Behavioral Science Resources and Inspiration
At Impactually we come across plenty of literature on behavioral science in our research and consulting work. Here we have collected some of our favorite behavioral science resources: books, articles, papers, guides and websites to help those who are interested in learning more about this ever-evolving field. If you are taking our Online Course “Get behavioral science to work for you”, this list of resources can be helpful to identify cognitive biases and find inspiration for behavioral interventions.
Impactually Articles
Behavioral Science Reading List – https://impactually.se/your-essential-behavioral-economics-reading-list/ This curated reading list provides suggestions for reading material on behavioral economics, decision-making, and nudging. We have included some of the most popular and widely read books on these topics as well as some lesser known, but thought-provoking, ones.
Where to get started in your organization – https://impactually.se/where-to-start-nudging-in-your-organization/ This article takes you through the criteria that will help you determine where to start nudging in your organization. There will likely be more than one challenge to which you could apply behavioral science, but some have better potential to be impactful than others.
Don’t trust your gut! Why data is king – https://impactually.se/dont_trust_your_gut/ This article discusses the importance of studying, including problems stemming from your own biases and the confusion of correlation and causation. Trusting your intuition or instinct can lead you to overestimate the effect of a nudge, while testing gives you a more accurate picture of the likely impact.
Nudge vs. Sludge – the ethics of behavioral interventions – https://impactually.se/nudge-vs-sludge-the-ethics-of-behavioral-interventions/ Have you ever thought about whether nudging is ethical? Whether it is right to influence people’s choices, and what the boundaries of what is acceptable are? This article talks about how to differentiate “nudges” from “sludges”, ethical and unethical behavioral interventions.
Behavioral Science TED Talks – https://impactually.se/10-be-ted-talks-for-a-stimulating-coffee-break/ Want to take a short break in your work day and get some behavioral science inspiration while you’re at it? We’ve created a list of the top TED Talks that discuss behavioral science related topics – take a look!
Nudging and Behavioral Interventions Guides
A Practitioner’s Guide to Nudging – Ly, Mazar, Zhao and Solman – Rotman School of Management
https://www.utoronto.ca/news/practitioners-guide-nudging
A comprehensive guide to nudging published by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. It includes a categorization of nudges based on type, as well as a number of case studies and guidelines for implementing nudges. Also in the guide are examples of cognitive biases and the ways to identify them in your scenarios.
MINDSPACE Policy Making Guide
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/mindspace
From the Brithish Behavioural Insights Team, this guide presents applications of behavioral science and nudging to public policy. Using a MINDSPACE categorization, the document divides cognitive influences into nine categories. This document would be helpful to practitioners in government looking to analyze situations for cognitive biases and to implement nudges.
ideas42 Practitioner’s Playbook for Applying Behavioral Insights to Labor Programs
This guide by Ideas42 and the US Department of Labor details a complete process of designing a behavioral intervention in a governmental setting. The guide comprehensively describes the process and the ways in which individuals and organizations can implement it. Specifically relevant for governmental organizations.
Behavioral Economics (BE) Guides – yearly since 2014
https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/the-be-guide/
Every year the BehavioralEconomics.com website publishes a guide to behavioral economics, including articles, case studies, frameworks and extensive resources and glossary.
Behavioral Insights and Public Policy – OECD
The OECD has compiled a comprehensive listing of over 100 case studies of nudges used in public policy on a wide variety of topics. Even for those not involved in public policy, this document can help you find tested nudges that can be implemented in your organization.
Behavioral Insight Team (BIT) EAST framework
This EAST framework from BIT divides behavioral interventions into four categorites – Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely – and gives plenty of examples and explanations for each category.
Nudge Database by Mark Egan
http://economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.com/2013/03/nudge-database_3441.html
This database created by Mark Egan is an extensive compilation of nudges which can be helpful to inspire for ideas for your own nudge.
Nudging – a Very Short Guide by Cass Sunstein
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2499658
This essay by Cass Sunstein, one of the authors of Nudge, discusses the concept of nudging and goes through ten types of nudges. Useful for a brief introduction to the topic and an overview of the major nudge types.
A Nudge Guide – Incentive Research Foundation
This guide, by the Incentive Research Foundation, lays out some principles for nudging in the incentive field. It covers a brief introduction into the field and many ways to nudge regarding incentives and motivation.
Nudging Around the World – Rotman School of Management
This guide from the Rotman School of Management discusses how nudging fits within the overall schema of policy tools and when it should be used. It’s useful to determine if nudging is right for you.
Cognitive Biases
Cognitive Bias Chart
https://betterhumans.coach.me/cognitive-bias-cheat-sheet-55a472476b18
This extremely detailed chart divides cognitive biases into four categories: ones having to do with too much information, not enough meaning, the need to act fast, and what we should remember. Each category is then broken down into further subcategories, and in the end around 100 biases are listed. A graphical chart summarizing the biases is included.
Cognitive Biases in Hiring – Minnesota State University
This guide from Minnesota State University covers twelve cognitive biases commonly found in hiring processes.
