Business & Entrepreneurship

Snow news day: The challenge of climate reporting as newsrooms cut back

Megan M Rogers — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 18:59:49 +0000

Snow news day: The challenge of climate reporting as newsrooms cut back Megan M Rogers Fri, 02/13/2026 - 11:59

College of Communication, Media, Design and Information

The College of Communication, Media, Design and Information's Water Desk has expanded the services it offers to resource-starved reporters who need help covering complex stories around the Colorado River and climate change.

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After the boom: Colorado craft beer enters its next chapter

Katy Hill — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:01:57 +0000

After the boom: Colorado craft beer enters its next chapter Katy Hill Tue, 02/10/2026 - 13:01

Katy Marquardt Hill

After years of explosive growth, Colorado craft beer is setting into a new phase. Rising costs, changing drinking habits and slowing demand are forcing familiar taprooms to shutter, signaling a sobering shift for the industry.

In 2025, more than 40 breweries, taprooms and brewpubs closed, pushing total closures since 2020 past 140. The losses hit hard, but industry experts see it as a reset rather than a collapse. With more than 400 breweries still operating, they say Colorado’s craft market has entered a more mature phase where success depends less on expansion and more on connection.

“The craft beer industry grew so fast that supply outpaced demand,” said Jeff York, a professor of entrepreneurship at CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Leeds School of Business and co-host of the podcast “Creative Distillation.” “That created a perfect storm for some breweries to fail.”

“They can’t just open more locations or chase every trend anymore,” York said. “The ones that endure focus on their taprooms, connect with their local communities and stay true to their brand.”

Jeff York

Two Front Range breweries illustrate how that strategy plays out in different ways: Holidaily Brewing Company in Golden and Liquid Mechanics Brewing Company in Lafayette.

Growth slows

Beer sales in Colorado fell about 6% in 2025, a bit more than the national decline. Health-conscious trends and the rise of the “sober curious” movement have nudged many drinkers toward smaller pours or away from alcohol altogether.

Liquid Mechanics takes that reality in stride.

“Flat is kind of the new growth,” said CEO and co-founder Davin Helden. “Sales dipped a bit last year, while many other breweries saw much bigger declines. So in a way, flat feels like winning.”

Helden, a CU �鶹ӰԺ biochemistry graduate with an MBA from the Leeds School of Business, started Liquid Mechanics in 2014 with two fellow biotech professionals. He’s upfront about where the business actually makes money.

“Our tasting room has always been the main focus,” he said. “There’s very little profit in cans; we might make a dollar on a four-pack. Our goal is to get people into the tasting room.”

Brewing connections

On an unseasonably warm February afternoon, Liquid Mechanics’ taproom hummed with activity: Bar stools were full, patio tables were occupied, and dogs lounged beneath them.

“It’s the same people coming in, at the same frequency. But they're drinking less,” Helden said.

That change shows up across the industry: People may be drinking craft beer a bit less often, but more than ever are trying it at least occasionally, according to the Brewers Association.

Packaged beer keeps a brand visible, but the margins can be thin given the rising cost of materials. For some breweries, taprooms are a primary source of profit. For others, they’re a way to build relationships, even if distribution drives the bigger picture.

“The profit is in pulling pints,” Helden says. “Distribution reminds people we exist. But the taproom is where the relationship is built.”

At Liquid Mechanics, community is part of the business model. It makes collaboration beers with other breweries, enters competitions that build recognition, and hosts fundraisers for local nonprofits. Inside the taproom, trivia nights and a mug club that requires repeat visits before joining help turn customers into regulars.

“By the time someone’s in the club, we're going to know your name, and chances are good we’ll have the beer you like to drink already poured before you sit down,” Helden said.

Connection over expansion

Holidaily Brewing faces similar market pressures but takes a slightly different approach. The taproom is for connection and brand experience, while the brewery’s main growth engine is distribution. Founded in 2016 by Karen Hertz, the brewery specializes in gluten-free beer brewed with millet and buckwheat instead of barley and wheat.

“When people hear ‘gluten-free,’ they assume it’s a tiny market,” said Hertz, a CU �鶹ӰԺ alumna with an MBA from CU Denver. “Celiac affects about 1%. But many more people are cutting gluten.”

