The importance of ‘dirty consulting’
How do you get abattoir workers to wash their hands?
The site visit: a behavioural audit
The workshop: designing the intervention
Executing the idea
Intervention and measurement
Do it yourself: a toolkit for diagnosing, designing and measuring behavioural interventions
#37 Diagnose the problem with a behavioural audit
#38 Solve the problem using behavioural design
#39 Run an experiment to measure the outcome
What happened next for the handstamp?
Chapter 14: Preventing Falls with Pink Walls, London
Using behavioural science to eradicate unsafe behaviours in construction
Understanding the problem with a behavioural audit
Using behavioural insights to design safety nudges
The Cool Canteen: a space designed to reduce testosterone
The GoldCard reward scheme
The Weekly Walkround: spending some time in the shoes of a supervisor
Measuring the impact, whilst avoiding the Hawthorne effect
Step-changing results
Do it yourself: a toolkit for applying behavioural science to your world
#40 Follow points 1–39
Conclusion: It’s over to you
Repeatability, rather than replicability
The future of applied behavioural science
Your toolkit for using behavioural science in business
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
April
About the authors
Jez Groom
Jez has been practising behavioural science for over ten years working with some of the biggest organisations around the world, and was the co-founder of Ogilvy Change and Engine Decisions. In 2016 he founded Cowry Consulting, the leading behavioural economics consultancy, and is currently a visiting fellow of Behavioural Science at City University.
April Vellacott
April has been studying the field of human behaviour for nearly a decade, and holds degrees in Psychology and Behaviour Change. She is a behavioural consultant at Cowry Consulting, where she helps global clients to apply behavioural science in their organisations.
Glossary
affect – Our emotions, known in behavioural science as affective states, can have profound effects on our behaviour.
ambiguity aversion – We have a preference for risks that are associated with known probabilities over those with unknown probabilities, and we tend to avoid decisions where the choices and commitments are ambiguous.
anchoring – Once we’ve been exposed to one piece of information (the anchor), it influences our subsequent judgments.
availability heuristic – Our probability judgments are affected by the ease with which we can recall examples from memory.
authority bias – We’re influenced by cues of authority and we’re more likely to trust the guidance of those who are authorities in their field, such as doctors or lawyers.
broken windows theory – Small examples of lawlessness encourage more law-breaking behaviour.
choice architecture – Altering and influencing people’s decision-making context.
chunking – The process of grouping many pieces of information into smaller chunks to make it easier to process.
cognitive dissonance – The uncomfortable mental feeling of holding two conflicting beliefs at the same time.
cognitive miser – Just as a miser is stingy with money, our minds are inherently lazy and prefer to avoid expending cognitive energy.
cognitive overload – When our working memory is overloaded with too much information.
commitment bias – Once we’ve made a commitment to do something, even if it’s small, we’re then more likely to continue investing in it.
conformity – In social groups, we have a tendency to conform towards the behaviour of the majority; see also social proof.
confounding variables – These are the factors which have hidden effects on the outcome of an experiment.
consistency bias – We like to see our current behaviour as consistent with our previous behaviour and we are motivated to behave in ways which maintain this consistency.
default bias – We prefer to stick with the default option and go with the flow, as this requires less cognitive effort; see also status quo bias.
ecological valence theory – Our colour preferences are influenced by our previous emotional associations.
effort heuristic – We associate the amount of effort taken to make something with its quality.
ego/superiority bias – We like to behave in ways that make us feel good about ourselves.
embodied cognition – Our bodies and their sensory inputs influence our mental state.
empathy gap – We underestimate the influence of emotions and urges on our future decisions and on other people’s decisions.
endowment – We value the things we own more than things we don’t.
facial mimicry – When we see another person smile, we simulate the smile in the form of a micro-expression.
frame dependence – Our choices are affected by context and their relation to available comparisons.
Hawthorne effect – Research participants behave differently if they know they’re being watched.
hot/cold affective states –