Todd Rogers

I design, evaluate, and scale innovations that help people thrive, make organizations more effective, and strengthen society.

This work leads to peer-reviewed research, new governmental policies, large-scale partnerships, and social enterprise startups.

Current Focus Areas:

• Strengthening social connection (often through sports co-fandom, eg. this)

• Reducing student absenteeism (by engaging families, eg. this and this)

• Improving communication (by making reading easier for skimmers, eg. this and this)

Harvard Kennedy School of Government:

• Weatherhead Chair, Professor of Public Policy

• Faculty Director, Behavioral Insights Group

• Faculty Chair, Behavioral Insights and Public Policy, Executive Education Program

• Faculty Director, Graduate Commons Program

Social Enterprises:

• Fan U (Co-founder)

• EveryDay Labs (Co-founder, equity holder, board member, & unpaid Chief Scientist)

• Analyst Institute (Co-founder)

• Behavioral Communications (Co-founder)

Behavioral Science Advisory:

• ideas42 (Senior Scientist)

• Behavioural Insights Team (Academic Advisor)

• Behavioral Science and Policy Association (Executive Committee)

Rogers, T. & Lasky-Fink, J. (September, 2023). Writing for Busy Readers. Dutton Penguin Random House.

Rogers, T., & Feldman, A. (2025). Why all Americans should be football fans. TIME. https://time.com/7314403/football-fan-good-for-you/

Rogers, T., & Shulman, H. (2025, July 21). Scientific jargon can be ‘satisfying’ — but misleading. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02251-0

Rogers, T., Bailard, E., & Manley, M. (2024, October 31). 3 things you need to know about absenteeism. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-3-things-you-need-to-know-about-chronic-absenteeism/2024/10

Chohlas-Wood, A., Coots, M., Nudell, J., Nyarko, J., Brunskill, E., Rogers, T., & Goel, S. (2025). Automated reminders reduce incarceration for missed court dates: Evidence from a text message experiment. Science Advances, 11 (40), eadx7483.

Mapp, K., & Rogers, T. (2024). Attendance is a family affair. Educational Leadership, 81 (9), 42–47.

Shulman, H., Markowitz, D., & Rogers, T. (2024). Reading dies in complexity: Online news consumers prefer simple writing. Science Advances.

Feller, A., & Rogers, T. (2024). Reducing student absenteeism at scale: Translating social norms and attention interventions. In What works, what doesn’t (and when): Case studies in applied behavioral science. University of Toronto Press.

Lasky-Fink, J., & Rogers, T. (2022). Signals of value drive engagement with multi-round information interventions. PLOS One, 17 (10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276072

Patel, M. S., Milkman, K. L., Gandhi, L., et al. (2022). A randomized trial of behavioral nudges delivered through text messages to increase influenza vaccination among patients with an upcoming primary care visit. American Journal of Health Promotion. https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171221131021

Cialdini, R., Lasky-Fink, J., Demaine, L. J., Barrett, D. W., Sagarin, B. J., & Rogers, T. (2021). Poison parasite defense: Turning frequently encountered duplicitous mass communications into self-negating memory retrieval cues. Psychological Science.

Lasky-Fink, J., Robinson, C., Chang, H., & Rogers, T. (2021). Using behavioral insights to improve school administrative communications: The case of truancy notifications.

Robinson, C., Chande, R., Burgess, S., & Rogers, T. (2021). Parent engagement interventions are not costless: Opportunity cost and crowd out of parental investment. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.

Bergman, P., Lasky-Fink, J., & Rogers, T. (2020). Simplification and defaults affect adoption and impact of technology, but decision makers do not realize it. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Nickerson, D. W., & Rogers, T. (2020). Campaigns influence election outcomes less than you think. Science, 369, 1181–1182.

Zlatev, J. J., & Rogers, T. (2020). Returnable reciprocity: Returnable gifts are more effective than unreturnable gifts at promoting virtuous behaviors. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 161, 74–84.

Dorison, C. A., Minson, J. A., & Rogers, T. (2019). Selective exposure partly relies on faulty affective forecasts. Cognition, 188 (July), 98–107.

Gottfried, M., & Hutt, E. (2019). Absent from school: Understanding and addressing student absenteeism. Harvard Education Press.

Kim, T., John, L. K., Rogers, T., & Norton, M. I. (2019). Procedural justice and the risks of consumer voting. Management Science, 65 (11), 5234–5251.

Robinson, C. D., Gallus, J., Lee, M. G., & Rogers, T. (2019). The demotivating effect (and unintended message) of awards. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Robinson, C. D., Pons, G. A., Duckworth, A. L., & Rogers, T. (2018). Some middle school students want behavior commitment devices (but take-up does not affect their behavior). Frontiers in Psychology, 9 (Article 206).

Robinson, C. D., Lee, M. G., Dearing, E., & Rogers, T. (2018). Reducing student absenteeism in the early grades by targeting parental beliefs. American Educational Research Journal, 26 (3), 353–383.

Rogers, T., & Feller, A. (2018). Reducing student absences at scale by targeting parents’ misbeliefs. Nature Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0328-1

Rogers, T., Goldstein, N. J., & Fox, C. R. (2018). Social mobilization. Annual Review of Psychology, 69, 357–381.

Tannenbaum, D., Fox, C. R., & Rogers, T. (2017). On the misplaced politics of behavioural policy interventions. Nature Human Behaviour, 1 (10), 1–7.

Hauser, O. P., Linos, E., & Rogers, T. (2017). Innovation with field experiments: Studying organizational behaviors in actual organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 37, 185–198.

Rogers, T., Moore, D. A., & Norton, M. I. (2017). The belief in a favorable future. Psychological Science, 28 (9), 1290–1301.

