In the study, the effectiveness of four reminder messages was evaluated through an online laboratory experiment involving 2,963 participants. The content of these messages was designed based on evidence from behavioural sciences, and their effect was contrasted with that of a simple, brief, and direct message (control message). The impact of the reminders was measured through four outcome variables: the action participants declared they would take after receiving the message, understanding and…
Behavioural Insights Projects
Discover projects applying behavioural science to policy from around the world. Add your own projects, whether completed or still ongoing, to contribute knowledge on BI applications across different countries, policy areas, and topics of interest.
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BI Project
Exploring Opportunities to Increase Canadians’ Awareness and Understanding of the Canada Carbon…
Canada Carbon Rebate (CCR; formerly known as Climate Action Incentive Payment) is a tax-free, quarterly payment paid to Canadians by the federal government in eligible provinces to offset the costs of federal pollution pricing. According to recent results from the Program of Applied Research on Climate Action (PARCA), eligible Canadians have low awareness of CCR and think that carbon price costs them more than they receive in CCR payment. In fact, support for carbon pricing has been declining…
BI Project
Enhanced cybersecurity of SMEs: Can a phishing test make companies less vulnerable to cyberattacks?
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks. A large-scale field experiment amongst SME employees showed that a phishing test is effective in the short term, but not in the medium or long term.
Why this experiment was conducted: SMEs are vulnerable to cyberattacks
Phishing is one of the most common types of cybercrime and is frequently the precursor to additional cyber threats, including malware and ransomware attacks. SMEs are vulnerable, with many of them…
Hospital-care-associated infections (HCAIs) represent the most frequent adverse event during care delivery, affecting hundreds of millions of patients around the world. Implementing and ensuring conformity to standard precautions, particularly best hand hygiene practices, is regarded as one of the most important and cheapest strategies for preventing HCAIs. The behavioural sciences have documented the potential of adjusting seemingly irrelevant contextual features in order to ‘nudge’ people…
BI Project
Preparedness skills, sense of community and clear recommendations for action increase crisis…
The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and other social and global political crises and incidents have increased the need to understand the mental resilience, preparedness, agency and sense of community of Finns in various crises and disruptions. This memorandum presents information related to these topics collected via the Citizens’ Pulse survey and citizen interviews commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office in March and April 2022.
BI Project
Combining Incentives with Narratives: Online-Field Experiment with Tesco to Reduce Plastic Bag Use
The pervasive use of single-use plastic bags presents a growing environmental challenge globally. Despite legislative efforts, such as the mandatory 5p bag-charge introduced in England in October 2015, the problem persists. The issue took on renewed urgency in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen a regression in consumer habits towards increased use of single-use plastics, driven by health and safety concerns (Adyel, 2020).
While traditional economic theory suggests that incentives…
As rewards increasingly become an instrument used by policymakers, it is important to find a reward mechanism that does not crowd out intrinsic motivation, is long lasting, and has positive spillover effects on third parties. A policy innovation introduced by the Municipality of Santa Fe (Argentina) allowed us to evaluate different mechanisms for rewarding tax compliance – participation in a lottery (financial motive), public recognition (moral channel), and provision of a visible and durable…
The OSGG supports the Governor General in recognizing, promoting, and cultivating excellence by Canadians to strengthen our national identity, unity, and pride. Central to these goals is nominating and appointing Canadian Honours, such as the Order of Canada, which celebrate and reflect the diversity of exceptional contributions that Canadians have made to their country. Maintaining the relevance of these Honours is important to sustaining a shared Canadian identity, and consequently cultivating…
BI Project
Electricity Information to Fit the Bill: Redesigning electricity bills to support consumer…
Electricity bills are a key way to inform people about their plan and usage, but bills can be confusing and are not really useful to help people navigate the electricity market. BETA and the Department of the Environment and Energy ran a trial to test the impact of bill design on people’s confidence in their ability to look for a better offer and intention to do so. We drew on behavioural insights to design and test six electricity bills. We focussed on simplifying bill design to draw…
BI Project
Working more hours to combat teacher shortages: How can teachers be motivated to increase their work…
In a vignette survey, teachers in primary, secondary and post-secondary vocational education were asked whether they would like to work more hours − with and without incentives. The survey shows that their willingness to do so can be increased to varying degrees by offering them bonuses, additional employee benefits and a combination of both.
Why this experiment was conducted: teacher shortages
The government has identified significant staff shortages in primary and secondary education. It is…