STILLWATER, Okla. (KTUL)

These days, news spreads fast on a college campus.

Many students on OSU's Stillwater campus had already heard about 26-year-old Kwamain Baker and what he's accused of doing.

Stillwater police said Baker made lewd comments to a 15-year-old girl and even tried to touch her as she walked home from the library Tuesday.

Just a day before, police said he followed a college-aged girl home to her apartment and banged on her door.

Baker was arrested Wednesday morning in Stillwater.

It was a crash course for these OSU students in the oddities of human behavior.

"It's kind of sad to know that we live in a world where you can't trust just anyone who's walking around," said Mckenzie Merritt, a freshman at OSU.

But bad news isn't something new to these guys.

"I have pepper spray for a reason," said Julianne Heath, a sophomore at OSU.

Caleb Harp, also a student at OSU, said the students look after each other on campus.

"It's a family here, and everyone watches out for everyone," said Harp.

Leah Storm with the OSU Police Department said they work hard to keep students safe, even offering a safe escort to your car at night.

"We have students that are employed by our department who operate that program," said Storm.

OSU police also offer an app for your smart phone. With the app, students can check bus routes, call 911 or arrange for someone to walk them across campus.

Even so, students here said Baker is a good reminder to always stay on high alert.

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Man's strange behavior and subsequent arrest put OSU students on edge - KTUL

HBES is a society for all those studying the evolution of human behavior. Scientific perspectives range from evolutionary psychology to evolutionary anthropology and cultural evolution; and the membership includes researchers from a range of disciplines in the social and biological sciences. Our membership is worldwide.

The two main activities of HBES are holding an annual conference and running a journal called Evolution and Human Behavior (EHB). The conference provides a forum to present and learn about current research in the field, and includes invited plenary talks from leading scientists in the field. The 2017 meeting will take place May 31st to June 3rd in Boise, Idaho and features talks from anthropologists Valerie Curtis, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Peter Gray, and Rebecca Sear; zoologistRufus Johnstone; psychologists Martie Haselton and Cristine Legare; and primatologist Michael Tomasello.

Members of HBES receive a free subscription to EHB, a discount on the journal Human Nature, reduced registration at the annual HBES conference, and a biannual newsletter. Members are also eligible to apply for funds to host meetings on topics relevant to the goals and mission of HBES. Learn more about becoming a member of HBES.

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Human Behavior and Evolution Society

Photo: Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media

Owner of new private equity fund says impact investing is the way of the future

A longtime Greenwich resident has started a private equity fund committed solely to investing in renewable energy projects.

Impact investing is the way of the future in finance, according to Thomas Yee, who recently started GCT Anchor Fund. The venture, which has its offices in Stamford, began building up capital last fall, but Yee already has big expectations for its success.

Yees team plans to invest in new renewable energy projects overseas, foster their growth and ultimately sell them off. We take the raw project and grow it, Yee said. It requires technical expertise in these particular areas.

Yee expects the results will net a big profit, he said.

The market for investing in renewable energy projects in America is saturated, he said, so the fund will focus on working with ones abroad, such as in Portugal and Argentina.

Overseas theres more risk but opportunity for higher returns, Yee said, whose background includes working as a trader at Moore Capital Management and in the renewable energy sector.

His expertise in renewable energy, particularly in solar energy, together with a carefully-curated team equips GCT Anchor Fund with the tools to turn a profit for its investors while making a positive impact on the environment with its projects, Yee said.

We view social and environmental sustainability as a strategic imperative and as a select investment opportunity with a disciplined focus for acquiring investments from a pipeline of clean tech projects that offer high and steady returns with minimal market risk, the fund says on its website.

Opportunities are limited for investors to make money since the birth of large regulatory measures, such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, combined with highly volatile markets, Yee outlines in an industry paper titled How to Obtain Alpha in Todays Volatile and Unpredictable Markets.

His new funds emphasis on impact investing derives from Yees belief in its ability to make clients money, but it also has a lot of positive socio-economic ramifications, Yee said. It provides a social ethic, creates jobs and the economy increases. Theres a need for society to develop the most efficient energy.

