It's time we put agency into Behavioural Public Policy

It's time we put agency into Behavioural Public Policy

2024 | Sanchayan Banerjee, Till Grüne-Yanoff, Peter John and Alice Moseley
This article argues that Behavioural Public Policy (BPP) should prioritize enhancing citizens' agency—their ability to form intentions and act on them freely. Current BPP methods often fail to do this, leading to ethical and effectiveness issues. Agency-enhancing BPPs, such as boosts, debiasing, and nudge+, aim to improve decision-making by fostering competence, reducing cognitive biases, and encouraging reflection alongside nudges. These approaches help citizens own their decisions, leading to more sustainable and meaningful behaviour change. Boosts improve decision-making through education and heuristics. Debiasing reduces cognitive biases and encourages reflective thinking. Nudge+ encourages citizens to evaluate nudges and their alignment with personal goals. These methods are more transparent and ethical than traditional nudges, which can sometimes undermine agency. The article highlights the importance of agency in BPP, arguing that it leads to more effective and ethical policy outcomes. It also discusses the limitations of these approaches and suggests future research directions. Overall, the paper advocates for a broader toolkit of BPP that prioritizes agency to improve public policy and citizen behaviour.This article argues that Behavioural Public Policy (BPP) should prioritize enhancing citizens' agency—their ability to form intentions and act on them freely. Current BPP methods often fail to do this, leading to ethical and effectiveness issues. Agency-enhancing BPPs, such as boosts, debiasing, and nudge+, aim to improve decision-making by fostering competence, reducing cognitive biases, and encouraging reflection alongside nudges. These approaches help citizens own their decisions, leading to more sustainable and meaningful behaviour change. Boosts improve decision-making through education and heuristics. Debiasing reduces cognitive biases and encourages reflective thinking. Nudge+ encourages citizens to evaluate nudges and their alignment with personal goals. These methods are more transparent and ethical than traditional nudges, which can sometimes undermine agency. The article highlights the importance of agency in BPP, arguing that it leads to more effective and ethical policy outcomes. It also discusses the limitations of these approaches and suggests future research directions. Overall, the paper advocates for a broader toolkit of BPP that prioritizes agency to improve public policy and citizen behaviour.
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[slides and audio] It's Time We Put Agency into Behavioural Public Policy