Date and time

Thu, Jan 30, 2025 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM EST

Location

Rotman School of Management + Livestream

105 Saint George Street Toronto, ON M5S 3E6 Canada

Show map

Refund Policy

Refunds up to 1 day before event

Agenda

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Author Presentation + Interview + moderated Q&A

6:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Light refreshments

About this event

• Event lasts 1 hour

Following the conversation, we invite you to join us for light refreshments.

Topic:

Mindmasters: Predicting and Changing Human Behavior (Harvard Business Review Press, Jan 2025)

Speaker:

Dr. Sandra Matz, David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School; Director, Center for Advanced Technology and Human Performance

In Conversation with: Rachel Ruttan, Assistant Professor, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management

Co-Presented by: Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR)

Book Synopsis:

A fascinating exploration of how algorithms penetrate the most intimate aspects of our psychology—from the pioneering expert on psychological targeting.

There are more pieces of digital data than there are stars in the universe. This data helps us monitor our planet, decipher our genetic code, and take a deep dive into our psychology.

As algorithms become increasingly adept at accessing the human mind, they also become more and more powerful at controlling it, enticing us to buy a certain product or vote for a certain political candidate. Some of us say this technological trend is no big deal. Others consider it one of the greatest threats to humanity. But what if the truth is more nuanced and mind-bending than that?

In Mindmasters, Columbia Business School professor Sandra Matz reveals in fascinating detail how big data offers insights into the most intimate aspects of our psyches and how these insights empower an external influence over the choices we make. This can be creepy, manipulative, and downright harmful, with scandals like that of British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica being merely the tip of the iceberg. Yet big data also holds enormous potential to help us live healthier, happier lives—for example, by improving our mental health, encouraging better financial decisions, or enabling us to break out of our echo chambers.

With passion and clear-eyed precision, Matz shows us how to manage psychological targeting and redesign the data game.

Mindmasters is a riveting look at what our digital footprints reveal about us, how they're being used—for good and for ill—and how we can gain power over the data that defines us.

About our speaker:

Dr. Sandra Matz is the David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, in New York, where she also serves as the Director of the Center for Advanced Technology and Human Performance. As a computational social scientist with a background in psychology and computer science, she studies human behavior and preferences using a combination of big data analytics and traditional experimental methods. Her research uncovers the hidden relationships between our digital lives and our psychology with the goal of helping businesses and individuals make better and more ethical decisions.

Rachel Ruttan holds a PhD in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her research interests include compassion and prosocial behavior, values, and moral judgment. Specifically, she studies lapses in interpersonal compassion, as well as the potential pitfalls of organizations' attempts to appeal to morals and values, showing when and how "doing well by doing good" can backfire. Her research has been published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organization Science, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Her work has been profiled in The New York Times, NPR, and The Harvard Business Review.

Event Logistics:

This event is available to attend in-person or virtually via livestream.

Rotman Events is committed to accessibility for all people. If you have any access needs or if there are any ways we can support your full participation in this session, please email Megan Murphy [events@rotman.utoronto.ca] no later than 2 weeks in advance of the event and we will be glad to work with you to make the appropriate arrangements.

General Admission: In-Person + Book Ticket Details

• The event will be hosted in Desautels Hall at the Rotman School of Management (105 Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3E6). Your registration fee includes a copy of the book, meet-and-greet with book signing by the author, as well as access to a video replay of the session for 30 days.

General Admission: Livestream + Book Ticket Details

• Rotman Events will email registrants a link to the livestream. Your registration fee includes access to the livestream, video replay for 30 days, a copy of the book and shipping fees. The book will be shipped to registrants after the event. Please allow 3 - 4 weeks for delivery.

30-day Catch-up Viewing

• Unable to attend the event due to scheduling conflicts? Not to worry. All registrants (in-person or livestream) can access the full recording on-demand for one month after the live event.

Cancellation & Refund Policy

• Refunds will only be issued for cancellations received in writing NO LATER than 24 hours prior to the event. Please email events@rotman.utoronto.ca for processing.

• In-person registrants who do not pick up their book at the event will have 5 business days to request postal delivery by emailing us at events@rotman.utoronto.ca. All unclaimed books will be returned to the publisher after that time.

Questions: events@rotman.utoronto.ca, Megan Murphy