Social pressures often influence an individual's decision-making process. The algorithms behind social media platforms can shape perceptions by showing content tailored to behavior, reinforcing or promoting specific ideas to further financial or political causes. It is proof that understanding human cognition can significantly influence our decisions, from the products we buy to the beliefs we hold. 

To reveal how cognitive psychology affects everything we do, Harvesting Happiness Podcast Host Lisa Cypers Kamen speaks with prolific author and Professor Emerita of Anthropology at New York University Dr. Emily Martin.

As part of an experimental cognitive psychology lab, Dr. Martin studies the psychology of thinking and how it affects everything. She offers a glimpse into how humans process information and how the data collected has the opportunity to be used for the greater good or commoditized and sold to the highest bidder.

Dr. Emily Martin — Cognitive Psychology Affects Everything:

• Social media companies are aware of human cognitive psychology and use it to their advantage. {3:07
• The weaponization of user data is a missed opportunity when building a better world for ‘forewarned’ consumers. {7:07}
• People’s beliefs, thoughts, and experiences can be shifted without them being aware of it happening. {10:27}
• An experimental cognitive psychology lab measures memory and how it works. {13:44}
• The nefarious side of human cognitive data. {23:36}
• How to protect autonomy and personal agency without disconnecting socially. {29:57}

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About Lisa’s guest:

Emily Martin PhD is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at New York University. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her PhD from Cornell University. Dr. Martin’s areas of interest and research include the anthropology of science and medicine, gender, cultures of the mind, emotion, and rationality, the history of psychiatry and psychology, and American culture and society. Her ethnographic projects include the history of the human subject in experimental psychology.

She has authored several books including, Experiments of the Mind: From the Cognitive Psychology Lab to the World of Facebook and Twitter.

“We are the human lab rats. We are providing data to these companies that they capitalize on and use it against us." - Lisa Cypers Kamen

For more inspiration visit www.harvestinghappiness.com!