The behavioural economics team in the Prime Minister’s department has published hours of valuable educational videos from Behavioural Exchange 2018, the international conference it hosted back in June.
The series of 19 new videos covers the entire event, from the opening plenary session to “The Great BX 2018 Debate” and everything in between, so it is not a meal to digest all at once — that would take several days — and if you’re really time-poor, there’s always the highlight reel below.
Other highlights include a one-on-one “fireside chat” with one of the leading lights of the field, Professor Cass Sunstein, who jointly coined the term “nudge” with Professor Richard Thaler, describing efforts to gently guide citizens to more rational behaviour, while still preserving their right to make their own choices.
There’s also the presentation of awards to rising stars in the burgeoning field of applied behavioural economics, and a really interesting discussion of modern efforts to increase workforce diversity, featuring the former Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane (watch out for the test signal at the start!).
The Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) has also published a series of interviews it recorded with eminent international experts at the event.
The most recent features Associate Professor Anuj K. Shah from the University of Chicago, who got into the behavioural economics field via cognitive psychology, and works on social policy issues like poverty and crime.
He challenges the idea that crimes are the result of rational decision-making. “They’re not such explicit moments of choice,” he tells BETA staffer Elaine Ung, who hosts the team’s regular podcasts.
“People take an action that they feel is necessary and it happens to be wrong or illegal. And so, as behavioural scientists, one thing that we can try to do is make those moments of choice a bit more explicit. So how do we that?
“We can shift people’s attention to alternative actions that they might not have considered.”
READ MORE FROM THE BX2018 CONFERENCE:
▪ Cass Sunstein’s Bill of Rights for Nudging
▪ Making e-health opt-out was always a risky venture
▪ Reflections from the founder of Australia’s national nudge unit
Any feedback or news tips? Here’s where to contact the relevant team.