Behavioral Science Perspective Research Articles

Artificial Intelligence in Marketing: From Computer Science to Social Science

This commentary explores the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for marketing practice and society at large. It reviews recent findings demonstrating the importance of behavioral insights for safe AI deployment. As AI models increasingly demonstrate human-like capabilities, their deployment raises crucial concerns about bias due to unintended interactions between algorithmic and human decision-making. The discussion underscores the importance of incorporating behavioral science perspectives to understand and mitigate AI risks, moving beyond purely technical solutions.

Research Hotspots, Research Frontiers, and Management Significance: A Bibliometric Analysis and Review of Global Food Waste of Students Research Based on CiteSpace

Reducing food waste in the student population is important for promoting sustainable economic, social, and ecological development. In this paper, with the help of CiteSpace software (versions 6.1.R6 and 6.2.R4), we visually analyze the literature related to the food waste of students in the WoS core collection database. It is found that (1) scholars are paying increasing attention to the field of student food waste research, with the United States being the country with the largest total amount of research in this field, the greatest academic influence, and the most frequent cooperation with other countries. (2) Research in this field can be broadly divided into three phases: the starting period (2000–2010), the exploration period (2011–2015), and the development period (2016–2023). The research on student food waste involves multiple fields of knowledge, such as statistics, behavior, psychology, management, nutrition, etc. It is divided into three research hotspots, namely student food waste quantity measurement, student food waste influencing factors, and student food waste behavioral interventions, as well as three cutting-edge themes, namely student food waste in developing countries, student food waste and dietary intake and nutritional health, and student food waste from the perspective of behavioral science. (3) Scholars from different countries/regions have different research focuses. Research in the United States focuses on the development of student food waste interventions and the investigation of students’ and teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and barriers to intervention in student populations; European scholars focus on researching this area from a behavioral perspective; developing countries in Asia focus on quantifying the level of food waste among college students and exploring the impact of demographic factors on student food waste; and developed countries in Asia focus on surveys of teachers, dietitians, and other parties to explore the impact of food education on food waste and propose food education interventions based on the recommendations of various parties. Based on the above findings, future research directions are proposed to provide references for subsequent research on food waste among students.

Deceptive choice architecture and behavioral audits: A principles‐based approach

AbstractRegulators are increasingly concerned about deceptive, online choice architecture, including dark patterns and behavioral sludge. From a behavioral science perspective, fostering a regulatory environment which reduces the economic harm caused by deceptive designs, while safeguarding the benefits of well‐meaning behavioral insights, is essential. This article argues for a principles‐based approach and proposes behavioral audits as a tool to support this approach.

Methods to Increase Participation in Garbage Sorting—Based on Behavioral Science Perspective

Methods to Increase Participation in Garbage Sorting—Based on Behavioral Science Perspective

To Dwell Among

The Church today faces a shortage of financial resources and a dearth of vocations and active parishioners, and churches may also find themselves with vacant, unused property. Yet the call of the Church has not changed: we are still called to respond to the cry of the poor (New American Bible, 2010, Psalm 142:6), participate in the Incarnation, and stay with Christ as He suffers on the cross (New American Bible, 2010, Matthew 26:38). Saints, popes, and theologians echo this call, and sociological and behavioral science perspectives align with it. Together, these perspectives lay the groundwork for a model of ecclesial renewal, one in which laity live intentionally in or near local parishes, contributing to parochial resources and responding to the needs of the local neighborhood, thereby leading to transformation and renewal.

Does mindfulness-based intervention in school-setting improve mental health in one-year follow-up?