In addition to his new fund, Yee is working on another project he hopes will do even more to revolutionize the world of finance. As outlined in his paper, market volatility plays a big role in frustrating investors portfolios.

Right now, theres no existing model that can quantify a sudden change in the market, Yee said. Computers dont provide for the financial effect of human emotions.

Its no small undertaking, but Yee hopes to one day produce a model that can react to any market swing, including the black swans. It would take into account the human effect on market volatility and anticipate a trade beneficial to investors. The answer to creating such a model comes from Yees academic studies in ontology, which he describes as a comprehensive set of meanings which describe human behavior.

Creating an algorithm which can translate expected human behavior into trades with a high rate of return is my real interest, Yee said.

MBennett@greenwichtime.com, 203-625-4411; Twitter @Macaela_

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Owner of new private equity fund says impact investing is 'the way of the future' - Greenwich Time

Nearly two decades ago, researchers at The University of New Mexico took interest in a project that took them to the lush jungles of southwestern Uganda. Not far from the borders of the Congo, these desert-dwelling Anthropologists established relationships with the local residents of the tree topsforming a bond that has catapulted UNM to international status as a leader in in the comparison of human and primate physiology.

UNM Professors Melissa Emery Thompson and Martin Muller were graduate students when they became involved with the Kibale Chimpanzee Project. Established in 1987, the project is a long-term field study of the behavior, ecology and physiology of a community of approximately 55 wild chimpanzees. Emery Thompson and Muller have received funding for this work from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Leakey Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

There are only a half-dozen research sites that have been in existence as long as this one at UNM, says Muller. Its exciting to be out in the wild watching these animals behave. We now have 30 years of datasome of the chimps who weve studied have been around that entire time. We knew them as little kids and now as older adults. We can see and understand the whole life span of these animals which greatly benefits our research.

The participation of UNM Anthropologists in the Kibale Project led to the development of the Hominoid Reproductive Ecology Laboratory at UNM. The lab is an extension of the field lab in Uganda but also focuses more broadly on developing minimally invasive research on the interactions between physiology and behavior.

The researchers are able to collect urine and feces from the chimpanzees and use them to study stress, reproductive function, energetic condition and health.

We have validated and created new ways to use this material, says Emery Thompson. For instance, we have developed markers for quantifying the energetic condition of the animals, including the amount of muscle mass that they have.

A little-known fact about the University is that it stores the greatest amount of these types of samples in the world. The over 30,000 urine samples represent decades of devotion to studying the human-like primates.

Chimpanzees spend a lot of their time in trees, so we are able to collect the samples when they fall down, says Emery Thompson. Chimpanzees also build nests in the trees at night and, just like humans, urinate when they wake up in the morning. Our field staff wakes up very early in the morning to hike out to the nests before the chimpanzees wake up to collect this urine on plastic bags held underneath the trees.

"We have one of the most interdisciplinary labs of its kind, as we collaborate with psychologists, biologists, clinicians and even economists." ProfessorMelissa Emery Thompson

Muller, who is the current Co-director of the Kibale Project has a particular interest in what comparisons between chimpanzee and human behavior and physiology can tell us about human evolution.

We have a National Science Foundation grant right now to look at infant and juvenile development. Were looking at how maternal health might affect juvenile health, growth and behavior, said Muller. Were also looking to see if, for example, testosterone levels predict how males will compete when they grow up.

The researchers also have a grant from the National Institute of Aging to look at the other side of lifehow various factors and experiences influence aging. The average chimp lives to the age of 15 to 20, but if they live that long, their mortality rate decreases, giving them the potential to live well into their 50s. The oldest chimp studied as part of the Project died at 63.

The importance of the research methods these UNM professors specialize in has increased exponentially with recent laws classifying chimps as endangered animals both in the wild and captivity.

Since 2015, it is illegal for individuals or groups to take chimpanzees captive. Invasive research on chimpanzees has also been severely restricted. The Endangered Species Act has helped hundreds of chimps in U.S. laboratories and road side zoos. Most have been sent to sanctuaries where they have proper space and an environment to live in social groups, critical for emotional health.

