Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein discusses his new book "Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There."

Speaker:

Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard Law School

Moderator:

Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics; Director of the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre (BEAR), Rotman School of Management

Co-presented with Rotman Events

Book Synopsis:

For fans of Thinking Fast and Slow and The Power of Habit, a groundbreaking new study of how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate our days and reset our brains to allow us to live happier and more fulfilling lives.

Have you ever noticed that what is thrilling on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even exciting relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. People stop noticing what is most wonderful in their own lives. They also stop noticing what is terrible. They get used to dirty air. They stay in abusive relationships. People grow to accept authoritarianism and take foolish risks. They become unconcerned by their own misconduct, blind to inequality, and are more liable to believe misinformation than ever before.

But what if we could find a way to see everything anew? What if you could regain sensitivity, not only to the great things in your life, but also to the terrible things you stopped noticing and so don’t try to change?

Now, neuroscience professor Tali Sharot and Harvard law professor (and presidential advisor) Cass R. Sunstein investigate why we stop noticing both the great and not-so-great things around us and how to “dishabituate” at the office, in the bedroom, at the store, on social media, and in the voting booth. This groundbreaking work, based on decades of research in the psychological and biological sciences, illuminates how we can reignite the sparks of joy, innovate, and recognize where improvements urgently need to be made. The key to this disruption—to seeing, feeling, and noticing again—is change. By temporarily changing your environment, changing the rules, changing the people you interact with—or even just stepping back and imagining change—you regain sensitivity, allowing you to more clearly identify the bad and more deeply appreciate the good.

HKU Business School's Bonnie Hayden Cheng on 'The Return on Kindness: How Kind Leadership Wins Talent, Earns Loyalty & Builds Successful Companies'

Topic:

The Return on Kindness: How Kind Leadership Wins Talent, Earns Loyalty, And Builds Successful Companies Penguin Business (Oct. 24 2023)

Speaker:

Bonnie Hayden Cheng (PhD 2013), Associate Professor of Management and MBA Program Director of HKU Business School, University of Hong Kong

In Conversation with: Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics; Director, Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman [BEAR]

Co-presented with Rotman Events

Book Synopsis:

The world needs leaders who have the strength to be kind. The Return on Kindness challenges companies to set a higher bar and reimagine what great leadership looks like. Kindness isn’t what you think it is. Kind leaders, far from being soft or weak, are caring and tough.

The Return on Kindness makes a compelling, evidence-based case for why kind leadership is good for business and how kind leaders create value through prioritizing the mental health and wellbeing of their people. Bonnie Hayden Cheng, organizational psychologist, researcher, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies, combines extensive research, storytelling, and in-depth interviews with influential executives across a wide range of industries to reveal the transformative power of kindness in driving business success.

The Return on Kindness provides a simple but impactful RISE framework to inspire kind leadership, accompanied by practical touchpoints for successfully implementing kind leadership in organizations.

Join us, in-person, for an insightful discussion on how behavioural economics can shape the design and implementation of social assistance programs. Our panel includes two senators who have advanced Basic Income legislation in Canada and the co-editors (Jiaying Zhao, Saugato Datta and Dilip Soman) of the new book, “Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies: A Behavioral Lens” (University of Toronto Press, October 12, 2023).

Book Synopsis:

While much progress has been made in reducing poverty worldwide – especially in the pre-pandemic era – it is fair to say that an unacceptably large proportion of the world’s people still live in poverty. Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies sheds light on the widely prevalent cash transfer programs. The book asks these central questions: What is the state of the art in the development of welfare programs? What do we know works in these programs and what does not? How can an understanding of behavioral science better inform the design, delivery, and evaluation of welfare programs?

The latest title in the Behaviorally Informed Organizations series, the book develops a nuanced framework for how governments, practitioners, and society in general should design cash transfer programs to improve inclusivity, reduce poverty, and improve equality. It draws on field experiments and case studies to showcase past successes, while also building frameworks and developing prescriptive advice that we can give to practitioners who are looking to design a behaviorally informed cash transfer program. With contributions from leading academics as well as seasoned practitioners, Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies presents a new model to policymakers to study and shift the discourse on poverty alleviation from purely economic factors to also behavioral ones.

Speakers:

The Honourable Kim Pate, Senator

The Honourable Pau Yuen Woo, Senator

Saugato Datta, Managing Director, ideas42; co-editor

Jiaying Zhao, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Sustainability; Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia; co-editor

Moderator:

Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics; Director of the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre (BEAR), Rotman School of Management; co-editor

Read an excerpt from the book:

https://www.book2look.com/book/6Cr7XJD3oz

Co-presented with Rotman Events.

The Southern Ontario Behavioural Decision Research (SOBDR) Conference brings together researchers from Ontario universities (and beyond!) with an interest in the study of how people make judgments and decisions.

SOBDR 2023 will be held on Friday, May 5, and hosted in the Desautels Event Hall on the 2nd Floor (elevators/up the pink staircase) at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Upon entering the building at 105. St. George Street, you may ask the Front Desk staff for directions to the event hall. There will also be signage stands to guide you.

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Sendhil Mullainathan

BI-Org Panel Session with

• Jessica Leifer, Impact Canada

• Julian House, Ontario Behavioural Insights Unit

• Melanie Kim, PwC

Click on our panelists’ images for their biographies.

Moderated by: Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics; Director, Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman [BEAR]

Agenda

The tentative agenda program can be viewed below (do check back for occasional updates).

REgistration

Registration is now full. You can add your name to the waitlist via the link below. If tickets become available, we will contact people on the waitlist in the order they are on the list.

If you have registered, but are unable to attend, please cancel your ticket to open that spot for someone else.

Call for Papers

Submissions can be for talks or for posters. All submissions will be double-blind reviewed by the program committee to make final decisions as to which papers will be accepted for presentation at the conference.

The deadline for submitting abstracts has now passed.

University of Toronto’s Policies on Masks

The University’s mask requirements have been lifted. However, the use of a medical mask in high-density indoor spaces when physical distancing is not possible is strongly encouraged. The University is a mask-friendly environment, and we ask everyone to respect each other’s decisions, comfort levels, and health needs. The University will continue to monitor public health conditions to adjust our response as needed, and we will update you on any changes.

Please see https://www.utoronto.ca/utogether/masks for further information.

Photos from the #SOBDR2023 Conference

Conference co-chairs

Program Committee

We thank the following program committee members who evaluated a large number of submissions in a short period of time.

Conference Coordinator

Notice of Filming and Photography

When you attend this event, you enter an area where photography, audio, and video recording may occur. By entering the event premises, you consent to such recording media and its release, publication, exhibition or reproduction.

Further information and updates will be posted here.

Questions? Email us at: rotmanbiorg@rotman.utoronto.ca