Chapter 164: Nick Epley invites introverts into improved interpersonal interactions

Happy full moon, everybody! Humans are the most social species on the planet. So ... why don't we act like it? Why is loneliness rising? Why are we increasingly entombed in echo chambers? What is preventing us from connecting? Enter Nick Epley, Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and one of the world's leading researchers on the psychology of social interaction. Nick grew up in rural Iowa, lives in Chicago with his family, and has spent his career asking a deceptively simple question: Why do the most social creatures on Earth often choose to be less social than they could be? Nick is the author of 'Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want', and his newest book, 'A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection'. His research spans social cognition, perspective-taking, loneliness, anthropomorphism, and why our judgments about people are so often inaccurate. Nick has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR. His course at Booth, 'Designing a Good Life', is an ethics course exploring how to build lives that are ethical, successful, and genuinely fulfilling, and it's among the school's most sought-after classes. Pull up a chair and let's talk about the differences between introversion and extroversion, the ethics of a good life, parenting five children (yes, five!), how technology is affecting the ways we socialize, the uncertainty effect, finding wisdom, and of course… Nick Epley's 3 most formative books. Let's flip the page to chapter 164 now…