The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy

An interdisciplinary look at the behavioral roots of public policy from the field's leading experts

In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in behavioral research on a wide variety of topics, from behavioral finance, labor contracts, philanthropy, and the analysis of savings and poverty, to eyewitness identification and sentencing decisions, racism, sexism, health behaviors, and voting. Research findings have often been strikingly counterintuitive, with serious implications for public policymaking. In this book, leading experts in psychology, decision research, policy analysis, economics, political science, law, medicine, and philosophy explore major trends, principles, and general insights about human behavior in policy-relevant settings. Their work provides a deeper understanding of the many drivers—cognitive, social, perceptual, motivational, and emotional—that guide behaviors in everyday settings. They give depth and insight into the methods of behavioral research, and highlight how this knowledge might influence the implementation of public policy for the improvement of society.

This collection examines the policy relevance of behavioral science to our social and political lives, to issues ranging from health, environment, and nutrition, to dispute resolution, implicit racism, and false convictions. The book illuminates the relationship between behavioral findings and economic analyses, and calls attention to what policymakers might learn from this vast body of groundbreaking work.

Wide-ranging investigation into people's motivations, abilities, attitudes, and perceptions finds that they differ in profound ways from what is typically assumed. The result is that public policy acquires even greater significance, since rather than merely facilitating the conduct of human affairs, policy actually shapes their trajectory.

  • The first interdisciplinary look at behaviorally informed policymaking
  • Leading behavioral experts across the social sciences consider important policy problems
  • A compendium of behavioral findings and their application to relevant policy domains
1118725096
The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy

An interdisciplinary look at the behavioral roots of public policy from the field's leading experts

In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in behavioral research on a wide variety of topics, from behavioral finance, labor contracts, philanthropy, and the analysis of savings and poverty, to eyewitness identification and sentencing decisions, racism, sexism, health behaviors, and voting. Research findings have often been strikingly counterintuitive, with serious implications for public policymaking. In this book, leading experts in psychology, decision research, policy analysis, economics, political science, law, medicine, and philosophy explore major trends, principles, and general insights about human behavior in policy-relevant settings. Their work provides a deeper understanding of the many drivers—cognitive, social, perceptual, motivational, and emotional—that guide behaviors in everyday settings. They give depth and insight into the methods of behavioral research, and highlight how this knowledge might influence the implementation of public policy for the improvement of society.

This collection examines the policy relevance of behavioral science to our social and political lives, to issues ranging from health, environment, and nutrition, to dispute resolution, implicit racism, and false convictions. The book illuminates the relationship between behavioral findings and economic analyses, and calls attention to what policymakers might learn from this vast body of groundbreaking work.

Wide-ranging investigation into people's motivations, abilities, attitudes, and perceptions finds that they differ in profound ways from what is typically assumed. The result is that public policy acquires even greater significance, since rather than merely facilitating the conduct of human affairs, policy actually shapes their trajectory.

  • The first interdisciplinary look at behaviorally informed policymaking
  • Leading behavioral experts across the social sciences consider important policy problems
  • A compendium of behavioral findings and their application to relevant policy domains
56.49 In Stock
The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy

The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy

The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy

The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy

Overview

An interdisciplinary look at the behavioral roots of public policy from the field's leading experts

In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in behavioral research on a wide variety of topics, from behavioral finance, labor contracts, philanthropy, and the analysis of savings and poverty, to eyewitness identification and sentencing decisions, racism, sexism, health behaviors, and voting. Research findings have often been strikingly counterintuitive, with serious implications for public policymaking. In this book, leading experts in psychology, decision research, policy analysis, economics, political science, law, medicine, and philosophy explore major trends, principles, and general insights about human behavior in policy-relevant settings. Their work provides a deeper understanding of the many drivers—cognitive, social, perceptual, motivational, and emotional—that guide behaviors in everyday settings. They give depth and insight into the methods of behavioral research, and highlight how this knowledge might influence the implementation of public policy for the improvement of society.

This collection examines the policy relevance of behavioral science to our social and political lives, to issues ranging from health, environment, and nutrition, to dispute resolution, implicit racism, and false convictions. The book illuminates the relationship between behavioral findings and economic analyses, and calls attention to what policymakers might learn from this vast body of groundbreaking work.

Wide-ranging investigation into people's motivations, abilities, attitudes, and perceptions finds that they differ in profound ways from what is typically assumed. The result is that public policy acquires even greater significance, since rather than merely facilitating the conduct of human affairs, policy actually shapes their trajectory.