Holidaily’s appeal stretches beyond dietary restrictions. Its bright, playful “make every day a holiday” branding celebrates fun and community as much as what’s in the glass.

For many customers, that mix is more than novelty.

“Some people have never been able to walk into a taproom and order anything on the menu,” Hertz said. “Sometimes you see it on their face. It’s social freedom. That emotional connection is powerful.”

In Golden, Holidaily’s taproom serves as the heart of the brand, drawing a mix of regulars and newcomers, dogs included, who come to talk, sample and make an afternoon of it. The brewery operated a second taproom in Greenwood Village from 2021 to 2024, an experience Hertz said helped clarify priorities. Managing multiple locations added complexity and ultimately reinforced the decision to refocus on Golden.

The taproom is central to connecting with customers, Hertz said, while the company’s long-term focus stays on distribution. “I started the company to get great beer to people with dietary restrictions who otherwise might not be able to share a beer with friends,” she said. “That’s where we’re choosing to invest our time, energy and resources.”

Changing tastes

For both Holidaily and Liquid Mechanics, adapting to changing tastes doesn’t mean chasing every trend. Holidaily uses sales data to fine-tune its lineup, adding fruited versions of its best-selling blonde ale to expand its appeal without overhauling the brand.

Liquid Mechanics experiments with new styles selectively, brewing only what aligns with its focus and meets its standards, while supplementing the lineup with offerings like seltzers and nonalcoholic beers from other producers.

For both breweries, the focus is on connections and experiences, not just growth. Turning breweries into community hubs instead of growth machines is what experts, including York, see as Colorado craft beer’s next chapter.

“Focusing on taproom business is a good way for a brewery to weather this storm,” York said. “Also, staying true and authentic to your brand—that is what the people that are still drinking craft beer are going to value.”

As growth slows, breweries focus on taprooms, community and authenticity.

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Can a chatbot make you feel less lonely?

Katy Hill — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:36:19 +0000

Can a chatbot make you feel less lonely? Katy Hill Mon, 02/09/2026 - 15:36

Katy Marquardt Hill

As AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot get better at engaging in conversation and picking up on emotional cues, millions of Americans are interacting with them in everyday life. A June 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 34% of U.S. adults—and 58% of adults under 30—have tried ChatGPT.

Jason Thatcher, a professor of information systems at the Leeds School of Business, is in the early stages of a research project that explores how emotionally adaptive chatbots could be designed to better support users, including whether they might address loneliness.

Jason Thatcher

“If we’re going to design AI that’s emotionally sensitive and able to adapt to people’s identities and ways of thinking, then loneliness is an obvious place to focus because it’s a real problem,” he said.

CU �鶹ӰԺ Today recently talked with Thatcher about his research into emotionally adaptive chatbots and how design choices could shape human-AI interaction.

How should chatbots adapt to what users actually want from them?

People don’t always want the same kind of interaction from a chatbot. Sometimes they need a friend or companion; other times, a teammate, mentor or straightforward expert.

A well-designed chatbot should adjust both what it says and how it says it—including tone, clarity, cognitive demand and alignment with the user’s values and context. Emotional responsiveness doesn’t always mean being warm or encouraging. Sometimes users want clear, direct guidance. The goal is to meet the user’s needs in that moment rather than assuming one style fits all.

Why focus on loneliness?

Loneliness is widespread and often described as a crisis. If emotionally adaptive AI is meant to improve lives, helping people feel less lonely is a meaningful, socially relevant starting point.

How will you study whether adaptive chatbots reduce loneliness?

We plan to track people over time and check in regularly through experience sampling. The goal is to see whether these adaptive designs actually make users feel less lonely—something we don’t yet know.

Are there risks to designing emotionally adaptive chatbots?

Yes. People can become overly reliant on bots that feel supportive or persuasive. There’s also the risk of manipulation, that AI could replace or weaken human connections rather than complement them. That’s why it’s important for designers to set clear boundaries.

What should designers keep in mind when building chatbots?

Not every chatbot should be a friend. Designers should build bots for the role users need—whether that’s companion, teammate, expert or coach—rather than assuming emotional closeness is always the goal.

Can you give examples of matching a bot’s style to its task?

