Shaping Behaviours using Nudges
How should governments get citizens to save more for retirement, consume less water and electricity, pay their taxes on time, lead healthier lifestyles, and drive safely? Instead of coercive measures and the use of financial incentives and penalties, can governments shape people’s behaviours without reducing their choice and liberty?
In recent years, insights from the behavioural sciences have begun to influence policy design in a number of domains, from health and retirement to consumer finance, energy and the environment, tax and social security, public and private transport, and many other areas where governments hope to influence people’s behaviors.
Instead of assuming that people are the rational, interest-maximising agents we find in economics textbooks, a more realistic assumption is that people’s behaviours are affected by a variety of behavioural biases and complications. A growing body of research shows a variety of situations in which individuals act in ways that run counter to the predictions of standards economics. Our rationality, self-control and self-interest are all limited in ways that have important implications for the way governments design, implement and communicate policies.
This half-day seminar will give participants an introduction to behavioural insights in public policy, and highlight key approaches for designing and implementing policies in psychologically compatible ways. The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) will also present examples of how behavioural insights have been successfully applied to public policy. For instance, it used behavioural insights to improve tax compliance, bringing forward more than US$300m in tax revenue in 12 months. BIT will also share its bespoke 'TESTS' methodology and how this has successfully helped job seekers get back to work faster; reduced sugar consumption; reduced drop-out from adult education; and reduced re-offending rates. Participants will engage in interactive presentations alongside team-based exercises.
Who should attend
This seminar is designed for civil service leaders, senior managers and analysts involved in the development, implementation or communication of policies.
About BIT
The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) started life inside the UK Prime Minister’s Office in 2010 as the world’s first government institution dedicated to the application of behavioural sciences to public policy. We are now a social purpose company with offices in Singapore, UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Our mission is to support governments and other organisations around the world to use behavioural insights to achieve social impact. We have also helped build behavioural insights capability in more than 20 countries around the world.