As chimpanzee research continues to thrive at UNM, Emery Thompson and Muller are very excited about the new expanded assay facilitythe Comparative HuMan and Primate Physiology (CHmPP) Laboratory, to be included in the scheduled Physics, Astronomy, and Interdisciplinary Sciences (PAIS) building.

In the next two years we will be expanding our CHmPP Labexpanding the technologies we use in our own research and creating more opportunities to work with other disciplines, said Emery Thompson. For example, our project collaborates with the Center for Stable Isotopes on studies of chimpanzee nutrition and weaning, so getting everyone under one roof will benefit our research immensely.

Emery Thompson added, We have one of the most interdisciplinary labs of its kind, as we collaborate with psychologists, biologists, clinicians and even economists. For behavioral scientists of all kinds, its important to be able to test subjects without causing stress or interfering with natural behavior.

The CHmPP Lab will be located in the planned Physics & Astronomy and Interdisciplinary Science (PAIS) center on UNMs main campus. The PAIS building will be home to a variety of interdisciplinary science centers that are at the forefront of their various fieldsdoing groundbreaking research that will provide one-of-a-kind opportunities for students and professors.

Our laboratory attracts very high-quality graduate students, says Emery Thompson. They are excited about the opportunity to work with the Kibale Chimpanzee Projects rich dataset and to learn valuable laboratory skills that complement their field research.

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A desert university's deep connection to the jungle - UNM Newsroom

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In the United States alone, 38 million people start their day by eagerly fastening a device to their wrist that is not worn for the purpose of fashion or keeping time. It is a fitness tracker and these little gadgets have swept the nation. Why? Because people love having instant access to their performance, activities and goals. They enjoy tracking their progress throughout the day. They are addicted to the gratifying notifications of success, and the social aspects of competing with friends, family members, and coworkers.

The fitness tracker market has achieved tremendous success by providing its consumers with relevant data and motivating incentives. They are successfully inspiring the world to be more active by leveraging principles from both data science and behavioral science.

For centuries, traditional economic theory dictated that humans make logical, self-interested decisions, always choosing the most favorable conditions. However, reality often demonstrates otherwise.

Every January, how many people do you know say that they want to resolve to save more, spend less, eat better, or exercise more? These admirable goals are often proclaimed with the best of intentions, but are rarely achieved. If people were purely logical, we would all be the healthiest versions of ourselves.

However, the truth is that humans are not 100% rational; we are emotional creatures that are not always predictable. Behavioral economics evolved from this recognition of human irrationality. Behavioral economics is a method of economic analysis that applies psychological insights into human behavior to explain economic decision-making.

Essentially, it is the intersection between economics and behavioral psychology. Behavioral economics helps us understand why only one-third of Americans floss daily, why most peoples expensive home treadmills turn into overpriced coat racks, and why motivating humans is more complicated than ever before.

Traditional economic theory does not address human irrationality

Human behavior can be seen as the byproduct of millions of years of evolution. With a nature forged from hunger, anxiety and fear, it is no wonder the behaviors of modern man can often be irrational driven by forces like peer pressure, availability bias and emotional exhaustion. To change human behavior, we must embrace our human nature, instead of fight it. And one of the most powerful tools to help enable change is data.

Data science is the discipline that allows us to analyze the unseen and with machine learning, it allows us to look at large sets of data and surface patterns, identifying when past performance is indicative of future results. For instance, it lets us forecast what products are most likely to be sold and which customers are most likely to buy. But what if you not only want to understand potential outcomes, what if you want to completely change outcomes, and more specifically, what if you want to change the way in which people behave? Behavioral economics tells us that to make a fundamental change in behavior that will affect the long-term outcome of a process, we must insert an inflection point. What is the best method to create an inflection point or get someone to do something they would not ordinarily do? Incentives.

As an example, you are a sales rep and two years ago your revenue was $1million. Last year it was $1.1 million, and this year you expect $1.2 million in sales. The trend is clear, and your growth has been linear and predictable. However, there is a change in company leadership and your management has increased your quota to $2 million for next year. What is going to motivate you to almost double your revenues? The difference between expectations ($2 million) and reality ($1.2 million) is often referred to as the behavioral gap (see chart below).

