Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Mar 7, 2017

Sander van der Linden, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor (University Lecturer) in Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a Fellow in Psychological and Behavioral Sciences at Churchill College. Other academic affiliations include the Yale Center for Environmental Communication at Yale University. At Cambridge, Dr. van der Linden lectures mainly in statistics and social psychology.

 Dr. van der Linden's research has received awards from institutions such as the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) and the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). He was nominated by Pacific Standard Magazine as one of the "top thinkers under 30" and his work has been widely publicized in the media, including outlets such as Time Magazine, the Washington Post, NPR, the BBC, and the New York Times.

Prior to Cambridge, van der Linden directed the Social and Environmental Decision-Making (SED) Lab in the Department of Psychology and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton University and was a visiting scholar (2012-2014) at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

In this episode, we discussed:

  • How users can be scientifically inoculated to reject fake fews.

Resources:

The Cambridge Social Decision Making Lab

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

NEWS ROUND UP

You've heard by now that Trump claimed, with no evidence, on Twitter over the weekend that Obama wiretapped his office in Trump Tower. Not only did Obama deny it through a spokesperson, former Director of National Security Director James Clapper said he too can deny the wiretaps. Current FBI Director James Comey was also said to have rejected the assertions in Trump's tweets, which President Trump was said to have not accepted, putting the two men at odds. The White House has asked Congress to investigate whether his office was indeed wiretapped. So what gave Trump the idea that his office had been wiretapped? No one knows.

--

The Senate confirmed Rick Perry as Energy Secretary. The former Texas governor once vowed to abolish the department he will now lead.

--

Google has announced that it will be launching a $35/month broadcast tv streaming service that will carry ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as several cable networks including ESPN, FX, Fox News and MSNBC.

--

Several tech companies filed a joint amicus brief before the Supreme Court in support of a transgender student in Virginia who is challenging the Glouchester County School board for for not letting him use the boy's restroom. IBM, Slack, Lyft, Yahoo, Tumblr and Salesforce all signed the brief. Google, Facebook and Uber, though, sat this one out.  But the Supreme Court ended up sending the case back down to the lower court because the Trump White House rescinded an Obama-era progressive interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits discrimination against students on the basis of sex.

--

Snapchat surged 44% after its IPO last week. The stock was introduced at $17 a share on Thursday and closed that day at $24.48.

--

The Senate confirmed Wilber Ross as Commerce Secretary with a vote of  72-27. The 79-year old billionaire earned his wealth rehabilitating steel companies. Democrat Bill Nelson supported Ross' nomination, but other Democratic Senators including New Jersey's Corey Booker and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren question Ross' ties with Russia.

--

The FCC put a halt on data security regulations that would have required ISPs to protect their customers from hackers. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said privacy is more properly handled by the Federal Trade Commission.

--

Vice President Mike Pence caught some heat last week for using a private, consumer email account to conduct official state business when he served as Governor of Indiana. Pence had criticized Hillary Clinton throughout the campaign for using a private email server. Pence's email was via AOL. But Indiana law still requires state business communications to be preserved. In fact, Pence's emails were indeed hacked last summer, according sources cited in IndyStar.
--

 

The Trump administration has decided it is going to slow processing of H1B visas for specialized workers. Many companies in the technology sector rely on H1B visas to recruit highly-skilled labor from abroad. Currently, companies can opt for premium processing of H1B visa applications which cuts the processing time down from several months, to as few as 15 days. But beginning on April 3rd, U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization services will suspend premium processing for up to 6 months.

--

Sprint has won $139.8 million in damages in its patent lawsuit against Time Warner Cable. The jury in the U.S. District Court of the District of Kansas found Time Warner Cable to have violated Sprint's Voice over IP patents. The jury also found Time Warner Cable's infringement of Sprint's patents was willful, which means the judge could triple the damage award.

--

The European Union Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova has warned the United States that if it doesn't comply with the terms of the Privacy Shield, the European Union may pull out of it, which would be catastrophic for the tech sector. The long-fought over Privacy Shield is designed to ensure data flows seemlessly between the U.S. and Europe, while at the same time protecting European Citizens' privacy. Jourova is expected to come to the U.S. to meet with the Trump administration at the end of March. She indicated that she would not hesitate to suspend the Privacy Shield if Eurpeans' privacy is put too much at risk by the unpredictable Trump administration.

--

The FCC issued an emergency order last week to help law enforcement identify individuals calling in bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers around the country.  The emergency order waives rules that ordinarily prevent carriers from disclosing the identity of callers who have requested anonymity. The waiver only applies to calls to Jewish Community Centers.

--

Finally, Trump has withdrawn the re-nomination of former FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The previous Senate had let her confirmation lapse, prompting Obama to re-nominate her. Now it looks like Rosenworcel has no chance of returning to the FCC, which is missing 2 commissioners. Rosenworcel had bipartisan support, including  a lukewarm endorsement from Senate Commerce Committee Chair John Thune who said he supported Rosenworcel, but said the decision should be left to the president.