Abstract Background Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have shown promising results on students’ well-being in several countries, including Finland. However, less is known of the long-term effects of MBIs. We investigated the effects of MBI on mental health in school-setting in a one-year follow-up in an extensive randomized controlled trial Healthy Learning Mind. Methods Finnish pupils (Intervention group N = 542, active control group N = 557) aged 12-15 years were randomized into a 9 week MBI group, and a control group with a relaxation program. The primary outcomes were resilience (RS14), socio-emotional functioning (SDQ), and depressive symptoms (RBDI) at baseline, and at follow-up at 52 weeks (T52). Analyses were done with multilevel linear models. Results Positive intervention effect was found for socio-emotional functioning between intervention and active control group (Group×Time β=−0.866, p = 0.014). Socio-emotional functioning remained same in the intervention group (β = 0.338, p = 0.178) whereas difficulties increased in the active control group (β = 1.205, p < 0.001). Mindfulness did not show effects on the resilience (p = 0.303) or depressive symptoms (p = 0.925). In an additional exploratory analysis, among the students who had continued practicing mindfulness at least once a week (n = 45) compared to the all pupils in the active control group, no significant differences were found in resilience (p = 0.197), socio-emotional functioning (p = 0.186), or depressive symptoms (p = 0.802). However, although not significant, those 45 pupils, who continued mindfulness practices at least once a week scored systematically better on resilience and socio-emotional functioning compared to active controls. Conclusions Short 9-week MBI in school-setting provides slight benefits for socio-emotional functioning in one- year follow-up. Since only 45 pupils continued independent practice for one year, it is difficult to reliably appraise the long-term benefits of MBI in school-setting. Key messages • We need more information on the type of support pupils need to keep up practice. The low number of pupils who keep up practicing hampers better understanding of the long-term effects of MBIs. • The MBI effectiveness research in school settings would benefit from behavioral science perspective.

Information use in public administration and policy decision‐making: A research synthesis

AbstractThis article presents a research synthesis of 162 studies focusing on information use for decision‐making in public administration, management, and policy. The findings reveal that a significant proportion of work is centered around performance management and policy implementation. Notably, around one third of the reviewed studies adopt a behavioral science perspective. The analysis predominantly includes civil servants and citizens as the subjects, with quantitative studies outnumbering qualitative investigations by more than twofold. We identify three distinct components in understanding information use: the objective features of information architecture; the subjective mechanisms involving cognitive biases (i.e., over‐/under‐reaction to irrelevant information features) and decision noise (i.e., heterogeneity); and the moderating role of information user typology. Context should also be taken into account. The article explores how these findings relate to current societal challenges and emphasizes the potential of mixed‐methods, multisample, and/or multisite research in advancing knowledge in this area.

A scoping review and behavioural analysis of factors underlying overuse of antimicrobials.

Overuse of antimicrobials is a challenging global issue that contributes to antimicrobial resistance. Despite widespread awareness of the problem among members of the medical community and various attempts to improve prescription practices, existing antimicrobial stewardship programmes are not always effective. In our view, this may reflect limited understanding of factors that influence prescription of antimicrobials as empirical therapy, implying a need to address the psychological mechanisms behind some of the specific behaviours involved. To identify factors that influence the antimicrobials prescription as empirical therapy, and to relate these factors to findings from behavioural science. We conducted a scoping review of the literature on the factors underlying antimicrobial prescription decisions, following the protocol designed using PRISMA guidelines. From a final sample of 90 sources, we identified ten factors important in antimicrobial prescription decisions. In the second stage of our analysis, we grouped them into five final categories: (1) nature of the decision, (2) social influences, (3) individual differences, (4) characteristics of the patient, (5) context. We analyse these categories using a behavioural science perspective.

Behavioural factors associated with fear of litigation as a driver for the increased use of caesarean sections: a scoping review

ObjectiveTo explore the behavioural drivers of fear of litigation among healthcare providers influencing caesarean section (CS) rates.DesignScoping review.Data sourcesWe searched MEDLINE, Scopus and WHO Global Index (1 January 2001 to...

Applying the COM-B Model to Understand the Drivers of Mistreatment During Childbirth: A Qualitative Enquiry Among Maternity Care Staff.

