Behavioral science for better government: Key insights from recent InnovateUS workshops in partnership with the Behavioral Insights Team

InnovateUS recently hosted a series of illuminating workshops exploring how behavioral science can be leveraged to improve government operations and policy outcomes. Led by experts from the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), these sessions provided practical frameworks and tactics for applying behavioral insights across various domains of government work. 

BIT is a global research and innovation consultancy which combines a deep understanding of human behavior with evidence-led problem solving to improve people’s lives. They work with all levels of government, nonprofits, and the private sector, applying behavior science expertise with robust evaluation and data to help clients achieve their goals in sectors such as education, health, and sustainability .

1. Transforming State Governments with Behavioral Insights

In May, Leah Everist and Anna Keleher from BIT shared how behavioral insights can improve the design of information, environments, processes, policies, and programs. 

First, Keleher established that these methods are intended to supplement current strategies for public professionals, not replace them.

“Behavioral insights is not here to replace traditional policy tools that many of you work with like regulations and incentives and providing information to residents,” she said. “Instead we're here to enrich those tools and increase their effectiveness both when we're trying to improve existing services to residents and also when we build new ones."

The workshop dove into real-life case studies that illuminated how behavioral insights can revolutionize policy-making and service delivery, using examples from a range of sectors including transportation, sustainability, health, and justice.

The session also covered successful interventions, such as redesigning lead testing kits to boost completion rates and crafting effective messages to increase heat pump adoption. 

Everist summed up the power of using these approaches.

 "Understanding how people behave in practice helps us design better policies and services," she said. 

You can watch the recording of this workshop here. 

2. Debiasing Decision-Making in Government

In July, Dr. Emily Cardon and Erin Britton led a workshop focusing on how to address cognitive biases that have previously led to suboptimal policymaking.

Common biases affecting government decision-making include overconfidence, misperceiving public opinion, and disproportionate attention to certain issues. Cognitive biases can affect all 3 stages of policymaking: noticing, deliberating, and executing.  To address and recognize biases early, the speakers stressed that it is essential to use techniques such as "ThinkGroups," red teams, and pre-mortems to help surface potential issues early.

“ThinkGroups” ensure ideas get equal hearing. This could include anonymously providing input into a live online document or giving your team the opportunity for anonymous feedback on ideas.

Red Teams facilitate constructive challenges and are specifically asked to find the weaknesses in a policy/project proposal. 

Postmortems are run to “fail in advance.” This consists of three steps:

1. Arrange a meeting to discuss the (hypothetical) policy failure 

2. Invite a diverse cast list to have unique perspectives on program outcomes

3. Provide background information in the meeting, state already-known risks, and then ask people to think of non-obvious risks that could cause the project to fail

The goal of this work is to create a "well-calibrated government" that accurately assesses probabilities and is rarely surprised by policy outcomes.

"A well-calibrated government has an accurate understanding of its own knowledge, and is neither overconfident or underconfident,” Dr. Cardon said. 

You can watch the workshop recording here.

3. Using Behavioral Insights to Design Effective Communications

The final workshop, led by Dr. Sheena Mirpuri and Nick Baker in July, focused on applying behavioral science principles to government communications.

The workshop introduced foundational concepts in behavioral science and provided participants with practical tools and checklists for improving their communications. 

Mirpuri began by emphasizing the importance of which method of communication we use, and emphasized that even small changes can lead to significant improvements in engagement and behavior change.

“When it comes to changing behavior, how we communicate is just as important as what we communicate," she said.

The workshop explored the EAST framework for behavior change: making communications Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely. This included the following:

• To make communications easy, one must focus on a single target behavior, make the call to action clear and easy to execute, and minimize the amount of text.

• To make communications attractive, draw attention to key information using color and bolding, personalize communications to the recipient, and effectively design your envelope/subject line!

• To make communications social, only emphasize a descriptive social norm if it communicates that many others engage in the target behavior. Finally, to make communications timely, time your communications so that people see them when they’re able and willing to change their behavior.

“Send your communications to people at a time when they are willing and able to change their behavior. It's not going to have any effect if you send it to them at a time when they're not motivated to change their behavior," Baker said. 

Watch this workshop here.

Across all three workshops, a common theme emerged: small, evidence-based tweaks to how government operates and communicates can lead to significant improvements in policy outcomes and citizen engagement. 

Learn more about the Behavioral Insights Team here. To sign up for our upcoming free InnovateUS workshop sessions, click here.