How can we reframe setbacks in a positive light? Alison Ledgerwood featured on NPR's TED Radio Hour

Alison Ledgerwood is a social psychologist, professor, and a Chancellor's Fellow at the University of California, Davis. This interview on NPR's TED Radio Hour  and the linked Ted talk feature some of Professor Ledgerwood's research on how humans get stuck in particular ways of thinking, as well as the psychological tools that enable them to get unstuck and move beyond their immediate experience. Her lab seeks to answer questions such as: When and why do people get stuck in negative or positive ways of thinking about something? When do people's attitudes shift in response to an individual's opinion or a casual anecdote, and when do their attitudes align instead with prevailing social norms and group consensus? To what extent do people's ideas about what they like and dislike map onto what they actually like? And how can researchers design better systems for conducting, analyzing, and reporting research that help scientists counteract the biases of their human minds?