Behavioural Science 101:
What is behavioural science?
Focused on Behaviour
BeSci observes and measures behaviour, as opposed to knowledge, beliefs, preferences or attitudes. It does so by observingactual behaviour or, if that is not possible, by collecting data on behavioural intentions linked to the behaviour.
Evidence-Based
BeSci leverages understanding from academic and practical findings and uses scientific methods to identify barriers or enablers that either impede or facilitate the effectiveness of policies, programmes and administrations; test and measure the impact of approaches to changing behaviour through experiments.
Context Driven
Behavioural interventions focus on changing contextual factors to change behaviour. This may involve reshaping contextual cues such as framing of different options, or the salience of particular information or social norms at play, based on the evidence on how these cues influence behaviour.
Incremental
BeSci embraces an incremental approach rather than investing immediately in large-scale policy interventions. Small scale experiments can help to test the relative effectiveness of various approaches to changing behaviour.
Applying behavioural science
Evaluate
Test
Measure
Step 1:
Define the outcome and target behaviour
Step 2:
Understand the context and identify the behavioural factors at play
Step 3:
Design a behaviourally-informed intervention
Step 4:
Test and evaluate
Step 5:
Learn, adapt and communicate findings
