Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics Books PDF File - How to

Engaged demystifies the psychology behind behavior change and offers practical methods and examples for applying it to product design. A worthwhile introduction for anyone trying to help users achieve health, financial, or other goals.

Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics books pdf file

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Policy makers across the world are increasingly taking note of lessons from behavioral economics and this paper explores how key principles could help public health practitioners design effective interventions both in relation to incentive designs and more widely.

It has been demonstrated that we react more to losses than to gains of equivalent magnitude [38], which is embedded into the well-known (Nobel prize winning) Prospect Theory of risky choice. Loss aversion implies that someone who loses 10 from his or her pocket will lose more satisfaction than another person would gain satisfaction from a 10 windfall. Most incentive schemes tend to offer rewards to participants but inducing some feeling of loss if they fail to do something may be more motivating than rewarding them by the same amount. So, instead of providing a 10 reward for each of the ten sessions of a weight loss programme, it may be more effective to provide 100 at the end of the programme, with all missed sessions attracting a more salient and painful 10 loss. Using a behavioral economics framework, one randomised study has shown the short-term effectiveness of such a scheme. Individuals in this programme contributed to a matched deposit contract that rewarded them if they met or exceeded their weight loss goal but led to the loss of the reward if they failed [39]. Loss aversion is one of the most robust phenomenon from behavioral economics and could be used more widely across incentive schemes.

Financial incentives are increasingly seen as an important vehicle by which to bring about changes in behavior that can lead to healthier lifestyles. Limited evidence also suggests that appropriately targeted incentives could reduce inequalities in health outcomes [53, 61]. There are lessons that can be learned from a range of disciplines and we have focused on those from behavioral economics in this article.

The United States administration also issued a rule that employers can use financial rewards and penalties for workers worth up to 50% of the health insurance premium as an incentive to quit smoking, exercise, eat healthier food, lose weight, and lower cholesterol and blood pressure [66]. In particular, the rule allows, as part employee wellness programs, employers to reward or penalize employees who meet specific standards related to their health (e.g., rewarding employees who do not use tobacco or who achieve a specific cholesterol level, weight or body mass index). In order to avoid wasting public resources, such programs will provide evidence how such incentives schemes work in the longer-term and which method is most cost-effective. Employers can improve the effectiveness of such programs by incorporating the behavioral economics principles discussed in this article.

UXers with a behavioral background know the psychology of how people interact and engage with products. They can use that to build upon the particular skills of the UX field. Qualitative research techniques are key to understanding the needs of users and gaining valuable feedback. Design concepts are critical, including product, interaction, and interface design. Understanding information architecture and programming (especially front end) can be quite valuable.

If you asked Richard Thaler in 2010, what he thought would become of the then very new field of behavioral science over the next decade, he would have been wrong, at least for the most part. Could he have predicted the expansion of behavioral economics research? Probably. The Nobel Prize? Maybe. The nearly 300 and counting behavioral teams in governments, businesses, and other organizations around the world? Not a chance.

ideas42 and other organizations like it that apply behavioral science to solve real-world problems have successfully completed hundreds, probably thousands, of experiments over the last decade. In the next decade, we have a tremendous opportunity to apply behavioral science to achieve impact at scale, rather than continuing to generate more experiments simply because we have made experiments our measure of success. Behavioral science can provide a different lens on changing systems. It is critical to adapt successful solutions from one context to another. We can use it to help organizations transform. Finally, in taking on these more complex projects, we can consistently use science even to optimize the process of applying the science. These broader applications will be harder to execute and harder to measure, but the potential for impact makes them worth chasing.

Ask a behavioral scientist with a background in psychology and you will get one answer; ask a behavioral scientist with a background in economics and you will get another. Like an adolescent, as a field we are figuring out who we are and experiencing the mandatory growing pains. The coming decade will hopefully bring more clarity to the field, while maintaining the flexibility that has allowed it to be creative and innovative.

In the next decade, behavioral science research can focus on narrowing inequality within systems. At an individual level, this may involve more differentiated and personalized interventions. At a broader level, this may require less nudging/shoving of people, and more redesigning of the context or even mission of programs and organizations. We call on the field to improve systems to better address stark and persistent inequities.

These are the promises but also the dangers of a future where technology and behavioral science will be increasingly interconnected. The potential is to help us be who we want to be. The danger is to remove the variability that makes us human. And, although I recognize the tremendous value of both psychology and technology, we need to be the first to discuss the ethical implications of our possibilities.

The 2010s saw a growing recognition of the role of implicit bias in exacerbating racial and ethnic disparities in health care. The 2020s provide an opportunity to do something about it. In particular, incorporating insights about implicit bias into behavioral economics can target these health care disparities directly.

Rachika Komal is a behavioral researcher, graduate of Christ University, Bangalore (India). Soumya Bahuguna is a communications strategist and an economics major from the Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi (India).

Conventional and behavioral economics pay much attention to money and material wealth (as a scarce resource) when studying behaviour and decision-making. While this is understandable (much economic activity does involve money, directly and indirectly) and makes sense to a certain point, it is fraught with difficulties. Money is a scarce resource, but its value is very context-dependent.

One way of alleviating this issue is by building communities that foster prosocial behaviors and, in turn, increase social capital. Research from fields such as environmental psychology and other behavioural science disciplines will soon become the key drivers needed to push innovations in urban design and real estate development. For example, we can help property professionals craft a built environment that eliminates inhibitory social norms, encouraging frequent social interactions that foster a communal sense of belonging. Merging behavioral science and urban design can create destinations that provide function and form in a way that provides tangible social benefits to their citizens.

Fortunately, this means we can interrupt these thought patterns to make higher-quality decisions. With fascinating examples from countless behavioral economics studies, Predictably Irrational will likely change both how you see the world and how you act in it.

With over 1.5M copies sold and named Best Book of the Year by The Economist, Nudge is one of the most influential behavioral economic books of all time. At its heart, Nudge is about how we make choices, and how to make better ones.

Among influential behavioral economics books, this one is a behemoth. A runaway best-seller, here Nobel Prize winner Kahneman (@kahneman_daniel) presents the two systems of the mind: System 1, which is fast, emotional, and intuitive; and System 2, which is slow, logical, and more deliberate.

Interested in learning to leverage behavioral economics to improve products and services? Read our collection of behavioral science resources. For hands-on learning, check out our Behavioral Economics Bootcamp.

Behavior change frameworks are the bedrock of applied behavioral science. Designed by behavioral scientists for policy makers and industry leaders, these summaries of cutting edge decision-making insights are essential for applying research in the public and private spheres. Frameworks distill strategies for influencing human decisions into simple, portable mnemonic devices or acronyms. This makes it possible for complex, theoretical insights about how people think and act to make their way into the practices of organizations across every industry and environment. To understand more about how these frameworks work in practice, check out our case studies.

A British psychologist and professor of health psychology at University College London. She, along with her colleagues, created the COM-B framework for behavior change. Michie is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behavioural Science (SPO-B): 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). She was also a recent guest on The Decision Corner podcast, where we discussed the way that behavioral science will shape the world as we emerge from COVID-19.

Subtle interventions to help people make better decisions are hardly new. Since the 1950s, behavioral scientists, using a mix of economics and psychology, have studied human irrationality and devised ways both to improve the choices made by consumers and influence how employees react in the workplace. Increasingly, over the past two decades, companies have used the insights of behavioral science to reduce bias in boardrooms, improve strategic decision making, provide benefits for customers, enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and avoid making bad bets on major acquisitions or investments. 2ff7e9595c