Use Of Behavioral Science Research Articles

The serpent under it: cognitive bias in ethics and compliance training

PurposeThis study aims to demonstrate the importance of behavioral science in the design of ethics and compliance training.Design/methodology/approachA review of current practices in ethics and compliance training and a demonstration of the areas in which the use of behavioral science and an understanding of cognitive bias can improve these universal corporate training modules.FindingsThere are numerous areas in which the application of behavioral science could improve ethics and compliance training.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review of the potential application of behavioral science to ethics and compliance training.

How Behavioral Interventions Can Reduce the Climate Impact of Energy Use

Kristian S. Nielsen is a research associate in the Department of Zoology at University of Cambridge. He received a PhD from Copenhagen Business School in 2019 with a dissertation focused on the role of self-regulation in environmental behavior change. His current research focuses on bridging research in behavioral science and biodiversity conservation as part of an interdisciplinary project called Nudging for Nature. His other research interests revolve around behavior change as a climate change mitigation strategy, the dynamics of the behavior change process, self-regulation and self-control, and sustainable clothing consumption. Sander van der Linden is Reader in Social Psychology in Society and director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He is also a fellow in Psychological and Behavioral Sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Environmental Psychology. His research on the psychology of human judgment and decision-making, especially in the context of climate change, has received numerous awards including the Rising Star award from the Association for Psychological Science and the Sage Early Career Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology . Paul C. Stern is president of the Social and Environmental Research institute and was previously a principal staff officer at the US National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine where he directed its Board on Environmental Change and Society. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Association. His research interests include the integration of social science into research and practice for governing environmental change and into risk assessment and management. Among his publications are Environmental Problems and Human Behavior (coauthor) and Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society (coeditor).

Using Behavioral Theory to Enhance Occupational Safety and Health: Applications to Health Care Workers.

Work-related morbidity and mortality are persistent public health problems across all US industrial sectors, including health care. People employed in health care and social services are at high risk for experiencing injuries and illnesses related to their work. Social and behavioral science theories can be useful tools for designing interventions to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses and can provide a roadmap for investigating the multilevel factors that may hinder or promote worker safety and health. Specifically, individual-level behavioral change theories can be useful in evaluating the proximal, person-related antecedents (such as perceived behavioral control) that influence work safety outcomes. This article (1) provides a brief overview of widely used, individual-level behavior change theories and examples of their application to occupational safety and health (OSH)-related interventions that involve the health care community; (2) introduces an integrated theory of behavior change and its application to promoting the OSH of health care workers; and (3) discusses opportunities for application of individual-level behavior change theory to OSH research and practice activities involving health care workers. The use of behavioral science to consider the role of individual behaviors in promoting health and preventing disease and injury provides a necessary complement to structural approaches to protecting workers in the health care industry.

EMBeDding for impact and scale in developing contexts

AbstractWhile behavioral public policy remains underutilized in rich countries relative to its potential impact, the required infrastructure for diagnosing behavioral bottlenecks and the autonomy to act on those diagnoses are even less common in developing countries. At the World Bank, the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD) aims to promote the systematic use of behaviorally informed tools in development policies and projects, institutionalize the use of behavioral science in development organizations and governments, provide evidence on scaled and sustainable behavioral solutions, and generate more and better behavioral data. By focusing on thorough diagnosis and ongoing adaptation, we aim to create impactful, behaviorally informed interventions in complex, resource-constrained settings. While Sanders, Snijders and Hallsworth (2018) raise valuable points about the implications for impactful behavioral public policy, for those working in developing countries, issues of replication and scale come with unique contextual challenges.

Interventions to Enhance Adherence to Medications in Patients With Heart Failure

Prognosis remains poor for patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), despite improvements in the prevention and treatment of heart failure over the last 25 years. Recent estimates indicate that the median survival after a first episode of heart failure is 2.3 years for men and 1.8 years for women.1 It is suggested that the improvements in outcomes that have been achieved can be partly explained by increases in prescribing rates of medications such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors,2 β-blockers,3 and spironolactone4 over this period.1 Although the evidence on medication efficacy for certain subgroups of patients with CHF is clear, there are also compelling data showing that many of these patients do not take their medications as prescribed by health care providers.5,6 This “nonadherence” to medication therefore remains a significant barrier to enhancing the effectiveness of existing treatments. Estimates for nonadherence to medications in CHF have varied widely.5 One of the largest studies found that only 80% of patients with a prescription for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors at hospital discharge completed the prescription form 30 days after discharge, and this rate subsequently fell to 60% over 1 year.7 Full adherence, defined as filing enough prescriptions to have daily medication available for 1 year, may be as low as 10% in CHF.8 Poor adherence to medication in CHF is associated with worse outcomes in observational studies, including shorter event-free survival.9 Therefore, strategies to enhance adherence provide a potentially valuable strategy for improving survival, reducing hospitalization and managing patient symptoms in CHF. In this report, we provide an up-to-date review and analysis of those studies that have developed and evaluated medication adherence interventions in CHF. Because CHF is typically symptomatic and includes medication with actions that are discernible to the patient within hours …

Assessing HIV Prevention Provider Knowledge of Behavior Science Theory: Building on Existing Intuitive Experience

Behavioral science theory is recommended as a basis for prevention programs, yet many STD/HIV prevention providers have little academic background in this area and see no relevance of theory to their work. This study assessed STD/HIV prevention providers' intuitive insight about behaviors. Comparisons of behavioral determinants from providers "common sense" theories with determinants identified in formal theories are made through the use of Theoretical Domains, a teaching tool designed to enhance the understanding and use of behavioral science in planning and implementing interventions. Understanding how to effectively apply behavior change concepts, combined with prevention providers' basic, intuitive knowledge can enhance understanding, communication, and skills exchange between providers and researchers. Building capacity in local communities begins with a participatory process of community members, prevention providers, and researchers working together as equal partners. Better translation of research into practice using theory-based interventions will benefit the field of STD/HIV prevention.

Another Look at Senate Research on Foreign Policy

In the September ABS, Morton Halperin gave a generally favorable evaluation of the U.S. Senate's venture into foreign policy researches. James Robinson, of North- western University's Department of Political Science, is more critical. Though such studies have much potential, they are marred by inadequate ways of thinking about the future, ambiguous criteria for evaluating policies, and limited use of behavioral science.

Use of Behavioral Sciences in Social Work Education

Basic problems in the use of the behavioral sciences and of the content of social work ed sciences in social work education may be ucation without first recognizing that in categorized as at least four in number. They ternal divisions and divisiveness currently are the problems of identity, se- characterize both fields, lection, and reintegration for use. These Social work educators, concerned ulti four classifications provide boundaries and mately with the modification of conditions a sequence for this paper. Under the head- under which man's life becomes stressful, ing of segments, I shall refer to the com- must search widely for basic knowledge partmentalization of both graduate social about such conditions. The compartments work education and of the behavioral sci- of the biological, psychological, and social enees, situations which complicate efforts to sciences are multiple. Arguments as to first use the latter in the former. The term iden- cause among specialists in soma, in psyche, tity introduces a proposal as to what the and in social systems mystify the social integrated pieces of graduate social work worker who daily sees clients with bodies, education are, in behavioral science terms, with memories and motives, responding The section on selection brings us to il- and adding to a society's cultural, economic, lustrative questions to guide our sorties into and political pressures, past and present, the literature of the behavioral sciences. It is the nature of all sciences to delimit