Video: Harnessing behavioral science to uncover deeper truths

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Harnessing behavioral science to uncover deeper truths

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Wednesday, March 12, 2025 • Advancing Research 2025

Amy Bucher

Author of Engaged

Summary

Participant psychology is rich and multifaceted, with multiple truths and biases shaping their stories and coexisting simultaneously. By integrating behavioral science techniques into surveys, interviews, and other research methods, we can help participants share their truths more openly, and uncover deeper, more nuanced insights. We’ll inspire you to embrace these methods, offering guidance on when, how, and why they can transform your research.

Key Insights

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Short-term digital metrics like daily active users are insufficient to measure true behavioral impact.
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Nudges change choice architecture subtly but often need systemic follow-up to sustain long-term behavior.
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Opt-out organ donation policies increase registrations but don’t necessarily result in greater living donations.
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The COM-B model posits that behavior depends on Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation, each with subcomponents.
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'Little e' engagement relates to immediate nudges; 'big E' engagement involves deeper behavior change techniques that build motivation and skills.
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Mixed methods research, combining self-report with observations and participatory design, uncovers hidden barriers and authentic behaviors.
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Self-report data can be surprisingly accurate especially with automation or when studying phenomena like pain or vaccination uptake.
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Logic models help stakeholders understand the time and complexity required for meaningful behavioral outcomes, promoting better buy-in.
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Behavioral science has ethical pitfalls; some manipulative nudges and secret mood experiments raise concerns for practitioners like Amy.
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Behavioral frameworks with a strong evidence base and flexibility, such as COM-B, better support interdisciplinary collaboration and long-term use.

Notable Quotes

"Most of my career has been in health, and it’s really important that we don’t just get people to do something once, but sustain a new behavior."

"We’re often stuck on a hamster wheel of short-term metrics like daily or monthly active users that don’t capture long-term success."

"There was a founder who said our job was to coach people to not need us anymore, which is the kind of mindset I wish was more common."

"Nudges are not a magic wand; they can help but need to fit within a larger system and behavioral pathway to truly work."

"Think of nudges like road signs or exits on a highway, while behavior change techniques are the road stretches in between sustaining momentum."

"Self-report is not the end all; people often don’t know why they behave certain ways, especially regarding automatic motivations like deeply ingrained mental models."

"We observed a safety risk on a construction site and that helped open a door to honest stories that people wouldn’t have shared otherwise."

"Surprisingly, when nudging vaccines, consumers preferred seeing every eligible vaccine listed, even controversial ones like COVID-19."

"Design for Evil by Chris Nodder is a great resource to understand how behavioral design can be misused, sometimes very subtly."

"Logic models are boring but powerful tools to align expectations that behavior change is complex and not immediate."

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