-talkers with high IQ’s (Kelly is GOLD for this)
- You geek-out over research on human behavior
- You want to better understand why you never reach your goals
- You want to understand why you’re afraid to take the leap and live with purpose
- You want to hear about Kelly's stint on Survivor

What's in this episode?
Prof. Kelly Goldsmith, PhD brings her 20+ years of research into bite-sized and simple ideas that help you understand human behavior and better harness it to live a life with purpose. We start by discussing goals and why we usually don’t meet them: we have unrealistic timelines, we don’t make them quantifiable, and we just give up.

We also talk about happiness - more specifically - why we don’t try to be happy. Most people perceive happiness as something others can impact. When people perceive their level of happiness as something they can control, their overall measure of happiness improves. Goldsmith specializes in scarcity - which is how consumers respond to not having enough.

In this episode of AMPstigator, she applies her research in scarcity to a person’s fear of changing their lives or living with purpose. She also discusses her 24-day stint on Survivor Season 3. Her account of getting on the show is laugh-out-loud funny and what it taught her about herself and others.

📝 Show Notes & Mentions 📝

Amy Cuddy, “Presence: Bringing your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges” https://www.amazon.com/Presence-Bringing-Boldest-Biggest-Challenges/dp/1478930152

Research in embodied cognition (fake it till you make it)

The Mere Urgency Effect
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yang-Yang-355/publication/327103570_The_Mere_Urgency_Effect/links/5fe35ee0a6fdccdcb8f592b5/The-Mere-Urgency-Effect.pdf

Find the full transcript by going here:
https://www.ampstigator.com/blog/kelly-goldsmith-show-notes