Friday, June 8, 2012

Behavioural Economics Twitter Highlights Sat 2 June - Fri 8 June 2012

Sat 2 June - Fri 8 June 2012

Posted weekly by Bri Williams @peoplepatterns, this post contains a summary of tweets noted in the past week that mentioned behavioural/behavioral economics. Where possible, re-tweets and tweets without links been removed to condense the list.

For those who want to get a short & sharp update every month on the top insights in behavioural economics, simply up here for my newsletter...joining takes only a few seconds.  Enjoy!


Tweets with Behavioural Economics (UK spelling)

The Cognitive Microfoundations Project: a behavioural economicsworld tour 
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Overview of Behavioural Economics by one of our colleagues at GfK, Professor Peter Ayton  
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Missed last month's Behavioural Economics webinar? We've posted the recording:
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Fascinating paper by Gregor Hasler on links between behaviouraleconomics and psychiatry.
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 Economics? Quite possibly…
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Behavioural Economics in action in the final of the Apprentice
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Our waitress has been reading too much weird behaviouraleconomics guff. She just touched me. Ugh. 
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“Post-Doctoral position - Institutional & Behavioural Economicsgroup” 
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Another application of behavioural economics: how to make your charity count. 
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Science! paying for research: there is a curious result in behaviouraleconomics, which shows tha...  MoveForward-->
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Matt Dobbin: Behavioural Economics 
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The NYC mayor knows a thing or two about behaviouraleconomics. Didn't agree w/  mocking this decision: 
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Behavioural_Economics_and_Public_Policy.pdf | 
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Dan Ariely's new book is out today - love is work in behaviouraleconomics - witty writer too. 
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Possibly one of the most convincing books ever?? or not? BehaviouralEconomics theory reflect on the views of poverty
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Hedonomics – The (Behavioural) Economics of Happiness -
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Get people to do stuff; Lessons from fitness industry on behaviouralchg - essential for all biz  behavioural economics
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ZMT-Bremen looking for Post-Doctoral position for Institutional &Behavioural Economics group | +info @ IASC-COMMONS:
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Principles of Behavioural Economics for Marketing
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: Help your prospect do the maths that convince them of the value of your product 
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: How does your business help your customer solve his/her real problem to achieve what they really want? 
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A brilliant TED talk on behavioural economics
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What business are you really in? 
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A view on Happiness by the father of Behavioural Economics, Daniel Kahneman:  
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Evolving Economics: A critique of behavioural economics from 1988 
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How can Behavioural Finance and Behavioural Economics can be applied on a practical level?: 
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 Greek bailout and behavioural economics. Very interesting read.
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Optimize Your Conversion With Insights From BehaviouralEconomics (via ) 
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Avoiding pointless TV and listening to Prof. Paul Dolan on "Absolute Beginners - behavioural economics " courtesy of
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What is behavioural economics? W. Gordon gives a clear picture |
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Check out this site: 
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Artiste on behavioural economics at Digital Shoreditch 
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Behavioural economics, QR Guinness and death metal. Visualisation of  
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Really insightful talk by  about behavioural economics  
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Recruitment: Work and play | The Economist Games, big data, behavioural economics for recruitment...games get serious
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Yes, Google, I am sure! Now do one. Example for the BehaviouralEconomics wall of shame. 
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Tweets with Behavioral Economics (US spelling)
The CFO in the Corporate Brain: A Nobel Prize-winning economist has some ideas that help explain how a CFO ... 
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Best Deal on Exotic... 
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Are women who carry fake designer handbags big liars | Fox News: Dan Ariely, a Professor of Behavioral Economics...
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BSSR lecture Series: Behavioral Economics, Classical Economics, Public Policy, Politics, and Health...