A companion bot might focus on support and reducing loneliness. A productivity bot should minimize cognitive load. A learning bot might nudge someone firmly to stay on track, while a coach or mentor bot should assert authority and guidance.

How do you prevent chatbots from becoming too human-like or crossing boundaries?

One important step is asking users directly what they’re comfortable with. There’s also an issue where systems that feel too human can make people uncomfortable or even repelled. Designers need to be careful about how realistic or emotionally expressive bots become and give users control over those settings.

We have to be really careful about the boundary conditions. When is the bot being a good helper, and when does it start to become manipulative? When is it actually leading people to believe that it cares? We don’t want people to be fooled into thinking the bot is sentient.

Any advice for people just starting with AI chatbots?

Learn the basics of what chatbots can and can’t do. Be mindful of what you upload because content shared with a chatbot could potentially be stored or subpoenaed. And remember that just because a bot feels conversational doesn’t mean it’s a person.

Experiment to understand its capabilities. For example, ask the bot to take on a specific perspective to challenge your assumptions and provide analytical feedback instead of always agreeing.

For example, ask what would a skeptical expert or an adversarial attorney think of this? Or ask it to give you a smart, sensitive person's reaction to an email you wrote. Ask it to take on the role of a fussy copyeditor. Just remember that the bot is approximating based on what you told it to do.

How do you see AI fitting into human work and creativity overall?

AI isn’t replacing human skill or judgment. Like spellcheck changed writing without ending it, AI can support decision-making and creativity, helping people think more clearly rather than doing the thinking for them.

What’s the goal of this research?

What we’re really interested in is how people feel when they interact with these systems. If the bot listens well and people feel like they can communicate effectively, that’s meaningful. But we have to ask: Are they actually less lonely, or just interacting more with technology? That’s what we want to find out.

CU �鶹ӰԺ Today regularly publishes Q&As on news topics through the lens of scholarly expertise and research/creative work. The responses here reflect the knowledge and interpretations of the expert and should not be considered the university position on the issue. All publication content is subject to edits for clarity, brevity and university style guidelines.

Information systems expert Jason Thatcher explores how emotionally intelligent chatbots could support users and why it’s important to design them with clear boundaries.

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Playbook for a winning Super Bowl ad: Embrace risk, seek emotion

Megan M Rogers — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:58:31 +0000

Playbook for a winning Super Bowl ad: Embrace risk, seek emotion Megan M Rogers Thu, 02/05/2026 - 09:58

College of Communication, Media, Design and Information

An advertising professor from the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, who's produced Super Bowl spots for Coca-Cola, shares what makes a commercial memorable (or not) during the big game.

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CU �鶹ӰԺ partners with Denver International Airport on new travel index

Megan M Rogers — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:58:05 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ partners with Denver International Airport on new travel index Megan M Rogers Wed, 02/04/2026 - 08:58

Casey Bauer

CU �鶹ӰԺ is partnering with Denver International Airport (DEN) to launch the Denver International Airport Travel Index, a new quarterly survey focused on how travelers across the region expect to fly in the months ahead.

Developed by the Business Research Division (BRD) at CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Leeds School of Business in collaboration with the airport, the DEN Travel Index tracks expectations for business, leisure and personal travel. The results will offer an early signal of near-term travel demand and help inform airport planning, air service decisions and route development.

“This ongoing research with DEN will shed light on near-term travel expectations and offer a window into the general health of regional businesses and the economy,” said Brian Lewandowski, BRD executive director. “By tracking data over time, we can analyze how external economic factors are impacting travel expectations across the region.”

The travel index will be administered quarterly, allowing researchers to track shifts in traveler sentiment over time. Beyond travel intent, the data will also reflect broader economic and behavioral factors shaping travel decisions including tourism and business activity in the Denver metro area, as well as how economic conditions influence when and why people travel.

“DEN’s passengers are our greatest source of insight into the future of air travel,” said Phil Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport. “Their continuous feedback, paired with CU �鶹ӰԺ’s expertise in the development and administration of comprehensive surveys, will equip us with timely, in-depth intelligence to help the airport continue to expand its global connectivity.”

