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Politics and Public Policy

Digital nudges and politics: the influence of social media on voting behavior  

The behavioral tool of nudging is becoming extremely popular among policymakers as a new powerful instrument to alter people’s behavior in a predictable way, without however the need to restrain the set of options of actors or significantly changing their economic incentives.   However, with the advent of social media and the huge and unprecedented quantity of data potentially collectible from online platforms, society is now faced with an ethical question on nudging techniques and their possible harmful […]

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Environment Politics and Public Policy

Policy implications in environmental policy design: Miami-Dade County case study

Many problems require more than one solution. The scientific consensus is that climate change is a very real and urgent problem, and its consequences will be dire if nothing is done about it. In this article, I will share an overview of the implications governments have to face regarding environmental policy design, with a specific […]

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Politics and Public Policy

Behavioral politics: Do we shape the polls or do they shape the vote?

On January 3rd, 2008 in Iowa, Obama took a huge step towards being elected as the 44th president of the USA. It was the night of the first Democratic primary and Obama was sitting at the victory throne with 38% of the Democratic vote, leaving John Edwards in the second line with 30%  and Hillary […]

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External Events

Public health care and nudges: How Behavioral Economics can help the vaccination problem

As we are approaching the second anniversary of the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, one can take a moment to reflect on the development of the health emergency. Loss, lockdowns, curfews, overloaded health care systems, and the anticipation of vaccinations. When the vaccinations finally hit the markets, many were eager to finally get their shot […]

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Everyday Life

Hyperbolic discouting and healthcare: An ambiguous relation

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Cigarette smoking, like other forms of drug dependence, is characterized by rapid loss of subjective value for delayed outcomes, particularly for the drug of dependence.  –Behavioural pharmacologist Warren K. Bickel, et al. Hyperbolic Discounting 101  Hyperbolic discounting is our inclination to choose immediate rewards over rewards that come later in the future, even when these immediate rewards are […]

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Everyday Life Politics and Public Policy

Healthcare applications of predictive algorithms: A possible solution to physicians’ biases?  

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Artificial Intelligence has long held the promise of improving predictions in healthcare solutions, a promise which is now becoming a reality in many settings, first and foremost the US, where in the past years many commercial algorithms have received FDA regulatory approval for broad clinical use. Indeed, the application of Machine Learning, a type of AI which allows software […]

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Philosophy and Literature

A behavioral lesson from the Iliad and the Odyssey

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In 1951 Eric Dodds, an Irish philologist and anthropologist, published “The Greeks and the Irrational”, a famous book in which he presented two antithetical concepts applied to the study of the Ancient Greece: the “shame culture” and the “guilt culture”.  Dodds focused his inquiry on the earliest stages of the Greek culture, analyzing the Homeric world, […]

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Everyday Life

Biases in your career choice

From choosing your classes in high school, to doing an internship or choosing your degree and college and eventually choosing your job, the career choice process takes time and reflection. As with any decision-making process, we must acknowledge that there are several cognitive biases surrounding it. But is there really a personal decision more important […]

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Everyday Life Politics and Public Policy

Behavioral Energy Efficiency: nudging toward green behavior 

The growing impact of climate change in today’s society is favoring the spread in awareness on the effects of excessive energy consumption, making energy conservation a pressing topic in the public debate.   Exploiting behavioral science, Behavioral Energy Efficiency programs help consumers make more informed and conscious choices on energy optimization issues, motivating them to generate […]

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Meet the Experts

Interview to Steven Johnson: at the intersection of Data Science and Behavioral Science

“The reason why I’m so passionate about behavioral science and why I got into this area in the first place is because it represents a massive opportunity for us to have a positive impact on the world”.