On Tuesday 26th January, we will begin a weekly series entitled "Behavioural Science, Applied Psychology, and the Wider World". The series brings together current LSE students and alumni with a range of people working in these areas across sectors globally. It is open for registration to people working in the field and intended for an audience of students, researchers, and professionals. The series currently has confirmed speakers from a range of bodies, including UN Innovation, the World Bank, BVA, OECD, and the Banking Standards Board.
I will be giving the opening talk to outline the aims of the series. I will outline the development of the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE and speak about wider developments in behavioural science and the aims of the series. The history of behavioural science is deep rooted and the interactions between the disciplines of economics and psychology have given us many precedents to the current major increase in interest in this area.
Considering this history is useful for understanding current developments. Having said that, something clearly new has emerged in the last decade in terms of widespread interest and professionalisation of an emerging transdisciplinary community of practice in the area. The map below from Faisal Naru gives one illustration of the proliferation of these concepts across policy. The Behavioural Economics guide issued each by Alain Samson also provides a useful snapshot of the range of people working in this area. Ingrid Paulin also put together a very useful spreadsheet of organisations that have developed capacity in this area.
The series will first and foremost examine how behavioural science capacities are being built into real-world institutions across the globe. The sessions will take the form mostly of short talks and case-studies followed by Q+A interaction with the audience. The session will also include some dedicated networking sessions. At a high-level I hope the series will be inspirational for people thinking about the psychological and behavioural underpinnings of many of the major challenges of the 21st century. There are many concepts emerging in developing fields like behavioural public policy in areas like personalisation, ethics, administrative burden, psychologically-informed regulation, concepts of value, etc., that have the potential for major impact in practice.
One area of particular interest for the series will be the development of ethical standards for applications in these area, and more generally the ethical considerations surrounding applications of behavioural science. A reading lists for this is available here.
We have included applied psychology in the title of the series and we hope to have interesting discussions about the interplay between applied psychology and emerging behavioural science literatures. Over time, it would be good to have contributions from across wider behavioural science areas, including anthropology.
The current speaker listed is also somewhat tilted toward UK, European, and American applications, and we hope to have more speaker and panellists over time from around the world.
Participants should also consider looking at the website of the recently formed Global Association for Applied Behavioural Science that provides opportunities for researchers and practitioners to develop their career in this area.
Most importantly, I hope the series develops with the discussions had each week. We are open to suggestions for topics and formats and I look forward to seeing it evolving.
Some recordings of the previous sessions are available below:
Scott Young (BVA Nudge Unit) on Behavioural Science at BVA
Introduction to the Series by Professor Liam Delaney (LSE)
Public Representations of Behavioural Science During Covid with Dr. Jet Sanders (LSE)
Dr. Kate Laffan (UCD/LSE) on Behavioural Science and Sustainable Organisations
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