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The Economics of Change: One of the basic premises ofbehavioral economics is that people are ri... 
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Leverage behavioral economics to improve business   
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Never thought I'd see   & dental hygiene together. MT":..Floss Wagon "
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For all those interested in Behavioral Economics - a great book had been published just recently:
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Solving Happiness   Govt imposed happiness based on behavioral economics & neuropsychology. Great subject
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Deloitte's  investigates the emerging trend of behavioraleconomics and its potential to transform policymaking
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The behavioral economics of birth control: “IUDs and implants are more effective because women can forget about them”
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What Can Sports Tell Us about Behavioral Economics, the latest TRCblog entry from Bob Hull    
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In Behavioral Economics, being Circumcised is all that Matters to Embroil in Fake  & Violent . 
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On Capital Markets, Confidence Tricks, And Criminals: The ascendency of behavioral economics over its “Classical...
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As biz people we forget that our job is behavioural change behavioral economics
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On Capital Markets, Confidence Tricks, And Criminals: The ascendency of behavioral economics ove...  via Hedge
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James Surowiecki: Greece, the euro, and behavioral economics. via 
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behavioral economics gambling
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A Course in Behavioral Economics 
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Are women who carry fake designer handbags big liars? - Dan Ariely, a Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke Univ...
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A marketer's guide to behavioral economics - McKinsey Quarterly - Sales - Strategy 
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Market Research Lessons Learned From Behavioral Economics ...: This is troubling for market researchers, since i... 
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BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC SECTOR PENSION PLANS | Bounded Rationality and Beyond
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   Arming the Donkeys - Dan Ariely, Professor ofBehavioral Economics, Duke University: Dan Ar...
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 student Brent Abel on retail food placement: "REVAMPING THE COMMONS" - 
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Reframing Health Behavior Change with Behavioral Economics:Behavioral economics is a rapidly developing area of...
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A sensible, informed behavioral economics take on Big Soda from Brian Wanink and David Just. Bad idea.
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Work your knowledge of behavioral economics to bring in the bacon. 
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Check out my latest blog entry. What Can Sports Tell Us aboutBehavioral Economics? - TRC Blog 
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Using Principles of Behavioral Economics to Mitigate Drug Shortages  
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Behavioral Economics of Intrinsic Motivation Remastered     
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On the effectiveness of incentives: Behavioral economics at Starbucks  via  
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Does Chatter Really Matter? Dynamics of User-Generated Content and Stock Performance- a “+” for behavioral economics
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Great insights and clear explainations of behavioral economics in George Soros' Speech On Europe 
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 The importance of this question cannot be understated. Applying Behavioral Economics (BE) to help my clients...
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 Behavioral economics PDF Book :) Perfect :)  
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Articles - Behavioral economics: what it is and three ways marketers can use it
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An essential reading list for the enlightened  
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"the toolkit of the modern designer is rapidly expanding. BehavioralEconomics sheds light on the factors that...
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Awesome - explains some core concepts of behavioral economicsin cartoons 
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Video of behavioral economics pioneer Daniel Kahneman on the Trap of ‘Thinking That We Know’ 
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Interesting: "people tend to work harder to avoid losses than they do to pursue gains."
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Call for contributed talks for Latsis Symposium at ETH Zurich.Behavioral Economics, Systemic Risk, Economic Networks |
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Will  revolutionize (behavioral) psychology andeconomics? 
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Anthropology of an Idea: Behavioral Economics
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Grexit and behavioral economics: a fixation on fairness can make agreement impossible.
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Monday, June 4, 2012

