Liam Delaney
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liamdelaney2025.bsky.social
Liam Delaney
@liamdelaney2025.bsky.social

Head of LSE Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science. Personal webpage with reading lists etc., here https://economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com/

Psychology 32%
Public Health 14%
Pinned
Video of my IAREP Kahneman lecture on positioning economic psychology in the emerging behavioral public policy field youtube.com/watch?v=_3ti... Readings & some speaking notes here. economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com/2024/12/iare... Thanks to students & colleagues for many years of discussions.
IAREP Kahneman Lecture: Economic Psychology and Behavioural Public Policy
economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com
Our lives are full of accusations of hypocrisy, yet little seems to change. Join "The Hypocrisy Trap" author @mhallsworth.bsky.social at @lsepbs.bsky.social on Wednesday, Nov. 19th, where he will discuss tools for moving from outrage to outcomes with Professor @liamdelaney2025.bsky.social:
The Hypocrisy Trap with Dr Michael Hallsworth
Dr Hallsworth will explore how the "hypocrisy trap" — our relentless drive to expose inconsistency — either breeds more hypocrisy or exhausts our belief in shared standards altogether.
www.lse.ac.uk

Blogpost on some readings and talks to get some sort of handle on emerging Behsci and AI applications economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com/2025/10/ai-a...
AI and Behavioural Applications
economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com

Added to my blog disclaimer alongside the usual stuff "Written by Liam without AI unless otherwise stated" economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com Does it matter?

Reposted by Liam Delaney

📘 Our lives are full of accusations of hypocrisy — against politicians, companies, and each other. Yet despite this noise, little seems to change. Join us for this talk on 19 Nov where @mhallsworth.bsky.social & @liamdelaney2025.bsky.social will discuss Michael's recent book 'The Hypocrisy Trap'.
The Hypocrisy Trap with Dr Michael Hallsworth
Dr Hallsworth will explore how the "hypocrisy trap" — our relentless drive to expose inconsistency — either breeds more hypocrisy or exhausts our belief in shared standards altogether.
www.lse.ac.uk

The 18th Irish Workshop on Economics, Psychology, & Policy will take place on 14th November 2025 at the University of Galway. Programme and some remaining places for those who wish to attend the talks available here economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com/2025/10/18th...

I feel like I am the last human who still uses blogger but it is a really cool package. I am delighted and somewhat surprised that Google still maintain it. Am continuing to post here about economics, psychology, policy and related topics economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com

Reposted by Liam Delaney

IMPERFECT ORACLE, on the uses and limits of AI - publication day! Looking forward to the launch on Wednesday, at Cambridge University. US events to follow. @liamdelaney2025.bsky.social @ichotiner.bsky.social
www.amazon.com/Imperfect-Or...
Imperfect Oracle: What AI Can and Cannot Do
Imperfect Oracle: What AI Can and Cannot Do [Sunstein, Cass R.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Imperfect Oracle: What AI Can and Cannot Do
www.amazon.com

@dilipsoman.bsky.social was thinking about your book at this stage in the Kerry hills yesterday!! I can attest that the last mile can be challenging. Though the last bit of the last mile when you can see the line is good fun!!

Fair play to him. Have had that in the background on many late night attempts to do some research. A really strong piece of traditional public braoad. The archive is a great legacy www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
‘It’s been quite a ride!’ Melvyn Bragg to step down from Radio 4’s In Our Time after 27 years
The broadcaster is leaving the hit BBC programme after presenting more than 1,000 episodes and having ‘enriched the lives of millions’
www.theguardian.com
📣 Come and join our amazing team!

We're looking to recruit an inspirational Course Tutor in Psychology to join the team supporting our leading BSc in Psychological and Behavioural Science.

ℹ️ The appointment is fixed term for two years.

⏱️ Closing deadline: 25 August 2025

🔗 buff.ly/1yHN187

Heard a quote once from someone (wish I could remember who) summarising behavioural finance work that said that stock markets reflect the mood swings of old rich guys. Can't remember a case before where they reflect the mood swings of one individual old rich guy!
FT Editorial: "Unless the Israeli government agrees to an immediate end to the war and a surge of aid into Gaza, western countries should be sanctioning Netanyahu and his government." www.ft.com/content/69d5...

