Applying Wise Interventions around the World

One of the key goals of social science is to understand and address the major problems in social life –poverty, social exclusion, child abuse, and discrimination. Different lenses offer different tools. In this podcast, Dr Greg Walton and Dr Kate Orkin discuss a distinctly social-psychological approach, called psychologically “wise” interventions. These interventions precisely address how people make sense of themselves, other people, and social situations. Greg talks about his work synthesizing this field and developing the theory underlying wise interventions. Kate talks about her work as a development economist applying these ideas to low-income settings in Ethiopia and Kenya. Greg and Kate have demonstrated that even brief interventions can have long lasting effects on educational and economic success, as well as on wellbeing, job satisfaction, and community involvement.

References by speakers:
• World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior (https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2015)
• Wise interventions database (https://www.wiseinterventions.org/), handbook (Walton, G. M., & Crum, A. J. (Eds.). (2020). Handbook of wise interventions. Guilford Publications), and Greg Walton’s work (http://gregorywalton-stanford.weebly.com/)
• Ethiopia Aspirations study (https://mbrg.bsg.ox.ac.uk/mind-and-behaviour-projects/aspirations-and-fo...), Kenya Aspirations study (https://mbrg.bsg.ox.ac.uk/mind-and-behaviour-projects/cash-transfers-and...) and Kate Orkin’s other work (https://sites.google.com/site/kateorkin/home)
• Bugental, D. B., Ellerson, P. C., Lin, E. K., Rainey, B., Kokotovic, A., & O'Hara, N. (2002). A cognitive approach to child abuse prevention. Journal of Family Psychology, 16(3), 243. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12238408/
• Dr Greg Walton in conversation with Professor Anandi Mani at the Blavatnik School of Government https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phu1yH42jn0&ab_channel=BlavatnikSchoolof...
• Bossuroy, T., Goldstein, M., Karimou, B., Karlan, D., Kazianga, H., Parienté, W., ... & Wright, K. A. (2022). Tackling psychosocial and capital constraints to alleviate poverty. Nature, 1-7. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04647-8
• Digital Green, Ethiopia https://www.digitalgreen.org/ethiopia/
• Paluck, E. L. (2009). Reducing intergroup prejudice and conflict using the media: a field experiment in Rwanda. Journal of personality and social psychology, 96(3), 574. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19254104/
• Elizabeth Tipton, generalizability research https://www.bethtipton.com/ and the National Study of Learning Mindsets (https://studentexperiencenetwork.org/national-mindset-study/)