editors’ note
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elcome to the second issue of Behavioral Science & Policy (BSP). We are pleased to present eight articles that extend the reach of behavioral science research across a wide range of policy applications. Some articles focus on everyday individual activities such as debt repayment and paying government vehicle fees online. Others examine ambitious social policy objectives such as strengthening families and reducing bias in criminal justice systems. Still others speak to global challenges such as curtailing the recruitment of extremist militants and how to better communicate the uncertainty surrounding topics including climate science and intelligence forecasts. The initial three articles in this issue remind us that public and private sector policies are often most effective when organizations identify and address the unique needs of individuals. The first investigates an important and timely question: When are immigrants vulnerable to recruitment by ideological radicals? Lyons-Padilla, Gelfand, Mirahmadi, Farooq, and Van Egmond report a fascinating survey of immigrant Muslims in the United States. These authors found that such immigrants tend to feel marginalized if they do not identify with either their culture of origin or the society in which they live. When these marginalized immigrants then experience discrimination, they tend to be more attracted to radical groups than are immigrants who have found or retained a sense of cultural identity. Lavner, Karney, and Bradbury take on the critical question of how federal programs can most effectively promote healthy marriages among couples with low incomes. After taking stock of three large-scale field interventions, the authors suggest that a commonly used singular focus on education is unlikely to be effective. Instead, new initiatives should also address the challenging economic constraints that the couples face, which can put significant stress on relationships. Finally,
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Karlan, Morten, and Zinman present the findings of a study run in the Philippines—the text messaging capital of the world—that encouraged timely repayment of debts using texted reminders. Their results suggest that the personal connections in these seemingly impersonal financial transactions are of critical importance. Specifically, a personal message from a loan officer can be especially effective, but only when the borrower knows the loan officer through prior borrowing. Three additional articles explore general-purpose policy tools that promise to extend the reach of behavioral insights to new purviews. First, Rogers, Milkman, John, and Norton address the question of how to help people translate their good intentions into positive actions such as voting or getting a flu vaccine. The authors review a body of behavioral research showing that simply prompting people to explicitly articulate a concrete and specific plan can be surprisingly effective at increasing follow-through. Second, Ho, Budescu, Dhami, and Mandel address the widely relevant issue of how expert advisers in business and government should communicate the degree of uncertainty associated with a forecast or conclusion. The authors promote a researchbased approach for standardizing language used in such communications, an approach they have tested with favorable results in the climate science and intelligence analysis domains. Castelo, Hardy, House, Mazar, Tsai, and Zhao present an example of a large-scale field experiment in which simple and virtually costless mailer design adjustments improved the effectiveness of a government service. In this case, increasing the salience of a key message on a mailer that encouraged payment of an annual automobile fee online, rather than in person, substantially increased online participation. The effect was most pronounced when messages emphasized potential gains from paying the fee on the Internet. In contrast to previous research
behavioral science & policy | volume 2 issue 2 2016