Reposted by Liam Delaney

Reposted by Liam Delaney

Famine is "playing out" in Gaza, a global hunger monitor said in an alert issued as international criticism of Israel intensifies over rapidly worsening conditions in the Palestinian territory.
Famine 'playing out' in Gaza, warns global hunger monitor
Famine is "playing out" in Gaza, a global hunger monitor said in an alert issued as international criticism of Israel intensifies over rapidly worsening conditions in the Palestinian territory.
www.rte.ie

Reposted by Liam Delaney

Honored to be back for LSE #behaviouralscience Alumni Conference, especially at graduation time! Excited to join great panel w/Zeina Afif (World Bank) & Anna Guerraggio (UNDP) & engage with past & current cohorts

@lsepbs.bsky.social @mmglz.bsky.social @krpd.bsky.social @liamdelaney2025.bsky.social
Thrilled to be part of the Bluesky community! 🎉

Join us, including Acting Dean @profejzrobinson.bsky.social, at the beginning of our journey to lead the way in sustainability impact.

Find out more about us here ⬇️ www.lse.ac.uk/global-schoo...
Global School of Sustainability
We inform policy and influence the economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protections crucial to ensuring a sustainable future.
www.lse.ac.uk
Today (w/ @ox.ac.uk @stanford @MIT @LSE) we’re sharing the results of the largest AI persuasion experiments to date: 76k participants, 19  LLMs, 707 political issues.

We examine “levers” of AI persuasion: model scale, post-training, prompting, personalization, & more! 

🧵:

Up Tipp!

For UK friends All Ireland hurling final on BBC2 now. If you want to see something that brings a big chunk of Ireland to a halt every year highly recommended.
WHO @who.int · Jul 18
People are getting killed trying to get food.

877 people have died and 5666 were injured in #Gaza trying to get food in recent weeks.
for this week's Lunch with the FT, I met a humanitarian hero: war doctor David Nott www.ft.com/content/e5fa...
War zone surgeon David Nott: ‘Life is all about taking calculated risks’
The doctor who’s saved countless lives through his work in Ukraine and Gaza on operating under fire, the challenges of PTSD — and his belief in God
www.ft.com

Enjoyed back-handed compliments about talks over the years "I was going to go home when I saw it was an economist but you weren't too bad" from an audience member after a public talk a few years back my favourite. Famous public intellectual was "pleasantly surprised you have read around a bit".
Holy shit the government's Restoring Trust in Democracy policy paper is good.
This is how insane people sound when you tell them why A.I. is bad

Reposted by Liam Delaney

🎤 Prof @liamdelaney2025.bsky.social gave the IAREP Kahneman Keynote Lecture 2025. During his inspiring talk, Prof Delaney explored the evolving role of economic psychology in shaping behavioural public policy.

#Economics #Psychology #BehaviouralScience #Keynote #Kahneman #PublicPolicy
Liam Delaney – Positioning Economic Psychology in Behavioral Public Policy | IAREP 2025
YouTube video by IAREP
www.youtube.com

Been 20 years or so in the making in Ireland but national pension auto-enrolment now at this stage. A blog-post from a few years back outlining the issues and background research. economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com/2024/04/pens...
Only a small % of people engage in toxic activity online, but they’re responsible for a disproportionate share of hostile or misleading content on nearly every platform

Because super-users are so active, they dominate our collective impression of the internet www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
Are a few people ruining the internet for the rest of us?
Why does the online world seem so toxic compared with normal life? Our research shows that a small number of divisive accounts could be responsible – and offers a way out
www.theguardian.com

Recent CEP paper on the value of parks for well-being during crises. In general the more you look at quantifying welfare effects the more urban green spaces come into prominence cep.lse.ac.uk/_NEW/PUBLICA...
The value of a park in crises: Quantifying the health and wellbeing benefits of green spaces using exogenous variations in use values
Most people consider parks important for their quality of life, yet systematic causal evidence is missing. We exploit exogenous variations in their use values to estimate causal effects. Using a representative household panel with precise geographical coordinates of households linked to satellite images of green spaces with a nationwide coverage, we employ a spatial difference-in-differences design, comparing within-individual changes between residents living close to a green space and those living further away. We exploit Covid-19 as exogenous shock. We find that green spaces raised overall life satisfaction while reducing symptoms of anxiety (feelings of nervousness and worry) and depression. There is also suggestive evidence for reduced loneliness. Given the number of people in their surroundings, a compensating-surplus calculation suggests that parks added substantial benefits during the period studied.
cep.lse.ac.uk

Reposted by Liam Delaney

Still trying with GPTo3. I asked it to help me confirm and find a half-remembered anecdote from philosopher Jonathan Glover probably his brilliant book "Humanity".
GPT found it, gave me page refs in 2 editions, and listed other sources. Impressive! Only problem: the story is not in the book.

Reposted by Liam Delaney

💥 New: What is the value of a park?

Research from Christian Krekel @lsepbs.bsky.social @cep-lse.bsky.social finds that green spaces in urban areas produce wellbeing benefits that equate to around €119 per resident. blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...
What is the value of a park? - EUROPP
Wellbeing data suggests the monetary value of a park to residents of urban areas can be put at around €119 per resident, in any given year.
blogs.lse.ac.uk