Behavioural science has made a major impact on important issues over the past decade, such as antimicrobial resistance, educational attainment, and sustainability. But it’s also clear that applied behavioural science needs to evolve to fulfil its true potential.

BIT has just published A Manifesto for Applying Behavioral Science - a landmark guide to the future of applied behavioral science. This Manifesto takes a clear-eyed look at challenges facing the field and offers 10 proposals to address them:

1. Use behavioral science as a lens that can help us see all issues better, rather than as a tool for limited challenges.
2. Build behavioral science into the design of organizations’ standard processes, to give it scale and sustainability.
3. Step back, understand the system, and use behavioral science to make targeted changes that lead to wider results.
4. Improve randomized controlled trials to better deal with the complexity of the real world.
5. Approaches successful in one context can fail in another – find out why, and how we can adapt them better.  
6. Don’t just think about biases in behavior – aim for practical theories that offer reliable ways of solving real-world problems.
7. Predict what people will do, confront when you were wrong, and change your views accordingly. 
8. Be humble about what you know, more curious about why people do things, and help others use behavioral science to improve their own lives. 
9. Use data science to identify, understand and reduce inequities.
10. Be realistic – recognize that behavioral scientists always bring their own values to whatever they do, and help the field to broaden its range of perspectives.

In this episode of Inside The Nudge Unit the Manifesto's author and Managing Director of BIT in the Americas, Michael Hallsworth, takes to the streets of New York City to explain more about what point 3, the importance of 'understanding the system' means in the context of behavioural science.

The journey will take him from Times Square to Governors Island, discussing oysters, pedestrian crossings, plastic bags and much more.

The full Manifesto for Applying Behavioural Science is available now for free on our website at www.bi.team.

This episode was recorded in and around New York City by Sabeena Singhani. Our thanks to Pete Malinowski of the Billion Oyster Project and Rebecca Taylor of the University of Sydney for kindly agreeing to be interviewed.

Inside The Nudge Unit is a production of the Behavioural Insights Team.

Editing and sound design is by Andy Hetherington of Studio Gibbon: https://www.facebook.com/thestudiogibbon/

Producer is Rich O’Brien

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1m3zn3SHmMh3vuR13hkLCP?si=88ed700f455c4dc4

UK Government data shows that the great majority of people are concerned about climate and supportive of Net Zero by 2050.

However new research in BIT's new report 'How to build a Net Zero society' finds that most people find it hard to make more sustainable choices in their own lives, despite 9 in 10 wanting to do so. They want to see strong leadership from government and business to make green choices easier. 

Moreover, these high levels of public support aren't just in the abstract - there are big majorities in favour of a whole host of specific policy recommendations, including many often deemed more controversial.

For example 60% support frequent flyer levies, 74% higher prices on unsustainable consumer goods, 76% pedestrianised town centres, and 53% a carbon tax on meat.

The public are more enthusiastic still for a range of supportive policies such as interest-free loans for home improvements (88%), eco-labels on products (83%) and a simplified recycling (93%) system. People are up for getting Net Zero and are willing to do their bit and they are clamouring for help from government and business.

This episode of Inside The Nudge Unit features BIT's Head of Sustainability Toby Park and Andrew Schein and Izzy Brennan from the team discussing how to close this gap between public appetite and available opionts. There are lots of actions and policies that can be implemented that are backed by compelling evidence but too often the sustainable choice is hard, very hard, or completely opaque.

Listen to Toby, Andrew and Izzy as they explore how to remove these barriers and frictions so that instead it's the sustainable choices are the ones that are clear and easy.

More information:

The report 'How to build a Net Zero society' including the new research from the team discussed in this episode is available to download at: https://www.bi.team/publication/how-to-build-a-net-zero-society

Inside The Nudge Unit is a production of the Behavioural Insights Team

Editing and sound design is by Andy Hetherington of Studio Gibbon: https://www.facebook.com/thestudiogibbon/

Producer is Rich O’Brien

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1m3zn3SHmMh3vuR13hkLCP?si=88ed700f455c4dc4

Inside The Nudge Unit is a podcast from The Behavioural Insights Team. In Episode 13 we talk to Dr Mark Friedberg and Rebecca Oran from the non-for-profit health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts.

Over the last two years, they have worked with BIT to create a successful Nudge Unit that has run around 60 interventions to improve health and healthcare. Many thousands of people have been reached by this work. 

But how did they go about it? And what lessons does this work offer for other organisations who are looking to set up their own dedicated behavioural science functions? To find out more, Mark and Rebecca are joined by Scott Young, BIT’s Private Sector lead and Michael Hallsworth, BIT’s Managing Director for the Americas. Together, they cover:

• How to convince senior leadership in the value of behavioural science
• Building wider engagement and overcoming scepticism
• The need for an internal champion
• How to broaden the use of behavioural insights beyond the initial wins   

More information:

Health Affairs article on the BCBSMA and BIT project: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20220520.237283

Inside The Nudge Unit is a production of the Behavioural Insights Team

Editing and sound design is by Andy Hetherington of Studio Gibbon: https://www.facebook.com/thestudiogibbon/

Producer is Rich O’Brien

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1m3zn3SHmMh3vuR13hkLCP?si=88ed700f455c4dc4