What business are you in?

If I asked you what business you are in, what would you say?  Consulting, retail, manufacture, accounting, health...Well you're wrong, kind of. You see I think you are in the business of behavioural change because everyday you are influencing people to do something.  Buy, sell, read, write, talk, type, click, swipe, walk, run, turn up.  Each of us everyday has the task of influencing others to move from one state to another, and that's why behavioural economics is such an opportunity; it's a playbook on what you need to do.


Lessons from the fitness industry
Let's take some guidance then from one of the most challenging behavioural changes that we can make - getting ourselves or others into shape. The difficulty has always been sustaining the change once initial enthusiasm has worn off, and this is due to the potency of the outcome (looking better, feeling better) not being as forceful as the immediate attraction of other choices (lazing on the couch, staying in bed or eating the wrong foods).  After all, you can experience the benefits of the chocolate now, but the benefits of not eating the chocolate are distant and ambiguous. 


Given this challenge it is therefore no surprise that a range of websites and Apps have been developed to help people sustain the behavioural change of a healthier lifestyle.


GymPact App
One that garnered a lot of attention last year was GymPact because it charges you if you don't follow through on your commitment.  The concept is that our desire to avoid a penalty will be enough to push us towards fronting up at the gym when we would otherwise have been able to talk ourselves out of it. The App is clever because it creates activities in the short term to keep us on track as we inch toward to longer term benefit.



Another site that works for any type of personal commitment is StickK. Here you are required to make public your commitment contract and even put money on the line that goes to a recipient of your choice if you fail.  



A more recent example is SlimKicker.  I first heard about the concept last year when it's creator got in touch to discuss how behavioural economics could be incorporated to help keep people motivated and accountable.  


According to SlimKicker developer Christine Chu, the site is designed to maintain motivation and emotional engagement by rewarding and reinforcing progress.

"I think the main problem with being healthy is motivation. It's an abstract, overwhelming goal. I think the best way to counter this is to turn it into winnable games and small victories.
 So... my app makes living healthy, and fitness into a RPG game, where users earn points, and "level up' as they accomplish their health goals.
Everytime they add something healthy like veggies to their diet, they earn points. Everytime they complete a workout, they earn points. As they achieve more and more, they'll level up and unlock badges, and discounts/coupons to  rewards like spas, health foods, etc."

A few of the clever elements of SlimKicker include;

  • Levels - people move through different fitness levels, collecting points and rewards along the way which breaks the task of 'getting fit' down to goals that are attainable. (Overcoming behavioural short-term bias.)
  • Progress -  Throughout each level the user can see how far they have come and have to go. (Using behavioural principle of completion to secure continuation once started.)
  • Inspiration feed - a sense of community has been created through users sharing how they are feeling about their successes and slip ups. (Uses social norming to influence behaviour.)

By far my favourite part of SlimKicker is the Challenges section. You can sign up to participate in challenge (for instance, no snacks after dinner) and be rewarded with points upon completion.  What's great about this is that you can see at a glance "who's in" and how many others are giving the challenge a go.
SlimKicker's Challenge

There are some areas of SlimKicker that can be further improved, for instance showing how many points are needed to complete a level, clearly stating that the website is free to join and explaining
how the site is financially supported but I think they are doing a great job of tackling behavioural change.

Applications for your business
Getting people to exercise and eat healthier is really no different to the challenge of getting people to buy something today when the benefit is not immediate.  Examples include building a house, securing investors for your proposal, ordering something online where you have to await delivery, signing up for a course, contracting a consultant and paying insurance. You need to overcome the pain of now whilst keeping your customer's 'eye on the prize'.

  • Make the benefit vivid:  Draw it, mock it up, make a model...do something that ensures the customer can see what they are working towards.
  • Use milestones: stage the process so that your customer feels like things are progressing.  Think of it like FedEx parcel tracking where your customer can see how far the parcel has travelled and how far it has to go.
  • Keep the connection: communicate with your customer throughout the process so they feel comfortable that things are progressing.  I ordered a new iPhone cover through a Kickstarter project in December last year for expected delivery in January. Today I received project update number 18 advising me where they were up to in production, so whilst it's a long time to wait, I have been taken on their journey throughout thanks to their frequent and transparent communications.

It's easy to think we are  simply in whatever business we spruik on our business card or website, but always remember we are behavioural change experts and it is up to us to support our customers going from one state to another.  What better guide than Behavioural Economics?


PS Why not join the People Patterns mailing list?  Every month you'll receive a short wrap-up of top news from the behavioural sciences and other nuggets of goodness from me. Click here to sign-up.

PPS A short presentation I have put together on why every business should know about behavioural economics is available on this website and has been viewed over 1,200 times since being posted.

"From-To" image from http://www.rachel-levy.com/wp-includes/wp-content/uploads/From_To.jpg
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