When the behavioral gap is significant, an inflection point is needed to close that gap. The right incentive can initiate an inflection point and influence a change in behavior. Perhaps that incentive is an added bonus, Presidents Club eligibility, a promotion, etc.

The behavior gap depicted above represents the difference between raised expectations (management increasing quota) and the trajectory of current sales performance.

In the US, studies from Harvard Business Review and other industry publications posit that companies spend over one trillion dollars annually on incentives. That number is four times the money spent on advertising in the US annually. What that means is that, as a nation, we are deeply invested in incenting people to act in ways that are somewhat contrary to how they would normally act, if left to their own devices. Incentives appear in many forms such as commissions and bonuses for sales personnel and channel sellers, rebate payments and marketing incentives for partners and customers, and promotions, discounts and coupons for end consumers.

Incentives are most effective when they are intelligent, or data driven. Deloitte University Press published a report stating that when it comes to the relationship between data science and behavioral science, it is reasonable to anticipate better results when the two approaches are treated as complementary and applied in tandem. Behavioral science principles should be part of the data scientists toolkit, and vice versa.

Data scientists work with product and sales teams, employing data and patterns to manage incentive programs. Using forecast modeling and behavior mechanics, teams can plot out the path from one goal to the next and analyze and implement proper incentives.

As an example, lets say your company is a furniture manufacturer that uses a CPQ tool to manage its complex quoting and pricing processes. One of the major reasons your company invested in the CPQ solution was to curb chronic, costly discounting by the sales team.

You are a new sales rep using CPQ to build a quote. What if, mid-quote, your system alerts you that the discount you entered, while within the approved range, may not be ideal. Machine learning ran in the background and identified a different discount used by the top 10% of reps that has had more success. Additionally, you learn that if you choose the prescribed discount, you will earn 40% more commission! Talk about a relevant incentive, based on powerful data.

In a real-world implementation, one Quote-to-Cash customer lets call them Company X who links websites with advertisers, needed to be able to better forecast the potential revenue for each deal. The nature of the business does not allow Company X to recognize revenue until a user clicks on an ad. They harnessed machine learning to understand past behavior, used behavioral science to influence future behavior, and implemented A/B testing (comparing two versions of a web page to see which performs better) on incentive effectiveness programs. The A/B testing data allowed Company X to understand the effectiveness of certain incentives to guide customer behavior.

When applied together, data science and behavioral economics provide powerful business results by collecting relevant, timely insight and defining incentives that align human behaviors with organizational goals.

About the author: Sarah Van Caster is a Data Analyst at Apttus and Lead Strategist for Incentives. She has decade of experience in high-tech, communications and logistics industries and she enjoys designing innovative, customer-focused content and solutions. Sarah has degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Drake University.

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Data Science Meets Behavioral Science - Datanami

Mothers singing for their infants generates positive impacts

CORAL GABLES Family Mothers around the world sing to their infants in remarkably similar ways, and infants prefer these specialized songs, says Shannon de lEtoile. The tempo and key certainly dont need to be perfect or professional for mothers and infants to interact through song. In fact, infants may be drawn to the personalized tempo and pitch of their mother, which encourage them to direct their gaze toward and ultimately communicate through this gaze, added de lEtoile.

As one of the first records of human music, infant-directed singing permeates cultural boundaries and parenting traditions. Unlike other forms of caregiving, the act of mothers singing to infants is a universal behavior that seemingly withstands the test of time.

On the surface, the exchange between mother and child may seem standard, but to Shannon de lEtoile, professor of Music Therapy and associate dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, there is much more to the infant-directed song than meets the eyeand ear.

We know from previous research that infants have the innate ability to process music in a sophisticated manner, explained de lEtoile. Initially, I set out to identify infant behaviors in response to live infant-directed singing compared to other common maternal interactions such as reading books and playing with toys. One of the main goals of the research was to clarify the meaning of infant-directed singing as a human behavior and as a means to elicit unique behavioral responses from infants, she added.

Additionally, de lEtoile explored the role of infant-directed singing in relation to intricate bond between mother and infant. In an initial study, she filmed 70 infants responding to six different interactions: mother sings an assigned song, stranger sings an assigned song, mother sings song of choice, mother reads book, mother plays with toy, and the mother and infant listen to recorded music. The results were promising, but also raised additional questions.

