Behavioural Insights Projects

A circular business model promotes reuse of products and materials. A case in point is a model where consumers return their jeans to the manufacturer after use. Which circular business model characteristics are consumers willing to accept right now, and what do they refuse? Acceptance of these models seems to increase if companies offer effective or appealing option combinations, such as monthly payment schedules and discounted returns. Why this experiment was conducted: to promote the circular…

Institution: Rijkswaterstaat (Netherlands Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management)

Repairability of laptop computers: the Behavioral Sciences team of the interministerial department for transformation is piloting a study on the display of an index intended to clarify consumer choice. The objective: to support the General Commission for Sustainable Development (CGDD) in the implementation of this new tool.

Institution: Direction Interministérielle de la Transformation Publique (DITP)

Team: Equipe Sciences Comportementales

PROJECT SUMMARY Text messages were delivered to parents of children from 3 to 5 years old enrolled in public preschools in Uruguay using a government mobile app. These messages targeted malleable factors producing students’ absences and sought to influence parent’s attitudes and beliefs about preschool attendance to increase children’s presence in the classroom. IMPACT Children in remote areas increased attendance by 1.5 days, suggesting an increase in cognitive development of 0.20 SD.…

Institution: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Team: IDB Behavioral Economics Group

In partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Office of Behavioural Science (BeSciO), the Privy Council Office’s Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU) has launched a multi-wave public opinion research survey to better understand public health challenges in Canada. The 'Health, Attitudes, and Behavioural Insights Trends' (HABIT) survey, combines research methods from the field of behavioural science (BeSci) with robust policy analysis to help inform government policies, programs, and…

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

Online experiment to explore the effect of notifications on security behaviour. Both increased secure behavior – but the coping message significantly more so. The coping message was also as effective as both messages combined, but not so the threat appeal. Risk attitudes, age and country had a significant effect on behavior.

Institution: European Commission

Team: JRC Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights

To promote college access and affordability, education tax credits help with the cost of college by reducing the amount of tax owed. The most generous Federal higher education tax credit, the American opportunity tax credit (AOTC), is a maximum annual credit of $2,500 per eligible student. Yet, many eligible students (or their families) do not claim the credit. Among eligible students, national estimates indicate that 46 percent of independent students and 56 percent of dependent students take…

Institution: General Services Administration (GSA)

Team: Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES)

It’s the end of April in Poland. While everyone is happy the harsh winter weather is finally getting milder, the Polish Tax Authority is worried because 62% of the country failed to pay their taxes on time. Over the past decade, the use of behavioral principles by tax administrations in different countries has been gaining ground. Given the country’s tax compliance rate, Polish authorities and the World Bank tested the use of behaviorally informed letters to late taxpayers in order to…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

In early 2022, various kinds of text messages were sent to over 100,000 residents of Brabant-Zuidoost who had not yet received a booster jab from the GGD. The results show that the most effective variant − in the 6 days after receiving the text message − led to a 3.2% increase in the number of vaccinations administered. This was the text message saying 'Jouw boosterprik ligt voor je klaar' (You can now book your booster vaccination) plus a randomly allocated date, time and location. Why…

Institution: Netherlands Public Health Service

This project (running from 2017-2022) led to the development of a free digital tool, allowing landholders to explore options in the regulated carbon farming market. By providing landholders access to relevant methods, carbon sequestration estimates, and a listing of possible co-benefits, the LOOC-C tool helped demystify a challenging legislative environment for a farming-friendly audience. https://looc-c.farm/ A human-centred design process was championed through the entire development process,…

Institution: Other

Behavioural science interventions advancing energy efficiency have mostly focused on consumer behaviour, with comparatively little work examining the important role that industrial consumers play in advancing the energy transition. Using the D.R.I.V.E.® framework, the project identified, analysed and consolidated the relevant literature and potential of behavioural science informed approaches to help SMEs become more energy efficient. Starting from a comprehensive review of the academic and…

Institution: Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE)

Team: Affective Advisory