  • The first interdisciplinary look at behaviorally informed policymaking
  • Leading behavioral experts across the social sciences consider important policy problems
  • A compendium of behavioral findings and their application to relevant policy domains

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781400847075
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 01/10/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 536
File size: 15 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Eldar Shafir is the William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs in the Department of Psychology and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Table of Contents



Foreword vii
   Daniel Kahneman
List of Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
   Eldar Shafir

Part 1. Prejudice and Discrimination
  • Chapter 1. The Nature of Implicit Prejudice: Implications for Personal and Public Policy 13
  •    Curtis D. Hardin, Mahzarin R. Banaji
  • Chapter 2. Biases in Interracial Interactions: Implications for Social Policy 32
  •    J. Nicole Shelton, Jennifer A. Richeson, John F. Dovidio
  • Chapter 3. Policy Implications of Unexamined Discrimination: Gender Bias in Employment as a Case Study 52
  •    Susan T. Fiske, Linda H. Krieger


Part 2. Social Interactions
  • Chapter 4. The Psychology of Cooperation: Implications for Public Policy 77
  •    Tom Tyler
  • Chapter 5. Rethinking Why People Vote: Voting as Dynamic Social Expression 91
  •    Todd Rogers, Craig R. Fox, Alan S. Gerber
  • Chapter 6. Perspectives on Disagreement and Dispute Resolution: Lessons from the Lab and the Real World 108
  •    Lee Ross
  • Chapter 7. Psychic Numbing and Mass Atrocity 126
  •    Paul Slovic, David Zionts, Andrew K. Woods, Ryan Goodman, Derek Jinks


Part 3. The Justice System
  • Chapter 8. Eyewitness Identification and the Legal System 145
  •     Nancy K. Steblay, Elizabeth F. Loftus
  • Chapter 9. False Convictions 163
  •    Phoebe Ellsworth, Sam Gross
  • Chapter 10. Behavioral Issues of Punishment, Retribution, and Deterrence 181
  •    John M. Darley, Adam L. Alter


Part 4. Bias and Competence
  • Chapter 11. Claims and Denials of Bias and Their Implications for Policy 195
  •    Emily Pronin, Kathleen Schmidt
  • Chapter 12. Questions of Competence: The Duty to Inform and the Limits to Choice 217
  •    Baruch Fischhoff, Sara L. Eggers
  • Chapter 13. If Misfearing Is the Problem, Is Cost-Benefit Analysis the Solution? 231
  •    Cass R. Sunstein


Part 5. Behavioral Economics and Finance
  • Chapter 14. Choice Architecture and Retirement Saving Plans 245
  •    Shlomo Benartzi, Ehud Peleg, Richard H. Thaler
  • Chapter 15. Behavioral Economics Analysis of Employment Law 264
  •    Christine Jolls
  • Chapter 16. Decision Making and Policy in Contexts of Poverty 281
  •    Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir


Part 6. Behavior Change
  • Chapter 17. Psychological Levers of Behavior Change 301
  •    Dale T. Miller, Deborah A. Prentice
  • Chapter 18. Turning Mindless Eating into Healthy Eating 310
  •    Brian Wansink
  • Chapter 19. A Social Psychological Approach to Educational Intervention 329
  •    Julio Garcia, Geoffrey L. Cohen


Part 7. Improving Decisions
  • Chapter 20. Beyond Comprehension: Figuring Out Whether Decision Aids Improve People's Decisions 351
  •    Peter Ubel
  • Chapter 21. Using Decision Errors to Help People Help Themselves 361
  •    George Loewenstein, Leslie John, Kevin G. Volpp
  • Chapter 22. Doing the Right Thing Willingly: Using the Insights of Behavioral Decision Research for Better Environmental Decisions 380
  •    Elke U. Weber
  • Chapter 23. Overcoming Decision Biases to Reduce Losses from Natural Catastrophes 398
  •    Howard Kunreuther, Robert Meyer, Erwann Michel-Kerjan


Part 8. Decision Contexts
  • Chapter 24. Decisions by Default 417
  •    Eric J. Johnson, Daniel G. Goldstein
  • Chapter 25. Choice Architecture 428
  •    Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, John P. Balz
  • Chapter 26. Behaviorally Informed Regulation 440
  •    Michael S. Barr, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir


Part 9. Commentaries
  • Chapter 27. Psychology and Economic Policy 465
  •    William J. Congdon
  • Chapter 28. Behavioral Decision Science Applied to Health-Care Policy 475
  •    Donald A. Redelmeier
  • Chapter 29. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Debiasing the Policy Makers Themselves 481
  •    Paul Brest
  • Chapter 30. Paternalism, Manipulation, Freedom, and the Good 494
  •    Judith Lichtenberg


Index 499

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Roll over economists. We have always, pridefully, thought of ourselves as the major arbiters of good public policy: take it or leave it based on cost-benefit analysis. The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy challenges that hegemony. In each interesting chapter—on topics ranging from discrimination and poverty to health, savings, and bureaucracy—the book shows the role of psychology in public policy. Only one word can describe this book: wow!"—George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics

"This book establishes that psychology has a great deal to contribute on public policy matters of great concern to everyone. I doubt whether so many superb psychologists and behavioral scientists have been found between the covers of a single book before. Their contributions do not disappoint and it seems certain that many policy issues are going to look different from now on."—Richard Nisbett, University of Michigan

"From well-documented biases to important discrimination and intervention policies, this amazing collection takes a systematic approach to behavioral aspects of public policy and gathers together the best in the psychology of decision making and behavioral economics."—Uri Gneezy, University of California, San Diego

"Behavioral public policy is an emerging field, with a great deal of interesting work just beginning to be done. This book is a compilation of perspectives by a truly stellar collection of leading researchers in a range of social science disciplines. For graduate-level courses on public policy, it is difficult to imagine any book that is better for learning about this field."—Daniel J. Benjamin, Cornell University

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