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Reposted by Hallgeir Sjåstad

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Sep 1

Our new research finds that people are willing to cheat if it benefits their group — even when they gain nothing themselves.

"the risk of dishonesty in organizations is not limited to selfish acts...employees might bend rules to benefit their team or in-group members."
www.nhh.no/en/nhh-bulle...

We lie for those who are like us

Three experiments with more than 5,000 participants show that people are willing to cheat if it benefits their group — even when they gain nothing themselves.

www.nhh.no

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 26

Can the psychology of time help us understand climate change?

In collaboration with my excellent PhD student Simen Bø, we have a new pre-print exploring the temporal psychology of climate hesitancy, and whether it is possible to increase actual climate support by varying the *timing* of incentives.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 26

For a quick introduction to this research, see the post below.

Full working paper/pre-print:
osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 26

Can the psychology of time help us understand climate change?

In collaboration with my excellent PhD student Simen Bø, we have a new pre-print exploring the temporal psychology of climate hesitancy, and whether it is possible to increase actual climate support by varying the *timing* of incentives.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 25

Pre-print:
osf.io/preprints/ps...

Abstract and key figure summarizing the main effect across our three experiments: See below.

As always: Feedback is most welcome.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 25

We have a new working paper, studying planning choices in the United States and Tanzania: "Just perfect days ahead?"

Documenting a robust best-case planning tendency, see below for details! Joint work with my last-year PhD student Simen Bø and Vincent Somville.

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Paolo Crosetto @paolocrosetto.bsky.social · Jun 15

A *null* result I'm very proud of!

Led by Rustam Romaniuc, 35 coauthors from all over France tested nudge interventions to boost voter turnout.

None worked, and we are possibly not surprised -- but a well-powered null result *is* a result!

Paper:

kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

The main figure from the voter turnout paper -- no effect of any nudge intervention on voter turnout.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 12

Abstract: See below.

Working paper/pre-print:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

As always:
Feedback is most welcome!

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 12

In future work, we recommend that psychological research on sustainability & climate change should start paying more attention to actual behavior, including the long-term impact of system-level interventions.

For those interested:

Please see the abstract & link to our WP in the final post.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 12

However, in combination, the social norm-nudge seemed to make the climate incentive more acceptable to the public:

We observed no drop in customer satisfaction in the combined condition, unlike the pure incentive condition.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 12

Our study (with Mathias Ekström & Kjetil Bjorvatn) is based on a large-scale field experiment in Bergen, following about 2,000 households over two years.

We find a large effect of a small incentive on both the quantity (kg) & quality (correct sorting) of recycling, but no effect of the norm-nudge.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Jun 12

The Washington Post has written a new article about the modern underground waste system in Bergen (Norway), featuring our research on the effect of incentives vs. norm-nudges on actual recycling behavior.

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...

Trash sucks: A Norwegian city uses vacuum tubes to whisk waste away

Bergen, Norway, has been building one of the world’s most advanced trash systems in its 955-year-old city center.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · May 15

Anxiety: What if something incredibly stupid goes wrong?

Curiosity: What will we find? What will the data look like? What can we learn from it? Will this be interesting for other people too? etc.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · May 15

To me, a thing that never gets old:

The feeling you get when launching a top-priority large-scale data collection, designed to test ideas and hypotheses you have spent months and even years developing.

20% anxiety, 80% curiosity!

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · May 12

Even the weather played along! Spring in Bergen 🌞

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · May 12

For those interested in an overview:

1: Social media and morality: An updated review (Van Bavel, Robertson, del Rosario, Rasmussen & Rathje 2024).
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

2: The MAD Model of Moral Contagion (Brady, Crockett & Van Bavel, 2020).
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32511060/

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · May 12

Today we had the great pleasure of welcoming back @jayvanbavel.bsky.social to NHH, who gave a seminar on social media and human morality!

Packed with interesting research questions, integrative ideas, the MAD model of moral contagion, and large-scale data from observational & experimental studies.

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koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · Apr 28

Incorrigible optimists, that’s what we are.

Research by @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social et al finds that—even when we reflect on our past wellbeing levels and notice they’ve been steady—we believe in a brighter future for ourselves and our friends (but not for our enemies):

buff.ly/hSZBrxL

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Apr 11

For those interested:

Some reflections below on the background, idea, and main findings.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Apr 11

Happy to share that we have a new paper on the causal effect of promises, just published in JEBO.

"Making a promise increases the moral cost of lying: Evidence from Norway and the United States."

Joint work w/ Mathias Eström, Kjetil Bjorvatn & Pablo Soto Mota.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Apr 11

Relevant work:

-Karmic forecasts: psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-...
-Vicarious optimism: psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-... @mjcrockett.bsky.social
-Self-deceptive happiness judgments: psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-...
-The best-case heuristic:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... @jayvanbavel.bsky.social

journals.sagepub.com

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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Apr 7

By focusing on substantive strategies and actionable guidance, rather than the flashiest new phrase, climate communicators may see greater success mobilizing the public.

It’s not about what we call it, but likely how we encourage people to tackle it. jayvanbavellab.substack.com/p/climate-te...

Climate Terminology Does Not Matter

Our new paper finds that swapping out one climate term for another does not meaningfully change people’s stated commitment to fight climate change

jayvanbavellab.substack.com

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Apr 7

For those interested: A bit more about the background, general idea, and main findings below.

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Hallgeir Sjåstad @hallgeirsjastad.bsky.social · Apr 7

Our paper suggesting that people are "selective optimists" when predicting the future has now been published (EJSP).

Self-serving optimism in well-being prediction: People believe in a bright future for themselves and their friends, but not for their enemies.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · Mar 30

Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century."
snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow

Key selections from On Tyranny, for viewing and sharing

snyder.substack.com

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