Behavioral Insights Model: Overarching Framework for Applying Behavioral Insights in Transport Policy Analysis
Abstract
The behavioral changes that people exhibit in response to policy measures often differ from what policymakers expected ex ante, and behavioral changes are difficult to realize. However, information about behavioral mechanisms and insights clarifying behavioral responses to policy measures are currently dispersed. This paper is the result of an attempt to gather these insights, starting with mechanisms deriving from social psychology and behavioral economics. An overarching framework consisting of three clusters of behavioral mechanisms is presented. This framework can be of assistance in shaping evidence-based policy measures that make optimally efficient use of the available means, as well as helping to explain why certain policy measures have had the intended effect, while others failed to reach their full potential. At the framework's theoretical base lies the insight that behavior can originate from conscious and subconscious decisions. The three clusters consist of numerous behavioral mechanisms on the individual, social, and physical levels. The framework was discussed in a session by experts with backgrounds in social psychology, behavioral economics, and transport policy analysis who reviewed the framework's validity, coherence, and completeness. This discussion resulted in a set of five additional mechanisms that can be used in shaping policy measures and in explaining their behavioral effects. The extended framework, the behavioral insights model (BIM), was subsequently applied in a test case workshop involving practitioners from the field of transport policy, who concluded that the BIM was useful for working systematically and helpful in developing policy measures. The paper concludes with a discussion of the BIM's completeness and applicability.
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