Turning research into real-world insight

CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Business Research Division brings decades of experience conducting applied economic research and tracking economic trends across Colorado. The division is known statewide for its ongoing economic indicators, business confidence surveys and annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook, which provide data-driven insight used by business leaders, policymakers and public agencies.

Through this partnership, BRD researchers will oversee survey design, data collection and analysis, ensuring the travel index reflects regional travel sentiment in a consistent, methodologically sound way. The approach mirrors the division’s broader work of tracking expectations over time to better understand how economic conditions translate into real-world behavior.

The findings will supplement the airport’s existing research and support longer-term planning—helping the airport anticipate demand while offering insight into how broader economic conditions may shape travel, tourism and business activity across the region.

How to participate

Take the survey

Denver International Airport is inviting travelers from Colorado and neighboring states who pass through the airport to take part in the survey. Participants will be asked to continue participating on a quarterly basis, helping build a consistent, long-term dataset.

The survey opens Feb. 4 and will remain available through Feb. 27.

A new quarterly survey developed by the Leeds School of Business and Denver International Airport will measure traveler demand and expectations, offering insight into near-term air travel trends.

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Why we love watching the Super Bowl live

Katy Hill — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:46:27 +0000

Why we love watching the Super Bowl live Katy Hill Tue, 02/03/2026 - 14:46

Katy Marquardt Hill

More than 100 million people in the U.S. tune in to the Super Bowl every year. In 2025, Super Bowl LIX hit a record, averaging about 127.7 million viewers, with numbers spiking even higher for the big plays and halftime show. Factor in streaming and social platforms, and recent Super Bowls have reached more than 200 million people—drawn not just by the game itself but by the thrill of watching it all happen together in real time.

Alix Barasch

A study published online in the Journal of Marketing in January helps explain why so many viewers still tune in live for the Super Bowl. Across a series of experiments, researchers found that people enjoy watching something more when they think it’s live, even if it’s identical to a replay.

“When you know you’re watching live, the emotional experience is different,” said Alix Barasch, associate professor of marketing at the Leeds School of Business and co-author of the study. “You’re not just watching the game—you’re sharing a moment as it unfolds.”

What makes the difference is presence, the feeling of being drawn into the moment.

“It’s that sense that you’re really there—on the field, in the arena—with the people on the screen, instead of observing from the outside,” Barasch said. “When something’s live, your brain treats it like a shared moment you’re part of, not just a recording.”

That feeling of being part of the moment helps explain why the Super Bowl still draws huge live audiences, even when replays are available.

“Once a moment passes, you can’t really recreate that shared ‘now,’” Barasch said. “You can get the information later, but you can’t get that same experience again.”

Why live hits harder than a replay

The researchers, who also included Nofar Duani of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and Adrian Ward of the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, set out to measure that feeling of being “in the moment.”

Across five experiments, participants who believed they were watching something live reported feeling more socially connected, enjoying the experience more and being more likely to keep watching.

In one experiment, participants watched music videos on Twitch, some live and some prerecorded. In another, everyone saw the same band perform on YouTube, but some were told it was live and others were told it was prerecorded. Even when the performance was prerecorded, “just thinking it was live made people feel more connected to the person on screen, enjoy it more and want to stick around,” Barasch said.

The effect didn’t depend on surprises or suspense, and it happened even with fully scripted performances, Barasch said. “The content itself doesn’t change,” she said. “What changes is how it feels, because you know others including the performers are experiencing it right now too.”

That helps explain the Super Bowl effect: Highlights show what happened, but they can’t recreate the feeling of seeing a key play live with millions of others.

The lesson goes beyond sports, according to the researchers. Live formats such as product demos, livestreamed events and Q&As can help marketers and brands build stronger connections with audiences.

Connection to the crowd and people on screen

The researchers found that on platforms like YouTube and Twitch, features such as chats and viewer counts can make other viewers feel more present, creating a sense of connection similar to watching a game at a crowded bar or sharing reactions in a group text.

But even without those cues, just knowing something is live strengthens the connection to the person on screen, Barasch said.

“The strongest effects actually come from feeling closer to the broadcaster, performer or player,” she said. “That’s rarely someone you know personally, but when it’s live, it makes that connection feel real.”

