Michael Hallsworth is managing director, North America at the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), a social-purpose company that was created as the first government institution dedicated to applying behavioral sciences to policy. He is a co-author of the forthcoming book, Behavioral Insights (with Elspeth Kirkman).
The behavioral insights approach to design has often been top-down. A priority moving forward should be to incorporate more reflexive, dynamic, and nuanced forms of behavioral change. One promising way of doing so is to adapt principles from human centered design.
In addition to creating a COVID-19 vaccine, we need a major push to understand how people will react to it. Here are the questions we need to ask now to get ahead of the potential behavioral challenges.
How can behavioral science help us take advantage of one of the most effective measures to prevent the spread of viruses?
Fairy tales exemplify behavioral science in action (even if it’s unintentional), illustrating the power stories have to influence our thoughts and behavior.
Literature can open up a wider range of examples that illustrate core behavioral science principles.
Behavioral scientists take pride in the interdisciplinary nature of our research, yet we rarely draw on accounts of human nature generated outside of the social sciences.
Policymakers are also affected by the same cognitive biases that they seek to address in others. Does that mean that their decisions are also flawed?