A MANIFESTO - for Applying Behavioral Science

Instead, we need to see the longer- emerge from the “lower-level” interactions of actors term impact on a system of a collection of policies participating in the system.32 When they become the with varying goals.39 The best approach may be governing features of the system, they then shape “system stewardship”, which focuses on creating the “lower-level” behavior until some other aspect the conditi. [...] It emphasizes the behavioral diagnosis of a situation or issue, rather than pushing too soon to define a precise target outcome and In a way, the metaphor of behavioral science as intervention.145 a tool that produces clear results has served the field well over the last decade - it has established • Specifying that this lens can be applied to credibility and acceptance in a defined area. [...] How do we think about them refers to the setup where there is a dedicated alongside the desire to create a dedicated team or resource that applies behavioral science behavioral insights team, for example? to organizational priorities.162 In the ‘Diffused’ scenario, people or teams with competence in We think that the diagram above offers a useful behavioral science are spread throughout the way of. [...] The Behavioural Insights Team / A Manifesto for Applying Behavioral Science 43 In these examples, the idea is to find targeted SEE THE SYSTEM changes to features of a system that create the Finally, we want to turn to the main message of conditions for wide-ranging shifts in behavior to this proposal. [...] into the model to assess the sensitivity of the results When dealing with complex adaptive systems, to different assumptions about human decision RCTs can be strengthened to address some of the making’.281 Doing this allows you to assess how limitations that become apparent - and the act of resilient your intervention is to the uncertainties doing so should drive behavioral science itself about be.