From Behavioral Insights to Behavioral Intelligence

"The success story of applied behavioral science began with the publication of popular science books more than 15 years ago, showing that people make suboptimal and often seemingly irrational choices. Practitioners in business and government have taken various behavioral insights on board and applied them in real-life situations, often in the form of nudges. Think opt-out retirement saving, healthy items placed at eye level in a cafeteria, or messages framed as "Don't miss out" to spur action."

"However, both empirical work and anecdotal evidence have suggested mixed effects for behavioral interventions. Research by academics and practitioners has shown that the generalizability of behavioral insights can be limited when they are tested in a new context (e.g., culture or organizational setting) or when a small study is tested on a much larger scale. When circumstances change, outcomes can change as well."

"But producing better insights is not enough. We also need to move from behavioral insights to behavioral intelligence. To get to this level, we need to use robust insights to solve real problems, whilst also reconciling their complexity. We have to improve our understanding and application of insights through integration and parsimony-achieving a goal in the simplest way possible. Greater personalization of behavioral interventions is a particularly promising area that can help"

Applied behavioral science revealed systematic suboptimal and seemingly irrational choices, leading to real-world interventions such as opt-out retirement saving, placing healthy items at eye level, and loss-framed messages to spur action. Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows behavioral interventions produce mixed effects and often fail to generalize across cultures, organizational settings, or when scaled. Changing circumstances alter outcomes. Addressing these limits requires better research methods, varied testing, integration of findings, and parsimony. Moving from behavioral insights to behavioral intelligence involves using robust evidence to solve real problems and greater personalization of interventions.

Read at Psychology Today