PROJECT SUMMARY
Students were sent two redesigned emails during the course selection process: a pre-registration email that laid out instructions and procedures for registration, and a post-registration email that notified students if any of their upcoming courses did not fit financial aid requirements.
IMPACT
The average aid award for students receiving both redesigned emails rose by $150.28 per student for the Spring semester compared with students who received neither email, with a total…
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
Broader job search: How can jobseekers be encouraged to explore fields and professions with better…
Some jobseekers remain unemployed because they focus on professions and felds in which the job prospects are not favourable. What happens when they receive personalised labour market information about more promising professions and positions that match their knowledge and skills? Compared to people who do not receive that information, they are more likely to move into professions that are completely different from the profession with poor job outlooks that was their first preference.
Why this…
Challenge
The City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania offers a discount to low-income senior citizens living in the municipality on their water bills. Senior water and sewer customers can apply to receive 25 percent off their payments for water in an effort to reduce the financial burden on those elderly citizens with lesser means.
However, despite the fact that this would benefit the citizens in question, the City of Philadelphia noticed that many low-income seniors eligible for the discount were…
BI Project
Effective position of call-to-action: Is the response rate higher if the call-to-action appears the…
How can response rates to questionnaires be increased? In the first quarter of 2023, some of the participants in a CBS survey received a letter in which the call-to-action appeared as far as possible at the top of the letter. The other participants received standard letters. The analyses showed that the standard letters produced a significantly higher response rate than the letters in which the call-to-action was placed at the top.
Why this experiment was conducted: high response rate is…
Improving prevention in the area of mental health, destigmatizing the topic, improving awareness of the possibilities of help for different types of mental health problems, gradually breaking down the barriers that stand in the way of seeking professional help.
Problem: students do not know how to deal with mental discomfort and the onset of mental health problems, including those caused by pandemics.
Challenge
Research suggests that some students—including low-income, underrepresented minority, and first generation students—avoid applying for financial aid due to a combination of psychological reasons. Some are overwhelmed by the complexity of the process, while others worry they’ll feel out of place in college or be stigmatized for their socio-economic background. These psychological factors can cause students to avoid applying for aid, or fail to complete their financial aid…
Switzerland's Energy Strategy 2050 aims to reduce energy-related environmental pollution, for example by increasing the energy efficiency of individuals, households, and companies.
To help achieve this goal and raise public awareness of the issue, the Swiss energy provider Primeo Energie ran an energy-saving campaign (hereinafter referred to as the campaign) in winter 2023/24. Customers who consume significantly less energy in the winter of 2023/24 than in the winter of the previous year can…
The Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) is a government-funded program for all permanent visa holders and some temporary visa holders who have less than a vocational level of English. Not all people who are eligible for the AMEP participate in it. The Department of Home Affairs commissioned BETA to evaluate the effectiveness of communication in participants’ home languages on increasing participation in the AMEP.
Trial 1: We will send text messages to speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese,…
BETA partnered with the Department of Social Services to determine the effect of behaviourally-informed activity statements on gambling behaviour in a simulated game. We tested two activity statement prototypes and found participants who saw the activity statements bet less than those who did not. Showing participants clear and easy-to-understand information about their gambling activities empowered them to make informed decisions about how much to bet. This project was conducted under Measure 7…
Encouraging a more circular economy to lessen the impacts of climate change will require behavioural changes from Canadians. In partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), we have launched a program of research to help meet some of Canada’s recycling targets—90% collection rate for plastic beverage containers, and these containers to have 50% recycled plastic content by 2030. This research will use insights and approaches from behavioural science to understand and increase…