The Science of How People Change | Behavioral Scientist, Dr. Katy Milkman
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.6 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2021
⏱️ 95 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week’s conversation is with Dr. Katy Milkman, a behavioral scientist and professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Over the course of her career, she has worked with or advised dozens of organizations on how to encourage positive change, including Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, and Morningstar.
Her research is regularly featured by major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR.
She currently codirects the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania and has a new book out titled, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
And that’s why I wanted to speak with Katy… to better understand the research around behavior change.
How do people change, what are some things that get in the way, and what are some ways to amplify the rate of change?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There are moments in our lives |
| 0:02.3 | that feel more conducive to change. |
| 0:04.6 | I call them fresh starts. |
| 0:07.4 | And what my research with Hank Chen Dai and Jason Reese |
| 0:11.0 | has shown is that these are moments |
| 0:13.4 | when we feel like we're opening a new chapter in our lives |
| 0:16.7 | because we don't think about time linearly. |
| 0:18.8 | We actually think about our lives in chapters. |
| 0:22.7 | There's your 30s, your 40s. |
| 0:25.2 | There's a certain job. |
| 0:26.4 | There's all these different moments. |
| 0:28.6 | And whenever a new chapter opens, |
| 0:30.9 | we feel like we have a new beginning and a fresh start. |
| 0:33.8 | And that causes us to step back |
| 0:35.9 | and think bigger picture about our lives |
| 0:37.8 | and our goals and what we want to accomplish. |
| 0:40.2 | And it also makes us feel like we have a clean slate. |
| 0:42.8 | So if there was something we wanted to do or achieve |
| 0:45.9 | that we failed to do last year, say, |
| 0:48.6 | and then along comes this fresh start, |
| 0:50.5 | the start of a new year, even a new week, |
| 0:52.9 | by the way, it can be a fresh start |
... |
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