This week’s must-reads: How Our Friendships Play a Vital Role in Our Health

In my work as a behavioral designer, I come across important stories on how psychology influences our behavior. Every week, I share my round-up of the most important stories at the intersection of psychology, technology and business. I hope you enjoy them!

Why You’re Not Good at Changing Minds (and What You Can Do About It) (Nir and Far) Read my interview with Dr. Jonah Berger about his new book, The Catalyst.

Survival Of The Friendliest: How Our Close Friendships Help Us Thrive (NPR) We don’t fully appreciate our friendships. A new field of science is revealing that social connections play a vital role in our health.

The Delicate Art of Debunking Conspiracy Theories (Bloomberg) Presenting believers with facts can make them angrier. But sometimes the evidence does change minds.

How to Build Strong Attention Muscles (Psychology of Stuff) Training your attention is a lot like training a muscle in the gym. Find out how to build world-class attention muscles.

How to Create the Perfect Meeting Agenda (Harvard Business Review) Instead of designing your agenda as a laundry list of topics to be broached, consider creating your agenda as a set of questions to be addressed.

Handwashing Can Stop a Virus — So Why Don’t We Do It? (Behavioral Scientist) People find it quite hard to wash their hands effectively and consistently even in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.

Happy reading!

- Nir