Special Event: The Science of Getting People to Do Good : Center for Social Innovation (CSI)

The Science of Getting People to Do Good

Friday, March 30, 2012

What can research tell us about how to inspire people to do the right thing? How can we encourage people to engage in behaviors that are at some level a cost to the individual self, but a benefit to others and society as a whole?

This one-day event shared simple, practical, and cost-effective solutions for encouraging social activism and other responsible, caring, and prosocial behaviors. Using common societal examples including nutrition, voter turnout, and recycling behavior the world’s leading social scientists shared the results of their most compelling research.

This is a biannual briefing. If you are interested in learning more about prosocial behaviors, or want to be informed of the next briefing, please sign up for the quarterly Prosocial Behavior Research Column and the Center for Social Innovation’s monthly enewsletter.

Videos
Speakers
Program

Location

Knight Management Center
655 Knight Way
Stanford, CA 94305-7298
Maps & Directions

Agenda

Each session will include a presentation of research findings and time for question and answer.

8:50 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.	Introduction Francis Flynn, Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford Graduate School of Business
9:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.	The Power of Values Affirmation Geoffrey Cohen, Professor of Organizational Studies in Education and Business, School of Education, Stanford University
9:45 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.	A Question of Belonging: A Social-Psychological Approach to Understanding and Remedying Group Disparities in School Achievement Greg Walton, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.	Blackberry Break
11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.	It’s the Mind-Set that Matters: The Role of Construal Level and Message Framing in Influencing Recycling Kate White, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marketing, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada
11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.	Using People’s Irrationality To Do Good Leslie John, Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit, Harvard Business School
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.	Lunch
1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.	Nudging the Vote: A Behavioral Science Perspective on Why People Vote Todd Rogers, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Mindsets: Reducing Aggression and Increasing Prosocial Behavior Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.	Blackberry Break
3:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.	Pitch Session
4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Experimentation in Practice: Optimizing Behavioral Energy Efficiency Programs Tom Mercer, Product Manager, OPower, San Francisco
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.	Networking Reception

Presenter Biographies

	Geoffrey Cohen is the James G. March Professor of Organizational Studies in Education and Business at the Stanford University School of Education. Much of his research examines processes related to identity maintenance and their implications for social problems. Geoffrey studies the development of theory-driven, rigorously tested intervention strategies that further our understanding of the processes underpinning social problems and that offer solutions to alleviate them.
	Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., is a leading researcher in the field of motivation and is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her research focuses on why people succeed and how to foster their success. More specifically, her work has demonstrated the role of mindsets in success and has shown how praise for intelligence can undermine motivation and learning.
	Francis J. Flynn is the Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Frank’s research focuses on interpersonal relations in organizations. In particular, he studies three topics of interest: how employees can develop healthy patterns of cooperation; how the negative impact of racial and gender stereotyping in the workplace can be mitigated; and how people can emerge as leaders and assume positions of power in organizations. His work bridges the fields of management and social psychology, leading to scholarly as well as practical insights on organizational life.
	Leslie John is an assistant professor of business administration in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School. Broadly speaking, Leslie’s research focuses on questions that can be best informed by considering how both firm activities and policy initiatives—sometimes in concert, sometimes in conflict—impact behavior. Both of her primary streams of research—information disclosure and incentivizing behavior change—focus on the interaction between the firm and consumer, with an emphasis on the broader public policy questions (such as the government regulation of online privacy, and the national concern with the obesity epidemic) that inform these consumer-firm interactions.
	Tom Mercer is a product manager in OPower's San Francisco office. He works with development teams to enhance and scale the company's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering for utilities. His purview includes all the company's outbound customer communications - in print, email, SMS, and phone. Before moving into the cleantech and software worlds, he started his career in publishing.
	Todd Rogers is an assistant professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Todd is a behavioral scientist whose research seeks to understand and influence socially consequential problems. His research attempts to bridge the gap between intention and action. Topics he has studied include the cognitive and social factors that influence election participation (e.g., get-out-the-vote activities informed by psychological insights), and how time-inconsistent preferences can be leveraged to increase support for future-minded policies and choices (e.g., support for environmental legislation, ordering healthier foods, and watching high-brow movies). His recent work develops and tests behavioral science informed interventions in classrooms.
	Greg Walton is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Much of his research investigates psychological processes that contribute to major social problems and how “wise” interventions that target these processes can help address such problems. These psychological interventions can be minor in scope and duration but generate long-lasting effects. For instance, one 1-hour intervention he developed with Geoffrey Cohen to bolster students’ feelings of social belonging in the transition to college raised the academic achievement of ethnic minority students over 3 years, and cut by half the achievement gap with white students. Other research investigates the bases of academic motivation and of willpower, how to increase voter turnout, and how to promote environmental behaviors. In addition to his research, he teaches courses on psychology and social problems, including one entitled “Wise Interventions.”
	Kate White, Ph.D. is associate professor of marketing at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada. Kate was trained as a social psychologist, but her teaching and research now center on consumption behaviors. Kate’s research interests lie at the intersection between social influence and pro-social, sustainable behaviors. For example, she is interested in how social scientists can encourage people to engage in behaviors that are at some level a cost to the individual self, but a benefit to others and society as a whole. She is particularly interested in encouraging people to engage in sustainable behaviors such as recycling and purchasing products with ethical attributes.

	A Question of Belonging: A Social-Psychological Approach to Understanding and Remedying Group Disparities in School Achievement Greg Walton, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Stanford University Corresponding Papers: A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students
	It's the Mind-Set that Matters: The Role of Construal Level and Message Framing in Influencing Recycling Kate White, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marketing, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada Corresponding Papers: It’s the Mind-Set that Matters: The Role of Construal Level and Message Framing in Influencing Consumer Efficacy and Conservation Behaviors
	Using People's Irrationality to Do Good Leslie John, Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit, Harvard Business School Corresponding Papers: Financial Incentive Based Approaches for Weight Loss: A Randomized Trial
	Psychology of Voting: How Behavioral Sciences Increases Turnout Todd Rogers, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Corresponding Papers: Descriptive Social Norms and Motivation to Vote: Everybody’s Voting and so Should You Do You Have a Voting Plan? Implementation Intentions, Voter Turnout, and Organic Plan Making Motivating Voter Turnout by Invoking the Self