Respectful maternity care (RMC) during childbirth is an integral component of quality of care. However, women's experiences of mistreatment are prevalent in many low- and middle-income countries. This is a complex phenomenon that has not been well explored from a behavioral science perspective. We aimed to understand the behavioral drivers of mistreatment during childbirth among maternity care staff at public health facilities in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Applying the COM-B (capability-opportunity-motivation that leads to behavior change) model, we conducted semistructured in-depth interviews among clinical and nonclinical staff in public health facilities in Thatta and Sujawal, Sindh, Pakistan. Data were analyzed using thematic deductive analysis, and findings were synthesized using the COM-B model. We identified several behavioral drivers of mistreatment during childbirth: (1) institutional guidelines on RMC and training opportunities were absent, resulting in a lack of providers' knowledge and skills; (2) facilities lacked the infrastructure to maintain patient privacy and confidentiality and did not permit males as birth companions; (3) lack of provider performance monitoring system and patient feedback mechanism contributed to providers not feeling appreciated or recognized. Staff bias against patients from lower castes contributed to patient abuse and mistreatment. The perspectives of clinical and nonclinical staff overlapped regarding potential drivers of mistreatment during childbirth. Addressing mistreatment during childbirth requires improving the knowledge and capacity of maternity staff on RMC and psychosocial support to enhance their understanding of RMC. At the health facility level, governance and accountability mechanisms in routine supervision and monitoring of staff need to be improved. Patients' feedback should be incorporated for continuous improvement in providing maternity care services that meet patients' preferences and needs.

Perspectives for sustainable consumption: An exploratory study of the discourses and practices of Cordoba's citizens (Argentina)

This paper addresses some of the perceptions, beliefs, and experiences related to sustainable consumption habits of citizens of Córdoba (Argentina). We focus on three main areas of consumption: food, housing, and mobility. The study examines the discourses of 59 citizens in seven focus groups with seven to nine persons each. Six groups combine age ranges (18-29, 30-49, and 50-70 years old), socioeconomic status (high-medium and low-medium), and gender. A seventh group is composed of citizens who participate actively in environmental organisations with a mix of ages, SES and genders. We conduct a content analysis using ATLAS.ti software. The results of this study indicate that the participants in general have difficulty spontaneously associating their consumption practices with environmental problems. Three results are prominent: First, the role of meat consumption for sustainability is almost unnoticed by most participants; this is noteworthy given the overconsumption of meat in Argentina. Second, we find little knowledge about water-saving appliances while a high rate of individual water consumption in Córdoba is in fact alarming. Third, respondents do not consider environmental aspects when choosing their everyday modes of mobility. Based on these initial findings, we sketch the research and data needed to advance knowledge of sustainable consumption in Argentina and Latin America from a psychological and other behavioural science perspectives, as well as implications for policies aiming to address environmental degradation.

Unveiling Frequently Co-Occurring Reasons of Attitudinal Acceptance of Intimate Partner Violence against Women: A Behavioral Data Science Perspective.

The results of gender equality indicators across the world in the form of prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women are striking and has thus drawn the attention of policy makers as well as necessitates the adoption of a comprehensive system to deal with. The situation of IPV in Pakistan is alarming. This study examines the acceptability attitude of women and men toward intimate partner violence against women through data science. It discovers and contrasts the frequently co-occurring reasons due to which husbands’ behaviour of beating their wives is believed to be legitimate by both partners in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Though the discovered frequently co-occurring reasons, such as “arguing with the husband and neglecting the children” altogether, are similar in both genders but the fraction of wives believing in such reasons are significantly greater than that of husbands. This psychological disparity across genders could help in identifying the social and cultural factors to whom this disparity is attributed. It is expected that the identified co-occurring groups of reasons would help to understand the problem to the next level and devise better strategies to mitigate them.

