Everyone would be expected to know:
Video –Behavioural Economics: Crash Course Economics
Due to a growing confidence in the results of these studies there has been an attempt to use these results in policy. In light of this a recent government report, Mindspace, aimed to helpfully categorise some of the potential influences such studies have discovered about human behaviour. Mindspace is an acronym that stands for the following principles:
Messenger - we are heavily influenced by who communicates information.
Incentives - our responses to incentives are shaped by predictable mental shortcuts such as strongly avoiding losses.
Norms - we are strongly influenced by what others do.
Defaults - we ‘go with the flow’ of pre-set options.
Salience - our attention is drawn to what is novel and seems relevant to us.
Priming - our acts are often influenced by sub-conscious cues and our emotional associations can powerfully shape our actions.
Affect – our emotional associations can powerfully shape our actions.
Commitments - we seek to be consistent with our public promises, and reciprocate acts.
Ego - we act in ways that make us feel better about ourselves.
The significance of this is best explained through the use of case studies, but the 3 key things to remember are: