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- Blog
- 23rd Apr 2018
Robert Putnam: celebrating his incredible contribution to the study of social capital
There’s lots of hyperbole around, but it’s not difficult to argue that Robert Putnam is the most impactful political scientist alive. It was a strange blend of emotions, then, for those of us gathered at Harvard to mark his retirement last week. Most scholars hope to achieve a major breakthrough…
- Blog
- 15th Mar 2018
Charities and Public Trust
A few weeks ago, Oxfam’s CEO testified to Parliament that 7,000 people had cancelled their direct debit donations since the Times broke a story on the 9th of February about improprieties by the charity’s employees in Haiti in 2010. As Daniel Fluskey from the Institute of Fundraising pointed out when…
- Blog
- 17th Nov 2017
The first Briton to give away £1bn
This week saw a quiet, private celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Gatsby Foundation. In case you haven’t heard of it, Gatsby is the charity through which David (Lord) Sainsbury has given away over £1bn. He was the first Briton ever to pass this threshold. Set up when he…
- Blog
- 4th Sep 2017
When's the right time to get people giving?
A lot of the behavioural biases that prevent us from achieving our goals have to do with time. We lament not having enough time to get everything done, and then spend hours binge-watching cooking shows. We all have that important task - like applying to university, or filling in our…
- Academic publication
- 23rd Mar 2017
Increasing social trust with an ice-breaking exercise – an RCT carried out with NCS participants
This paper reports the results of a small scale randomised controlled trial carried out by the Behavioural Insights Team in partnership with the National Citizens Service (NCS) and The Challenge, a charity that acts as a delivery organisation for NCS.
- Publication
- 20th Oct 2016
Poverty and decision-making: How behavioural science can improve opportunity in the UK
This report puts forward 18 recommendations on how behavioural science can improve opportunity in the UK in six key policy areas: consumer credit; rainy day savings; employment; welfare entitlements; child development; and post-secondary education.
- Blog
- 20th Oct 2016
Poverty and decision-making: How behavioural science can improve opportunity in the UK
A third of the UK population spent at least one year in relative income poverty between 2011 and 2014. Traditionally policymakers and anti-poverty organisations such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) have focused on boosting people’s economic capital (e.g., income) and human capital (e.g., educational attainment) to reduce poverty. While…
- Blog
- 9th Jun 2016
Talking grit with Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and Behavioural Insights Team collaborator, was in London recently promoting her new book “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance”. BIT have taken inspiration from Angela’s work over the past few years and have previously used the concept of grit to…
- Blog
- 26th Feb 2016
People: peers, pain and power
One of the most fascinating and important areas in life is surely the fine line between wanting to help, and being wary of, those around us. It’s a tension woven deeply into policy and into our humanity. Recently I had one of those afternoons where an accident of meetings seemed…
- Academic publication
- 1st Feb 2016
Can simple prompts increase bequest giving? Field evidence from a legal call centre
We report the findings of a field study demonstrating the importance of non-pecuniary mechanisms for bequest giving.