A report released last month catalogues a behavioural-science toolkit for conservationists (see go.nature.com/3iurm7w). It draws on examples that have delivered substantial behavioural shifts in other sectors. We urge conservation researchers to design ways of testing its recommendations.

Conserving wild species and their habitats requires more than good biology. Enduring solutions also hinge on people changing their behaviour — altering how we manage natural resources, adopting more sustainable consumption, and making investment decisions that are less environmentally damaging. Conservationists trying to encourage such changes still rely mainly on education, financial incentives and regulation.

However, a growing body of behavioural-science research shows that people’s responses to these conventional approaches are influenced by decision-making contexts, by social convention and by idiosyncratic biases (see C. R. Sunstein and L. A. Reisch Harv. Environ. Law Rev. 38, 127–158; 2014). Explicitly recognizing such factors can help to deliver beneficial behavioural change in low-cost, innovative ways. For example, altering default options has increased organ donation and markedly improved personal savings plans. Applications to nature conservation are scarce (see H. Byerly et al. Front. Ecol. Environ. 16, 159–168; 2018).

In our view, conservation and behaviour-change experts need to collaborate to systematically identify and test ways of shifting behaviours to benefit conservation.