Critical Thinking Issues in Nutrition and Agriculture

Critical Thinking Is Hard.

Talking to people about food, nutrition, and agriculture can be frustrating. People can be loose with the facts, unreasonable in their inferences, and overly certain about their knowledge.

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We use behavioral science to explore why such failures in critical thinking happen, and what communicators can do to help. Our frameworks and resources can help people get better at critical thinking, and at promoting critical thinking.

Jason Riis, PhD

Jason Riis is the CEO and Chief Behavioral Scientist of Behavioralize, a consulting firm dedicated to solving business, health, and social problems through application of behavioral science. 

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Dr. Riis is also a Senior Fellow at Wharton's Behavior Change for Good Initiative.

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Before founding Behavioralize, Jason had a 20 year academic career, including many years as a faculty member at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) and at Harvard Business School. His Ph.D. is in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Michigan, and he was a post-doctoral fellow for Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman at Princeton University. ​

Brandon McFadden, PhD

Brandon McFadden is an assistant professor of Applied Economics and Statistics at the University of Delaware. He is also an affiliated faculty member at the Center for Experimental and Applied Economics. His research interests include food choice, perceptions of food, and asymmetric information. He teaches courses related to Food Retailing and Consumer Behavior and Establishing and Managing a Food Agribusiness Enterprise. 

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For more information on his recent publications and presentations, visit his webpage here.

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Brandon received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics with a minor in Statistics at Oklahoma State University with advisor Dr. Jason Lusk.