Seeing faces makes the effect stronger, the study found. When viewers can see a coach’s reaction or a performer’s facial expression mid-song, they feel more present, she added.

“Faces help viewers enter the social world of what they’re watching,” Barasch said. “Without that emotional access, it’s harder to feel like you’re really there.”

That’s why live events still matter. “Live doesn’t just capture attention,” Barasch said. “It creates connection—and that’s what keeps people showing up in the moment.”

New research explains why real-time viewing creates a powerful sense of presence and connection.

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Welcome to the Camping Games (now please show up)

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:16:40 +0000

Welcome to the Camping Games (now please show up) Megan M Rogers Tue, 01/27/2026 - 09:16

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

The world of campsite reservations is increasingly cutthroat, so why are so many campers not showing up? CU �鶹ӰԺ economist Jon Hughes applies numerical modeling to understand campground no-shows.

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Why anti-Asian discrimination often goes unnoticed at work

Katy Hill — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:35:36 +0000

Why anti-Asian discrimination often goes unnoticed at work Katy Hill Wed, 01/21/2026 - 08:35

Katy Marquardt Hill

Even in workplaces that aim to be fair, discrimination can slip by unnoticed. New research finds that when Asian Americans experience potentially biased treatment at work, others are less likely to recognize it as discrimination or step in as allies.

Tony Kong

"In many workplaces, it’s not that anyone is trying to be unfair, but patterns of awareness and interpretation add up,” said Tony Kong, professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the Leeds School of Business and co-author of the research.

Published online in November 2025 in the journal Organization Science, the research examined why racial discrimination against Asian Americans is often overlooked. Across 13 studies, the researchers used experiments, surveys and real-world data to examine workplace scenarios, perceptions of discrimination against various Asian American subgroups, and nearly 600,000 discrimination claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission between 2011 and 2017.

The researchers, who also included Sora Jun of Rice University and Junfeng Wu of the University of Texas at Dallas, found that Asian Americans are less likely to be seen as “prototypical” targets of racial discrimination at work. In other words, Asian Americans tend to be overlooked as targets of discrimination, even in cases identical to those experienced by Black Americans.

Kong said the researchers chose Black Americans as a comparison group because they are likely to be the most prototypical target of racial discrimination and are the most studied racial group in workplace discrimination research.

"Asian Americans tend to fall in the middle of the U.S. racial hierarchy,” Kong said. “People usually focus more on the top or the bottom of this hierarchy. If you’re in the middle, you get less attention.”

“The middle part is tricky, because people likely think, ‘You have resources, you have ability, so I don’t need to support you,’ even though Asian Americans might still face biased or discriminatory treatment and need allyship,” Kong said.

In controlled and field experiments, participants reviewed scenarios such as a job candidate being passed over for a position. If the job candidate was Asian American, observers were less likely to perceive discrimination than if the candidate was Black, even though the scenarios were otherwise the same. This “invisibility effect” showed up across multiple Asian American subgroups, including East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian candidates.

Real-world data also supported the pattern: Discrimination claims filed with the EEOC by Asian American employees were significantly less likely to be resolved favorably—13.3% of cases—compared with 15.6% for Black employees and 15.7% for multiracial employees.

Kong said these patterns likely extend beyond discrimination against Asian Americans. Any social group that doesn’t match people’s mental image of who faces discrimination can be overlooked, he said, and as a result, may receive less support from others. That could include, but is not limited to, other racial and ethnic minority groups, some gender and sexual minority groups, and people with intersectional identities, he said.

It’s worth taking a closer look at which social groups don’t fit the “usual picture” of discrimination—and what that means, Kong said. “These are probably the people who fall victim to our psychological biases or blind spots," he said. "We need to check our assumptions and beliefs first: Does the person fit the prototype? If not, we need to be extra careful about the judgments we’re making, as the judgments could lead to non-action."

The findings point to a broader challenge in creating inclusive and equitable workplaces, Kong added. “When discriminatory experiences go unseen due to our mental models that guide our interpretation, prediction, decision-making and problem-solving, bias can affect our recognition of a person’s negative experience and our bystander responses,” he said, adding that failing to act against discrimination undermines efforts to create inclusive and equitable workplaces.

