When truth and trust erode: What behavioral economics teaches us about society in crisis Prof. Guy Hochman

As a behavioral researcher who tries to teach students to know facts from fiction, it is difficult for me to watch from the side how we, human nature, lost exactly this ability – to observe, understand, and choose right. In moments of national crisis, societies don’t just face external threats — they face internal ones. Fear, confusion, and polarization can corrode our collective sense of what’s true, what is right and wrong, or what is worth defending. The danger isn’t just economic collapse or security threats. It’s the collapse of shared norms and morality.

In recent public discourse, we’ve witnessed a growing distortion of basic concepts. Heroes become villains (and vice versa), facts become opinions, and moral questions are dismissed as political. The meaning of words is bent until they lose their power. When that happens, it’s not just language that breaks down — it’s trust, responsibility, and the social glue that binds us.

This is not a new phenomenon, and it is not unique to one country or government. History has taught us how easily democracies can slide when truth becomes relative and laws and morality become political issues. But what makes this moment especially worrisome is how predictable it is — from a behavioral science perspective.

Behavioral economics has long warned about how fear, categorization,  emotional responses, and framing can manipulate our decision-making. When people feel threatened, they’re more likely to support extreme solutions, to ignore inconsistencies and wrongdoing, release moral shackles, and to align with group narratives, even if they contradict their values. And it’s natural and predictable, because we are human.

We all want to believe we’re immune. That we’re too smart to fall for slogans or emotional manipulations. But research — and history — suggest otherwise. We’re wired to seek belonging, to simplify complexity, and to avoid uncomfortable truths. When these instincts are weaponized, democracy weakens from within. These are not just theoretical concepts we teach in class. This is the reality in the world today.

At Reichman University’s MA program in Behavioral Economics, we help students understand the irrational and shape the rational. How moral disengagement happens. Why do people follow destructive group norms? How systems lose legitimacy — and how to rebuild it. As the 2017 Nobel prize laureate said in his speech, all major issues in our world today are fundamentally behavioral. Our students learn to spot the social forces that shape these issues, understand the psychology beneath them, and design policies and interventions that promote societal resilience.

This program doesn’t just teach theory. It offers tools to analyze real-world behavior — politics, markets, media, sports, and everyday life. It trains future leaders, researchers, and policymakers to understand. To intervene. To lead.

Because societies don’t fall when someone kills them. They fall when no one defends their core values: truth and morality. And the first step toward acting and changing is understanding.

Prof. Guy Hochman is a behavioral scientist and head of the MA program in Behavioral Economics at Reichman University. His research focuses on decision-making, moral behavior, and the psychological forces that shape human societies. He works with public and private organizations to design policies that improve lives and strengthen democratic and transparent processes.

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