High cognitive scores during infant-directed singing suggested that engagement through song is just as effective as book reading or toy play in maintaining infant attention, and far more effective than listening to recorded music, said de lEtoile. But what did the infant engagement tell us about the mothers role during the interaction? she questioned.

de lEtoile continued the study by focusing on the role of the caregiver during infant-directed singing by measuring the make-up of the song and the mothers voice.

Findings revealed that when infants were engaged during song, their mothers instincts are also on high alert, said de lEtoile. Intuitively, when infant engagement declined, the mother adjusted her pitch, tempo or key to stimulate and regulate infant response.

While the intuitive adjustment of the song or singing voice seemed natural to most of the mothers, de lEtoile was inclined to dig further. In a study published in theJournal of Music Therapy, she explored the acoustic parameters in the singing voices of mothers with post-partum depression.

The extraction and analysis of vocal data revealed that mothers with post-partum depression may lack sensitivity and emotional expression in their singing, stated de lEtoile. Although the infants were still engaged during the interaction, the tempo did not change and was somewhat robotic.

According to de lEtoile, for mothers with postpartum depression, infant-directed singing creates a unique and mutually beneficial situation. Through song, the infants are provided with much-needed sensory stimulation that can focus their attention and modulate their arousal. Simultaneously, mothers experience a much-needed distraction from the negative emotions and thoughts associated with depression, while also feeling empowered as a parent.

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Infant Directed Singing Universal Behaviour with Positive Impacts - Net Newsledger

One of the most amazing things about dogs is that they seem to have at least a small sense of morality.Besides looking totally guilty when they realizethey did something bad, a recent study suggeststhat dogs give preference to people who treat others kindly.

Previous research demonstratedthat babies younger than a year old could already learn to judge people by how they interacted with others. That finding led researchers at Kyoto University to investigate whether other animal species might use a similar, innate sense of morality to evaluate social situations. They decided to use dogs and capuchin monkeys by observing their reactions to third-party social evaluations.

In oneexperiment, the researchers made a group of dogswatch their owners struggleto open a container that contained a toy. After struggling with no success, the dogsthen watched their owner turn totwoactors one who either helped them or refused to help, plusanother who acted passively.

The dogs were then offered food by the actors. They didnt seem to show a preference if they were exposed to a helpful actor and a passive actors, but if they were exposed to an unhelpful actor and a passive actor, then the dogs were more likely to accept food from the passive one.

Its possible that the long history and evolution of dogsmay have something to do with their ability to negatively respond topeople who are unhelpful to their owners. They may be more sensitive than expectedto humanbehavior both of their owners, as completely strangers.

As for the monkeys?The researchers discovered that they also negatively evaluate people who refuse to help others. The monkeys were involveda similar experiment, watching an actor struggle to open a container as they turnedto another actor who would either help or refuse to help.

When the monkeys were offered food from both actors, they didnt show a preference between the actorwho struggled to open the container and the actor who helped. If the actor refused to help, however, the monkeys were more likely to take the food from the actor who struggled to open the container.

The researchers also tested the monkeys ability to judge fairness by making them watch two actors interact together using three different balls. When one actor asked for all three balls from the other actor, the actor with the balls would either give all three balls to the other actor or give none at all.

The monkeys were then offered food by both actors and again showed no preference if the actor with the balls played fairly. However, if the actor had refused to give the balls to to the other participant, then the monkeys were more likely to accept food from the actor who had asked for the balls. Animal behaviorists suggestthat wild monkeys use these types of social evaluations to determine which other monkeys they can get along with in their groups.

The results of these experiments suggest that non-human species may have emotional reactions similar to those ofhuman infants, allowingthem to engage in third-party based social evaluations. By identifying whoexhibits antisocial behavior, they can make choices that serve them best.

So, dog owners and perhaps monkey owners too shouldnt expect their furry family members to judgethem based off how theyre treated. Theyknow when youre being rude or unhelpful to others when in their presence, and they probably dont like it.

These findings offer just another good reason to be kind to everyoneyou interact with in your everyday life.

