A recent pair of articles offer wildly different verdicts on nudges, and show how we urgently need a new kind of debate.

While nudges and boosts can look similar in practice, their theoretical distinctions are important and useful for those building interventions.

WHO/Europe has launched a new document, providing support to countries that wish to set up a unit for behavioural insights (BI) in health. The document provides guidance on key considerations, ranging from the location of a unit and staffing, to ensuring impact and sustainability.

Changing individuals’ behavior is key to tackling some of today’s most pressing societal challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic or climate change. Choice architecture interventions aim to nudge people toward personally and socially desirable behavior through the design of choice environments. Although increasingly popular, little is known about the overall effectiveness of choice architecture interventions and the conditions under which they facilitate behavior change. Here we quantitatively review over a decade of research, showing that choice architecture interventions successfully promote behavior change across key behavioral domains, populations, and locations. Our findings offer insights into the effects of choice architecture and provide guidelines for behaviorally informed policy making. Data have been deposited in the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/fywae/).

Across December, I will be reposting the amazing social impact conversations from the first series (and a bit) of ON Social Impact. Find out a but more about what's going on in this quick reintroduction to the awesome world of social impact business chat!

Convening the communication and media (for) development, social and behavioural change community through a social networking and shared knowledge strategy. Focus on health, governance, HIV/AIDS, children, media development, conflict management, environment, rights, disasters, gender and other major Development issues.

The COM-B model of behaviour is widely used to identify what needs to change in order for a behaviour change intervention to be effective. It identifies three factors that need to be present for any behaviour to occur: capability, opportunity and mot...

A desire to be part of a group such as a political party is what makes some of us more likely to discriminate against people outside our groups, even in non-political settings, according to a new

Loss aversion is a foundational bias and is a natural choice for interventions encouraging compliance during COVID-19. We compare the effectiveness of…

The blog website for the Social Marketing centre at Griffith University.

Advice to governments, states and provinces regarding post peak phases of social marketing, behavioural influence and communication strategy to reduce harms caused by COVID-19. Jeff French on Italian Social Marketing Network - Newsletter 177 curated by Giuseppe Fattori

Social media public health campaigns have the advantage of tailored messaging at low cost and large reach, but little is known about what would determine their feasibility as tools for inducing attitude and behavior change.The aim of this study was to ...

An opportunity of understand the COVID-19 initiatives in India, their key drivers of change, target agents, and their relationships

An anthropologist illuminates how both old and new rituals can provide a sense of comfort during times of uncertainty.

By Matthew Warren. Psychologists have launched new research to understand how the crisis is affecting us, and to inform our response to it.

By Emma Young. Series of studies involving nearly 69,000 airport workers failed to change commuting behaviour

It’s not news that handwashing prevents the spread of disease, from the common cold to the novel coronavirus. But it might take some creativity to transform our best intentions to keep our hands clean into the act of regular handwashing. Behavioral scientists weigh in on strategies to do just this.

Recorded 11th March 2020 Jim McManus and Susan Michie join host, Stuart King, for another discussion on using behavioural science to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Susan and Jim cover the importance of not just hand washing, but using tissues and cleaning surfaces as the virus is spread not just through physical contact, but through the air too. The discussion also covers the impact of giving feedback to others to reinforce those preventative behaviours, as well as how we need to have a population mindset. Although you might not be at risk, you may be in contact with those who are. ...

In this Real World Behavioural Science special, Susan, Jim and I discuss how behavioural science can be used to help prevent the spread of COVID19 (Coronavirus). Susan shares some of the insights from her recently published BMJ blog on using COM B to provide clear, effective and simple strategies to use to prevent the spread of infection. Jim provides some food for thought about using social psychology to try to slow the rate of transmission. If you are a professional (or anyone else for that matter!), this podcast contains some helpful tips that could save lives. Big thank you to Susan and...

More and more customers are interested in buying ethical products, including those made with sustainable and eco-friendly materials and produced under good working conditions. But unfortunately, a new

In this conversation, Philip spends time with Prof. Raz Godelnik, Assistant Professor of Strategic Design & Management. We discuss the future of climate crisis and what are the roles of design, brand story and activism in creating a better connection between individual and collective action. The Drop – The segment of the show where both Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip’s Drop: Joyful Militancy by Carla Bergman and Nick Montgomery Prof. Godelnik’s Drop: We Are The Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer

The power of perception on consumers food and beverage choices.

Anthropologist Elisa Sobo never wanted to study the issue of vaccination. The topic was too fraught, she says, and she didn't want to touch it. But then she initiated a children’s health study at a school in California. Today her work on vaccine hesitancy offers insights into how those on opposing sides might better understand each other and work through this highly controversial issue. For more, check out Elisa Sobo’s SAPIENS piece about her work on vaccination: “Beyond the Vaccination Rift.” For the other vaccination-related SAPIENS article Chip mentions in this episode, see: “Why Eradica...

At the beginning of the year, many of us make resolutions for the months to come. We resolve to work out more, procrastinate less, or save more money. Though some people stick with these aspirations, many of us fall short. This week, psychologist Wendy Wood shares what researchers have found about how to build good habits — and break bad ones.

How can we make quick yet well-thought-out decisions in a world with ever more options and choices? A new Swiss study finds that the faster we break down multiple alternatives into just two options,

Experimental research methods have become mainstream across many disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences. Highlighting, the application of new experimental methods that employ innovation…

Five areas sustainability will keep you competitive.