For all the controversy, Eat Out to Help Out was a rare thing: a government incentive that was behaviourally sharp — and actually worked. Its lessons have been forgotten. That’s a waste. … More Eat Out to Help Out, Five Years On: A Forgotten Case Study in Behavioural Design
System change and individual behavior change are often conceptualized as mutually exclusive strategies for climate change mitigation – but what if this duality is misguided? Denise de Ridder and Sander Thomaes map four pathways illustrating that system change is effective when it promotes behavior change and vice versa. … More When and how behavior change can accelerate system change (and vice versa): Mapping reciprocal processes for climate change mitigation
AI safety discussions predominantly focus on easy to conceptualise, highly salient risks including algorithm bias, hallucinations and disinformation. While these are crucial concerns, they overlook a fundamental truth we’ve learned from other high-stakes fields like aviation and healthcare: sometimes the most dangerous risks can hide in plain sight. Dr Moira Nicolson and Holly Marquez (Government Communications, Cabinet Office, UK Government) introduce a framework for anticipating and managing these risks, supporting a safer rollout of AI use in the public sector and beyond. … More Beyond Technical Safeguards: Human Behaviour is the Missing Piece in AI Safety
Ivo Vlaev and Marco J Haenssgen argue that research and policy collaboration with indigenous communities is key to long term conservation success. … More Conserving nothing but trouble?
Excessive meat consumption is increasingly scrutinised for its impacts on the environment, animal welfare, and public health. Men’s consumption of meat is higher than women’s, driven not just by taste preferences and higher caloric needs, but also social expectations surrounding men’s diets. Public messaging to reduce a behaviour as deeply ingrained as meat eating—a food that humans have consumed for at least 2.5 million years—can expect to face significant resistance. Behavioural public policy may offer unique tools to address this, but has to be careful not to trigger psychological defences. … More Meat and manhood: Unpacking resistance to reduced meat consumption
Adam Oliver (LSE) describes how he became involved in the field of behavioural public policy, detailing hw the intellectual architecture came into existence and his hopes for how it might develop in the future. This blog was written ahead of his 9 December 2024 LSE inaugural lecture on the same topic.
Policies allowing pension withdrawals at any age in Peru could leave people short of essential savings, Constanza Valdez suggests a “Nudge+ intervention to prompt a little careful reflection before people head to the shops with their savings cash … More A Nudge+ for Peruvian Pension Drawdown
In this blog Ros Taylor, author of “The Future of Trust” highlights the complex causes of distrust. Causes that can be invisible to those who interactions with the state may be occasionally frustrating rather than existential. Modern society requires large amounts of institutional trust in order to function. Policymakers need to understand and engage with the causes of distrust. … More The Future of Trust
Erik Angner argues that, far from being “a made-up Nobel” economics is the most suitable discipline for a Nobel prize: Economics is about helping people live lives worth living.,Nobody illustrates this point better than this year’s laureate. … More Economics deserves its Nobel
Communicators often use their intuitions to decide what to present, and they don’t always use numbers. Including numbers can have beneficial effects, for example in the willingness to vaccinate. In this blog Ellen Peters and Brittany Shoots-Reinhard share the lessons from 20 years of research into communicating with numbers. … More Communicating by Numbers: How and What