"This isn’t about making anyone feel guilty; we are human and have psychological tendencies," Kong emphasized. "It’s about awareness of a systematic psychological problem that we need to address collectively through practices, interventions and policies."

A new study finds bias is often overlooked when people aren’t seen as likely targets of discrimination.

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The secret behind successful CEOs: Structured thinking beats gut instinct

Katy Hill — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:26:10 +0000

The secret behind successful CEOs: Structured thinking beats gut instinct Katy Hill Tue, 01/13/2026 - 09:26

Katy Marquardt Hill

When CEOs make strategic decisions such as where to compete, what to prioritize or how to grow, many rely on instinct—that gut feeling often credited for Steve Jobs’ success at Apple. But a new study of hundreds of CEOs shows that it’s a structured decision-making process, not intuition, that drives success.

Mu-Jeung (MJ) Yang

“CEOs who are most effective start by identifying the real problems, consider multiple possible solutions, and then test their assumptions with evidence,” said Mu-Jeung (MJ) Yang, co-author of the study and assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business. “They use a structured process, very much like how a scientist approaches a problem.”

Why CEO strategy is hard to study

Understanding how CEOs make strategic decisions has long been elusive in management research. “Whenever we study successful companies like Apple or Nvidia, it’s tempting to list all the reasons they succeed—hindsight makes it look obvious,” Yang said. “But leaders don’t have a clear view of the future when they make decisions. If the key factors for success were that obvious, everyone would follow them and the competitive advantage would disappear.”

Most research, he added, looks backward at outcomes rather than at the decision-making process itself. And because CEOs are difficult to reach and strategy discussions are often confidential, large-scale research on how they actually make choices has been rare.

To address this blind spot, Yang and his colleagues surveyed 262 Harvard Business School alumni currently serving as CEOs across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, spanning industries from manufacturing to tech to health care. The study, published in Management Science in September 2025, offers a look into how top executives make strategic calls that can influence a company’s health.

The researchers, including Michael Christensen of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School; Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University; and Raffaella Sadun and Jan Rivkin of Harvard Business School, asked CEOs to describe recent strategic changes—such as entering new markets or launching products—and how those decisions were made and tested. Using structured interviews modeled on the World Management Survey, they scored responses on a continuum from intuitive, reactive styles to structured, evidence-based ones. “We wanted to understand the process, not just the outcomes,” Yang said. “How do great strategies actually come to be?”

Structure pays off

The study found that CEOs who used more structured, analytical approaches tended to lead larger and faster-growing companies. Over time, their firms’ performance improved, which points to the advantages of systematic decision-making, Yang said.

Structured strategic thinking shares much with critical thinking and the scientific method, he added. “It starts with identifying problems proactively, not just reacting when something goes wrong,” he said. “Then you cultivate multiple possible solutions, spell out what would have to be true for each to succeed, and test those assumptions with evidence.”

He added that structure doesn’t mean getting bogged down with bureaucracy and pointed to Procter & Gamble under former CEO A.G. Lafley as an example. Instead of endless PowerPoint presentations, Lafley and consultant Roger Martin focused discussions on core questions such as where to invest and what assumptions must hold true for success.

Business school matters

The study also found that business education can have a lasting influence on how executives think. Looking at changes in Harvard Business School’s strategy curriculum, the researchers traced differences in CEOs’ strategic styles back to their exposure to the decision-making frameworks of Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor and economist known for his influential research on business strategy.

“Whatever we teach in business education will stay with students for a long time and may even shape how they interpret the world,” Yang said. “At the same time, we should move away from only explaining why some firms did well in the past toward giving tomorrow’s leaders tools to come up with great strategies going forward.”

The future of strategic thinking

Yang believes that tools like artificial intelligence could eventually enhance CEO decision-making. “AI can be an opportunity to improve strategic decision-making if deployed correctly,” he said. “It can’t replace expert decision-makers, but it can be a thought partner that boosts critical thinking and helps avoid costly mistakes.”

Whether CEOs are aided by AI or not, Yang stressed that strategic decisions work best when they’re approached systematically and thoughtfully.

“It’s about being proactive, consistent and hypothesis-driven—making decisions by testing assumptions, not just by going with your gut,” he said.

