Behavioural Public Policy Blog

Robert Sugden agrees and disagrees with points from Adam Oliver’s book on Reciprocity: He agrees on the importance of reciprocity in society and on resistance to state paternalism. But he disagrees with Oliver’s belief that reciprocity is undermined by markets. Sugden argues that voluntary co-operation to mutual benefit is ‘the best structure for nurturing social feelings of mankind’, whether in relation to private goods or public services. Sugden, therefore, cautions against the imposition of supply-side controls based on “paternalistic” subjective judgments of “true preferences”. … More A Win-Win: Nurturing Reciprocity in Markets

Why do people listen to some messengers and ignore others, even when they are saying exactly the same thing? In this summary of their new book, Stephen Martin and Joseph Marks argue that the trait-judgments we make about others influence how likely we are to be receptive to what a messenger has to say. … More The Messenger is the Message

Reciprocity can be found everywhere and has roots that predate human kind. In this summary of his new book Adam Oliver argues that this important component of motivation has been given insufficient attention in the design of public policy interventions. … More Don’t be an Egoist! On the Importance of Reciprocity in Public Policy

“It is more pressing than ever to make the Arab region and the world, safer, more prosperous and inclusive, one experiment at a time”. Dr Fadi Makki draws inspiration from the debate at BX Arabia 2019, Beirut … More Making the Arab region safer, more prosperous and inclusive – one experiment at a time

Are there biological differences behind gender differences in risk-aversion? Elaine Liu reports on a study of the impact of childhood socialisation. … More Social Norms and gendered risk attitudes

How does social change happen? Cass Sunstein explores the role of social norms – their power and their fragility … More How change happens

Winner of the 2018 Sir Julian Le Grand essay prize at the LSE, Kiki Chu, proposes watching eyes as a behavioural intervention against sexual harassment on the Tokyo subway network … More Power of the Eyes – Deterring Sexual Harassment in the Japanese Subway