Foreword
1. HMG (2010), ‘The Coalition: Our Programme for Government’.
2. For a broader account of the work of the Behavioural Insights Team, see D. Halpern (2015), Inside the Nudge Unit: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference.
3. Oettingen, G. (2014), Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation; Hofmann, S., A. Asnaani, I. Vonk, A. Sawyer and A. Fang (2012), ‘The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-analyses’.
Introduction
1. We have changed the names of the individuals referred to in this book whenever they have been participants in trials. The names of people working at the Behavioural Insights Team have not been changed.
2. Kahneman drew on the work of Keith Stanovich and Richard West in setting out the ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ systems. These are also known as ‘System 1’ (fast) and ‘System 2’ (slow).
3. Kahneman, D. (2011), Thinking, Fast and Slow.
4. Thaler, R. and C. Sunstein (2008), Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness.
5. Ibid.
6. Mullainathan, S. and E. Shafir (2013), Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much.
7. Haynes, L., O. Service, B. Goldacre and D. Torgerson (2012), ‘Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials’.
8. Bell, C. (2013), ‘Inside the Coalition’s controversial ‘Nudge Unit’’; Daily Telegraph
Chapter 1: Set
1. Dunn, E., L. Aknin and N. Norton (2009), ‘Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness’.
2. Halpern, D. (2015), Inside the Nudge Unit: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference.
3. Diener, E. (1984), ‘Subjective Well-being’; Layard, R. (2005), Happiness: Lessons from a New Science; Seligman, M. (2002), Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment; Gilbert, D. T. (2007), Stumbling on Happiness. For an overview of the wider literature, you might also look at Chapter 9 (‘Well-Being’) of Halpern, D. (2015), Inside the Nudge Unit: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference.
4. Halpern (2015), Inside the Nudge Unit.
5. Dunn, E., D. Gilbert and T. Wilson (2011), ‘If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right’; Dolan, P. (2014), Happiness by Design: Change What you Do, Not How you Think.
6. We have adapted our five factors from the excellent report produced by the New Economics Foundation, which was commissioned by the UK government to ensure that the wellbeing research could be used by individuals and institutions interested in improving people’s wellbeing. The report is called ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’.
7. Dolan, P., T. Peasgood and M. White (2008), ‘Do We Really Know What Makes Us Happy? A Review of the Economic Literature on the Factors Associated with Subjective Wellbeing’.
8. Ibid.
9. Halpern (2015), Inside the Nudge Unit.
10. Holt-Lunstad, J., T. Smith and J. Layton (2010), ‘Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review’. Cited in Halpern (2015), Inside the Nudge Unit.
11. Dolan, Peasgood and White (2008), ‘Do we Really Know What Makes Us Happy?’
12. Layard, R., A. Clark and C. Senik (2012), ‘The Causes of Happiness and Misery’, Chapter 3 of World Happiness Report.
13. Australian Government (2012), ‘Benefits to Business: The Evidence for Investing in Worker Health and Wellbeing’.
14. National Health Service (2015): ‘Exercise for Depression’.
15. The New Economics Foundation (2008), ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’.
16. Huppert, cited in New Economics Foundation (2008), ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’.
17. Van Bovan, L. and T. Gilovich (2003), ‘To Do or to Have? That Is the Question’.
18. New Economics Foundation (2008), ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’.
19. Greenfield, E. and N. Marks (2004), ‘Formal Volunteering as a Protective Factor for Older Adults’ Psychological Well-being’.
20. Harvard Business Review, January–February issue (2012), ‘The Science Behind the Smile’. See also Gilbert, D. T. (2007), Stumbling on Happiness.
21. The Behavioural Insights Team (2013), ‘Applying Behavioural Insights to Charitable Giving’.
22. Soman, D. and M. Zhao (2011), ‘The Fewer the Better: The Number of Goals and Savings Behavior’.
23. Ibid.
24. Emmons, R. and L. King (1988), ‘Conflict among Personal Strivings: Immediate and Long-term Implications for Psychological and Physical Wellbeing’.
