Behavioural Insights Projects

Every year, governments spend large amounts of resources on development programs that aim to change poor households’ behaviors and attitudes toward investment in the education, health, and nutrition of their children as a way to end the cycle of poverty. One key mechanism that can achieve this is working to raise aspirations. But how do you do that in practice? In this project, together with Karen Macours of the Paris School of Economics and the Ministry of Family in Nicaragua, we find that…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

The Government of Canada wants to support the transition from home heating based on fossil fuels (e.g., natural gas) to electric heat pumps. Here, we wanted to test different ways of framing the advantages of heat pumps and assess the benefit of providing a step-by-step guide to getting a heat pump.

Institution: Impact and Innovation Hub (IIU)- Impact Canada

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, guests were required to wear face masks on entering and while moving inside hospitality venues. To promote this behaviour, self-persuasion and salience techniques were used in this experiment - with notable success. Following the announced relaxation of face mask requirements, there was a decrease in face mask usage, although this was significantly less in hospitality venues that saw interventions than in venues that did not experience interventions. Why this…

Despite email alert systems having a large reach, email can be a difficult platform to spread awareness. BETA partnered with the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) to find ways of boosting the impact of an email alert system. We applied behavioural insights to the email design to bolster its effects, and tested these different design aspects using a randomised controlled trial. Subscribers were randomly assigned to receive an alert with one or more of our new design features (or a…

Institution: Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC)

Team: Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA)

The Ontario Public Service (OPS) is committed to promoting employment equity. Collecting sociodemographic data from employees will help the OPS better understand how different demographic groups are represented in the workforce and progress through their careers. However, recent initiatives to promote the voluntary submission of sociodemographic data through the OPS Human Resources portal (known as WIN) has had lower uptake than desired, reducing the quality of this data for decision-making…

Institution: Ontario Public Service (OPS)

Team: Ontario Behavioural Insights Unit

Rijkswaterstaat conducted a behavioural campaign aimed at urging drivers on the N36 provincial road in Overijssel to keep a safe distance, to be calm and relaxed while driving and to pay attention to the road. The campaign achieved a reduction in distractions, less irritation and an overall improved driving experience. Why this experiment was conducted: many serious accidents on N36 The spotlight has been on the N36 between Hardenberg/Ommen and Almelo/ Wierden for some time due to the frequent,…

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

Despite the overwhelming medical evidence on the protection offered by the second, third and fourth doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, the acceptance of these doses remains low despite the existing supply. The problem is likely because there are currently no reminders in the province of Chaco, Argentina. This makes it difficult for residents to know if they are eligible for the next dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and where to access it. Booster vaccination is associated with a lower risk of mortality…

Institution: Other

Team: Behavioral Sciences and Public Policies Unit

This project was led with the French National Forestry Office (ONF), which is an institution responsible for the management of public forests, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Our common project has studied how to apply behavioral science to enhance user safety in forests. It resulted in the generation of 17 Nudges. Experimentation is expected to start spring 2022.

Institution: Edwige

The Charter of Rights and Responsibilities of Financial Consumers is an initiative designed to counteract consumers' optimism bias and the information asymmetry that typically favors banks over users. To address these behavioral and structural challenges, the initiative employs smart disclosure techniques, including the use of visual prominence and icons to guide users' attention when interacting with the document. This charter is mandated to be displayed physically at bank branches, digitally…

Institution: Superintendency of Bank of the Dominican Republic

Team: Administrative Modernization Agency (AMA)

To reduce the speed of motor vehicles on the Yarze highway, Nudge Lebanon, in collaboration with the Traffic Management Centre (TMC), placed a salient image of overlooking eyes, coupled with a message informing drivers that their speed was being monitored on a Variable Message Sign (VMS). Vehicles in treatment time slots, with speeds above 100km/h reduced their speed by around 11.5% compared to similar vehicles in the control group. Moreover, compared to the control group, the treatment was more…

Institution: Nudge Lebanon

Team: Nudge Lebanon