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“A lot of people just visualize complex data,” says McCandless. “They’ll take the data without wrapping it in a story, filtering it in any way, humanizing it, or focusing on what’s interesting. Without doing that, you just translate the complexity into visual form.” A complex visualization is counterintuitive, he adds, because its purpose is to clarify and distill data. The strength of an idea is what carries it through each precise stage of the creation process, from data gathering through structuring and designing.

With visual language, McCandless can cut through the noise in information overload, uncover the insights locked within data, and decode the self-referential language that pervades knowledge.

Researchers have used a series of text messages like this one to "nudge" students to complete important tasks like filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The researchers, Ben Castleman and

He says there are two aspects of behavioral work: trying to solve a behavioral problem, and doing so with a behavioral solution.

Social psychologists are interested in how people make sense of an experience, which can in turn direct their behavior.

"We begin a step back in the causal process," Mr. Walton says. As a result, social psychology’s interventions often strive to change how students see the social world around them, or actually change that world — for instance, by having teachers frame their feedback differently.

The approach is elegant, creative, and aligned with common sense.

It’s possible some people would argue that we act like completely rational beings, but probably not anyone who spends a lot of time around college students.

Given their low cost, behavioral solutions often appealing to funders and policy makers.

But the flip side of the coin is that such low-cost solutions cannot replace other, pricier efforts to improve college access and success.

Higher education presents a "perfect storm for the frailties of human reasoning," Mr. Kelly says. "The system often seems set up to frustrate people."

Critics of efforts to simplify or inform students’ choices often say that college isn’t meant to be easy. If someone cannot successfully apply for financial aid, maybe that person doesn’t belong in college. Researchers typically respond by saying they are working to help students through the pesky tasks on the periphery of going to college. Filing the Fafsa — which, incidentally, the most advantaged students don’t have to deal with — isn’t meant to be an admissions test.