Finding the ‘nudge’ in hypernudge

‘Hypernudge’ describes a group of phenomena which occur at the intersection of behavioural science and computer science, and law. The term been increasingly used in the latter field, though sparingly in behavioural science. As such, ‘hypernudge’ remains largely absent from the behavioural science lexicon, inhibiting the field from participating within vital discussions surrounding the use of psychological insights with ubiquitous computing.In this article, I search for the ‘nudge’ in hypernudge by critiquing the differences between the two concepts from a behavioural science perspective. I ‘find the nudge’ in hypernudge by conceptualising a hypernudge as a system of nudges which change over time and in response to feedback. In this sense, a hypernudge is not a type of nudge, but an arrangement of nudges. This article then engages in an extensive discussion of the implications on this concept for the hypernudging programme, and for nudging more broadly.

Multi-cancer early detection tests for cancer screening: a behavioural science perspective.

Identifying circulating cell-free tumour DNA in blood offers the potential for multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests. Several trials assessing the effect of MCED tests on early asymptomatic cancer detection are underway (eg, ISRCTN91431511 and NCT04213326). MCED tests differ substantially from existing cancer screening tests (appendix p 1). If MCED tests are shown to improve cancer outcomes, careful consideration of other potential benefits and harms will be essential before these are made available to the general population. 1 Etzioni R Gulati R Weiss NS Multi-cancer early detection: learning from the past to meet the future. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2021; 114: 349-352 Crossref Scopus (4) Google Scholar Many of these are psychological or behavioural, making theory-driven behavioural research indispensable to their successful implementation.

Challenges and Issues in the Treatment of Reproductive Cancer in India: A Behavioural Science Perspective

There has been a transition of diseases among the Indian masses seen over the last two decades. Of late, noncommunicable diseases and diseases due to environmental factors have increased manifold.Among them, cancer is a concern with every passing day across regions of India. Among them, reproductive cancers are conditions that occur in the reproductive organs contributing to the increased burden of diseases. These are cancers in the breast, cervix, uterus, vulva, endometrium, and ovaries, which affect across demographics and geographies of India. Reproductive cancers can also be found in men, like prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and penile cancer. Reproductive cancers have a significant impact on the lives of men and women worldwide. Given the seriousness of the problem, this review discusses the various determinants of reproductive cancer care in India. Further, this review examines the access to cancer care among Indian men and women. The paper gathered existing evidence through a literature search about facts, figures, and narratives of reproductive cancer in India. According to the basic objective, a literature review was done to assess various factors affecting reproductive cancer in the Indian population. The issues of reproductive cancer were assessed at different levels like socio-cultural, concerns of cancer and access to cancer care. The search sites like PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Journal Storage (JSTOR) were used to unravel the issues of reproductive cancer among men and women. The article brings out many concerns about the control of reproductive cancer in India. In India, the screening, diagnosis, and modern cancer care procedures are insufficient, especially reproductive cancer care. There is also a lack of access to reproductive cancer care in most parts of the country, especially in the rural areas. The infrastructure, workforce, and supply chain of medications for cancer care are very worrisome, which needs to be augmented for primary cancer care. Overall, the public health system has to be augmented by considering the systems thinking approach by including all the stakeholders. The complex issues need simplified solutions. Hence, there is a need for training and capacity building to enhance reproductive cancer care among individuals, families, and communities at large.

Is lesbian identity obsolete? Some (limited) answers and further questions from a unique philology of human behavioral science perspective

Many scholarly disciplines focusing exclusively on human behavior can and do approach philology in some form in the conduct of their analyses, especially implicitly. “Philology” is generally understood to mean a study of oral and written records, particularly in their original form to determine either their authenticity and/or their original meaning—especially at the time of their development and delivery. This present article sketches a philology of human behavioral science perspective to make explicit what is largely implicit in the conduct of the science (most notably in psychological science) to answer the provocative question of this special issue (“Is lesbian identity obsolete?”). From this new perspective, I ask and answer (to the extent possible) three interrelated questions about the current or future obsolescence of the concept “lesbian identity.” The first question is whether lesbian identity like predecessor terms for the larger concept will become obsolete in the future. A second question is whether lesbian identity should become obsolete based on its potentially less inclusive meaning—either (a) from the origin terms that comprise it or (b) in comparison to other terms in the lexicon at present. A third question concerns whether lesbian identity may wane now (at the time of this writing) and then wax again in the future (some decade[s] later from this writing).

