Kevin Lewis is a contributor to National Affairs, and a columnist for the Ideas section of the Boston Globe. He has degrees in physics and political science from MIT, has studied and taught organizational behavior at UC Berkeley and Duke, and has worked in high-tech business and finance.
Kevin Lewis sifts through more social science research each day than anyone in America. Every day at National Affairs' web site, he produces a round-up of emerging research on myriad topics. New York Times columnist David Brooks has said of Kevin's work: "Every day, I file away these studies because I find them bizarrely interesting...A day without social science is like a day without sunshine."
ConservativeHome's Ryan Streeter recently posed three questions to Kevin.
RS: What are the most interesting findings you've covered?
Lewis: There are literally hundreds of studies just in the past year that I could cite. In general, I consider a study to be interesting if it challenges assumptions (for example, see this), whereas I consider a study to be important if it provides robust evidence that helps resolve a controversial issue. Of course, it's great when you have both, but that's pretty rare. One example that may fall into this category is a new working paper illustrating what can go wrong with social experiments. Another possible example is a recent article in the Yale Law Journal that should prompt progressives to question whether teacher unions are really progressive.
RS: Which issues or ideas do you think deserve more attention from policymakers, and which deserve less?
Lewis: I'm a sucker for meta-process stuff - in other words, how policymakers should think about policymaking. For example, I think every policymaker should have to learn System Dynamics (for example, see this study) so that they can fully appreciate complex feedback loops, and they should also have to learn about their own biases.
As for what deserves less attention, I'd have to say the process itself. I think we need to disconnect policymaking from the 24-hour news cycle. Sunlight can disinfect, but it can also blind. Unfortunately, to make this happen, we'd probably need a new form of representative government, so I wouldn't bet on it.
RS: Have you thought about applying your knowledge of social science to opinion writing?
Lewis: Yeah, I have. But doing it right is really, really hard. When I first started sending out my social science updates, I would often include short commentaries below individual items, but, as my audience grew to include "important" people, I didn't feel comfortable sending out material that wasn't completely bulletproof. Nowadays, on those rare occassions when I do editorialize, I can spend more than an hour crafting just a few sentences. And I'm pretty sure I lack the narrative skills of David Brooks and Malcolm
Gladwell, who've practically cornered the market on popularizing social science. So, for the moment, I think it's enough for me to be the middleman.
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