The Behavioural News Today

Certainly in the uk there was this sort of feeling in march 2020 that the government was listening very carefully to a bunch of behavioural scientists were saying look, dont go too early to put down strict restrictions on how people can socialise, social distancing, dont mandate all of the stuff too early because if you do people will tire of it quickly and the whole system will break down. it turns out that just a few weeks later as the epidemic in the uk was spreading the government changed it...

Will break down. it turns out that just a few weeks later as the epidemic in the uk was spreading the government changed its mind. and the rules certainly then became mandated and social distancing and a whole bunch of other measures were put in place. but maybe the behavioural scientist got it wrong and they are too powerful. well, first of all, i dont know of any government where behavioural scientists have a very big policymaking role. certainly in the uk the behavioural insight team never ha...

Certainly in the uk the behavioural insight team never had any decision—making power. and as far as what went on in march 2020, if theres anybody who didnt say something that looked stupid now during that month, let them raise her hand. the real problem with behavioural inside teams that ive worked with around the world is they are usually given much too small a mandate in the sense that... all theyre allowed to do is what i would call tweak. they get to change the wording that will be used in...