Glossary cards.
Nudge
Nudge
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Nudge
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein brought the application of behavioural insights into government and policy discourse through their book ‘Nudge’. The book introduces the concept of nudge interventions. Nudges aim to change behaviour through largely automatic (System 1) responses to changes in context or environment. Thaler and Sunstein state that nudges should not reduce or restrict choice, but rather guide people towards a certain behaviour or decision.
Revealed preference
Revealed preference
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Revealed preference
What we actually do i.e. our actions
– are our ‘revealed preferences’. These are different from our stated preferences (what we say). Measuring and understanding revealed preferences is key to understanding behaviour change.
Dual Processing
Dual processing
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Dual processing
In recent years, behavioural scientists have converged on the understanding that thought processing occurs through two distinct ‘systems’ – referred to as the dual-processing model. The two systems – System 1 and System 2 – exhibit different capabilities. System 1 refers to automatic, fast and unconscious behaviour, and System 2 reflective, slow, and conscious behaviour.
Control Group
Control
group
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Control group
What would have happened. Any improvement requires a baseline, also known as a counterfactual or ‘business as usual’; something to measure outcomes against with all else being equal. This is called the control group in any given experiment.
Hawthorne effects
Hawthorne effects
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Hawthorne effects
People behave differently when they know they are part of a study or test. This is known as a Hawthorne effect named after a series of experiments conducted in the Hawthorne suburb of Chicago at the Western Electric Factory in order to study the effects of changing physical conditions on productivity. Although the changes did show an increase in productivity, the conclusion was that the association of people rather than physical changes led to the change.
Sample Size
Sample size
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Sample size
It is important to undertake a study on a large enough sample in order to make causal inferences. Calculating the correct/minimum size for a sample requires that a number of statistical conditions be met so that we can be confident our intervention has caused a change. Providing this advice is part of our service.
Randomisation
Randomi-
sation
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Randomisation
How can we be certain that our intervention will cause a change? Randomisation allows us to control for many of the variables that occur in the world, balancing the intervention versus all-else-being equal. Randomly allocating an intervention means we can be so much more certain that changes to a treatment group occurred because of our intervention and not through differences in allocation of our sample.
Heuristics and biases
Heuristics and biases
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Heuristics and biases
Mental shortcuts allow us to focus in on specific areas of choice, whilst ignoring others. These cognitive biases or heuristics lead to irrational decision-making through the governing of automatic choice – aligned with our need to make decisions quickly and with limited information. Understanding these heuristics is the foundation of behavioural economics.
Selection bias
Selection
bias
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Selection bias
Our rigorous scientific expertise makes us mindful about selectively biased information. In examining the population groups, behaviours of which we are aiming to understand and potentially change, we are careful about the underlying characteristics of our sample. It is common among extant practices to overlook this selectivity issue and derive far-fetched conclusions about behaviours of the groups of individuals, which may not be representative.
Stated preference
Stated preference
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Stated preference
A stated preference is what we say we (would) do in a given situation. There is a difference between what we think we do and what we actually do due to distorted perceptions of ourselves and Hawthorne effects.
MINDSPACE
MINDSPACE
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MINDSPACE
MINDSPACE is a mnemonic for a checklist of nine of the most robust contextual influences on behaviour. MINDSPACE stands for Messenger, Incentives, Norms, Defaults, Salience, Priming, Affect, Commitments, and Ego.
Read more about
MINDSPACE
Treatment group
Treatment group
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Treatment group
This is the group of people that receive an intervention versus a control. Through the process of randomisation, the sample group is divided into the control group (that does not receive the treatment) and the treatment group. In this way, the characteristics (age, sex, location, socio-economic background etc.) of the two groups must be comparable. Ideally, the sole difference between control and treatment groups is the outcome variable being studied.
Peak-end effect
Peak-end effect
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Peak-end effect
When we remember an experience, we tend to leave out most parts of it except for the peak i.e., the most extreme positive or negative event, and the end. The duration of the experience does not hold as much importance (duration neglect) as the average of the peak and end events. This is called peak-end effect.
Prosocial incentives
Prosocial incentives
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Prosocial incentives
When the incentive for behaving a certain way rewards the team, community, or society, the incentive is prosocial. Examples of prosocial behaviours are volunteering and charitable giving.
Loss framing
Loss
framing
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Loss framing
People are more likely to make significant changes to their behaviour due to the fear of losing what (they think) they already have than if they stand to gain something of the same value.