Academic Research

How Can We Increase The Rate At Which Individuals Recycle Using Behavioral Heuristics?

Recycling in most people’s minds is the act of creating new commodities from old and unusable materials which would otherwise become waste. Recycling involves intricate processes and rigorous planning by local, national, and international authorities and may take a lot of time to implement. However, there are instances where the “recycling infrastructure” is present, but individuals do not partake in the process—which is the most critical step. In this paper, behavioral economics heuristics of Status Quo Bias, Choice Overload, and Framing Effect will be utilized to explain why individuals do not recycle when they are given the opportunity and resources to do so, and similarly, solutions will be presented which involve said heuristics.

Assessing Policy Solutions for Mass Surveillance Through “The NSA files” Leak

In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former CIA contractor leaked documents that outlined how the NSA was running a large-scale global surveillance program called PRISM (“Edward”). Per Snowden’s whistleblowing, The Guardian and The Washington Post reported that the PRISM surveillance program collected extensive information from internet users around the world.

Why Are People Bad At Probability Calculations?

Despite most mistakes people make and the biases they hold can be explained through past experiments and even evolutionary reasoning, some still loom around and are yet to be answered. Today, as young curious individuals ourselves, we decided to tackle one of the most common mistakes people make when it comes to probability calculations and rational reasoning.

Memory Manipulation & Implantation of Memories

With the advancement of technological innovations and our understanding of the human brain and memory, questions regarding whether or not we can - or should - manipulate stored memories have been frequently studied upon. Among the general populace, it is often believed that if we were able to intentionally manipulate one’s memories and replace them with fabricated ones, we would be able to answer the most complex questions that have existed for centuries due to the intricate makeup of the human brain.