A new study of hundreds of chief executives suggests that methodical decision-making, not intuition, drives success.

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CUriosity: How can you make your resolutions stick?

Daniel William Strain — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 22:44:18 +0000

CUriosity: How can you make your resolutions stick? Daniel William… Mon, 01/05/2026 - 15:44

Katy Marquardt Hill

In CUriosity, experts across the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus answer questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

This week, Alix Barasch, a marketing professor in the Leeds School of Business, says that virtual badges and digital trinkets may sound silly, but they really can help you reach your goals. She answers the question: "How do I keep my New Year’s resolution?"

New Year's Eve in New York's Times Square. (Credit: CC photo via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76807015@N03/11745399044)

Millions of people open apps each day to protect something with no monetary value but plenty of psychological punch: a streak. Whether it’s logging language lessons, tracking meals, meditating or hitting step goals, missing a day can feel oddly devastating.

There’s a reason it feels that way. Streaks turn progress into a reward of its own, according to Alix Barasch, associate professor of marketing at the Leeds School of Business, who studies how technologies influence consumer behavior.

Alix Barasch

“A streak has no real value in the world, but it has real psychological value,” she says.

That mental pull may be why streaks (and the apps that track them) help make resolutions stick. Even when apps offer seemingly trivial rewards, they can still influence behavior.

“These apps add an extra layer to goals,” Barasch says. “Tracking streaks and earning badges along the way turns something you might already want to do—like practicing a language or exercising—into something you really care about, even if the reward is just a number or a virtual icon.”

This is gamification, the process of turning ordinary tasks into a kind of game. Apps use badges, streak counts, progress trackers and virtual currencies to make those tasks feel like achievements. For example, the meditation app Calm awards badges for streaks of consecutive days of practice and completing specific programs, such as those for stress and anxiety. For people with fitness goals, the Apple Watch encourages users with three colorful rings that users aim to close each day: “move” (calories burned), “exercise” (activity minutes), and “stand” (moving around for at least 1 minute during 12 hours of the day).

“Tracking your progress, earning badges, keeping a streak—these things all give the behavior a sense of meaning,” Barasch says.

But apps also dutifully notice if you skip a day’s workout. That can feel bigger than a small slip and really knock your motivation.

Previously in CUriosity

Why hasn't it snowed much this year, and what does that mean for Colorado?

Or read more CUriosity stories here

“Psychologically, it’s extra demotivating,” Barasch says. “Breaking a streak affects your likelihood of keeping up the behavior.”

Apps have gotten good at forgiving streak breaks, which can help users overcome slip-ups.

The language app Duolingo, for example, offers “streak repairs” via subscription features or “gems” that can be earned or bought. Users can also preemptively protect their streaks with “freezes.”

Not surprisingly, sharing streaks with friends or tracking them within a group can make people more likely to stick with a resolution.

“For me, there does have to be a layer of accountability,” Barasch says. “You don’t necessarily need shared tracking, but social connection helps.”

Over time, streaks reinforce behavior simply by making it part of your routine. Showing up day after day helps solidify those actions into habits that can last even without the digital nudges. To make a resolution stick, she recommends leaning on simple forms of gamification like earning badges to reinforce the behavior long enough for it to become a habit.

And that’s the real goal.

“If it becomes part of your day,” Barasch says, “you’ll probably keep doing it—even without the rewards.”

Virtual badges and digital trinkets may sound silly, but they really can help you reach your goals, says marketing researcher Alix Barasch.

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Business & Entrepreneurship

Snow news day: The challenge of climate reporting as newsrooms cut back

Related Articles

After the boom: Colorado craft beer enters its next chapter

Growth slows

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Connection over expansion

Changing tastes

Related Articles

Can a chatbot make you feel less lonely?

How should chatbots adapt to what users actually want from them?

Why focus on loneliness?

How will you study whether adaptive chatbots reduce loneliness?

Are there risks to designing emotionally adaptive chatbots?

What should designers keep in mind when building chatbots?

Can you give examples of matching a bot’s style to its task?

How do you prevent chatbots from becoming too human-like or crossing boundaries?

Any advice for people just starting with AI chatbots?

How do you see AI fitting into human work and creativity overall?

What’s the goal of this research?

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