Social Science Space

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently acknowledged his company’s responsibility in helping create the enormous amount of fake news that plagued the 2016 election – after earlier denials. Yet he offered no concrete details on what Facebook could do about it. Fortunately, there’s a way to fight fake news that already exists and has behavioral science on its side: the Pro-Truth Pledge project.

The year 2017 turned out to be the start for mainstream behavioral economics after a leading practitioner in the field won a Nobel prize for his work. Throughout 2017, The Conversation asked experts in economics, psychology and other areas to address the power of this burgeoning field, as well as its potential for misuse. Here are some articles for your consideration.

A single nudge may be enough to cause a single action, but is a sing;e type of nudge sufficient to base a new policy on? Shouldn’t we know that before instituting that new policy?

Here’s a very ‘meta’ experiment for you: What behavioral insights can you gather at a global behavioral insights conference?

While there are ample perspective benefits to behavioral nudges in the creation of public policy, make sure the nudges are designed for real people and not some rational superbeing.

New research finds that offering people money makes them less likely to correctly infer another person’s emotional state.

A group of scholars and experts who are not traditionally associated with the social sciences were found in one location discussing the important accomplishments of social and behavioral scientists.

The National Science Foundation’s director, Subra Suresh, recently met with various scientific societies and universities to discuss the future of […]

The National Academies of Sciences will be hosting a planning meeting in the Fall of 2011 to look at the feasibility of developing a framework for elementary […]