And UCLA researcher Noah Goldstein doubled down on communication.

I, I would say more than anything, it's his ability to communicate.

Uh, it's his ability to write a, even an academic paper that you wanna read, that...

And he actually wrote another paper called, uh, I, I think it's called, uh, Giving Psychology Away.

It was, uh, published in PSPB many years ago, and it's really about how we as academics can do more to make our work accessible, not only to the general public, but the funders of this work, uh, you know, the, the, including the government, uh, helping them understand sort of what kind of value they're getting for their, their, you know, faith in, uh, behavioral science.

So what was actually in the article? What made it so impactful? Here's Noah Goldstein, a past grad student of Cialdini's and a current professor of psychology at UCLA's Anderson School of Business.

To explain why he was, uh, hanging up his cleats, but to do so in a way to take this metaphor of the breakup and to do so in a brilliant and funny way that not only had everybody reading this, but everybody talking about this.

You know, it's sort of like, "It's not you, it's me." And then he talks a little bit...

But then he sort of...

The next thing is, uh, "Well, you have let yourself go a little bit," right? [laughs] And, and I, I really think that, that those, um, those factors really did get people to appreciate the importance of field experiments, of making sure that the public, uh, kind of appreciates behavioral science.

I think it really had a, a giant impact.

Here's Noah Goldstein, one of Bob's students, now a professor at UCLA, on how that showed up in Bob as a mentor.

And I would say that is the mentorship style of Bob, which is that, um, you know, yes, he absolutely brought some great ideas and said, you know, "Would you like to be part of this?" But part of it is saying, "Hey, Noah, what are your ideas? I want to hear, you know, what are you reading in the literature?" W- And not just what are you reading in the literature, what are you experiencing out in the world?