This review discusses findings on the use of behavioral nudges in both the Canadian and U.S. military. To date, most of this research has focused on improving recruitment and healthy eating behaviors in military personnel. The current review also highlights important areas of future research, focusing on the role behavioral nudges could potentially play in curbing three pressing issues in the U.S. military: 1) recruitment, 2) health-related readiness of the military, and 3) suicide prevention. The review concludes with an overview of unique challenges this work may face in the military context as well as unique resources available for this research and implementation not likely accessible in civilian communities.

This review delves into the nuanced boundary conditions of social norms in fostering behavior change within the realm of climate action. Current research is examined within a "Sender - Message - Receiver (SMeR)" framework, which investigates factors such as group identification and group size that influence the effectiveness of social norms. Furthermore, it explores how cultural context, personal norms, emotions, and ambiguity shape individuals' responses to social norms-based messages. By illuminating these boundary conditions, the review provides insights into the complexities of social normative influence and offers guidance for designing more effective intervention techniques to promote behavioral change. Understanding these nuances is crucial for developing targeted strategies that resonate with diverse audiences and facilitate meaningful shifts toward a more environmentally sustainable future.

Why do individuals tend to discount bad news when making judgements about the likelihood of future events? In this short review, we explore recent research findings regarding this frequently observed and replicated phenomenon - optimism bias - with particular attention on how this bias affects the way individuals update or revise their beliefs. We begin by highlighting five interrelated frameworks for understanding optimism bias (utility maximization, active inference, dual systems, cognitive immunity, predictive processing). We then examine findings from affective and clinical domains that indicate that people with depression and other psychiatric disorders, as well as acutely sad or anxious individuals, have dampened optimistic bias when updating beliefs in response to good news. Finally, we consider the neural underpinnings of these phenomena through the free energy principle and discuss implications for clinical interventions and future research.

Individuals with substance misuse and substance use disorder (SUD) experience especially high rates of elevated anxiety, including anxiety disorders, and the co-occurrence of these conditions is related to worse treatment outcomes. Given that these patients may have little motivation to change their substance misuse if they use substances to cope with their chronically elevated anxiety, interventions that include components that target motivation may be especially useful. Thus, this paper reviews the recent extant literature on treatments developed specifically for these high-risk patients that include motivational interviewing (MI) techniques to increase motivation for behavioral change. Results indicate that two modalities have been tested - in-person therapies and online interventions. The majority use MI techniques to change substance use and some to change anxiety-related behaviors. The majority also incorporate cognitive-behavioral skills to manage substance use and anxiety. Data indicate that MI techniques can be administered in-person and online to decrease substance misuse and anxiety among patients with elevated anxiety and substance misuse.

Nudges are a cost-effective and scalable tool used to promote certain choices and have been applied across several domains, such as public health and policy and, more recently, mental health-related behaviors. The likelihood of individuals responding to a nudge ("nudgeability") is affected by individual traits such as personality and gender. This review synthesizes the effects of personality traits and gender on decision-making and nudgeability. We provide future directions, which consider these effects when evaluating mental health-related nudging. The specific type of nudge and the behavior being nudged may be more important to consider when designing nudges, rather than general trends in how certain personality traits or genders respond to nudges.

A central challenge in mental healthcare is effectively disseminating accurate, evidence-based information to encourage behaviors that improve well-being. Nudges, though widely used, often yield small, short-lived effects in changing behaviors. An alternative approach, meta-nudging, uses social influencers to indirectly change beliefs and behaviors by shifting norms within a social group. Meta-nudging may hold promise as a less paternalistic and longer lasting method for promoting positive mental health behaviors. Though, the use of social influencers raises ethical considerations and measurement challenges. Future research should explore AI-generated influencers to enhance personalization and efficacy in promoting mental health.