25. Locke, E. and G. Latham (2002), ‘Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey’.
26. Sheeran, P. (2002), ‘Intention–Behavior Relations: A Conceptual and Empirical Review’.
27. Gollwitzer, P. and P. Sheeran (2002), ‘Implementation Intentions and Goal Attainment: A Meta Analysis of Effects and Processes’.
28. Inman, J. and L. McAlister (1994), ‘Do Coupon Expiration Dates Affect Consumer Behavior?’.
29. Ariely, D. and K. Wertenbroch (2002): ‘Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance’.
30. Syed, M. (2015), ‘Viewpoint: Should We All Be Looking for Marginal Gains?’.
31. Pidd, H. (2016), ‘How Scientific Rigour Helped Team GB’s Saddle-Sore Cyclists on Their Medal Trail’.
32. Miller, G. (1956), ‘The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information’.
33. Rea, P. (2016), ‘How to Go from Zero to Marathon in Six Months’.
34. Bandura, A. and D. Schunk (1981), ‘Cultivating Competence, Self-Efficacy, and Intrinsic Interest through Proximal Self-Motivation’.
35. Boice, B. (1990), Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing.
36. Highsmith, J. (2004), Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products. Addison-Wesley Professional.
37. Latham, G. and G. Seijts (1999), ‘The Effects of Proximal and Distal Goals on Performance on a Moderately Complex Task’. Cited in Locke and Latham (2002), ‘Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation’.
38. Baumeister, R. and J. Tierney (2012), Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.
Chapter 2: Plan
1. Fraser, M. and D. Soumitra (2008), ‘Barack Obama and the Facebook Election’.
2. Nickerson, D. W. and T. Rogers (2010), ‘Do You Have a Voting Plan? Implementation Intentions, Voter Turnout, and Organic Plan Making’.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Daily Mail (2015): ‘Why well-off women are most likely to have a problem with alcohol: Richest fifth are three times more likely to drink every day than those on lower incomes’.
6. Sutherland, R. (2013), ‘If you want to diet, I’m afraid you really do need one weird rule’; Spectator
7. Thefastdiet.co.uk (2016), ‘How Does the Fast Diet Work?’.
8. Mata, J., P. Todd and S. Lippke (2009), ‘When Weight Management Lasts: Lower Perceived Rule Complexity Increases Adherence’.
9. Milkman, K., J. Beshears, J. Choi, D. Laibson and B. Madrian (2011), ‘Using Implementation Intentions Prompts to Enhance Influenza Vaccination Rates’.
10. Ibid.
11. Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2002), ‘Implementation Intentions and Goal Attainment’; Gollwitzer, P. and V. Brandstatter (1997), ‘Implementation Intentions and Effective Goal Pursuit’.
12. Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2002), ‘Implementation Intentions and Goal Attainment’.
13. Ibid.; Milkman, Beshears, Choi, Laibson and Madrian (2011), ‘Using Implementation Intentions Prompts to Enhance Influenza Vaccination Rates’.
14. Oettingen, G., G. Honig and P. Gollwitzer (2000), ‘Effective Self-Regulation of Goal Attainment’.
15. Oettingen (2014), Rethinking Positive Thinking.
16. Robins, L., D. Davis and D. Goodwin (1974), ‘Drug Use by US Army Enlisted Men in Vietnam: a Follow-Up on their Return Home’.
17. Bernheim, D. and A. Rangel (2004), ‘Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes’; also cited in Dolan (2014), Happiness by Design.
18. Bernheim and Rangel (2004), ‘Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes’.
19. Jacobs, L. (2013), The History of Popcorn!
20. Neal, D., W. Wood, M. Wu and D. Kurlander (2011), ‘The Pull of the Past: When Do Habits Persist Despite Conflict With Motives?’.
