Amazing innovation comes by understanding how we think and act. I met Maddie Quinlan, the brilliant co-founder of Salient and realized using her deep knowledge of behavioral science we could take the work of Daniel Kahneman, Nobel prize winner and founder of the theories of behavioral economics, and influence health and wellness.
Maddie sent me a recent article she published
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529742732
I have excerpted highlights below
Why Use Behavioral Science?
In contexts like these, behavioral science looks to make a scalable impact by making small changes to an intervention (e.g., the invitation letter), based on an understanding of actual human decision-making and behavior. Behavioral science is based on the premise that humans do not always behave rationally, but that they deviate from rationality in predictable ways. To provide a few simple examples: we are much more likely to pay attention to a message that comes from someone we trust than someone we do not, regardless of the accuracy of the message (Martin & Marks, 2019); we do not like doing things that fall too far outside the norm for fear of social exclusion (Reynolds et al., 2015), and due to inertia (a fancy word for laziness), we are also much more likely to stick than switch, with important consequences for policies on pension savings (Cribb & Emmerson, 2016; Thaler & Benartzi, 2004) and organ donation registration (Van Dalen & Hankens, 2014). Incorporating these principles of non-rationality into the design of interventions can greatly improve their effectiveness. This application of behavioral principles can therefore have a disproportionately large effect on behavior, compared to the effort required to changing behavior directly. A fundamental principle, then, is to measure the effectiveness of the intervention by measuring what happens to actual behavior, as opposed to intentions to changing behavior (intention-behavior gap), as is the case in classic models of behavior change (Rhodes, 2017).
Using real world intervention amazing results can be elicited.
Where possible, we attempt to test the effect of behavioral science principles within real-world environments. This is because its benefits are often situation-dependent (Dolan et al., 2012) and rarely directly replicate between laboratory experiments and real-world environments (Wiers et al., 2018). So, the only way to really know what works is to test in situ. As a bonus, if an effect is found, it can be applied within that context right away. Applying behavioral interventions in the real world does, however, require significant amounts of preparation and coordination. If you want to apply behavioral science in real-world contexts, you—as the behavioral scientist—will likely design the experiment, but most often other people will be involved with implementing the intervention itself. This can be due to reasons of data protection or simply because other organizations run the operations closest to the population whose behavior you are researching day-to-day. For example, if you want to change London cycle lanes to increase cycling, you may design the experiment, but other groups will have to change the lanes, collect video footage of cyclists or other real-world cycle data before you can measure the impact. Depending on the complexity of an experiment, fieldwork often requires a project steering group, where stakeholders from involved parties are present, and must agree on the planned process of the project as well as be given regular progress updates.
I am looking for real world partners , preferably large self insured employers who wish to reduce current expenses for care for DM and other conditions to both enhance care, reduce disease and prevent future morbidity.
Partnering With a Real-World Organization
For most behavioral scientists, a crucial component to testing for the benefits of behavioral insights in the real world is finding a real-world partner who is willing to run an experiment. Here, we outline some of the key steps to establishing a partnership for a behavioral science research project.
Step 1: Setting Your Own Priorities
It is important to start with a clear set of priorities of your own. For behavioral scientists like us, who are interested in improving the public’s health, this means: applying behavioral science in contexts (a) where it can make a difference, (b) where it may reliably increase public health and/or reduce health inequality, and (c) that are aligned with national public health goals, such as reducing anti-microbial resistance, air pollution, obesity, smoking or drinking, and preventing the development of chronic disease, such as diabetes.
Step 2: Identifying a Partner Organization
Once priorities are set, there are broadly two routes for a researcher to approach real-world implementation: (a) reaching out to those who have access to relevant individuals (such as people who work at local councils, hospitals, or supermarkets), or (b) by responding to a steering group’s specific request looking for behavioral science expertise. There are advantages and disadvantages associated with both approaches (see Table 1). In both cases, you ideally align with a partner who is already in agreement with some (if not all) of your set-out priorities.
The full article details the intent, methodology and significant upside!
Please reach out and let me help you enhance the health and wellness of your employees. Use the tools described to decrease costs, enhance care, decrease morbidity , increase job satisfaction, decrease absenteeism and presenteeism.
Working with Salient, we can solve your cost, quality, safety and health care wellness issues.
Nargymd@gmail.com m 9299006004
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