Hoarding disorder (HD) represents a growing public health burden. Although excessive saving is the cardinal feature of this disorder, hoarding is also typically characterised by excessive acquisition of objects, either passively or actively. HD and a related clinical condition, compulsive buying-shopping disorder, are particularly challenging to prevent and treat within the context of consumer society, which is marked by growing acquiring tendencies. Implicit approaches, including nudges, present an intriguing and potentially fruitful avenue to help address impulsive and excessive acquisition of possessions. In this brief review, we provide an overview of research on using nudges, boosts, and other implicit approaches to influence decision-making about possessions. We consider both general population-level approaches, as well as more targeted nudge strategies. We conclude by proposing opportunities for future research to address impulsive acquiring. General and targeted approaches may help to reduce societal and environmental impacts of consumerism, while simultaneously making a small but meaningful impact in the lives of HD patients and those at risk for developing the disorder.

An increasing number of organizations worldwide are engaging in diversity branding to promote their commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace. In this paper, we review 39 peer-reviewed articles on diversity branding, representing the most recent and significant studies in the field. Our review highlights the prevalence of diversity branding, core conceptual and theoretical approaches, and key findings. We also identify directions for future research, emphasizing company-level outcomes and potential negative, unintended consequences of diversity branding.

This article reviews the state of the art of the literature on perceived age discrimination in organizations from 2010 to 2024. We discuss common conceptions, measurement approaches, and theoretical perspectives on age discrimination. Thereafter, we summarize key findings that differ between studies exploring antecedents of age discrimination and those considering employee and organizational consequences. In a summary, we advocate for further research on mitigating age discrimination, especially in the context of digitalization and generational differences, emphasizing the need for age-inclusive practices and interventions.

In recent years, scholars from different fields have studied the effects of scarcity on social behaviour, producing mixed findings. This review synthesizes the most recent literature on the topic and proposes a framework to organize the evidence. According to this framework, scarcity produces an attentional shift towards the scarce resource and a cognitive load that triggers heuristic thinking; this affects social behaviour in various ways, depending on individual and contextual factors, which can be transient (e.g., emotional states or social expectations), or enduring (e.g., personality or social environment). We then apply this framework to explain when and how scarcity influences parochialism. We conclude with a caution against the uncritical use of scarcity salience as a tool for social behavioural change.

This paper explores self-control beyond the framework of time discounting, as is conventional in economics and decision research. Contrary to the notion that self-control failures stem from hyperbolic time discounting or present bias, we argue that self-control problems represent conflicts between the motivational thrusts of affects - i.e., emotions, physiological states, and cognitive motivational feeling states - and deliberations about the best course of behavior. Drawing upon theoretical foundations and empirical evidence, we highlight how affective states can both undermine and necessitate self-control. We critique the temporal discounting model for its inability to account for diverse self-control scenarios and propose that effective self-regulation often involves strategies to avoid or manage affective triggers, thus providing a more comprehensive understanding of self-control mechanisms.

This paper examines the dual role of commitment in accelerating the mitigation of maladaptive norms. By drawing on the literature on social norms and commitment, I analyze how commitments (i) explain the deviant behavior of trendsetters and (ii) expedite social change by prompting counterpreferential choices among second movers. Specifically, the paper explores two key aspects of this dynamic: (1) the importance of moral norms, particularly in the relationship between trendsetters' commitments and their unconditional preferences, and (2) the unique role of second movers, whose commitment to trendsetters can lead them to make choices that contradict their conditional preferences in favor of trendsetters' behavior. This suggests that second movers, despite their tendency to conform to established social norms, may act against their conditional preferences due to their commitment to trendsetters. Understanding the role of commitments in shaping the behaviors of trendsetters and second movers is essential to overcoming psychological barriers that impede social change. Nonetheless, further exploration is needed to determine which maladaptive norms are most responsive to commitments and under what circumstances counterpreferential choices are likely to prevail.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are widely adopted by organizations to improve work conditions and career outcomes for disadvantaged groups, yet they often struggle with achieving sustainable change. This paper examines employee resistance as a barrier to DEI initiatives' success. We review the literature on the conceptualization and study of resistance to DEI initiatives, and offer recommendations for future research. Overall, we advocate for a behavioral perspective to generate a more nuanced understanding of the complex nature of this resistance, which highlights its potentially ambivalent and subtle manifestations, and emphasizes its evolving nature in response to changing contexts over time. Acknowledging this complexity is crucial for advancing our understanding of resistance to DEI initiatives and for organizations aiming to address it effectively.

