The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy

by Eldar Shafir (Editor)

An interdisciplinary look at the behavioral roots of public policy from the field's leading experts

In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in behavioral research on a wide variety of topics, from behavioral finance, labor contracts, philanthropy, and the analysis of savings and poverty, to eyewitness identification and sentencing decisions, racism, sexism, health behaviors, and voting. Research findings have often been strikingly counterintuitive, with serious implications for public policymaking. In this book, leading experts in psychology, decision research, policy analysis, economics, political science, law, medicine, and philosophy explore major trends, principles, and general insights about human behavior in policy-relevant settings. Their work provides a deeper understanding of the many drivers―cognitive, social, perceptual, motivational, and emotional―that guide behaviors in everyday settings. They give depth and insight into the methods of behavioral research, and highlight how this knowledge might influence the implementation of public policy for the improvement of society.

This collection examines the policy relevance of behavioral science to our social and political lives, to issues ranging from health, environment, and nutrition, to dispute resolution, implicit racism, and false convictions. The book illuminates the relationship between behavioral findings and economic analyses, and calls attention to what policymakers might learn from this vast body of groundbreaking work.

Wide-ranging investigation into people's motivations, abilities, attitudes, and perceptions finds that they differ in profound ways from what is typically assumed. The result is that public policy acquires even greater significance, since rather than merely facilitating the conduct of human affairs, policy actually shapes their trajectory.

Genres: Politics, Public Policy, Psychology, Sociology, Nonfiction, Economics

536 pages, Hardcover

First published November 26, 2012

Reviews

[Daniel Frank]

returned it to the library. Wish I owned a copy to use as reference. Super important treatise.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone interested in the design of public policy, Behavioral Foundations offers rich insights into how Americans actually form judgments, make choices, and interact with institutions, both government and private.

In his brief introduction, Shafir offers a concrete example of one way behavioral psychology has informed policy: companies have shifted enrollment in retirement savings plans from ‘opt-in’ to ‘opt-out’. Workers can choose either, but because most people drift along without making a choice, the opt-out default means many more people save for retirement. Shafir adds:

The idea is transparently correct when you are exposed to it, but deeply counterintuitive. The standard tools that most of us use to change others’ behaviors are arguments, promises, and threats. It is much less natural to look for ways of making it easier for the other person to do the right thing.

The book doesn't tackle the underlying question of what the goals of policy should be or how to choose them. Instead, it's concerned to understand objectively how to design policies to meet their goals effectively, given human nature and cognition.

Behavioral Foundations casts a wide net, with chapters on why people vote; how to improve accuracy in the criminal justice system; why people and communities don't invest adequate in disaster prevention; how to promote healthy diets without constraining choice; ways to compensate for unconscious racism in a variety of contexts; how to design effective educational interventions; why people have trouble thinking about climate change. The authors acknowledge that behavioral psychology doesn’t explain all public policy outcomes; it’s just one factor that contributes to the success or failure of policies and programs.