Stanford Psychology Podcast

This week, Enna chats with Dr. Julia Nolte, Assistant Professor of Economic Psychology at Tilburg University. Julia’s research examines how information management, risk perception, and decision-making change across adulthood. She is particularly interested in what keeps people, especially older adults, from making well-informed and high-quality decisions, and how we can better support people in making choices that align with their goals and values.
In our conversation, Julia discusses how her early interest in theater sparked her interest in psychology, how she came to study aging and decision-making, and what her work can teach us about information avoidance, decision-making, and the very human challenge of choosing between imperfect options.

Julia’s Website: https://www.julianolte.org/ 
Julia’s X: @Dr_Julia_Nolte
Julia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-nolte-8aa02b158/ 
Julia’s Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0361073X.2025.2473849 

Enna’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ennayuxuanchen/ 
Enna’s X: @EnnaYuxuanChen

Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com 
Podcast Twitter: @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack: https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ 
Podcast Contact: stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this re-air (but more timely than ever!) episode from 2021, Anjie chats with Alison Gopnik, Professor at the Department of Psychology and Affiliate Professor at Department of Philosophy at UC Berkeley. Alison is not only a great cognitive scientist and philosopher who has made many groundbreaking contributions to the field, but also a great science communicator. Alison authored multiple bestselling books, including The Scientist in the Crib, The Philosophical Baby, The Gardener, and the Carpenter. She also writes widely about cognitive science and psychology for multiple national outlets including the NYT, the Atlantic, and so on. In this episode, we discussed one of her recent review pieces on the role of childhood in solving the explore-exploit dilemma, a challenge to contemporary artificial intelligence.
Alison's lab website: https://www.gopniklab.berkeley.edu/
Alison's paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2019.0502
Alison's Twitter: @AlisonGopnik
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Adani chats with Elizabeth Bonawitz, Professor of Learning Sciences at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Elizabeth’s work focuses on basic theories of learning with the broader goal of informing educational practice. She uses computational, behavioral, and neural methods to study a broad variety of things within cognitive development, from children’s curiosity and belief revision to their exploration and play. We discuss Elizabeth’s view of cognitive development research and, most importantly, the secret formula behind her great academic paper titles and funny talks. Elizabeth also tells us about her path into science and what she’s most excited for next!
Elizabeth’s lab page: https://ccdlab.hsites.harvard.edu/people/elizabeth-bonawitz
Elizabeth’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MA7j1gkAAAAJ
Susan Carey’s paper, ‘Science Education as Conceptual Change’: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(99)00046-5
Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com
Adani’s Bluesky @adani
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/
Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Nick Epley is the John Templeton Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He studies social cognition—how thinking people think about other thinking people—to understand why smart people so routinely misunderstand each other. Nick is one of the “World’s Best 40 under 40 Business School Professors” by Poets and Quants. He just published his second book for a popular audience called "A Little More Social."

In this episode, Eric and Nick talk about "undersociality," the key idea in his latest book. Are we being less social than is good for us? How can we learn to connect, especially when it feels effortful? Can we be too social as well? How can we learn more about ourselves when we connect with others? What are the methodological limitations of Nick's work?

Book: https://sites.prh.com/a-little-more-social
Nick's Website: https://www.nicholasepley.com/
Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

In this reair episode from 2023, Eric chats with Amit Goldenberg, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Amit studies emotions in social interactions, for example in political contexts and on social media. He was a journalist and author before becoming an academic.
In this episode, Eric and Amit talk about how emotions operate in groups. Do crowds easily go “mad”? What emotions spread faster in groups? Why are we drawn to people more politically extreme than us? How is social media shaping our emotions and political behavior? Finally, Amit shares his journey from being a journalist to being a psychologist at a business school.
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Links:
Amit's paper on collective emotions
Amit's paper on why we are attracted to morally extreme individuals
Amit's website

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod
Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/

Let us know what you think of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com