21. University of Southern California (2011), ‘Habit Makes Bad Food Too Easy to Swallow’.
22. Lally, P. (2010), ‘How Habits are Formed’.
23. Lally, P. and B. Gardner, (2011), ‘Promoting Habit Formation’.
24. Lally, P. (2010), ‘How Habits are Formed’.
25. Neal, Wood, Wu and Kurlander (2011), ‘The Pull of the Past’.
26. Lally (2010), ‘How Habits are Formed’.
Chapter 3: Commit
1. Read, D., G. Loewenstein and S. Kalyanaraman (1999), ‘Mixing Virtue and Vice: Combining the Immediacy Effect and the Diversification Heuristic’.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Bryan, G., D. Karlan and S. Nelson (2010), ‘Commitment Devices’.
6. Cialdini, R. (1984), Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
7. Ashraf, N., D. Karlan and W. Yin (2006), ‘Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines’.
8. Ibid.
9. Huyghe, E., J. Verstraeten, M. Geuens and A. Van Kerckhove (2016): ‘Clicks as a Healthy Alternative to Bricks: How Online Grocery Shopping Reduces Vice Purchases’.
10. Asch, S. (1955), ‘Opinions and Social Pressure’.
11. Deutsch, M. and H. Gerard (1955), ‘A Study of Normative and Informational Social Influence upon Individual Judgment’.
12. Ibid.
13. There was a lovely twist in this experiment, which involved some of the participants writing down their answers on ‘Magic Pads’ and then immediately erasing the answers. This variant also cut down on the errors (though only by a third), which shows the power of writing something down even if you know that the only person who will ever see it is you.
14. Thomas, A. and R. Garland (1993), ‘Supermarket Shopping Lists: Their Effect on Consumer Expenditure’.
15. Moriarty, T. (1975), ‘Crime, Commitment and the Responsive Bystander’.
16. Cialdini (1984), Influence.
17. Locke and Latham (2002), ‘Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation’.
18. Kerr, N. and R. MacCoun (1985), ‘The Effects of Jury Size and Polling Method on the Process and Product of Jury Deliberation’.
19. Olson, R. (2014), ‘What Makes for a Stable Marriage’, blog at http://www.randalolson.com/2014/10/10/what-makes-for-a-stable-marriage/
20. Francis, A. and H. Mialon (2014), ‘‘A Diamond is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration’.
21. Gollwitzer, P., P. Sheeran, V. Michalski and A. Seifert (2009), ‘When Intentions Go Public Does Social Reality Widen the Intention–Behavior Gap?’
22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCX_TcKDr4w
23. Ayres, I. (2010), Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done.
24. Baumeister, R. and Tierney, T. (2012), Willpower.
25. http://www.glowcaps.com/
Chapter 4: Reward
1. Burgess, S., R. Metcalfe, S. Sadoff (2016), ‘Understanding the response to financial and non-financial incentives in education: Field experimental evidence using high-stakes assessments’.
2. Giné, X., D. Karlan and J. Zinman (2009), ‘Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is: A Commitment Contract for Smoking Cessation’.
3. Ibid.
4. http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/115/3/791.short
5. Kahneman, D. and A. Tversky (1992), ‘Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty’.
6. Kahneman, D., J. Knetsch and R. Thaler (1991), ‘The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias’.
7. Loewenstein, G., J. Price and K. Volpp (2014), ‘Habit Formation in Children: Evidence from Incentives for Healthy Eating’.
8. Belot, M., J. James and P. Nolen (2014), ‘Incentives and Children’s Dietary Choices: A Field Experiment in Primary Schools’.
9. Frey, B. and F. Oberholzer-Gee (1997), ‘The Cost of Price Incentives: An Empirical Analysis of Motivation Crowding-Out’.
10. Lacetera, N., M. Macis and R. Slonim (2012), ‘Will There Be Blood? Incentives and Displacement Effects in Pro-Social Behaviour’ and Titmuss, R. (1970), The Gift Relationship.
