Jesse Singal
2021-04-08

Jesse Singal || Fad Psychology

Jesse Singal is a contributing writer at New York and the former editor of the magazine’s Science of Us online vertical, as well as the cohost of the podcast Blocked and Reported. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate, The Boston Globe, The Daily Beast, and other publications. He was a Bosch Fellow in Berlin and holds a master’s degree from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. His book The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can’t Cure Our Social Ills will be published in April.

Topics

[1:45] How Jesse caught on to the issue of junk science

[5:18] What is “fad psychology”?

[10:30] Jesse’s critique of mindset interventions

[19:03] The challenges that scientists face

[20:10] Why do we hold scientists to a higher standard than self-help gurus?

[24:46] How valid is the Implicit Association Test (IAT)?

[29:00] Jesse’s thoughts on implicit bias

[31:39] Jesse and Scott discuss Angela Duckworth’s research on grit

[40:34] What does it mean to be living in the “age of fracture”?

[42:05] How Jesse responds to those who claim to benefit from non-scientifically validated self-help interventions

[45:16] Jesse’s thoughts on the science of self-esteem

[50:00] Jesse and Scott discuss monocausal vs multicausal accounts of human behavior

About the guest

Jesse Singal

Podcast Guest

Jesse Singal is an American journalist and contributing writer at New York magazine whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, and The Boston Globe. He is the author of The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills and co-hosts the podcast Blocked and Reported.

Keep exploring

11 years of
human possibility

478 episodes exploring creativity, intelligence, well-being, and what it means to be fully human. The archive is yours to explore.

Browse All Episodes ← Back to Site