How the power elite can – and does - manipulate us - Part 4 of the series on the political class

I’ve often in the past 20 years had to put myself in the shoes of Ministers and senior civil servants to help them develop “road maps” to their destinations of reform….An important technique I’ve used in these endeavours has been to get my counterparts to list why they think people behave the way they do – whether as officials, as citizens, politicians or businesspeople  – and what that tells us about the best way to try to get them to change. 

After all, the projects I’ve led only exist because someone has decided the present state of affairs is no longer acceptable…..so what aspects of whose behaviour are we talking about? And what is it that is most likely to make target groups change their behaviour?

-                Simple instructions?

-                Threats? Incentives?

-                Explanations and understanding?

-                Moral exhortation?

I have then developed, over the past couple of decades, this table which focuses on the assumptions we make about motives - and then explores the various mechanisms which are available to those trying to change beliefs and behaviour

The “behavioural turn” - Tools in the change process

Motivating Factor	Example of tool	Particular mechanism
1. Understanding	Training Campaigns Functional review	Rational persuasion Factual analysis
2. Commitment	Leadership Communications Training	Legitimisation; inspiration Pride
3. Maximising Personal Benefit	Pay increase and bonus Promotion (including political office) Good publicity Winning an award	Monetary calculation ambition Reputation; Psychological Status
4. Minimising Personal Cost	Named as poor performer Demotion Report cards	Psychological (Shame) Monetary Pride
5. Obligation	Law Action plan Family ties	Courts Managerial authority Social pressure
6. Peer influence	Bribery Quality circles	Pressure Support
7. Social influence	Opinion surveys	Feedback from public about service quality

The explosion of interest in behaviour

In the last decade, the question of changing (other) people’s behaviour has become a central one for government, business and NGOs. Professors Thaler and Cass may have “nudged” interest with their 2008 Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness but it was in fact the UK Cabinet Office which arguably set the ball rolling four years earlier with its Personal Responsibility and changing behaviour – the state of knowledge and its implications for public policy (2004) - an example which was followed with Changing Behaviour – a public policy perspective (Australian Government 2007).

The Nudge book certainly inspired the Cameron government some 7 years later to set up a Nudge Unit in the Cabinet but the British government had in 2008 been exploring this issue in its  The Use of sanctions and rewards in the public sector (NAO 2008) the very same year - accompanied by a literature review drafted by Deloitte

Even the House of Lords was not to be outdone – with the voluminous evidence of its Behaviour Change in 2011. And the voluntary sector put down an early marker with its Common Case – the case for working with our cultural values (2010) – which showed more familiarity with the marketing approach than did the economistic and rationalistic assumptions which were embedded in the erly British attempts.

So the World Bank was rather lagging behind when in 2015 its Annual Development Report got round to dealing with the issue - in its Mind, Society and Behaviour

In parallel to this burgeoning interest, the emergence of “behavioural economics” has represented a shamefaced admission by the “discipline” that their models had been based on utterly stupid assumptions of rationality…

However, policy geeks such as yours truly have perhaps been a bit slow to make the connection between the “behavioural turn” and “Big Data” - let alone the scandal of Cambridge Analytics

Useful Further Reading

articles

The Rational Paradox of Nudge in a world of bounded rationality; Martin Lodge and Kai Wegrich (2016)

Big Other – surveillance capitalism and the prospects for an information civilisation; S Zuboff (2015)

“Nudge, nudge, think, think”; article by John, Smith and Stoker (2009)

Wicked Problems and clumsy solutions – the role of leadership; Keith Grint (2008)

 “Fitting policy tools to context and motivation” (RG Young 2008)

The behavioural turn in law and economics - series of articles 

https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/2769

https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/2630

https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/2640

https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/2646

https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/2756

Reports and Books

Influencing Behaviours and Practices to tackle poverty and injustice (Oxfam 2018)
Governance and the Law (World Development Report; World Bank 2017)

https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/sanctions-rewards-and-learning.pdf (IDEA 2016)

Mind, Society and Behaviour (World Development Report; World Bank 2015)

A Practitioner’s Guide to Nudging; Rotman 2013

Behaviour Change (House of Lords (2011)

Finding Frames – new ways to engage the UK public in global poverty (2011)

Nudge, nudge, think, think; book by Peter John, Smith and Gerry Stoker (2011

Common Case – the case for working with our cultural values (2010
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness; Thaler and Cass (2008).

The Use of sanctions and rewards in the public sector (NAO 2008)

It was accompanied by a literature review drafted by Deloitte

Changing Behaviour – a public policy perspective (Australian Government 2007)

Personal Responsibility and changing behaviour – the state of knowledge and its implications for public policy (UK Cabinet Office 2004)