Core Insights: Behavioural Science

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Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Nick Lee, Professor of Marketing, whose research using neuroscience and chaos theory has found a way of predicting our decisions before we have even made them. Professor Lee reveals how brain scans can determine the state of our mind and so work out what we will decide. He reveals the implications and future possibilities in the field of neuroscience.

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Tobias Preis and Suzy Moat direct the Data Science Lab, which examines how data science can offer insights into human behaviour and decision making. They are also Fellows at The Alan Turing Institute. Here, the pair talk to Core Insights host Trevor Barnes about how they have used millions of online photos to produce real-time indicators of global travel. Read more on this here.

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Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Daniel Read, Professor of Behavioural Science, about his research into intertemporal choices, which looks at why, even though we are on a diet, we choose to eat a cream bun now, rather than wait for our lunchtime salad. Or why in repeated experiments people would prefer £10 now rather than £15 in two weeks. These are intertemporal trade-offs and despite economics teaching us we should weigh up the options, calculating the benefits between the two points in time and choosing the most beneficial, we don’t always do this in a way that is best for us, or for society. You can see it playing out at every climate change conference, where hard choices to curb emissions are put off for another day. Professor Read also reveals research on a way to make us more patient and take the better, but further away, option - by simply adding a zero. Read more on this here.

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In the final episode of our first Behavioural Science series, Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Ivo Vlaev, Professor of Behavioural Science, about his work in the health sector. Professor Vlaev has put together a series of randomised controlled trials testing various nudges on patients. The nudges have helped people adopt healthier diets, cut down on drinking alcohol, lowered the number of patients missing hospital appointments and much more. Professor Vlaev explains how the nudges work and how they could save the NHS valuable time and resources, often by simply changing the wording of a letter or text. Read more about it here.
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Core Insights host Trevor Barnes talks to Graham Loomes, Professor of Behavioural Science, about his research on the trade-offs involved in implementing costly health polices like those used during the pandemic. How does a Government decide how far to go with restrictions that will have a severe impact on the economy but stop many people from being infected and dying from COVID-19? Professor Loomes details the trade-offs involved and how such calculations are formulated. Read more on it here.