Behavioral Science

Much of my research concerns how behavioral science can be applied to real-world issues.

I’ve developed several widely-used frameworks for translating findings from behavioral science into practice, including EAST®. More recently, I’ve concentrated on how applied behavioral science should evolve in the future.

I’ve also published studies showing how concepts from behavioral science can be applied to practical problems, including tax compliance, antibiotic prescribing, and missed hospital appointments. Most of these studies consist of large-scale randomized controlled trials run in partnership with governments.

Highlights:

EAST: Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights

A manifesto for applying behavioural science. Nature Human Behaviour, 2023.

Misconceptions about the practice of behavioral public policy. SSRN, with summary version published in Behavioral & Brain Sciences.

Provision of social norm feedback to high prescribers of antibiotics in general practice: A pragmatic national randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 387(10029): 1743-1752.

The behavioralist as tax collector: Increasing tax compliance through natural field experiments. The Journal of Public Economics, 148: 14-31.

Stating appointment costs in SMS reminders reduces missed hospital appointments: Findings from two randomised controlled trials. PLOS One.

Influencing behaviour: The MINDSPACE way. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(1): 264-277.

Behavioural science and policy: Where are we now and where are we going? Behavioural Public Policy, 2(2): 144-167.

Artificial Intelligence

I also look at the similarities, differences, and relationships between artificial and human intelligence.

Most recently, I authored the Augment-Adopt-Align-Adapt framework. That shows how behavioral science can help us to:

• Augment AI, improving its performance by using insights about how humans make decisions

• Adopt AI, by understanding the reasons why people embrace or reject AI, and identifying how to set up organizations so AI works better;

• Align AI, by showing all the ways that AI is influencing human behavior (some obvious, some subtle), and how humans are doing the same to AI;

• Adapt societies to the wide-ranging effects AI may have on our expectations, abilities and motivations.

Highlights:

AI & Human Behaviour: Augment, Adopt, Align, Adapt.

The Judgment Gap substack.

How does LLM use affect decision-making?