Behavioural Insights - Panacea or Placebo?

In 2010 the United Kingdom (UK) Conservative government set up a Behavioural Insights Team to assist government agencies in applying behavioural economics theories to policy development. Since then, the interest in applying these ‘behavioural insights’ has grown rapidly outside the UK, with more than 50 countries boasting a central state-led behavioural policy initiative of one form or another. Several reports have been released promoting its use within government by organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Development, the World Bank and the European Commission. Behavioural insights has clearly made an impact on policymakers, but what does ‘behavioural insights’ actually mean in practice? Several researchers have raised concerns about the boundaries of the concept of behavioural insights. Is behavioural insights defined by its central instrument, nudging? Or is it the focus on finding ‘what works’ through the use of randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews? Is it the use of behavioural science and psychology to find ways that citizens might be acting in ways that are ‘irrational’? Is it all of the above – a true policy-making panacea? Is it an empty placebo concept? Or is it perhaps something else altogether? Using an ethnographic case study of a Behavioural Insights Team in Australia this presentation will further interrogate these questions. Informed by the work of Bevir and Rhodes on interpretive political science, this paper explores how different traditions operating within the Australian Public Service played a role in shaping how participants interpreted behavioural insights. Behavioural insights was a ‘solution’ that could be adapted to suit almost any situation. Those who subscribed to a more technocratic approach to policymaking saw behavioural insights as a way to promote RCTs. Those with a more bureaucratic lens saw nudging as a cost-effective way to minimise costly and challenging regulation. A third interpretation was driven instead from the bottom-up with a much stronger focus on how behavioural insights might help the public service develop more citizen-focused, human-centred policy. This presentation will explore what these interpretations can tell us, not only about behavioural insights as a policy instrument, but about the dilemmas confronting policymakers today.