Getting the public to follow instructions is not easy. This is even more apparent during the COVID-19 crisis, be it at home, work, in towns, cities, and/or countries. We need an updated social instruction list for the COVID-19 era. Behavioral science can help us encourage the kind of behavior we need to persevere through the pandemic.
We are often faced with situations where we need to compete with others to attain a mutually-exclusive outcome. Our success in these scenarios often depends on our ability to make sound, rational decisions, but emotion and arousal can often compromise this. Rock-paper-scissors (RPS) can help us better understand the battle between rationality and emotion, thereby improving our everyday decision-making.
Without heuristics, the brain would have a tough time solving even the simplest of problems. Check out this perspective piece to learn more about what heuristics do, why they exist, and how they apply in the real world.
Climate change is one of the defining environmental challenges of our time. As it turns out, behavioral science insights can help explain why we struggle to take action against climate change and what some potential solutions might be.
Fake news is a pernicious and pervasive phenomenon that has damaged many democracies globally. The Decision Lab reached out to Dr. Gleb Tsipursky to learn more about his work on a study involving pro-truth pledges as a way to fight fake news.
When evaluating policy, several explanations may arise for our preferences for or against certain political decisions. Research shows our biases mixed with contextual factors may give favorable advantages where we least expect it.
The intersection of digital health solutions and behavioral science can have a significant impact on the adherence rate of treatment programs. The Decision Lab reached out to Dr. Erez Yoeli of MIT to learn more about his work on a project involving digital health tools for Tuberculosis (TB) patients and the future direction of similar areas of research in behavioral science.
In early March, the risk of COVID-19 infection was relatively low, yet the public was anxious and took large strides to follow pandemic related safety recommendations. Now, the risk of infection is higher than ever in certain countries, yet the willingness to adhere to safety recommendations has waned. Why?
As Russian oligarchs and Emirs buy up teams in many sports leagues worldwide, a schism is being wedged between teams. Competitive balance, considered a central requirement for the success of leagues, is weakening in many leagues as a result. Behavioral science and results from experiments can shed some light on why leagues may not wish to push for reforms.
