The Behavioural Science and the Wider World Research Group advances the scientific foundations of behavioural public policy. We develop and test theory at the intersection of economic psychology and policy-relevant behaviour, train the next generation of behavioural scientists through embedded research apprenticeships, and build frameworks, including the FORGOOD framework and the Building Sustainable Societies agenda of the Global School of Sustainability, that connect rigorous evidence to real-world decisions across government, industry, and civil society.
Three things define the group's identity:
1. Economic psychology as a scientific foundation. The group is rooted in economic psychology, the study of decision-making, preferences, welfare, and financial and social cognition, and brings this theoretical depth to bear on questions of behavioural public policy.
2. The policy translation problem as a central intellectual challenge. The group treats the gap between behavioural evidence and policy application as a genuine research question, not just a communications challenge. This includes questions of scaling, cross-cultural validity, ethical frameworks, and welfare evaluation methodology.
3. A teaching-research continuum. The group is structurally connected to undergraduate and postgraduate education through the Wider World Initiative, the undergraduate advances in behavioural science module, and the research apprenticeship scheme. This creates a genuine pipeline and makes the group a training environment as well as a research one.
Behavioural public policy: designing, evaluating, and scaling policy interventions
Ethics and governance of behavioural science: FORGOOD framework and its development across sectors
Sustainability and behaviour: connecting to the Global School of Sustainability's Building Sustainable Societies theme
Measurement and methods: novel welfare evaluation, cross-cultural comparability, evaluation methodology
The Behavioural Science and the Wider World Research Group welcomes engagement from researchers, students, and practitioners at all career stages.
PhD study We supervise doctoral research across the group's core themes. Prospective PhD students interested in economic psychology, behavioural public policy, welfare measurement, ethics of behavioural science, or sustainability and behaviour are encouraged to get in touch to discuss potential projects and supervision arrangements ahead of making a formal application.
External fellowship funding Researchers at postdoctoral or more senior levels who are considering applying for external fellowship funding, including ESRC, ERC, or similar schemes, and who would like to be based within the group are welcome to reach out to discuss hosting arrangements and collaborative fit.
MSc supervision We supervise MSc dissertations for students across relevant programmes at LSE. If you are an LSE MSc student interested in working on a project connected to the group's research themes, please get in touch to discuss potential topics and supervisors.
Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship The group participates in LSE's undergraduate research apprenticeship scheme, offering students the opportunity to contribute to live research projects. These are made available through the PB312 code in LSE.
Wider World Seminar Series Our weekly seminar series brings together researchers, policymakers, industry practitioners, students, and alumni to discuss emerging themes in behavioural science and its applications.
See below my keynote lecture from the 2025 International Association for Economic Psychology for an account of the role of economic psychology in behavioural pubic policy:
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