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Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Can Dogs Evaluate Human Kindness and Generosity? - Care2.com

The Anthropology Department is celebrating the third annual Anthropology Day today. Anthropology Day is a global event hosted by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) as a way for anthropologists to celebrate our discipline while sharing it with the world around us, according to the AAAs website, http://www.americananthro.org. The AAA notes that it will be celebrated by over 150 colleges and universities this year, in addition to K-12 schools and other organizations. One of the original planners of the AAAs inaugural Anthropology Day in 2015 was MNSU alumnus Joshua Anderson.

Todays celebration at MNSU will be held at the Anthropology Department office, Trafton North 359 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will feature prizes, a trivia contest, cake, snacks, and tours of the department at 10, 11, and noon. Community service is an important part of Anthropology Day and this year the departments goal is to collect $150 in donations and 150 pounds of food for the ECHO Food Shelf. Food donations can still be dropped off today and tomorrow outside Trafton North 359. This years Anthropology Day is being celebrated as part of MNSUs sesquicentennial celebrations.

Last years event featured a talk entitled Women and Power in African Communities: The Case of Tanzania by Dr. Rosemarie Mwaipopo.

Anthropology Day is aimed at creating awareness for the study of anthropology. Dr. Chelsea Mead says that a lot of times students [and] people in the general community have never heard of anthropology before. The point of the day is to share what anthropology is, get people to have an awareness of what the discipline is about, have some fun, share what we do, and celebrate our discipline.

Dr. Kathleen Blue explains that anthropology is the study of all humans in all times and places.

Almost anything has a human component, she says.

She notes that anthropology is divided into four subdisciplines: archaeological, cultural, biological, and linguistic. Archaeological anthropologists try to understand how humans lived in the past by analyzing the physical clues they left behind. Cultural anthropologists study contemporary human culture. Biological anthropologists, says Blue, study the biological aspects of the human. Linguistic anthropologists are concerned with how humans use language.

Dr. J. Heath Anderson puts anthropology this way: [It is] the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the social sciences.

Dr. Anderson, who has a focus in archaeology, is working on a site in central Mexico to understand the ancient Toltecs, a civilization that predated the Aztecs. His research focuses on how complex societies reorganize following collapse. He says that one of [his] favorite things [he] gets to do is speak at high schools about his research and the study of anthropology in general.

What distinguishes anthropology from other social sciences is that it is holistic, he says. Were not just interested in economic behavior like economists, were not just interested in whats going on in peoples heads like psychologists, were not just interested in things that are written down and things about the past like historians. We are interested in all aspects of human behavior, all aspects of humanity, and, crucially, we dont think you can understand human beings unless you take all of that into account.

More information on MNSUs celebration of Anthropology Day can be found at the Anthropology Departments webpage, http://www.sbs.mnsu.edu/anthropology.

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Anthropology Department hosts third annual Anthropology Day - MSU Reporter

All too often, people use intuition, along with trial and error, to devise social programs. Sometimes they guess right and the programs are effective. But many times they guess wrong and the programs fail to meet their goals.

Some fields, such as education, are fairly advanced in their knowledge about human behavior and have devised ways to incorporate that knowledge into their work (think schools and teacher education).

But most fields are not as sophisticated. They either havent taken the time to understand how knowledge of human behavior might impact their work. Or they are sloppy and inconsistent in applying that knowledge in the programs that they run. Consider some anti-drug campaigns. If it were really as easy as getting people to Just Say No, the United States wouldnt have the opioid epidemic that it now has.

In recent years, however, the behavioral sciencespsychology, cognitive science, neurology, behavioral economics, and other disciplineshave advanced significantly. We now have a large and growing body of knowledge about how people interact with their environment and with each other in a wide variety of settings. And its time we begin applying that knowledge more consistently in the social sector.

The spring 2017 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review has several feature articles that do just that. The first is our cover story, The New Science of Designing for Humans, by Piyush Tantia, the co-executive director of ideas42, arguably the leading consultancy on how to use behavioral economics to solve social problems. Tantia argues that organizations should adopt a scientific approach to designing social programs. Byputting behavioral science and impact evaluation together we can design more like engineers than like artists, writes Tantia. He goes on to propose an approachdubbed behavioral designto help create programs in a variety of settings.

