Closing Panel on Frontiers and Cutting Edge Research

David Halpern

David Halpern took us through a number of examples of BI application that have progressed the field.

One interesting study he shared was on having prize draws as a default state was more effective than setting it up as a reward when trying to nudge a certain behaviour, challenging the reflexive slapping on of incentives to change behaviour, when there exists an arguably stronger force that is reciprocity. This isn’t new stuff. Cialdini’s well established principles of persuasion along with the entire field of social psychology point toward strong social forces that move people. But policymaking has long been dominated by economic frameworks and would benefit from consideration of these forces.

Like Mr Naru in the previous panel, Dr. Halpern also highlights the application of BI beyond individual nudges, as depicted in the case of taxing companies based on the sugar levels of their drinks. Because of the time frame of the tax implementation and the two tax tiers based on sugar level, while consumers are classically incentivized to not purchase drinks with sugar, companies are in fact being nudged towards reducing the sugar levels in their drinks by a tier and focusing marketing efforts on drinks with less sugar — further cascading the effects of the initial policy!

Figure detailing the two sugar tiers; taken from BIT’s report on sugar tax

Colin Cameron

Colin Cameron also shared his hopes and beliefs about BI’s future:

There is a need to draw from domain knowledge.

This echoes Faisal’s point on beginning from the people and engendering more collaboration between different fields/organizations.

RCTs are still the gold standard.

Critical global public health has something to say about this though. RCTs might not work for every population or scenario.

UI, UX, and design will feature prominently.

This goes back to the beginnings of BI, in which we see how small changes such as font size and word placement on a page can result in drastic changes in behaviour regarding things like tax payment rate.

We have to continue measuring aggressively, leveraging on improved technologies such as facial tracking, and the internet of things.

Colin ended his presentation emphatically by declaring our present time the “golden age of social science”, with the current tools and institutions in place to study and implement behavioural changes.