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Behavioral Economics

Research and concepts relating to behavioral science and economics.

Where Did All the TP Go? The Behavioral Economics Of Hoarding

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Empty supermarket aisles by jaybarsky0 at Pixabay.com

No toilet paper…anywhere? Really? It’s not unusual that people stock up in response to storms and political uncertainty. Indeed, some groups, “preppers”, accumulate years of supplies, anticipating a large-scale breakdown in society. Hoarding is a well-known psychological disorder, but that’s about collecting and retaining huge amounts of worthless items. However, empty supermarket shelves don’t necessarily mean … Read more

Why 100 Million Americans Are Financially Stressed

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Woman on a bench in Central Park, New York, NY

…and Will Likely Stay That Way In January 2016 I founded a tech start-up help Americans make better financial decisions. I’ve since learned that most people are stressed out because they save little, have enormous debt, don’t know where their money goes and feel they’re not on track to meeting their long-term goals. I also found that … Read more

What Makes Us Tick? Insights From The 2018 Behavioral Summit

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Image of the hotel escalator decorated with vinyl decals and footprints to nudge conference attendees to use the stairs at the 2018 Behavioral Summit. Photo by Brett Whysel.

Did you know that “knowing” is definitely not half the battle? The G.I. Joe Fallacy is but one of the many provocative and counter-intuitive ideas I learned at this year’s Behavioral Summit. Organized by ideas42, a nonprofit behavioral science consultancy, the Summit included speakers from diverse disciplines including healthcare, sexual assault, risk, fundraising, systems analysis, happiness, diversity, financial inclusion and, of … Read more

How To Conquer The Confusing Causation/Correlation Conundrum

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Nile blue hydro chloride in water at daylight and different pH-values. From left to right: pH 0, pH 4, pH 7, pH 10, pH 14.. Image: Armin Kübelbeck

Fortnite Battle Royale at GDC 2018. Image by Official GDC. A quick headline search on the word “cause” produced this doozy as the first result: “Fortnite helped cause 5% of UK divorces this year” That’s a great headline. After all, the search engine’s algorithm placed it at the top of the list, and I clicked on it. … Read more

Student (And Lifetime) Financial Health Begins With A Budget

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Photo of Sorbonne Facade

Budgets. Yawn. Why bother? I prefer the uncertainty and anxiety of never knowing that I have enough money to pay rent (said no one ever)? My Paris Budget So, I created my first budget when I went to Paris during my junior year in university. I had limited funds, an exchange rate to manage and I was … Read more

Ariely Redux: Dollars and Sense Explains How We Make Money Mistakes

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Dollars and Sense is an enjoyable, non-technical overview of some of the ways we make bad money decisions and a few ways we can get better.  The primary author, Dan Ariely, is a well-known behavioral economist who has written extensively about how predictably irrational we can be. The other author is a comedian  (with a middle-aged white-guy sensibility), which … Read more

The BSPA Conference: Behavioral Insights for Better Policies

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I attended the Behavioral Science and Policy Association conference last month and learned a great deal about the latest thinking in nudges, choice architecture, social norms, persuasion and how these can improve policies and decisions that people make. I went hoping to get some good ideas to apply to my company, Decision Fish, and to … Read more

Making Change Stick

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No matter how compelling a new change is, it’s tough to override the brain’s natural resistance to new behaviors. Fortunately, there is hope. The SAGE Question Framework uses knowledge about habit formation to help you plan and execute your change in a way that will stick.

Nudges: For Your Own Good?

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What do classical music in the train station, binge-inducing pre-loaded TV show episodes in Netflix, and those “I voted stickers” you get after voting have in common? Read our latest article, “Nudges: For Your Own Good?” about how government and businesses “nudge” your behavior for your own good…or maybe not (5 minute read).

The Behavioral Finance Symposium: Simple Fixes & Deep Challenges

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I recently attended the Behavioral Finance Symposium at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.  The speakers were academics and practitioners speaking on the behavioral challenges to good investment and trading decisions. The crowd seemed to be mostly left-coast traders, investment managers and consultants. Many of the talks were thought provoking and left me with a … Read more