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Tools and Ethics for Applied Behavioural Insights: the BASIC Tools and Ethics for Applied Behavioural Insights: The BASIC Toolkit Tools and Tools Ethics for Applied Behavioural Insights: The BASIC Toolkit Identify Analyse Design Test Scale Behaviours Biases Strategies Interventions for Change Tools and Ethics for Applied Behavioural Insights: The BASIC Toolkit This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries. This document, as well as any data and any map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Please cite this publication as: OECD (2019), Tools and Ethics for Applied Behavioural Insights: The BASIC Toolkit, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9ea76a8f-en. ISBN 978-92-64-93555-6 (print) ISBN 978-92-64-34794-6 (pdf) The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law. Photo credits: Cover © PureSolution/Shutterstock.com. Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/about/publishing/corrigenda.htm. © OECD 2019 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgement of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at [email protected]. FOREWORD │ 3 Foreword Why do certain polices work, improving people’s lives, while others fail? This question confronts policy makers and regulators across the world. Some have answered it by actively using behavioural insights (BI) to understand how individuals and organisations make decisions. BI is increasingly used in policy making to improve understanding of how context, biases and other influences affect the behaviour of people and organisations. The BI approach is evidence-driven, focussing on understanding what actually drives the decisions of citizens, rather than relying on assumptions of how they should act. In doing so, it helps ensure that policies reflect real needs and behaviours for greater impact and effectiveness. The OECD has been at the forefront of documenting and researching the use of BI in public policy. In partnership with the community of behavioural policy makers and practitioners from around the world, the OECD identifies and develops tools, approaches, knowledge and standards to support the use of BI. This report responds to a request from the behavioural community for guidance on how to apply BI more systematically and responsibly. It provides policy makers and practitioners with a set of tools that can be applied along with other existing behavioural frameworks. This toolkit guides the policy maker through a methodology that looks at behaviours, analysis, strategies, interventions and change (abbreviated to “BASIC”). The BASIC methodology includes a set of ethical guidelines to help policy makers apply BI responsibly. BI can raise ethical concerns related to collecting data on individual or group behaviours, as well as using experimental methods to test theories on a small scale before implementing them more broadly. Issues can arise around privacy, consent and the ethics of applying certain solutions to only some groups. This toolkit presents both general principles for the ethical application of BI and a set of guidelines to follow during each stage of the BASIC process. Governments face no shortage of challenges. Addressing these challenges often requires a better understanding of human behaviour. It is our hope that this study will help governments better understand the potential of using BI as a policy tool. Marcos Bonturi Director, OECD Public Governance Directorate TOOLS AND ETHICS FOR APPLIED BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS: THE BASIC TOOLKIT © OECD 2019 4 │ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements The OECD developed this toolkit in partnership with Dr. Pelle Guldborg Hansen of Roskilde University, drawing partly on tools developed by his work with iNudgeyou – The Applied Behavioural Sciences Group, applying BI worldwide for over a decade. Dr Hansen prepared the manual, with inputs from Filippo Cavassini and James Drummond. The introductory guide was prepared by Jun Nakagawa and Francesca Papa, with inputs from Filippo Cavassini, James Drummond and Faisal Naru. OECD work on behavioural insights is conducted under the leadership of Marcos Bonturi, Director, Irène Hors, Deputy Director, and Nick Malyshev, Head of the Regulatory Policy Division, Public Governance Directorate. Peer review comments to the overall report were provided by Irène Hors, Deputy Director, and Martin Forst, Head of the Governance Reviews and Partnership Division, Public Governance Directorate. Eleonore Morena edited the report and Jennifer Stein co-ordinated the editorial process, with editorial support provided by Andrea Uhrhammer. The OECD Secretariat would like to thank Ammaarah Martinus, Rebecca Ross, Cameron Cyster, and Kathryn Wooldridge, Department of the Premier, Western Cape Government, for their comments on early drafts of the toolkit. A draft of this toolkit was discussed at the Western Cape Government-OECD Behavioural Insights Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, from 27-28 September 2018. The Secretariat would like to thank Marcia Korsten, Deputy Director General and Anthony Hazell, Chief Director Policy and Strategy, Department of the Premier, Western Cape Government, South Africa, as well as all the delegates who attended to the conference and provided valuable feedback during breakout sessions. Thanks are extended to the members of the behavioural insights community who provided detailed feedback and comments during the public consultation stage. Special thanks go to (in alphabetical order by last name): Muzaffar Abdul Hamid and Sawiah Abdul Samad, Malaysia Productivity Corporation, Malaysia; Andrew Archer, Crown Prince Court, United Arab Emirates; Susanne Baltes, Federal Chancellery, Germany; Brendan Beere, Irish Central Bank, Ireland; Pauline Bertrand and Frédéric Boehm, Public Sector Integrity Division, OECD; Solveig Bourgeon, Her Majesty Revenue and Customs, United Kingdom; Emanuele Ciriolo, Foresight and Behavioural Insights Unit, European Commission; Peter de Smedt, DKB Behavioural Insights Team, Belgium; Thomas Dirkmaat, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Netherlands; Rupert Gill, Her Majesty Revenue and Customs, United Kingdom; Catherine Griffin, Australian Taxation Office, Australia; John Guyton, Internal Revenue Service, United States; Elizabeth Hardy, Impact and Innovation Unit, Canada; Jackie Hoare, DEFRA, United Kingdom; Jirina Jilkova, University of Usti; Stefan Kaufman, Environmental Protection Authority, Victoria Government, Australia; Robert Lepenies, Humboldt University; Jens Lundgren, Energy Markets Inspectorate, Sweden; Fadi Makki, Qatar Behavioural Sciences Unit, Qatar; Lindsey Maser, City of Portland, United States; Herbert Mikulasek, Federal Ministry of Finance, Austria; Marliza Mohamed, Inland TOOLS AND ETHICS FOR APPLIED BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS: THE BASIC TOOLKIT © OECD 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS │ 5 Revenue Board, Malaysia; Robert Murphy, Department of Health, Ireland; Jeroen Nieboer, Financial Conduct Authority, United Kingdom; Kate Phillips, Department of the Premier, Victoria Government, Australia; Jonathan Porter, Ofcom, United Kingdom; Henriette Prast, Tillberg University; Karl Purcell, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland; Leonore Riitsalu, University of Tartu; Ingunn Sandaker, Oslo University; Mariana Sarmiento, Communications Regulation Commission, Colombia; Dilip Soman, University of Toronto; Zhi Soon, The Behavioural Insights Team; Glen Steyn, Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Western Cape Government, South Africa; Marco Tagliabue, Oslo University; Silje Jenny Undahl, Tax Norway; Rene van Bavel, Joint Research Centre, European Commission; Suzanne van Melis, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Netherlands; Chiara Varazzani, Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government, Australia; and Alyssa Whalen, Impact and Innovation Unit, Canada. A special thank you is extended to all others who have inputted their ideas to the development of this toolkit along the way and are too many to name. A draft of the report was discussed at the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee in November 2018 as well as distributed for final comment in May 2019, with thanks to delegates for their detailed feedback and comments. TOOLS AND ETHICS FOR APPLIED BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS: THE BASIC TOOLKIT © OECD 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS │ 7 Table of contents Abbreviations and acronyms .............................................................................................................. 11 Executive summary ............................................................................................................................
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