Think back to the last time you visited your bank, doctor or dentist’s office. Did you see informational posters or leaflets? What did they say?

What – you have no idea?

One principle that behavioral science teaches is that it’s wise to assume that people are paying much less attention to our programs, materials, trainings, and emails than we’d like them to. 

Picture this: you’re invited to speak during an upcoming webinar. You’re about to confirm, when you notice the date is on a long-awaited holiday. You reread the invitation, and decide that they already have too many presenters, and you’re not really an expert on the topic. You politely decline.

Motivated reasoning occurs when we search for rational arguments not to determine what is true, or to make the best decision, but to justify the conclusion we intuitively prefer, based on our automatic emotional reaction. 

Are you ever troubled by unwanted, taboo, or frightening thoughts suddenly popping into your head? Perhaps you find yourself wondering what a stranger would look like naked, or you’re enjoying a beautiful view from a cliff and you think, “What if I just step . . . . ?”

Which of these statements better reflects you?

A:  During meetings, I often suggest questions, processes, and areas to explore, and it worries me when others aren’t assessing all the information and possibilities.

B:  During meetings, I often get frustrated with new suggested questions, processes, and topics, and try to steer the group toward making decisions.

If you selected A, you may be…

Are you trying to save money for the holidays, a new vehicle, or school expenses?

Do you ever find yourself spending money impulsively on a new gadget, clothes, or an expensive dinner, despite your savings goals?

If so, one of the culprits may be “The Cashless Effect”

Do you ever think about offering help to a stranger, or reaching out to a long-lost friend, but then find yourself holding back? Perhaps you worry your action will be awkward or misconstrued?

Try to recall your 2023 goal setting conversation with your boss. Following this conversation, did you add any objectives or activities?

Now, on the other hand, did you remove any?

My guess is that you added more than you removed.

Have you ever read How to Win Friends and Influence People? According to this classic 1936 book by Dale Carnegie, five of the six ways to make people like you (see image below) involve focusing on them.

 Over 80 years later, Harvard researchers confirmed Carnegie’s advice.

Fighting discrimination is core to Save the Children’s strategy. But what can you do when you witness bias online, in meetings, or at family gatherings? 

In her excellent book, The Person You Mean to Be, Psychologist Dolly Chugh explains you must first determine WHO you are speaking to:

Has this ever happened to you? You’re giving a presentation when you lose your train of thought. You pause for what feels like an eternity, and then continue. You spend the afternoon kicking yourself, embarrassed, ruminating on what your colleagues must think.

Well, I’ve got good news – research indicates that they probably didn’t even notice.

When you were in high school or university and studying for a multiple-choice exam, did you ever receive the advice, “Go with your gut – don’t change your first answer”?

Unfortunately, decades of research has demonstrated that the majority of answer changes are actually from wrong to right. So why do we believe a lie?

Imagine this: you’re working on a health communication campaign to encourage vaccination, and your team has crafted three messages you think might work.

How do you know which will actually be effective?

Among behavioral scientists, the answer usually is: “Test them!”

Think about where you live. Which groups are the most polarized: opposing political, ethnic, or religious groups?

In India, the caste system divides Hindus into hierarchical, inherited social classes; while the constitution bans caste discrimination, divisions between castes persist in many communities.

To bridge these divides, researchers in Uttar Pradesh conducted a fascinating experiment…

Have you ever bought a lottery or raffle ticket? I have. I enjoyed musing about what I’d do with the prize (until, inevitably, I lost!)

While they may not be wise investment strategies, lotteries can be surprisingly effective for encouraging positive behaviors because they can make an unappealing task more motivating (and people tend to focus more on the prize, rather than their chance of winning).

Have you ever been “attacked” online, or felt shocked by the aggressive responses from strangers to a post?

Coined by Psychologist John Suler, the online disinhibition effect* explains that many people say and do things online that they would not do face-to-face. 

Are you planning a holiday this year? Perhaps you’re picturing the sheer joy you’ll feel when you can finally relax.

Now, think back to your last holiday. Was it as amazing as you imagined, or somewhat marred by unexpected issues?

According to Affective Forecasting research, it turns out that people are generally bad at predicting how we’ll feel in the future.

Do you ever find yourself struggling to “stay positive”?

If so, there’s good news – the Pollyanna Principle (named after a perpetually cheerful book and movie character) explains that most people subconsciously focus on the positive in our conversations, and recall more positive memories. We discuss more good news than bad, we’re upbeat in most texts and emails, and we describe others more positively than negatively, too.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, Pakistan’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) administered millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccinations. This systematic rollout campaign operated at scale – by August 2021, one million doses were being administered a day. However, at a district level, statistics from EPI showed that the rollout was not penetrating equally in all areas. 50 districts in the provinces of Baluchistan, Sindh, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were identified as having the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates across all districts in Pakistan. These districts are predominantly rural, have lower digital access and lower literacy levels.

Save the Children hypothesized that the population may have been missed by previous COVID-19 communication efforts, due to the identified digital, literacy, and language barriers.

Picture this: You’re shopping for a gift when you spot a fantastic shirt, and it’s the last one. Ugh – it’s twice the price you expected! You can’t decide what to do, but then think “Whatever, I’ll buy it, I don’t want to regret it later!”

CUBIC, along with Save the Children Spain, spent February to May 2023 working with the students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Behavioral and Decision Science program as part of their Capstone Design Challenge.

The challenge at hand: Online gender-based violence against high school students is a grave concern in Spain with devastating impacts for victims.