Research into society's informal rules of conduct, or norms, has recently experienced a surge, extending across multiple academic disciplines. Despite this growth, the theoretical modeling of norms often remains siloed within specific paradigms, as different disciplines tend to favor certain frameworks over others, thereby hindering the spread of innovative ideas. This article breaks through disciplinary barriers to explore recent advancements in the mathematical study of norms. It specifically focuses on cutting-edge theoretical research, structuring the discussion around four general frameworks: game theory, evolutionary game theory, agent-based modeling, and multi-agent reinforcement learning.

Despite extensive research on group diversity, ambiguity persists regarding its impact on work-related processes and outcomes. Traditionally, research has focused on objective team-level differences, yielding inconsistent effects. This review shifts the focus to perceived diversity-the degree to which team members are aware of one another's differences-and explores its conceptualizations and effects. We argue that studying diversity perceptions allows us to break free from the assumptions underlying objective diversity research and investigate new sets of questions, offering dynamic, nuanced, and idiosyncratic insights into the processes surrounding team diversity.

This article selects recent developments within the research domain of disability in organizations, exemplified through rigorous and innovative studies. First, the interest in invisible disability types and intersectional approaches to disability is noted. Second, the expansion to stakeholders outside the firm is appraised and personal, organizational and societal aspects of managing disability at work are reviewed. Third, the growing critical analysis of segregated labor market systems and the continued focus on reasonable accommodations and ableist organizing within the integrated labor market are considered. Finally, a continued underrepresentation of research from the Global South and an increasing demand for researchers' reflexivity with regard to their own positionality and disability status are discussed.

Decades of research attest to the role of gender stereotypes in the emergence of gender-based discrimination. Placing a focus on recent studies, we provide evidence that gender stereotypes continue to negatively affect women's career outcomes in jobs and fields that are seen as male in gender-type. We identify two pathways through which gender stereotypes bring about discrimination: Whereas descriptive gender stereotypes lead to gender discrimination through negative performance expectations produced by lack-of-fit perceptions, prescriptive gender stereotypes lead to gender discrimination through social penalties elicited by perceived stereotype violation. We end by discussing how characteristics of women and those evaluating them may amplify or ameliorate discriminatory behavior, and by considering how organizations and policymakers can leverage research to promote gender equality.

This conceptual review explores the full potential of mentoring for diversity initiatives. Using a positive relationships lens, I describe how focusing on average relationships obscures the benefits of high-quality mentoring and how traditional views of mentoring as hierarchical, one-way relationships limit our understanding of its role in advancing social justice. Addressing these limitations, I extend relational mentoring and diversified mentoring theories to introduce the Triple A Model of Social Justice Mentoring. This model holds that the effects of high-quality mentoring extend beyond the relationship to influence social justice outcomes. Both members can learn about diversity and experience relational dynamics that foster allyship, agentic empowerment and authentic identities. Implications for formal mentoring, diverse friendships, mentoring episodes and high-quality connections are discussed.

This review examines diversity ideologies as influential tools for managing intergroup relations in organizations. Drawing from over two decades of scholarship, we consider our evolving understanding of what diversity ideologies are, how they manifest, and what consequences they have. Diversity ideologies are multi-level constructs that can be espoused or enacted. They are a blueprint for how individuals and organizations should respond to social group differences. We distinguish between awareness and blindness ideologies, and their roles in shaping individual and group experiences. Finally, we describe how the effectiveness of these ideologies is contingent on the group targeted, the nature of the context, and individual differences. Overall, our synthesis of extant literature highlights how diversity ideologies both shape and are shaped by organizational environments.