Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
Need a Quick Primer on Impeachment or Executive Power? Free Chapters from ‘Congress Reconsidered’
The opening days of the administration of Joe Biden as U.S. president have continued two themes of the last administration: using impeachment […]
No One Can Ensure Total Safety… We Must Fight Pandemic of FEAR
With this pandemic, argues Robert Dingwall, fear amplification has been policy, based on the advice of a particular group of behavioral scientists advising the United Kingdom’s government.
Start Talking Now About Life After Jabs Make COVID Less Deadly Than the Flu
The reports from Britain’s hospitals in the last few days have been truly worrying. No one should doubt the reality of what […]
Controlling the COVID-19 Pandemic Hinges on Behavior
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused extraordinary devastation, claiming millions of lives and disrupting the economy and daily life across the globe. From […]
When Ignorance is Anything But Bliss
David Canter considers the tragic implications of people not understanding what they are told by politicians and experts.
Trying to Lock Down Until COVID is Eradicated Would Be Dangerous Folly
It is possible that we could abolish death by COVID, argues Robert Dingwall, by continuing the restrictions of 2020 indefinitely – the problem, of course, is that we would simply die from something else.
Contact Tracing, Privacy, Magical Thinking – and Trust!
The saga of the UK’s contact tracing app(s) should be an object lesson in how not to approach the use of technology in public policy – and why politicians in particular need to step back and rethink their approach to technology, and in particular to privacy.
Biden Makes Quick Moves to Get Social Science In Administration
In the lead-up and first days of his administration, the new U.S. president has made – or been presented – several moves that support social and behavioral science, including creating the nation’s highest ever advisory position with a specifically social science portfolio.
