Elizabeth Paluck

Betsy Levy Paluck studies one of the hardest problems in social science: how to actually change behavior. She runs large-scale field experiments to test what reduces prejudice and conflict, from ethnic and political conflict to youth conflict in schools and violence against women.

Her central finding runs counter to common practice. Organizations often try to change behavior by changing what people know, through information campaigns and training. Paluck's research points elsewhere: people take their cues from social norms, from what they believe their peers consider typical or desirable. Shift those perceptions, and behavior tends to follow. In one widely cited study, she used a radio program to reduce intergroup prejudice; in another, a social-network experiment across 56 schools reduced student conflict by working through a small number of influential peers.