Behavioral Insights for Public Policy - Contextualizing Our Science

There has been an increasing effort to integrate behavioral insights into public policy. These insights are often reliant on social psychological research and theory. However, in this relatively young field, policy interventions and behavioral insights are often built on laboratory-based psychological research with effects that can prove to be unstable in the 'real world'. In this Element, the author provides a brief history of how behavioral insights have been applied to complex policy problems. The author describes ways in which behavioral insights have been successful and where they have fallen short. In addition, the author examines unintended negative consequences of nudges and provides a more nuanced examination of their impacts on behavior change. Finally, the author concludes with a set of recommendations for generating more effective practical applications of psychology to the field of public policy.

List of contents

1. Overview; 2. Background; 3. Behavioral insights: Successes and shortcomings; 4. A constrained context: Concerns and challenges for applying behavioral sciences; 5. Better data for equitable outcomes; 6. Conclusion.

Summary

This Element describes ways in which behavioral insights have been successful and where they have fallen while examining unintended negative consequences of nudges and provides a more nuanced examination of their impacts on behavior change.

Product details

• Authors: Crystal C. Hall, Crystal C. (University of Washington) Jurcev Hall, Ines Jurcevic
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2022
• EAN: 9781009013918
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0901391-8
• No. of pages: 75
• Series: Elements in Applied Social Psychology
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Psychology: general, reference works; PSYCHOLOGY / Social Psychology, Social, group or collective psychology