The second feature article on behavioral science is Stop Raising Awareness Already, written by two University of Florida scholars. The authors argue that all too often organizations focus their eff orts on raising awareness about an issue, with little thought about how to get people to then act on that awareness. If the goal were to raise awareness among new parents of the importance of immunizing children, you wouldnt be satisfied if parents were simply aware, write the authors. Youd want to be sure that they were also having their children immunized for the right diseases at the right age.

The third article that addresses this subject is Embedding Education in Everyday Life, by three Harvard University scholars. They propose embedding education in everyday experiences, such as having barbers who cater to African-American men provide customers with information on hypertension. Embedded education, they argue, is a more reliable way to reach certain groups of people, and its more effective because the education takes place between people who have a pre-existing relationship and capitalizes on what we know about lifelong learning and behavior change.

But it takes time to learn about behavioral science and then more time to incorporate that knowledge into a program. Its hard work, and not as fun as brainstorming with Post-it Notes. But it is time well spent because the difference between a program that is well-designed and one that isnt can be significant.

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Thumbs Up for Science - Stanford Social Innovation Review (subscription)

By now the health deficits of sitting all day are so widely studied and well-documented that they're impossible to ignore. Studies show that sitting increases lower back pain, slows our metabolisms, and shortens our life-spans, among a host of other things. Not even daily exercise is enough to offset the damage. What's a health-conscious person to do?

The End of Sitting. [Photo: Ricky Rijkenberg via RAAAF]

One answer: Eliminate chairs altogether. At the interdisciplinary Dutch design studio RAAAF (Rietveld Architecture-Art-Affordances), brothers and cofounders Ronald and Erik Rietveld have been studying how radically redesigning the workplace and home might affect how sedentary we are. Their installations The End of Sitting, which debuted in 2014, and Breaking Habits, opening at the Mondriaan Fund for Visual Arts in Amsterdam February 16, present chair-free environments that encourage people to get up and move. As Erik puts it, "As long as there are chairs present, people will sit in them habitually."

Though grounded in scientific research, the Rietveld's installations are mostly conceptual; they're about researching how we can manipulate an environment's design to impact sedentary behavior. But they bring up an interesting idea: What if we did banish chairs altogether? Is that even possible? And would that solve our societal sitting problem, or just open up the door to new problems?

The design of the structures in the Rietveld's project are the result of years of research and a series of experiments. Ronald is a practicing architect, and Erik is a philosopher, whose research project "The Landscape of Affordances: Situating the Embodied Mind," funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), forms the basis for the design work. The pair's research revolves around the scientific concept of affordancesput simply, the idea that human behavior is learned by picking up the information that is relevant to survival, and ignoring the rest. Throughout history, trees have afforded climbing on, for example, and holes have afforded hiding in. And for centuries in Western society, chairs have afforded sitting in. The easiest ways to change human behavior is to radically change our surrounding environment.

Working together, Erik and Ronald have taken the idea of affordances and applied it to the prospect of a chair-less and table-less future. "The easiest ways to change human behavior is to radically change our surrounding environment," says Erik. Three years ago, the studio reimagined the office as a labyrinth of concrete and plywoodwithout traditional desks or chairsfor The End of Sitting. In Breaking Habits, they expanded the scope to include the home, with a futuristic and surreal "domestic landscape."

The cut-away office space in The End Of Sitting structure was rigid and confining. Based on feedback from participants in a study they conducted in the installation, the Rietvelds determined that softer material would make the act of not sitting more comfortable. As a result, the new installation is made from large swaths of carpet-like materiala proprietary mix of wool threads and a felt basethat are draped over stainless-steel rollers suspended from the ceiling.

In Breaking Habits, the spareness of the environment eliminates more than just chairs: There are no desks on which to put a laptop, thereby discouraging sitting and working at home. There are no hard surfaces for a TV to watch Netflix from bed. Visitors to the installation are invited to use the spaceto interact with it, and to lean, stand, or lie against the soft surfaces. In turn, the Rietvelds will observe those interactions in an informal manner. They also invite behavioral scientists to bring study groups to the installation, and use it as a place for more formal scientific study on how people might use and adapt to this type of new environment. (Though no scientific studies are scheduled at the moment, the Rietvelds say the Mondriaan Fund appears open to letting scientists use the space in that way.)