Business Insider’s 58 Biases
http://www.businessinsider.com/cognitive-biases-2015-10?r=US&IR=T&IR=T
This article from Business Insider lists and describes 58 cognitive biases. a good overview to get an introduction to the topic.
Visual Study Guide to Cognitive Biases
This guide by the Royal Society of Account Planning divides cognitive biases into four categories: social biases, memory biases, decision-making biases, and probability/belief biases. It is helpful to get a sense of the cognitive biases out there.
Study and Experimentation Guides
Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials – Cabinet Office and Behavioral Insights Team
This guide by the Behavioural Insights Team describes the test, learn adapt framework and its philosophy of iteration. This is a major part of behavioral intervention and evidence based policy – the idea of making policy decision based on what works. A great guide with a public policy orientation which can also inspire the private sector.
Guide to Developing Behavioural Interventions for Randomised Controlled Trials – Behavioral Economics Team Australia
This guide provides questions to ask while developing behavioral interventions, to ensure that they can be tested by randomized control trials. Instead of thinking after you’ve developed an intervention whether you can test it with an RCT, it makes sense to design the nudge with testing in mind – since you don’t want to implement something widely unless you’ve tested it first.
Key Items to Get Right When Conducting an RCT – Coalition for Evidence
http://coalition4evidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Guide-Key-items-to-Get-Right-RCT.pdf
Studying the effect of an intervention can be a difficult and confusing project for those not used to the idea and methods. Yet without studying, your intervention is much less likely to be successful. When unfamiliar with testing methods or if you just want a refresher, this guide is extremely useful in providing the basics of randomized control trials.
Why Economists Should Conduct Field Experiments
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23049420?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
This article by John List, one of the leading economists in examining behavioral science in the realm of charitable giving, discusses the importance of experiments and important factors to consider when conducting an experiment.
Other Reports
FINANCE
Common Cents Lab personal Finance – Center for Advanced Hindsight
http://advanced-hindsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2017-Common-Cents-Lab-Annual-Report.pdf
Common Cents Lab is part of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, behavioral economist Dan Ariely’s lab at Duke University. They aim to to increase the financial well-being for low-to moderate-income people living in the United States. In this annual report they detail their experiments targeted at changing financial behavior such as saving and spending.
Nudges for Financial Health – Innovations for Policy Action
https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/Nudges-for-Financial-Health.pdf
This report by Innovations for Policy Action discusses the difficulty people have saving in their personal lives, and how to nudge people to save more and do other things that are financially sustainable.
HEALTH
Irrationally Healthy – Irrational Labs
http://irrationallabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Irrationally-Healthy.pdf
This guide is great for those looking to nudge their employees in a healthy direction. It contains results and content from over ten companies and case studies on their behavioral intervention process. It is a good resource for companies and organizations trying to drive change among their employees, or anyone trying to get others to engage in healthier behavior.
What Healthy Eating Nudges Work Best
Healthy behavior are areas where our cognitive biases play a large role, and people in positions ranging from restaurants to company cafeterias to supermarkets may desire to know more about healthy eating nudges. Others can be inspired by this rigorous meta-analysis as well, taking ideas from healthy eating to other areas where the same cognitive biases apply.
Nudging in Public Health, an Ethical Report – Irish National Advisory Committee
This report developed by the Irish national advisory committee on bioethics discusses nudging and ethics, particularly in the health context. Given how sensitive health is as a topic, the ethics are extremely important.
Cognitive Biases in Health Care – Joint Commission
https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/23/Quick_Safety_Issue_28_Oct_2016.pdf
This short guide discusses a number of cognitive biases that are relevant in health care and actions that can be taken to avert these biases in this context.
Nudge Unit Database / Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at UPenn
http://nudgeunit.upenn.edu/portfolio
The Penn Medicine Nudge Unit’s mission is to leverage insights from behavioral economics and psychology to design and test approaches to steer medical decision-making toward higher value and improved patient outcomes. This website includes a list of their case studies, successful and unsuccessful – there is something to learn from all. The website is frequently updated with new study results.
SUSTAINABILITY
Nudging – a Tool for Sustainable Behaviour – Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Documents/publikationer6400/978-91-620-6643-7.pdf?pid=14232
This report from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) details the possibilities and potential of nudging for sustainable behavior. This report is great for anyone aiming to implement sustainability nudges, and particularly those in a government or policy-based setting.
Behavioral Science Tools to Strengthen Energy & Environmental Policy – Behavioral Science and Policy
https://behavioralpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/v3i1-web-yoeli.pdf
This report reviews behavioral intervention to encourage conservation of energy and other resources and will interest governmental agencies, utility companies and energy-related businesses.
Consuming Differently, Consuming Sustainably – United Nations Environmental Program
This report, created by the UNEP, details behavioral strategies to strengthen the effectiveness of policies for sustainable consumption in both developed and developing countries. The publication provides evidence-based insights, reviews the relevant behavioral barriers to sustainable consumption and ideas for interventions.
