2025 Year in Review: Our most popular and controversial columns

We summarize our top 6 columns from the past year

Jan 5 • Center for Conflict + Coop., Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel, and Yvonne Phan

4

1

December 2025

How Groups Succeed Where Willpower Fails

Why shared goals, social norms, and smart environments are the real engines of lasting behavior change

Dec 29, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel

12

2

How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change

An interview & book giveaway with Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, and Daniel Kelly about their new book, Somebody Should Do Something

Dec 23, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel, Alex Madva, Michael Brownstein, and Daniel Kelly

11

15

6

Why Some Ideas Go Viral—and Most Don’t

What decades of research reveal about why certain content spreads—and how social forces shape what we all see.

Dec 16, 2025 • Steve Rathje and Jay Van Bavel

25

2

2

The Science of Knowing What You Don’t Know

Our new research reveals a better way to detect who actually listens, learns, and updates their beliefs.

Dec 11, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel

20

6

How Identity Shapes Our Health: The Social Psychology Behind Polarized Behavior

Our new paper explains how group identification—not just misinformation—drives the deep divides in Americans’ health behaviors.

Dec 3, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel and Raunak Pillai

10

2

4

November 2025

Polarized Family Gatherings: The New Holiday Reality

What research reveals about political conflict during family dinners—and how to steer conversations back to connection

Nov 25, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel

3

2

We need to be more tolerant of hypocrisy

Why hypocrisy is so intuitive and why attacking it can backfire. An interview + book giveaway with Michael Hallsworth

Nov 20, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel

8

7

5

Why “doing what’s right” depends on who you are with

Issue 188: Our new paper identifies under what circumstances people act on their moral attitudes and why we are often moral hypocrites.

Nov 11, 2025 • Center for Conflict + Coop. and Kareena del Rosario

20

2

6

The Joy of Belonging: What Marathon Fans Teach Us About Human Nature

Issue 187: Today over a million people are cheering on the NYC Marathon runners. We explain why we cheer on strangers.

Nov 2, 2025 • Center for Conflict + Coop. and Anni Sternisko

3

3

October 2025

Why People Lie to Benefit Their Own Group

Issue 186: People are willing to cheat if it benefits their group — even when they gain nothing themselves (plus a recipe for psychology halloween…

Oct 31, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel

9

1

How to unlock the power of successful groups: An interview with Colin Fisher

Issue 185: The COLLECTIVE EDGE explains why you're probably looking in the wrong direction when it comes to troubleshooting groups

Oct 23, 2025 • Dominic Packer & Jay Van Bavel and Colin M. Fisher

6

1

7