Have you used Siri, Hey Google, or Alexa? These voice-enabled digital assistants are pretty cool and getting smarter, but why do some of them sound more like a “person” than others? What is it about your voice that makes people believe that there is a thinking human being behind it? In this episode I […]
There are a lot of mobile apps that include the term “psychology” but many of them are just for fun. Are there any really good apps for psychotherapists? Yes there are and one of them is called NovoPsych. In this episode I interview Dr. Ben Buchanan who is the creator of NovoPsych and he tells […]
The US just had a very contentious election which showed us, if nothing else, that we are a divided nation. How did we become this way? In this episode I talk about group polarization – how it happens and what we can do about it. Along the way, I’ll talk about Moral Reframing – and […]
Do “Blue Sky” brainstorming sessions actually produce anything creative? If you’ve ever sat around with a group of people and tried to “just come up with something creative” you probably found that it’s pretty hard. We actually don’t think that creatively when we’re told to just “throw things out there” and “nothing will be judged”. […]
The printed word has been around for a long time. Bet you thought there was nothing new in how we put words together in a book or website. Well, guess again. Researchers at Asymmetrica have drawn upon a tried and true memory strategy called “chunking” and applied it to – get this – the amount […]
We often like it when things are explained to us clearly, but would you believe that sometimes it’s better if you’re just down-right confused? You could actually learn more if at some point in the learning process you feel like you don’t know what’s going on. In part 2 of my interview with researcher and […]
Why do you vote the way you do? Have you read through all the various candidates position statements, or do you just kinda go with your “gut”? Jeremiah Sullins, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harding University has looked at this question in great depth and he’s found some really interesting answers to this question. I […]
In a previous episode I talked about the kinds of dynamics that can occur in groups (social loafing, diffusion of responsibility) that can make them ineffective learning experiences as well as just not fun. In this episode I interview Dr. Karen Christian who has watched how many study groups in action and she has uncovered […]
How do you “apply a little psychology” to tough jobs like building an online community and to creating a product that people will want to use frequently? In part 2 of my interview with author and Feverbee founder Richard Millington we talk about two key theories from psychology: self-determination theory and Robert Cialdini’s persuasion […]
What do you do with a background in psychology? A lot of things. How about running an online community? I found Richard Millington, founder of Feverbee, talking about how he applies psychology to his business of helping organizations build strong, active online communities. As you’ve probably seen in your travels about the web, there are […]
