Behavioural Economics in Practice

A Handbook

Stumbling across behavioural science for the first time is exciting. Whether it's through a book, a talk, or even a Tweet, these ideas - about how our environment shapes our behaviour, about how we really make decisions - offer a new way to look at old problems. They give us a way to talk about concepts we understand implicitly but can struggle to articulate and apply.

But once you've read Nudge or Thinking, Fast and Slow, it's not always obvious where to go next. Popular science books are a great introduction but can't get into much detail on how to apply these ideas professionally. The academic research literature is enormous and intimidating and - highly unfortunately - booby-trapped with fake or exaggerated results. Master's programmes are a big investment of time and money. Behavioural frameworks and paid training courses abound, but their quality is very patchy: it's hard to tell the superficial-but-serious-sounding apart from the real thing.

This handbook is an attempt to bridge that gap. Based on our experience over more than a decade training applied behavioural science professionals, it is a guide to which existing resources are worth your time, and to some of the hard truths these resources gloss over.

While some of the people we have trained came from academia, many of the best began as enthusiastic amateurs. They may not have "behavioural science" in their job titles, but they nonetheless act as behavioural champions for whole organisations. When a business or government does start to embrace a better, more empirical approach to behaviour, it is generally these individuals who deserve the credit. Our hope is that this handbook can help a few more aspiring behavioural champions to take the leap.

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