Social Brain

Flow: How not to crash into trees

Blog

18 Mar 2013

Being a social brain researcher, I frequently find myself reading about, thinking about and talking about concepts of human behaviour in the abstract. We might be working on an idea as to how to help people alter their habits, make decisions differently or change their patterns of attention, and at times it can all seem quite far removed from the quotidian reality of my own life. So, it’s great when, on occasion, these things come to life and I experience them directly.

Can we resolve our energy 'trilemma'?

Blog

13 Mar 2013

Jonathan Rowson

As part of our research for 'The Power of Curiosity' report I came upon a particularly arresting turn of phrase that encapsulates one of the major policy issues of our time: 'the energy trilemma.'

What form of behaviour change does climate change call for?

Blog

05 Mar 2013

Jonathan Rowson

“If the biosphere is wrecked, it will be done by nice, well-meaning, cosmopolitan people who accept the case for cutting emissions, but who won’t change by one iota the way they live.”   (G Monbiot, Heat, 2007, xvii)

Increasing organ donation – but not the way you think…

Blog

20 Feb 2013

Nathalie Spencer

How do you get 500,000 people to register to be organ donors?  Many people reading this blog may know about the use of default options to very successfully increase registration.  But it seems that there is another way: Facebook.  The use of the social media giant to create a surge of new donor registrations was presented at a conference last week, Social Media and Behavioral Economics.                  

Mental health and spirituality

Blog

14 Feb 2013

Mind published an interesting blog post on their website today, in which a woman with bipolar disorder describes the importance of her spirituality in staying well. The spirituality she describes is explicitly non-religious.

Fasting: fad or panacea?

Blog

13 Feb 2013

Fancy losing weight, looking younger, living longer, fending off Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and even cancer, whilst eating whatever you want? This is only some of what the 5:2 fasting diet claims to offer, and the only catch is that you have to fast twice a week. The ‘fast’ days do not require complete starvation, but instead involve heavily restricted calories – 500 for a woman and 600 for a man. It’s up to the individual how to make up the calories, but the suggestion is that you eat breakfast and one other meal, either lunch or dinner.

In Search of a Prime Example

Blog

08 Feb 2013

Jonathan Rowson

If you are interested in Social Psychology (and who isn't?) you'll be well aware of some of the wonderful experiments on priming i.e. situations where participants are exposed to a certain kind of stimulus that influences their response to a future stimulus. The evidence on priming appears to suggest, for instance, that:

The Wit and Wisdom of Jules Evans

Blog

06 Feb 2013

Jonathan Rowson

I first met Jules Evans at a Franco-British council's conference on the measurement of well-being. That's him with the microphone, and yours truly listening intently.

Soap dodging: Would you shower less to save the planet?

Blog

05 Feb 2013

Do you care about climate change? Do you think you have a role to play in helping to reduce carbon emissions? Would you make small changes if you knew they would make a difference? What’s stopping you?