Behavioural Insights Team Blog

The Behavioural Insights Team recently met up with GreeNudge, a Norwegian organisation that researches behavioural approaches to encouraging environmentally friendly choices. Among other things, we discussed their latest study on food waste.

GreeNudge conducted randomised controlled trials in hotel restaurants with food buffets. They found that reducing plate size and communicating that it’s ok to come back for another serving resulted in a decrease in food waste whilst hotel guest satisfaction remained the ….read more

Harvard Professor Francesca Gino was kind enough to send us a copy of her new book ‘Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan’.

The book makes for a readable introduction to many of the cognitive biases that often cause us to deviate from our desired plan of action, as well as providing simple tips to help us address them.

Professor Gino explains these through succinct summaries of much of her current research, with ….read more

We’ve been busy over the last few weeks and, if you listen to Radio 4’s BBC PM show, you may have heard about the ways in which we’re helping jobseekers across Essex to get back into work.  If you missed it, or just want to listen again, you can do so here.

 To learn more about what we’ve been doing in Essex, take a look at our blog post on the initial trial we ran in Loughton.  We are now well ….read more

This month the government announced plans to set up “What Works” centres to gather, review, and disseminate best practice across a number of policy areas.

Dissemination of research findings, particularly in an age of devolution, is of critical importance. Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), which are easy to understand (compared with other, less robust research methods) have great promise in this area, but cannot do the job by themselves.

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Professor Cass Sunstein will be visiting the Behavioural Insights Team next week. Cass is the co-author of Nudge and previous head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under President Obama.

This visit coincides with the publication of Cass’ new book, ‘Simpler: The Future of Government’, which builds on the thinking outlined in Nudge. Cass will be speaking at a Round Table in 10 Downing Street, and meeting with various Ministers and senior officials. He will also be ….read more

The fourth edition of the Behavioural Bulletin is now available.

Perhaps I’ve been affected by ‘ownership bias’, but I’ve had a wonderful time on the BIT Research Fellowship Programme and simply can’t recommend it highly enough. Wherever you plan to work after completing your PhD, the experience you will gain here is invaluable.

As an economist, I’ve always been interested in behavioural science.  What this placement has given me is a more formal knowledge of the behavioural literature. ….read more

Today’s Telegraph reports on some of the team’s work over the past two years, including: increasing the rate of tax payment; increasing the uptake of loft insulation; helping to get job seekers back into work.

More than half the years of healthy life lost are as a result of behavioural or lifestyle factors, such as smoking, poor diet or lack of exercise. This is before we factor in social relationships and frame of mind – having someone to talk to and a positive outlook on life have been found to have major impacts on longevity, with an effect comparable to not smoking.

The Darzi review estimated that less than 0.5 per cent of medical research spending was ….read more

Read an interview with Dr David Halpern, BIT Director, in today’s Guardian.

There is also an article about the team in yesterday’s Japan Times.