11. Gneezy, U. and Rusticini, A. (2000): A Fine is a Price.
12. Ordóñez, L. D., M. E. Schweitzer, A. D. Galinsky and M. H. Bazerman (2009), ‘Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting’; and Ariely, D., U. Gneezy, G. Loewenstein and N. Mazar (2009), ‘Large Stakes and Big Mistakes’.
13. Finkelstein, E., H. Hua, U. Gneezy and M. Bilger (2015), ‘A Randomized Controlled Trial to Motivate and Sustain Physical Activity Among Taxi Drivers Using Financial Incentives’.
14. Anik, L., L. Aknin, M. Norton, E. Dunn and J. Quoidbach (2013), ‘Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance’.
Chapter 5: Share
1. Christakis, M. and J. Fowler (2008), ‘The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network’.
2. Ibid.
3. Thaler, R. (2015), Misbehaving.
4. Gigerenzer, G. (2007), Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious.
5. Brooks, D. (2011), The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement.
6. Flynn, F. and V. Lake (2008), ‘If You Need Help, Just Ask: Underestimating Compliance With Direct Requests for Help’.
7. Ibid.
8. Bohns, V. (2016), ‘(Mis)Understanding Our Influence over Others: A Review of the Underestimation-of-Compliance Effect’.
9. Ibid.
10. Education Endowment Foundation (2016), ‘Texting Parents Evaluation Report and Executive Summary’.
11. Bowman-Perrott, L., H. Davis, K. Vannest, L. Williams, C. Greenwood and R. Parker (2013), Academic Benefits of Peer Tutoring: A Meta Analytic Review of Single-Case Research.
12. The Education Endowment Foundation (2016), ‘Peer Tutoring: Technical Appendix’.
13. Wing, R. and R. Jeffery (1999), ‘Benefits of Recruiting Participants with Friends and Increasing Social Support for Weight Loss and Maintenance’.
14. Irwin, B., J. Scorniaenchi, N. Kerr, J. Eisenmann and D. Feltz (2012), ‘Aerobic Exercise Is Promoted when Individual Performance Affects the Group: A Test of the Kohler Motivation Gain Effect’.
15. Rogers, T. and K. Bohling (2015), ‘Thinking about Texting Parents? Best Practices for School to Parent Texting’.
16. Metcalfe, T. and R. LaFranco (2013), ‘Lego Builds New Billionaires as Toymaker Topples Matel’; article at bloomberg.com.
17. Robertson, D. (2013), ‘Building Success: How Thinking ‘inside the brick’ saved Lego’; article in wired.co.uk.
18. https://ideas.lego.com/howitworks.
19. Robertson, D. (2013), Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry.
20. Fritolay (2014), ‘Meet the Lays Do Us a Flavor Winning Flavor’; www.fritolay.com.
21. Grant, A. (2013), Give and Take.
22. Christakis and Fowler (2008), ‘The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network’.
23. Ibid.
24. Jebb, S., A. Ahern, A. Olson, L. Aston, C. Holzapfel, J. Stoll, U. Amann-Gassner, A. Simpson, N. Fuller, S. Pearson, N. Lau, A. Mander, H. Hauner and I. Caterson (2011), ‘Primary Care Referral to a Commercial Provider for Weight Loss Treatment Versus Standard Care: A Randomised Controlled Trial’.
25. Kast, F., S. Meier and D. Pomeranz (2012), ‘Under-Savers Anonymous: Evidence on Self-Help Groups and Peer Pressure as a Savings Commitment Device’.
26. Galton, F. (1907), ‘Vox Populi’.
27. Tetlock, P. and D. Gardner (2014), Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction.
28. Glazebrook, K. (2016), ‘Would You Hire on the Toss of a Coin?’; Blogpost at behaviouralinsights.co.uk
29. Tetlock and Gardner (2014), Superforecasting.
30. Harford, T. (2016), Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives.
31. We call this process ‘ThinkGroup’ – an attempt to overcome the phenomenon which Irving Janis called Groupthink, in which ‘concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action’.