Nudging – The New Black in Environmental Policy? – FORES
http://www.beijer.kva.se/Material/Filer/Nudging%20the%20new%20black_Fores.pdf
This extensive report from FORES, a Swedish Think-Tank, provides a good introduction to nudging in the area of sustainability and environmental policy.
HIRING
Hiring is Broken – Applied
https://www.beapplied.com/whitepaper-signup
Applied, which is a spin-off of the Behavioral Insights Team working specifically with applying behavioral insights in recruiting, created this excellent overview of ways in which hiring processes are affected by biases. The report also has suggestions on how to improve hiring processes to make them resilient to these biases.
A Head for Hiring – CIPD
Biases within hiring process, though most evident in terms of discriminatory outcomes, can also have other impacts. This report by CIPD provides another good overview and describes how to make the hiring process better, and can have impact both within and outside of human resource departments.
Harvard Kennedy School Gender Action Portal
The Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University assembles scientific evidence, based on field and lab experiments, on the impact of policies, strategies and organizational practices aimed at closing gender gaps in the areas of economic opportunity, politics, health, and education.
CHARITY
Behavior and Charitable Giving – ideas42
https://www.ideas42.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Behavior-and-Charitable-Giving_ideas42.pdf
Ideas42, one of the leading behavioral economics and nudging consultancies, created this guide to nudging regarding charitable giving. Given how influenced individuals are by cognitive biases when it comes to decisions that have to do with money, this guide can help practitioners design interventions to encourage donations.
Applying Behavioral Insights to Charitable Giving
Charity is one of the fields where nudging has the potential to make a great deal of impact. This publication from the Behavioural Insights team details nudging strategies that can be used in charitable giving.
MISCELLANEOUS
Behavioral Insights for Education – Behavioral Insights Team
The guide by the Behavioral Insights Team aims to equip parents, teachers and school leaders with more tools to make a difference in students’ academic lives by employing techniques informed by behavioral science. Looking at what students do in the classroom and how they learn, this guide offers plenty of practical advice that should be of interest for anyone within education.
Biases in Project Delivery and Organisational Decision-Making – Behavioral Insights Team
This literature review provides an overview of three common cognitive biases in the context of project delivery and organisational judgment and decision making. Optimism bias, planning fallacy, sunk cost bias, and groupthink. These biases often stand in the way of organisations to thrive and be effective, and awareness can mitigate their effects.
Behavioral Design Teams Playbook – ideas42
http://www.ideas42.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/BDT_Playbook_FINAL-digital.pdf
This guide is particularly aimed at cities and other government organizations trying to create behavioral design teams. It guides you through the process of creating such a team and factors to consider. These teams are used by governments to evaluate behavioral principles within their spheres of influence and to determine the best ways to apply nudges in their environments.
Behavioral Insights for Cities – Behavioral Insights Team
https://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/publications/behavioral-insights-for-making-cities-better/
From the Behavioural Insights Team, this guide will be an asset to anyone involved in city or municipality management. It describes a number of behavioral insights that can help in the design and upkeep of cities in a safe and sustainable fashion, based on real field experiments that have been carried out by municipalities around the world.
Cognitive biases of Development Professionals – World Bank
http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/294681482349879049/Chapter-10.pdf
This chapter from a larger report by the World Bank details how cognitive biases affect professionals in international development. This report is important to anyone working in the development field.
Websites
BehavioralEconomics.com
https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/
Behaviroal.Economics.com is a portal on all things behavioral economics. It publishes a yearly guide (see above), a blog and has an associated LinkedIn group with lively discussions. It includes a very useful glossary and is an overall fantastic place to stay up-to-date with current developments in the field.
Behavioral Evidence Hub (BHub) – Ideas42
A well-organized database which includes hundreds of behavioral interventions categorized in an easy to find way. It includes over eighty interventions ranging from sustainability to personal finance and is a great resource to look at for ideas on nudges to implement. Ideas42 studied all the nudges using scientifically sound randomized control trials, so they all come with evidence that they can be successful.
Dan Ariely’s Blog
http://danariely.com/resources/the-blog/
Dan Ariely is one of the leading scholars on behavioral economics, with many best-seller books, a Wall-Street Journal column and a popular blog. His blog posts covers a wide range of topics, and are interesting for those with a passion for behavioral insights and the irrationalities of the human mind.
Freakonomics
Freakonomics is a popular podcast which focuses on applied economics in an easily digestible fashion. It frequently covers behavioral economics related topics in an engaging, but still serious, way.
Behavioral Insights Team website
https://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/publications/
The Behavioural Insights Team was a government department started in the UK government, and by now has spun off as an independent consultancy for using behavioral science for social good. Over their years of existence they have conducted countless behavioral interventions and produced a good amount of literature on their field experiments, which are all available on their website.
Incentives Research Foundation
The IRF’s mission to advance the science of motivation and incentives through research. On their website you can browse through an extensive library of research on non-cash rewards, incentive travel, motivational meetings and recognition.
Poverty Action Lab
https://www.povertyactionlab.org/
For those working in development, this website gives an excellent overview over the best randomized controlled trials being conducted in developing countries. Many of them have a behavioral science focus.