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What does it take to change a mind?
In episode two of Wired for This, we’ll hear from Dr. Katy Milkman, James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and host of the behavioral economics podcast Choiceology. She cofounded the Behavior Change for Good Initiative and has advised organizations such as Google, the White House, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Her research on behavior change has been published in top journals and featured in her bestselling book How to Change. In 2022, Dr. Milkman was also named one of 10 Innovators Shaping the Future of Health by Fortune Magazine and won Penn’s highest teaching award,Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching.






⁠Transcript⁠: https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/from-the-staff/plasticity-in-practice


Links/Sources mentioned:
More from Dr. Milkman: 
⁠Website⁠: https://www.katymilkman.com/
⁠How to Change⁠, her self-help book: https://www.katymilkman.com/home-01
⁠Milkman Delivers⁠, her behavioral science Substack: https://katymilkman.substack.com/
⁠Choiceology⁠, her podcast on how to make better judgments and avoid costly mistakes
https://www.schwab.com/learn/choiceology

Dr. Milkman’s studies: 

Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Riis, J. (2014). ⁠The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior⁠. Management Science, 60(10), 2563–2582. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901

Beshears, J., Dai, H., Milkman, K. L., & Benartzi, S. (2021). ⁠Using fresh starts to nudge increased retirement savings⁠. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 167, 72–87.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5353b838e4b0e68461b517cf/t/61af987669482d0611646ab0/1638897783454/using-fresh-starts-to-nudge-increased-retirement-savings.pdf

Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. (2014). ⁠Holding the hunger games hostage at the gym: An evaluation of temptation bundling⁠. Management science, 60(2), 283-299.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4381662/pdf/nihms540597.pdf

Other academic work discussed: 

Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). ⁠Making it safe: the effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams⁠. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941–966. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.413

⁠Mindset: The New Psychology of Success⁠, by Carol Dweck http://edl.emi.gov.et/jspui/bitstream/123456789/84/1/Carol%20S.%20Dweck%20-%20Mindset_%20The%20New%20Psychology%20of%20Success%20%282019%29.pdf

⁠Asch conformity experiments⁠, designed by Solomon Asch
Petrik, R., Vega, J., & Vindas-Meléndez, A. (2022). ⁠A Reflection on Growth Mindset and Meritocracy. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics⁠, 12(1), 408–421. 
https://doi.org/10.5642/jhummath.202201.31

__________________________________
Wired for This is produced and edited by Nwabata Nnani and hosted by Celia Ford. 
Music by Nat Keefe
___________________________________
American Scientist has been in publication since 1913 and is published by the nonprofit Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. The magazine focuses on producing narrative-driven features by scientists about their own peer-reviewed work. The publication also produces shorter-form staff-written news articles, as well as blogs, multimedia, and social media. See more at⁠ www.americanscientist.org⁠


Subscribe to American Scientist: ⁠https://subscribe.americanscientist.org/AMS/?f=paid⁠ 


Follow us on social media: 
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Plasticity in Practice | Wired for This

Welcome to Wired for This—a deep dive into how we think, believe, change, and connect. In this limited series, we’ll explore the psychology of human behavior and neuroscience—what drives us forward, what holds us back, and how we navigate a world bursting with noise, contradiction, and complexity.


Dr. Paul A. O’Keefe is a social psychologist and professor of organisational behaviour at the University of Exeter Business School. His research examines how psychological barriers—particularly beliefs about abilities, interest, and opportunity—shape the goals people pursue and their potential to achieve them. He and his team design growth-mindset interventions, tested through randomized controlled field experiments, to foster thriving in work, education, and health contexts. Dr. O’Keefe also directs the Mindsets & Motivation Lab and serves as an Associate Editor at Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.


The transcript for this episode is available ⁠here⁠.


Sources mentioned:
⁠Mindset: The New Psychology of Success⁠, by Carol Dweck
⁠Stop Trying to ‘Find’ Your Passion — There’s a Better Way to Love What You Do⁠, by Paul O’Keefe for Scientific American
The ⁠Mindsets & Motivation Lab⁠, led by Paul O’Keefe at the University of Exeter Business School. 


Examples of their research we mentioned: 
O’Keefe, P. A., Ramya, S. M., & Horberg, E. J. (2025). ⁠A growth-theory-of-interest intervention helps align science students with a new multidisciplinary curriculum.⁠ Contemporary Educational Psychology, 81, 102371.
O’Keefe, P. A., Horberg, E. J., Lee, F., & Dweck, C. S. (2023). ⁠Implicit theories of opportunity: When opportunity fails to knock, keep waiting or start cultivating?⁠ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(6), 1146–1173. 
O'Keefe, P. A., Horberg, E. J., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2023). ⁠A growth-theory-of-interest intervention increases interest in math and science coursework among liberal arts undergraduates⁠. Journal of educational psychology, 115(6), 859.
O’Keefe, P. A., Lee, H. Y., & Chen, P. (2021). ⁠Changing students’ beliefs about learning can unveil their potential⁠. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8(1), 84-91.

O’Keefe, P. A., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2018). ⁠Implicit theories of interest: Finding your passion or developing it?⁠. Psychological science, 29(10), 1653-1664. 




⁠The Utility-Value Intervention⁠, a book chapter by Chris Hulleman and Judith Harackiewicz
____________


Wired for This is produced and edited by Nwabata Nnani and hosted by Celia Ford. 


American Scientist has been in publication since 1913 and is published by the nonprofit Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. The magazine focuses on producing narrative-driven features by scientists about their own peer-reviewed work. The publication also produces shorter-form staff-written news articles, as well as blogs, multimedia, and social media. See more at www.americanscientist.org

⁠Subscribe⁠ to American Scientist, today.
https://subscribe.americanscientist.org/AMS/?f=paid 

Music by Nat Keefe


Follow us on social media: 
⁠Bluesky⁠ https://bsky.app/profile/americanscientist.org
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⁠LinkedIn⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-scientist/




The Science of Yet | Wired for This

An interview with University of Maryland engineer Ryan Sochol, whose team has developed the technique to do three-dimensional printing at capillary sizes, for better modeling of living systems.  

See the related article at:
https://www.americanscientist.org/article/microsized-architecture

Microsized Architecture

Sigma Xi is the oldest Scientific Research Society in the world: established in 1886, over 500,000 elected members, including 200 Nobel Laureates.  We publish the award-winning bimonthly American Scientist magazine with news, features, and multimedia about science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Microsized Architecture

Sigma Xi Society

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