1. When nudging fails, what else can be done? Bravo to @CassSunstein, co-author of the popular book Nudge, for a journal abstract that is understandable and clearly identifies recommended actions. This from his upcoming article Nudges that Fail: “Why are some nudges ineffective, or at least less effective than choice architects hope and expect? Focusing primarily […]
1. Visualizing networks. @Polinode builds innovative tools for network analysis. One nifty feature allows creation of column charts using a set of nodes. A recent post explains how to use calculated network metrics such as centrality or betweenness. 2. Analytics are disconnected from strategic decisions. An extensive study suggests analytics sponsors are in the trough […]
1. Panning for gold in the evidence stream. Patrick Lester introduces his new SSIR article by saying “With evidence-based policy, we need to acknowledge that some evidence is more valid than others. Pretending all evidence is equal will only preserve the status quo.” In Defining Evidence Down, the director of the Social Innovation Research Center […]
Photo by Fightfor15.org 1. SPOTLIGHT: Will $15 wages destroy California jobs? California is moving toward a $15/hour minimum wage (slowly, stepping up through 2023). Will employers be forced to eliminate jobs under the added financial pressure? As with all things economic, it depends who you ask. Lots of numbers have been thrown around during the […]
1. Systematic review: Does business coaching make a difference? In PLOSOne, Grover and Furnham present findings of their systematic review of coaching impacts within organizations. They found glimmers of hope for positive results from coaching, but also spotted numerous holes in research designs and data quality. Over the years, outcome measures have included job satisfaction, […]
1. Confusing correlation with causation is not the Cardinal Sin of data science, say Gregory Piatetsky (@kdnuggets) and Anmol Rajpurohit (@hey_anmol): It’s overfitting. Oftentimes, researchers “test numerous hypotheses without proper statistical control, until they happen to find something interesting and report it. Not surprisingly, next time the effect, which was (at least partly) due to […]
People are recognizing the critical need for meta-research, or the ‘science of science’. One focus area is understanding whether research produces desired outcomes, and identifying how to ensure that truly happens going forward. Research impact assessment (RIA) is particularly important when holding organizations accountable for their management of public and donor funding. An RIA community […]
1. Spending $ on brain training isn’t so smart. It seems impossible to listen to NPR without hearing from their sponsor, Lumosity, the brain-training company. The target demo is spot on: NPR will be the first to tell you its listeners are the “nation’s best and brightest”. And bright people don’t want to slow down. […]