Behavioral Public Policy and Economics GmbH
In many areas of personal growth, the goals we set are coupled with discomfort and pain that challenge our perseverance and initial motivation. But what if we could embrace the pain as a positive indicator for progress instead of a negative sign of difficulties?
People are naturally attracted towards beauty in many areas of life. What may be less apparent, however, is that beauty can produce overgeneralizations: when we think something is beautiful, we also tend to believe that it has better qualities.
Can cultural participation make us more resilient during times of crises? In a recent study, Annie Tubadji (2021) tries to shed light on this question. Using data from an online survey conducted in the first year of the pandemic in several countries, she examines the relationship between culture, happiness and pro-sociality.
Can prompting self-reflection help young job seekers find a job faster? If so, how much impact can we expect from such interventions?
Have you ever wondered how exposure to fake news could affect your behavior? It might be deeper than you think.
What is the most effective policy instrument to encourage long-term use of public transport? To answer this question, Gravert and Collentine (2021) collaborated with a local transport agency in Southern Sweden on a large-scale field experiment.
Social norms are the unwritten rules of societies. As social creatures, we have learned to internalize these rules to reduce uncertainty in social interactions, avoid sanctioning, and increase our sense of belonging and identity. Therefore, information that emphasizes a social norm can potentially alter individual behavior, for better or for worse.
Unexpected events like the Covid-19 pandemic or crises in the banking sectors regularly drive investors into panic selling. The typical “buy-high, sell-low” pattern emerging from panic selling does not only harm private investors’ financial health but also increases the chances of market crashes. Finding effective means to combat panic selling is therefore of vital importance to regulators, financial institutions, and other market actors.
A newly published article by de Ridder et al. (2021) investigates what makes people ‘nudgeable’, i.e. receptive to nudge interventions. They argue that nudgeability depends on the strength of preexisting preferences.
Limited-time offers have long been used by salespeople and marketers to lure customers to snatch up bargains. The less time customers have to think, one might assume, the more likely it is that they make an impulsive purchase and stop looking for alternatives.