For weeks, the vaccination campaign in Germany has been subject to debate and criticism. Less than 3% of the population have been fully vaccinated so far. At this pace, it would take more than 1.5 years to immunize 70% of the German population.

Decision-makers are now trying to improve communication efforts to increase uptake rates. The aim is to convince more people to get vaccinated. Coming from a process perspective, our directors argue in a critical commentary that this approach neglects other important elements: Vaccination uptake is not only driven by people’s intentions, but also by their ability to follow through with their plans.

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Community infrastructure can have a huge impact on people’s behaviors, attitudes, and habits. How can urban planning improve wellbeing, social cohesion and group identity?

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Governments around the globe have started to apply behavioral insights to boost impact and initiate behavioral change at a large scale.

In this white paper, we introduce the key concepts of this new and groundbreaking avenue in public policy and show how it can help to empower people to take ‘better’ decisions in daily life.

We present a series of cases and examples tailored to the Saudi context and discuss how behavioral insights can contribute to achieving Vision 2030.

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Here is a high-level overview containing key behavioral insights on consumer protection. It shows how policy-makers can initiate behavioral change by help of incentives, boosts, and nudges.

In this example, we discuss how behavioral insights and experimentation can help to increase traffic safety and prevent road deaths. It builds on a real-world challenge. However, the solution and the underlying data are illustrative examples only. [1]

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Summary of our workshop on grand challenges, containing six key principles for an efficient burden-sharing mechanism to cope with forced migration. Presented at the Asbar World Forum 2019 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Behavioral insights into intertemporal choices, self-control issues and the virtues of commitment

Part 3

Previously, we discussed how the concept of time inconsistency can explain why we sometimes act against our own interest, and we identified different types of time-inconsistent decision makers. Now let’s turn to the really important part: strategies to save us from ourselves.

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Behavioral insights into intertemporal choices, self-control issues and the virtues of commitment

Part 2

Last week, we identified time-inconsistent decision making as the main reason for our chocolate issues. We will now look into it in a bit more detail.

Types of inconsistent decision-makers

Behavioral economists group people with respect to the extent of how much self-control problems they exhibit and their awareness of these problems.

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Behavioral insights into intertemporal choices, self-control issues and the virtues of commitment

Part 1

“Oh no, I did it again. My chocolate supply vanished into thin air. Okay, okay, not into the air, but into my belly. I just don’t get it. When it comes to sweets, I just cannot control myself.

I’m not a fool, I do know that devouring an entire bar of chocolate a day isn’t good for me in the long run. Strangely enough though, this happens every time I buy some. Why on earth can I not stick to my plans and just eat two pieces a day?!

Seems like “future me’ is a different version of “present me’ and dislikes performing my initial plans. What’s wrong with me?’

Well, from a behavioral economist’s point of view, the diagnose is that you suffer from time-inconsistency and a projection bias. But you’re not alone. Time-inconsistency is very common among humans, and there are remedies to cure it.

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This case study addresses how behavioral insights can support risk management and effectively mobilize preventive action. It builds on a real-world challenge, while the solution and the underlying data are illustrative examples only. [1]

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