Dr Yana Litovsky

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Psychological and Behavioural Science. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course is not available to General Course students.

The aim of this course is to provide an understanding of, and the ability to critically appraise, the fundamental ideas which drive the multidisciplinary field of behavioural science in relation to policymaking.

The course gradually moves from the foundational principles of behavioural science to their critical examination and real-world application. The course is organised into three interlinked blocks. The first block introduces dual-processing models of human behaviour to highlight the role of the environment in shaping decisions; this block considers the Dual System approach, preferences (time, risk, and social), and heuristics and biases. The second block situates behavioural science within contemporary societal and policy debates. It explores questions of free will and autonomy, evidence-based policymaking and experimentation, the measurement and ethics of subjective wellbeing, the implications of heterogeneity and replicability, and the critical appraisal of behavioural interventions through structured evaluative frameworks such as MINDSPACE, BASIC, COM-B, FORGOOD and more. Finally, in the third block, we turn to intervention design and policy application. We introduce behaviour change techniques drawn from Behavioural Economics (incentives, commitments, defaults), Social Psychology (messenger effects, norms, identity), and Cognitive Psychology (priming, affect), and we close by examining behavioural spillover effects, the distinctions between nudge, sludge, boost, and noise, and the balance between individual (I-frame) and structural (S-frame) approaches to behaviour change.

Throughout the course, evidence from observational studies, laboratory experiments and field experiments will be discussed, with a special emphasis on policy-level interventions.

By the end of the course, you should:

• Have a broad and integrated understanding of the fundamental principles of Behavioural Science, including its foundations in Psychology and Economic Theory, and its role in contemporary policy debates.
• Critically appraise the evidence base, methods, and assumptions of Behavioural Science, including experimentation (e.g., RCTs), wellbeing measurement, issues of heterogeneity and replicability, and the ethical and political dimensions of behavioural interventions.
• Explain and evaluate key frameworks for behaviour change, including MINDSPACE, COM-B and related evaluative tools, and distinguish between individual (I-frame) and structural (S-frame) approaches to intervention design.
• Apply core theories and frameworks of Behavioural Science to policy and practice contexts, designing and critically assessing interventions with attention to effectiveness, ethics, context, and potential spillover effects.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Students will complete a number of pieces of formative work to cement learning and prepare for summative assessments:

• In class mock test - essay plan
• Practice pitch with peer feedback

• Sunstein, C. R., & Thaler, R. (2009). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness. London: Penguin.
• Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.
• Dolan, P. (2015). Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life. London: Penguin.
• Chater, N., & Loewenstein, G. (2023). The I-Frame and the S-Frame: How Focusing on Individual-Level Solutions Has Led Behavioral Public Policy Astray. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
• Bryan, C. J., Tipton, E., & Yeager, D. S. (2021). Behavioural science is unlikely to change the world without a heterogeneity revolution. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(8), 980–989.
• Szaszi, B., Higney, A., Charlton, A., Gelman, A., Ziano, I., Aczel, B., et al. (2022). No reason to expect large and consistent effects of nudge interventions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(31), e2200732119
• Halpern, D. (2015). Inside the Nudge Unit: How small changes can make a big difference. London: W H Allen.
• Kahneman, D., Sibony, O., & Sunstein, C. R. (2021). Noise: a flaw in human judgment. Hachette UK.

Exam (60%), duration: 90 Minutes in the Spring exam period.

Presentation (40%).