rotmanmagazine.ca / 9CAF and the DND. This was essential in allowing the IIU access
to the relevant information and in implementing recommenda-
tions. In addition, the IIU was equipped with well-rounded staff
that included both quantitative and qualitative researchers. The
relationship between the IIU, CAF and DND has resulted in con-
tinued engagement and testing. The DND has also recently es-
tablished its own BI team: Personnel Research in Action (PRiA).
ROLE 3: BI as Designer
In this role, a behavioural scientist is involved from the outset,
ensuring that the design of a product, service or process is behav-
iourally informed from the start — which means that the process
always begins with observing actual users in a natural setting.
One of the key concepts in this domain is ‘behaviourally-
informed design’, an approach that combines the principles of
BI with those of Design Thinking. The BEAR team has worked
with a couple of government branches to employ BI to improve
consumer protection. At these agencies, BI is now used to better
understand the behaviour of consumers and agents in different
marketplaces. The agency continues looking for opportunities
to apply BI to both its policy design and its daily operations.
Another example of this role is the growing realm of self-
control products. Products and services are being created to
enable customers to close the intention-action gap — whereby
people intend to do something positive but fail to act on it. Exam-
ples include Clocky, an alarm clock that literally runs away when
the sleepy user hits the snooze button — propelling itself off of the
bedside table and across the floor, out of reach of the dozing user;
and Stickk, a website that uses incentives and peer-effects to
encourage people to stick to their goals.
The BEAR team also recently consulted with a government
agency that set out to raise awareness of consumer protection
issues, targeting adult consumers of all ages who were highly
educated, but with limited knowledge of behavioural science.
Working together, we designed its information brochure using
the following BI guidelines:- Ensuring that the colour and visual appearance were appeal-
ing to the public. - Balancing image and text ratios to optimize comprehension
and readability. - Managing the aesthetics of the cover to maximize the likeli-
hood of the brochure being read.
Three Truths About Behavioural Insights
- PEOPLE ARE ONLY RATIONAL TO A CERTAIN EXTENT.
We often assume—sometimes implicitly—that people bal-
ance the pros and cons and assess risks on the basis of all the
available information, and thereby make well-considered and
consistent choices. The behavioural sciences teach us that the
choices people make are only rational to a limited extent. One
example of this is that people are more sensitive to a loss than
to a gain. As a result, they put in more effort and take greater
risks to avoid loss than to win the same amount.
People also follow certain rules of thumb or shortcuts in
processing information. One example of this is the availability
heuristic: for events that we can recall more easily—for example
because they were distinctive or emotional or recently in the
news—we overestimate the likelihood that they will occur again.
These deviations from rationality are partly predictable, which
means we can take account of them in policy-making.
2. PEOPLE HAVE LIMITED SELF-CONTROL. It takes
effort to resist temptation and suppress impulses, and people
have limited available resources for this. They want to eat more
healthily, exercise more often or save for their retirement, but
in practice it turns out to be harder than they thought. One
consequence of this is that there is a major difference between
planning to do something and actually doing it — between inten-
tion and action. Everyone has experienced this conflict at some
point: planning to do some chores but ending up slumped
on the sofa; starting a diet but ending up in a burger bar after
just a week; wanting to save but still going out for dinner.A psychological phenomenon relating to this is that people per-
ceive a reward in the near future as more valuable than a reward
further in the future. This plays a role in trade-offs between pres-
ent and future rewards, such as pensions and savings, but also
with respect to health.3. PEOPLE ARE INFLUENCED BY THEIR ENVIRONMENT.
In order to determine what the ‘right’ behaviour is, people often
look at the behaviour of others, particularly in new or uncertain
situations. In a classic example of this, researchers conducted
a study in which a group of confederates unanimously gave the
wrong answer to a very simple question. The participant—who
was unaware of this— then conformed by also giving the wrong
answer. The news and government communication often show
undesirable behaviour in order to stress its objectionable nature;
however, often this actually gives the subconscious signal that
this is ‘normal’ behaviour.
It is not just the social environment but also the physical
environment that can have a major influence on behaviour. If fruit
is within closer reach than chocolate, it makes it easier for can-
teen visitors to make a healthy choice. And optically narrowing
stripes on the road prompt people to drive more slowly of their
own accord. The physical environment can also communicate a
particular social norm. An environment with a lot of litter on the
street provides a lot of information about other people’s behav-
iour, and can therefore lead to more litter.-Courtesy of the Behavioural Insights Network Netherlands