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…
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.
Number of BI projects:
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Legend: Projects status
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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…
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…
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…
In partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU) has launched a multi-year program of research on climate change. The Program of Applied Research on Climate Action in Canada (PARCA Canada) combines behavioural science (BeSci) insights and methods with robust policy analysis to promote climate action. One of the main areas of focus involves the launch of a longitudinal survey that will, over time, collect…
The Health Quality & Safety Commission (‘the
Commission’) uses data from the National Adult
Inpatient Experience Survey to understand patient
experience and evaluate quality of patient care in
hospitals. Two questions (See Appendix 1A) pertaining to
patients’ understanding of medication side-effects and
condition management have consistently received low
scores on the survey every quarter. Ogilvy conducted
Phase 1 of ‘Raising the Bar’ research for the Commission,
investigating these…
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…
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…
The purpose of this study is to better understand Canadian's perceptions, knowledge, and decision-making related to home energy labels. It will build on the findings of an initial survey that explored home energy label design elements and information content, as well as perceptions of the current EnerGuide label for homes. Extending this work, the present study will examine how different rating presentations may affect comprehension of home energy performance and which home energy label design…
This project leverages an online survey experiment among federal employees involved in the process of translating information and evidence about a program into actionable policies and programs. The experiment’s primary aim is to test ways of presenting information to improve sensitivity to impact-relevant information about a program. The impact-relevant features tested are: the number of people impacted, the intermediate or final outcomes and the persistence of effects. In addition, the…