The Impact of Consequences Awareness of Public Environment on Medicine Return Behavior: A Moderated Chain Mediation Model

With global aging trends and prosperity in the medicine market, the number of unused or expired household unused or expired medicines is increasing. Medicines which are discarded improperly result in serious pollution. From the perspective of behavioral science, the main contribution of this paper is the construction of a chain mediation model to analyze the influence mechanism between consequences awareness of the public environment and proper return behavior of unused or expired medicines. The model explores the moderating effect of personal health awareness with through observation of to the mediating effect of personal norms and return intention. Using a sample size of 366 residents from China, the proposed hypotheses are empirically tested. The results show: firstly, the direct effect of residents’ consequences awareness of public environmental awareness on the proper medicine return behavior is not significant; secondly, return intention plays a mediating role in the positive effect of consequences awareness of the public environment on proper return behavior; thirdly, personal norms and return intention play a chain mediating role in the positive impact of consequences awareness of the public environment on proper return behavior; and lastly, personal health awareness moderates the chain mediation path by strengthening the positive effect of return intention on proper return behavior.

Eco-efficient driving pattern evaluation for sustainable road transport based on contextually enriched automotive data

The transportation sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions' accumulation in the atmosphere. With the support of information and communication technology and data science, we can better understand the driving patterns that influence eco-efficiency. The key component for impactful research in this domain is a high-quality source of contextually enriched automotive data, enabling interdisciplinary study from environmental sustainability, automotive engineering, behavioural science, telecommunications and transportation science perspectives. To facilitate the creation of such a data set, this paper presents a framework for the collection and contextual enrichment of automotive data. The framework utilizes smartphones to collect the vehicle's On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) or Controller Area Network (CAN) data and enriches it with Internet-based and built-in smartphone sensor data. A data collection experiment was performed using the established framework with 9 drivers collecting more than 90 h of driving data, forming a contextually enriched automotive data set. A special emphasis in the analysis of the collected data was placed on deriving and calculating a metric for ranking the drivers according to their eco-efficient driving patterns, a valuable insight that can be used to improve the transportation sustainability.

The Indian Crop Insurance Puzzle: A Discourse from Behavioral Science Perspective

The Indian Crop Insurance Puzzle: A Discourse from Behavioral Science Perspective

Addressing the inappropriate use of force by police in the United States and beyond: A behavioral and social science perspective.

Recent high-profile incidents involving the deadly application of force in the United States sparked worldwide protests and renewed scrutiny of police practices as well as scrutiny of relations between police officers and minoritized communities. In this report, we consider the inappropriate use of force by police from the perspective of behavioral and social science inquiry related to aggression, violence, and intergroup relations. We examine the inappropriate use of force by police in the context of research on modern policing as well as critical race theory and offer five recommendations suggested by contemporary theory and research. Our recommendations are aimed at policymakers, law enforcement administrators, and scholars and are as follows: (1) Implement public policies that can reduce inappropriate use of force directly and through the reduction of broader burdens on the routine activities of police officers. (2) For officers frequently engaged in use-of-force incidents, ensure that best practice, evidence-based treatments are available and required. (3) Improve and increase the quality and delivery of noncoercive conflict resolution training for all officers, along with police administrative policies and supervision that support alternatives to the use of force, both while scaling back the militarization of police departments. (4) Continue the development and evaluation of multicomponent interventions for police departments, but ensure they incorporate evidence-based, field-tested components. (5) Expand research in the behavioral and social sciences aimed at understanding and managing use-of-force by police and reducing its disproportionate impact on minoritized communities, and expand funding for these lines of inquiry.