Rogers, T., Green, D. P., Ternovski, J., & Young, C. F. (2017). Social pressure and voting: A field experiment conducted in a high-salience election. Electoral Studies, 46, 87–100.

Bailey, M. A., Hopkins, D. J., & Rogers, T. (2016). Unresponsive and unpersuaded: The unintended consequences of a voter persuasion effort. Political Behavior.

Gehlbach, H., Brinkworth, M. E., King, A. M., Hsu, L. M., McIntyre, J., & Rogers, T. (2016). Creating birds of similar feathers: Leveraging similarity to improve teacher-student relationships and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108 (3), 342–352.

Rogers, T., & Feller, A. (2016). Discouraged by peer excellence: Exposure to exemplary peer performance causes quitting. Psychological Science, 27 (3), 365–374.

Rogers, T., & Frey, E. (2016). Changing behavior beyond the here and now. In Blackwell handbook of judgment and decision making (1st ed.).

Rogers, T., Ternovski, J., & Yoeli, E. (2016). Potential follow-up increases private contributions to public good. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113 (19), 5218–5220.

Rogers, T., & Milkman, K. L. (2016). Reminders through association. Psychological Science, 27 (7), 973–986.

Rogers, T., Brinke, L., & Carney, D. (2016). Unacquainted callers can predict which citizens will vote over and above citizens’ stated self-predictions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(23), 6449–6453.

Rogers, T., Zeckhauser, R., Gino, F., Schweitzer, M., & Norton, M. (2016). Artful paltering: The risks and rewards of using truthful statements to mislead others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112 (3), 456–473.

Pierce, L., Rogers, T., & Snyder, J. A. (2015). Losing hurts: The happiness impact of partisan electoral loss. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 12 (October), 1–16.

Kraft, M. A., & Rogers, T. (2015). The underutilized potential of teacher-to-parent communication: Evidence from a field experiment. Economics of Education Review, 47, 49–63.

Rogers, T., Milkman, K. L., John, L. K., & Norton, M. I. (2015). Beyond good intentions: Prompting people to make plans improves follow-through on important tasks. Behavioral Science & Policy, 1 (2). https://behavioralpolicy.org/articles/beyond-good-intentions-prompting-people-to-make-plans-improves-follow-through-on-important-tasks/

Allcott, H., & Rogers, T. (2014). The short-run and long-run effects of behavioral interventions: Experimental evidence from energy conservation. American Economic Review.

Frey, E., & Rogers, T. (2014). Persistence: How treatment effects persist after interventions stop. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Nickerson, D., & Rogers, T. (2014). Political campaigns and big data. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28 (2), 51–74.

Rogers, T., & Middleton, J. (2014). Are ballot initiative outcomes influenced by the campaigns of independent groups? A precinct-randomized field experiment. Political Behavior.

Rogers, T., Milkman, K. L., & Volpp, K. G. (2014). Commitment devices: Using initiatives to change behavior. JAMA, 311 (20), 2065–2066.

Fernbach, P. M., Rogers, T., Fox, C. R., & Sloman, S. A. (2013). Political extremism is supported by an illusion of understanding. Psychological Science, 24 (6), 939–946.

Rogers, T., & Aida, M. (2013). Vote self-prediction hardly predicts who will vote, and is (misleadingly) unbiased. American Politics Research, 42 (3), 503–528.

Rogers, T., Gerber, A. S., & Fox, C. R. (2012). Rethinking why people vote: Voting as dynamic social expression. In Behavioral foundations of policy.

Bryan, C. J., Walton, G. M., Rogers, T., & Dweck, C. S. (2011). Motivating voter turnout by invoking the self. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (31), 12653–12656.

Malhotra, N., Michelson, M., Rogers, T., & Valenzuela, A. (2011). Text messages as mobilization tools: The conditional effect of habitual voting and election salience. American Politics Research, 39 (4), 664–681.

Rogers, T., & Norton, M. I. (2011). The artful dodger: Answering the wrong question the right way. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 17 (2), 139–147.

Milkman, K. L., Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2010). I’ll have the ice cream soon and the vegetables later: A study of online grocery purchases and order lead time. Marketing Letters, 21 (1), 17–35.

Milkman, K. L., Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2010). Highbrow films gather dust: Time-inconsistent preferences and online DVD rentals. Management Science, 55 (6), 1047–1059.

Nickerson, D., & Rogers, T. (2010). Do you have a voting plan? Implementation intentions, voter turnout, and organic plan making. Psychological Science, 21 (2), 194–199.

Caruso, H., Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2009). Boundaries need not be barriers: Leading and creating collaboration in decentralized organizations. In T. Pittinsky (Ed.), Crossing the divide: Intergroup leadership in a world of difference. Harvard Business School Press.

Gerber, A. S., & Rogers, T. (2009). Descriptive social norms and motivation to vote: Everybody’s voting and so should you. The Journal of Politics, 71 (1), 178–191.

Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2009). The emergence of affect in negotiations research. In Oxford companion to affective sciences.

Ghitza, Y., Rogers, T., Anstead, N., & Straw, W. (2009). Data-driven politics. In The change we need: What Britain can learn from Obama’s victory. Fabian Society.

Milkman, K. L., Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2008). Harnessing our inner angels and demons: What we have learned about want/should conflicts and how that knowledge can help us reduce short-sighted decision making. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3 (4), 324–338.

Rogers, T., & Bazerman, M. H. (2008). Future lock-in: Future implementation increases selection of “should” choices. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 106 (1), 1–20.*

Lira, B., Rogers, T., Goldstein, D. G., Ungar, L., & Duckworth, A. L. (under review). Coach not crutch: AI assistance can enhance rather than hinder skill development.

Dorison, C., & Rogers, T. (under review). Concise writing is more effective but is perceived as less important.