Episode 153: Seeking Discomfort for Personal Growth with Kaitlin Wooley

Achieving personal growth often requires experiencing discomfort. What if instead of tolerating discomfort (e.g., feeling awkward or uncomfortable), people actively sought it out? To explore this pressing question, we are joined by Kaitlin Woolley. Kaitlin is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, specializing in motivation science. Leveraging insights from…

Kaitlin Woolley

Professor Kaitlin Woolley is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the SC Johnson Cornell College of Business, where she studies questions related to consumer behavior and decision-making. Her particular expertise is within the realm of goal pursuit and motivation. Her research examines the psychological factors separating the goals consumers achieve from the goals they fail…

Echo Chambers, Their Risks, and the Need for Discomfort

This week, we heard from Kaitlin Wooley, who recently conducted a study about how discomfort can lead to personal growth. As we learnt through speaking to Kaitlin, this growth comes in many forms, most notably in my opinion, an increased receptiveness to other perspectives. In Kaitlin’s study, this was shown to be applicable to political…