2024 - Reflections from our team

Welcome to our final newsletter of 2024! For this edition, we're reflecting on our work over the past year, and sharing some 'stats' from the year, as well as personal insights from our Managing Director, Jesper, and the rest of the team!

Hear from our Managing Director, Jesper Akesson

This year we’ve continued our dedication to conducting rigorous behavioural experimentation, running 13 large-scale RCTs on challenges such as the uptake of heat pumps and time-of-use energy tariffs, encouraging public transport use and improving air quality practices. In total, our research has included over one million participants! We have also conducted several smaller experiments and pilots, literature reviews, behavioural diagnostics, and workshops for our partners.?

We’ve continued and strengthened our commitment to sustainability, with the bulk of our projects focusing on changing behaviour to reduce carbon emissions and wasteful water consumption. In addition to our role as task leaders of the Users TCP Behavioural Insights Platform, we’ve worked with energy providers, and organisations such as DESNZ and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). We’ve also continued our work with the Metropolitan Transport Commission to run trials aiming to increase public transport use in the Bay Area, and have worked with a UK local council to behaviourally inform the development of a Mobility-as-a-Service platform to reduce private vehicle use amongst residents.?

Another key part of our service offering has been building behavioural science capacity within organisations. In particular, we’ve run workshops and training with Islington Council and ACT (the largest apprenticeship provider in Wales), and with our partners at WSP with whom we are collaborating on trials to improve behaviours related to air-quality. This was strengthened by the launch of our new webinar series - Behavioural Insights in Practice - which shares insights from our own work to demonstrate the value of behavioural science. This year we hosted webinars on The Waste Game - the tool we developed to increase recycling knowledge which is now part of the curriculum at all Irish Universities –, and the lessons we’ve learned from ten years of behavioural experiments in the energy sector. In November, we hosted an online roundtable event where a panel of six experts joined us to discuss the challenges and opportunities for encouraging behavioural demand flexibility.?

It is testament to the quality of our work that several of our trials have been published as academic papers. In addition, our research has continued to have a significant impact helping regulators to protect consumers, with our study of the effects of browser choice screens being cited in an antitrust lawsuit against Google.

Lastly, on a personal note, it’s exciting that TB is now in its second decade and to see the team continue to grow, taking on Michael (Behavioural Scientist), Michaela (Behavioural Data Scientist) and Ankita (Office Administrator) this year.?

Thank you for all your continued support; all of us at TB look forward to continuing our work in the New Year.?Have a wonderful holiday period!

— Jesper

Now, onto some reflections from the team:

What has been your favourite project to work on this year and why??

"The second phase of our project with ACT because we have been able to develop a very comprehensive methodology of gathering insights and diagnosing a behavioural challenge, and have applied it to a very dynamic and critical sector - education." - Manuel Monti-Nussbaum , Deputy Managing Director

"Hydro One - we have been testing different strategies to get households to take up demand flexibility. The amount of data we handled was massive - tracking over 150,000 household’s hourly energy use for almost a year." - Michaela Fricova , Behavioural Data Scientist

"Working with a local authority preparing to launch Mobility-as-a-Service – an all-in-one travel app offering an alternative to car ownership. We were tasked with segmenting the local population and developing recommendations to guide not only the future marketing campaigns, but the app and service development as well." - Rahel Kiss , Behavioural Designer

“In 2024, we started working with a major Czech bank and a Czech energy provider. Being a Czech myself, I am very excited about working with both partners on behavioural challenges faced by organisations in Central Europe." - Ondrej Kacha , Senior Behavioural Scientist

"Probably DESNZ - it required some quite sophisticated Discrete Choice Experiment design and analysis.” - Filippo Muzi-Falconi , Senior Behavioural Scientist

What have you worked on this year that you are you proud of?

"Over the past year, I have proudly seen many regulators and policymakers in the UK and abroad citing our work. Seeing our work bridge the gap between evidence and policy? in order to protect consumers and supporting their wellbeing is very rewarding." - Iranzu Monreal , Senior Behavioural Service Designer

"Publishing a paper on understanding the barriers to clinical trial referral and enrollment among oncology providers within the Veterans Health Administration. It's an under researched area from a behavioural perspective, but it addresses a critical gap in healthcare: ensuring equitable access to potentially life-saving care for a population that often faces unique barriers." - Rahel, Behavioural Designer

"The number of people who we nudged into getting debt relief and accessing various forms of financial support." - Jesper ?kesson , Managing Director

"I am proud of our team and how many colleagues have stepped up to take ownership and leadership of projects this year. I am also proud of TB turning 10 years old!" - Manuel

Has your thinking about the field of behavioural science changed this year? If so, how?

"I think that a lot of the theory behind Behavioural Science and experimentation (e.g. RCTs, A/B testing) is becoming common knowledge and incorporated by more companies in-house; I believe that this will impact our business and our offerings." - Filippo

"It is evident that with the passing of each year, Behavioural Science becomes more and more ubiquitous across industries and it seems like more than ever any serious attempt to influence behaviour is now including and in many cases being led by a behavioural approach. " - Manuel

"I have begun to think harder about how to integrate more detailed segmentation when designing interventions. " - Jesper

What is your favourite memory at TB this year?

"Working with colleagues from across the globe! It's so nice to have such a diverse team and to hear about each other's lives in our respective countries!" - Michael Galley , Behavioural Scientist ?

"Probably the Away Day and our visit to Kew Gardens: it was a very cool venue and nice to see people!" - JingKai Ong , Senior Economist

"Winning at Kubb during the away day (mostly because the opposing team self sabotaged) :D " - Jesper

If aliens observed human behaviour, what do you think they’d find most perplexing, and how would you explain it to them?”

"How easily we are drawn off course of our long-term reflective goals by our immediate impulses." - Michael

"Our conviction that we are this special and distinct intelligent living species that feels apart from the rest of the world. I believe this belief is behind a lot of the problems we see with how we relate with the natural world." - Filippo

"The insane amount of cognitive dissonance we exhibit, I think aliens would be a lot more consistent! I would tell them that it's like your brain is glitching and screaming because it believes that all purple foods are deadly, but then you eat one and it's delicious." - Rahel

Wishing you a relaxing Holiday Season and a happy New Year from the TB team. Thank you for following our work this year; see you in 2025!