Parents rationalize ignoring child development advice. Interventions can now break that cycle.

Parents often ignore advice about interacting with their young children, not because they lack resources, but because they convince themselves it won't help. This paper identifies four ways to design programs that can break this cycle of self-deception.

Many programs try to help parents with young children by giving them information or resources. But it turns out, parents often convince themselves that being more responsive to their children won't make a difference. This paper shows how to design programs that can get past this mental block, making interventions actually work.