Chapter 6: Feedback
1. Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer: Volume Two, 2011: ‘Infections and the Rise of Antimicrobial Resistance’.
2. Hallsworth, M., T. Chadborn, A. Sallis, M. Sanders, D. Berry, F. Greaves, L. Clements and S. Davies (2016), ‘Provision of Social Norm Feedback to High Prescribers of Antibiotics in General Practice: A Pragmatic National Randomised Controlled Trial’.
3. Luca, M. (2011), ‘Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com’.
4. Bandura, A. and D. Cervone, (1983), ‘Self-Evaluative and Self-Efficacy Mechanisms Governing the Motivational Effects of Goal Systems’.
5. At least that’s what they thought was happening. In a mischievous twist beloved of psychology professors, they had arranged that, not only were everybody’s goals the same, but so was the feedback – regardless of actual performance. This would give them a purer way of seeing the effects of feedback – and to see how important it is to understand how it relates to where you want to get to (i.e. your goal).
6. Kivetz calls this the ‘illusion of progress’, but we prefer to think about the feeling of progress when thinking about how this can apply to your personal goals.
7. Goetz, T. (2011), ‘Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops’, www.wired.co.uk
8. Veneziano, D., L. Hayden and J. Ye (2010), ‘Effective Deployment of Radar Speed Signs’.
9. http://www.stopspeeders.org/options.htm.
10. The Education Endowment Foundation’s research is available online. The Feedback entry is here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/feedback.
11. Kellaway, L. (2015), ‘A Blast of Common Sense Frees Staff from Appraisals’, Financial Times.
12. Mueller, C. and C. Dweck (1998), ‘Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children’s Motivation and Performance’.
13. Ibid.
14. Dweck, C. (2012), Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential.
15. Gerber, A., D. Green and C. Larimer (2008), ‘Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment’.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. The Behavioural Insights Team (2014), ‘EAST: Four Simple Ways to Apply Behavioural Insights’.
19. Ipsos MORI and the Behavioural Insights Team (2015): ‘Major survey shows Britons overestimate the bad behaviour of other people’.
20. Galdini, R. (1984), Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
21. Medvec, V., S. Madey and T. Gilovich (1995): ‘When less is more: counterfactual thinking and satisfaction among Olympic medalists’.
Chapter 7: Stick
1. Duckworth, A., T. Kirby, E. Taykayama, H. Berstein and K. A. Ericsson (2011): ‘Deliberate Practice Spells Success: Why Grittier Competitors Triumph at the National Spelling Bee’ and Ericsson, K. A., R. T. Krampe and C. Tesch-Romer (1993), ‘The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance’.
2. Ericsson, A. and R. Pool (2016), Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.
3. Syed, M. (2015), Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth about Success.
4. You can download the excellent Freakonomics podcast from their website, including the episode referred to here: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-three-hardest-words-in-the-english-language-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/
5. Haynes, Service, Goldacre and Torgerson (2012), ‘Test, Learn, Adapt’.
6. OJJDP News at a Glance (2011), ‘Justice Department Discourages the Use of “Scared Straight” Programmes’.
7. Ibid.
8. Grant, A. (2008), ‘Employees without a Cause: The Motivational Effects of Prosocial Impact in Public Service’.
9. Di Stefano, G., G. Pisano, F. Gino and B. Staats (2016), ‘Making Experience Count: The Role of Reflection in Individual Learning’.
10. Kahneman, D., B. Fredrickson, C. Schreiber and D. Redelmeier (1993), ‘When More Pain is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End’.
11. Kahneman (2011), Thinking, Fast and Slow.
12. Kahneman, Fredrickson, Schreiber and Redelmeier (1993), ‘When More Pain is Preferred to Less’.
Conclusion
1. Harford (2016), Messy.
2. We would discuss the chapter before writing anything down; one of us would then set out a bullet-point summary of the structure and the other would then turn it into a full narrative, after which we started a lengthy editing process.