Applying Behavioral Sciences in the Real World

Why do we fail to make decisions that we know are good for us?
Why do we fail to save for retirement, or overuse our credit and spend more than we know we should?
What can be done to help us align our actions and our best intentions?

Want to learn more? Check out these great links! Behavioral Economics in the News Videos Test Yourself Books to Read Applied Behavioral Research Policy Proposals Links Emerging evidence from the behavioral sciences and behavioral economics offers us a richer and more nuanced understanding of human behavior and decision-making. We believe that taking these insights out of lab and into the real world may uncover promising and powerful ways to tackle some of our thorniest social problems.

Recent Blog Posts

Feeling Connected to Your Inner Old Man
August 5, 2010 12:30 PM

We all know that Americans save less for retirement than we should and than we say we want to. For many, this has catastrophic consequences. But why do we fail to save for own future? Researchers Ersner-Hershfield, Bailenson, and Carstensen wondered if part of the problem – beyond the self-control problems that behavioral researchers have already hypothesized - is that we just can't "see" ourselves as older and retirement-ready so we have a difficult time imagining what we will want and need...read more

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Behavioral Lessons From the World Cup
July 8, 2010 4:00 PM

Everyone loves the World Cup, but for those interested in decision-making and behavior, the penalty kick is a wonderful distilled study in decision-making under pressure. Think about it: triumph or heart-breaking defeat rests on the decisions of two men, made in nanoseconds while the world watches...read more

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Remind, Automate, Disclose
June 21, 2010 12:00 PM

Genevieve Melford, Senior Program Manager, Applied Research, CFED

At its core, microfinance is about empowering low-income people, through access to small-scale financial products and services, to improve their financial condition. Insights from the study of behavioral economics have a lot of value to add to the practice of microfinance...read more

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The Power of Affirmation
June 4, 2010 4:00 PM

Guest Blogger: Crystal Hall, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs, University of Washington

We all know what the word “stereotype” means. What some may not be familiar with are the effects of stereotyping when someone perceives that their self-worth is negatively evaluated against these preconceived notions. In psychology, this is known as stereotype threat. ...read more

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Nudging people to save: The $aveNYC Account
May 21, 2010 4:00 PM

Guest Blogger: Caitlyn Brazill, Director of Research and Policy. NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, Office of Financial Empowerment

We all know that saving money is a struggle. We know we should save more for retirement and emergencies, spend less on vacations, and avoid the (in)famous $4 cup of coffee. Many of us rely on our jobs and our financial institutions to help us: make automatic deductions into retirement accounts, automatic transfers from our checking to savings and even new handy programs that roll the change from our debit purchases into our savings accounts. All of these tools stem from a simple logic…read more

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Learning About Human Behavior from Google Trends: Part II
May 6, 2010 5:00 PM

Many organizations put an enormous amount of effort (often with very modest results) into encouraging people to purchase savings bonds at tax time reasoning that people have some extra cash to put into savings from tax refunds…read more

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(Almost) Everything I Wanted to Know About Human Behavior I Learned From Google Trends*
April 28, 2010 5:00 PM

* For example, people may be more likely to find and read a blog post when a picture of Paris Hilton is attached.

Usually, these posts describe findings about human behavior discovered from months of collecting and documenting original research. But some questions about human behavior—both serious (is there a flu pandemic headed my way?) and ridiculous (are people more interested in Paris Hilton or Paris, France?) can be answered within seconds from the comfort of your living room…read more

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Mmmm...the Power of Doughnuts
April 5, 2010 10:00 PM

Sometimes the most interesting questions are most are the basic. What's the best way to get people to respond to us? We all have questions we'd like to ask, feedback we'd like clients, customers, even friends, to give us. But getting people to take time out of their commuting, basketball watching, behavioral blog-reading lives and sit down to pay attention our questions can be surprisingly difficult. I know that I almost never respond to organization or businesses' pleas to "help us improve!" or "take this quick survey". I want to help. I just never seem to have the 5 minutes… read more.

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Basketball and Behavior: Could Obama Have Helped Murray State Beat Vanderbilt?
March 26, 2010 10:00 PM

I’m not a sports fan (at all) but I have a strange fascination with the NCAA college championships. Each year around March, I turn into a person I barely recognize as I search out sports blogs and says things like, “that was a beautiful crosscourt pass!” with total sincerity...read more

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Making Saving Easy and Expected: An Early Look at AutoSave
March 1, 2010 3:06 PM

A Conversation with Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini, Senior Policy Analyst. The New America Foundation

Early last year I had the opportunity to work with Alejandra from the New America Foundation and her partners at MDRC on their fascinating project, AutoSave. AutoSave has a simple and laudable goal: make saving at the workplace so easy it feels automatic. Actually, the initial goal was to create an automatic enrollment for savings. But unlike retirement savings, automatic enrollment is not yet possible for personal savings...read more

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Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
February 18, 2010 1:12 PM

Guest blogger: Valerie Klein, Consumer Credit Services of the Delaware Valley (CCCSDV)

Each month, hundreds of people call our offices at CCCSDV to make appointments for credit and debt counseling. And each month hundreds of these same people—who were motivated when they called and made the appointment—cancel or simply fail to show up: our cancellation and no show rate each month was about 60%...read more

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Building our Own Piano Stairs
February 12, 2010 5:33 PM

I wish there were piano stairs that lead me from my house to the gym. Or-somehow- to increasing my retirement savings. Designing the equivalent of piano stairs that lead us from the status quo to ideal behaviors is one way to think about creating behaviorally informed social policy. ... read more

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Are You Paying Attention?
January 11, 2010 10:26 PM

Before we begin, if you want to experience the interesting psychological phenomenon this post will be discussing, then watch the video below and test yourself before reading on... read more

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Can a Few Kind Words Increase Successful Food Stamp Applications?
January 11, 2010 10:12 PM

Guest Blogger: Dale Carlson-Bebout, Step Up Savannah

At Step Up Savannah, we had a problem. We work with employers to introduce a variety of public work supports-- like food stamps-- to their low wage employees, but our data showed that employees were not following through with their applications even when they were considered potentially eligible for the benefit. They might start the application process but too often they weren't completing the application...read more

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A Conversation with Daniel Kahneman
October 27, 2009 12:00 PM

Professor Daniel Kahneman’s research into human behavior and decision making was critical to the formation of the field now known as “Behavioral Economics”. Less importantly to the world at large, he was also critical to the formation of the way I think about human behavior and applied psychology.  He is a psychologist by training, but won the Nobel Prize in Economics with Amos Tversky for his work on Prospect Theory.  I was lucky enough to be a student of his, and often when I think about applying behavioral research in the field I think of Professor Kahneman:  WWDKD? (What would Daniel Kahneman Do?) So I called him up recently to ask him what he thinks about the increasing application of some of behavioral theory… read more

Check out the blog! Learn about applications of behavioral economics from innovative leaders in the asset building field. Be sure to check out our blog often as CFED Innovator-in-Residence Mindy Hernandez will continue to update the field on the results of her applied work. We will also respond to questions posed to behavioral scientists by practitioners in the field. We welcome your insights and suggestions.

Ask a Behavioral Scientist Have questions about how to apply insights from the behavioral sciences to your project? Let us know! We'll be reaching out to experts in the field to respond to your specific questions and challenges and posting responses here. Click here to ask a Behavioral expert your most pressing questions about applying behavioral insights to your program.