Jay Van Bavel, PhD

The Science of Collaboration: Why Working Together Matters

The major breakthroughs and discoveries of the past few years have all been the result of teamwork, yet the myth of the “lone genius” still persists. Why? A psychology professor at New York University (NYU), Jay Van Bavel studies the science behind cooperation, group identities, and team performance. While technology has allowed us to work together more easily and efficiently than at any other time in history, our organizations haven’t caught up in structure. They still tend to prize competition—the success of the individual—over the group. Drawing from original neural science research conducted in his lab at NYU, Van Bavel shows us what about human nature allows us to cooperate, why it matters to us today, and how we can nudge individuals and groups towards it. As the future of work becomes more and more collaborative, Van Bavel’s talk is timely and necessary for organizations across any industry.