Behavioural Insights Projects

'Returning to employment? Don't forget about your benefits!' When individuals receiving benefits return to employment having been registered as unemployed, it is important that they report the change in their income to the Benefits Unit on time, to avoid repayment demands. Why do individuals not comply with this notification requirement? And what interventions could improve compliance? A revised letter from the UWV Employee Insurance Agency and an additional page on the Benefits Unit website…

Institution: Netherlands Employee Insurance Agency (UWV)

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) conducted an experiment to investigate the effect of incomplete prices when booking a holiday home. Websites that display incomplete prices cause greater uncertainty, make choosing more difficult, undermine trust and give the feeling of deception compared to websites displaying transparent prices. Why this experiment was conducted: unclear picture of actual costs In 2021, the ACM conducted a study into effective transparency. The aim was…

Institution: Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM)

Among the education and psychology literature that looks at the role of beliefs and school outcomes, Growth Mindset theory (GM) posits that by helping students shift their theory of learning to one where intelligence isn’t a fixed state – but rather, that it’s malleable, and something you can improve and grow over time – students can become self-motivated to improve both academic effort and outcomes. Teaching youth how to foster a GM doesn’t just offer a potential solution at low cost…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

Design of the Behavioral Theory of Change and Impact Measurement Framework for an Edutainment Miniseries to Combat Xenophobia and Discrimination against Venezuelan Migrants with a Gender Lens. This project involves developing a comprehensive behavioral science strategy for an edutainment miniseries supported by the World Bank. The initiative aims to reduce xenophobia and discrimination toward Venezuelan migrants in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia while integrating a gender perspective throughout…

Institution: Instintivo

Team: Instintivo

A series of controlled randomised experiments was conducted to examine the savings effects for households of three types of energy consumption managers tools: an email + web application, an app installed on a smartphone or tablet and an in-home display. Energy savings could only be established for the in-home display: almost 7% on natural gas and over 2% on electricity consumption. Why this experiment was conducted: The Netherlands' climate targets Energy consumption by Dutch households…

Institution: PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

PROJECT SUMMARY Arizona State University freshmen students eligible for the Student Engagement and Employment Development Plan (SEED), a work-study program, received emails designed to emphasize the benefits of joining the program and eliminate hassles in the application process. IMPACT The redesigned emails increased the number of students applying for SEED jobs by 3 percentage points, from 9% to 12% of students. Source: B-Hub

Institution: Ideas42

Team: Ideas42

30% of the requests CNAM (Primary health care institution in France) receives by phone or email could be made and treated online. In order to encourage use of online services, the CNAM solicited help from the DITP. This dematerialization would benefit the user by easing the access to services, to the administration workers by improving their work conditions and to the institutions through gains in efficience. We chose to target a precise procedure: ordering a Carte Vitale (Health Care card) for…

Institution: Direction Interministérielle de la Transformation Publique (DITP)

Team: Equipe Sciences Comportementales

Using sustainable transportation alternatives can often be hindered by car dependence (Haustein, 2021). Within the context of Santa Monica, for example, approximately 75% of Santa Monica residents choose single occupancy vehicle (SOV) commutes to work, and over 50% of households own more than one vehicle (Data USA, n.d.). More generally, vehicle transportation accounts for 62% of greenhouse gas emissions in the city, making it the largest emissions contributor (Johnstone, 2021). However,…

Institution: Duke University

Team: The Center for Advanced Hindsight

The 'Doe meer met taal' (Get more out of language) campaign was launched to reach out to individuals with limited literacy skills whose mother tongue is Dutch. At its conclusion, people in the target group said they felt more motivated to improve their language skills. They are also more inclined to take proactive steps, for example by engaging in language-related activities at home. 66,000 people visited the campaign website. Why this experiment was conducted: everyone should be equipped with…

Institution: Netherlands Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

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…

Institution: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Team: IDB Behavioral Economics Group