Breaking Habits

RAAAF's futuristic landscapes aren't necessarily homey and comfortable, but they aren't supposed to be. They are meant to explore new possibilities for our spaces, not represent the exact blueprint of our house.

One of the most important aspects of RAAAF's experimental environments is that they encourage the user to shift positions frequently. In Breaking Habits, for instance, some pieces of fabric are configured into pyramids or perpendicular walls on which to lean; others are suspended like a hammock for lying down on when your legs muscles inevitably get tired. The goal was "temporary comfort, not permanent comfort," says Ronald.

This idea addresses one of the main health risks of sitting: the slow-down of our metabolism. When we sit for a prolonged amount of time, our skeletal muscles remain inactive and the metabolic pathways linked to these muscles that regulate how we store fats and break down sugars become less efficient. Moving around, stretching, oscillating between standing up and sitting back down againthese are things that scientists recommend to help combat the onset of metabolic-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and heart disease. The rungs hanging from the ceiling and the more flexible landscape in Breaking Habits were built to aid and allow for stretching, the brothers say, and since leaning against fabric is only comfortable for so long, moving around is also a necessity.

According to Avi Biswas, PhD candidate at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto (who was not involved in the RAAAF project), the way environments are designed can make a significant difference in offsetting the metabolism slow-down. Biswas, whose post-doctoral work (he defends his dissertation at the end of the month) will focus on the influence of the workplace environment on sedentary behavior of workers, says that any place that encourages you to get up, take a walk, and move around is helpful in slowing down the health risks of sitting.

However, he also notes that not all movement is created equal: Tasks that require exerting more energy will burn more calories, and will have the greatest effect on your metabolism. In that regard, merely shifting positions is not as helpful as, say, taking a lap around the office. It's the same way that having a standing desk is beneficial, but not quite as much so as walking on a treadmill while working. Ultimately, we need to both exercise and move more to remove the risks of sedentary behaviorand while RAAAF's installations do encourage movement, they don't necessarily guide people in exerting the kind of energy that would be most helpful in counteracting slowing metabolisms.

The End of Sitting [Photo: Jan Kempenaers via RAAAF]

So eliminating chairs won't automatically get us to exercise, but will it encourage us to invent other resting positions out of necessity? And if so, will those positions be better than sitting?

From a behavioral perspective, people interact with the environment that we are exposed to, says Lucas Carr, an assistant professor and director of the Behavioral Medicine Lab at the University of Iowa (who is also uninvolved with RAAAF's project). But even without chairs, "humans are still going to rest for long periods of time," says Carr. "It's how we were designed."

So eliminating all chairs without replacing them with better resting options simply wouldn't work. Just like sitting all day is bad for your health, standing for too long is unhealthy, too. It causes fatigue and blood begins to pool in the legs, among other things. And leaning against something isn't necessarily much better.

As Carr points out, prior to being conditioned to sit still in chairs for long periods of time, young children instinctively sit in more natural resting positions that include sitting on their heels, sitting cross-legged, and sitting in a squatting position. The latter is an effective middle ground between standing and sitting, and it's actually a position that Carr would still recommend todaythough he acknowledges it's not a position most people want to take in public. (As a sidenote, Carr says he doesn't know of any products or environments that would normalize or support that position, but suggests it's an area that might be helpful if designers explored.)

Meanwhile, Breaking Habits gives designers something to mull over between now and 2025, the year that RAAAF set for its futuristic home. Our living rooms may never look like the installation, but it wouldn't hurt to drape a few carpets and get serious about chair alternatives just in casethe best way to kick a bad habit is to replace it with a good one.

Slideshow Credits: 01 / Photo: Jan Kempenaers via RAAAF; 02 / Photo: Jan Kempenaers via RAAAF; 03 / Photo: Jan Kempenaers via RAAAF; 04 / Photo: Ricky Rijkenberg via RAAAF; 05 / Photo: Ricky Rijkenberg via RAAAF;

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Sitting Is Deadly. Could Banning Chairs Help? - Co.Design (blog)