The Decision Corner

In today’s episode of The Decision Corner, we are joined by Faisal Naru, the head of strategic management and coordination in the executive director’s office at the OECD. Faisal has extensive experience in political strategy, public policy, behavioral insights, institutional reform, and global development. For reference, the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are Faisal’s own and do not represent the views of the OECD or any of its members. Faisal is a co-founder of the European Nudge Network, Board of Trustees of Nudge Lebanon and he serves on a number of international committees including the Green Growth Knowledge Platform’s Behavioural Insights Research Committee & the United Nations Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC) of the 10 YFP Sustainable Lifestyle and Education Programme. Faisal is a former member of the UK Cabinet Office, Chief Adviser to the government of Viet Nam and he belongs to the leadership team of a global development consultancy. He advises a number of government leaders on reform and improvements. He began his career heading up a charity tackling social mobility, and he graduated from the University of Oxford. In this episode we discuss: How the COVID-19 crisis has altered behavior and policy at a variety of scales and contexts The role of trust in institutional effectiveness, and the relationship between expertise and effectiveness in policy Confirmation bias, political participation and overcoming preconceptions of how the world works Motivating people to adhere to policy beyond simple command and control mechanisms Empathy and pro-social behavior as a foundation for ethical decision-making

In today’s episode of The Decision Corner, we are joined by Sandi McCoy, associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and Aarthi Rao, director of the design and innovation lab at CVS Health. For reference, this episode was taped prior to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and accordingly reflects the understanding of the situation at the time. Sandi studies how social, economic, and cultural forces influence disease transmission and health outcomes. During the past several years, she’s explored these relationships through the lens of HIV infection and reproductive health. Using a diverse array of approaches, her goal is to identify innovative, cost-effective, and scalable interventions to overcome global health challenges. Aarthi leads an innovation team to apply tools such as design thinking and behavioral science to unlock new cross-functional innovation roadmaps and directly incubate new high-value business concepts to various stages of prototyping, piloting, and product development. Ms. Rao is passionate about applying interdisciplinary approaches to create, test, and scale innovative programs and services to improve lives, particularly for programs supporting hard to reach or vulnerable populations across the world. She’s an experienced innovation advisor and problem solver, who’s lived and worked abroad, to partner with mission-driven companies, non-profits, researchers, and social enterprises who may want to try applying design thinking in combination with behavioral science and experiments to improve outcomes. In this episode, we discuss: Sandi and Aarthi’s work in bringing tools like design thinking, behavioral science, and traditional product management frameworks into global health. The use of behavioral science and design thinking in the life cycle of a public health project. Sandi & Aarthi’s Tanzanian-based project that aims to determine the best way to help girls get access to contraception and HIV self-tests. How behavioral science and the field of public health can draw parallels from Netflix disrupting Blockbuster. How to form effective interdisciplinary teams when there is heterogeneity in the backgrounds and experiences of members. The lack of durability of certain nudges and how people can become desensitized to them. The best-case scenario for the future of combining design thinking with behavioral science.

Margarita Gómez, Executive Director of the People in Government Lab at Oxford and builder of Mexico’s first behavioural unit, talks about using behavioural science to improve public servants’ honesty, motivation, and decision-making. She covers designing simple, context-aware interventions, managing government risk aversion with small pilots, and building internal capacity and champions to scale evidence-based policy.

Gianluca Sgueo, a digital governance researcher and policy analyst, explores how technology reshapes democracy and choice environments. He discusses privacy versus state efficiency, Estonia’s digital model, social credit and reputation-driven information, digital exclusion beyond access, and designing participatory channels that feel engaging and trustworthy.

Julian Jamison, Professor of Economics at the University of Exeter and former behavioral economist at the World Bank and CFPB, discusses the psychology behind nudges and their hidden costs. He talks about measuring behavioral obstacles, practical challenges in applying behavioral science in institutions, and why specialization and rigorous measurement matter. Short, sharp conversations on policy, research choices, and integrating behavioral tools into practice.

Jesse Itzkowitz, Senior VP and behavioral scientist at Ipsos with dual PhDs in marketing and cognitive psychology. He talks about moving from academia to applied behavioral science. He explores nudges versus sludges, brands navigating political advocacy, practical barriers to using behavioral science, and ethical framing for nudging. He also previews work on sustainability, trust, and emotions in decisions.

Evelyn Gosnell, Managing Director at Irrational Labs and Head of Product Development and Behavioral Science at Shapa, blends product design with behavioral economics. She discusses Shapa’s numberless scale and personalized habit missions. She questions nudging’s limits and stresses transparency and rapid testing. She also previews work on attention tools and practical paths into applied behavioral science.

Ting Jiang, an experimental economist at the Center for Advanced Hindsight who designs behavioral interventions for global health and finance. She explains a dice game that revealed cheating patterns. She describes a calendar that boosted savings, projects like Hidden Gym and Nappiness for healthier habits, and why trusting evidence and testing small experiments beats intuition.

David Halpern, chief of the Behavioral Insights Team and a British experimental psychologist, shares big-picture thinking on nudging and policy. He discusses using machine learning for personalized interventions and targeting. He explores ethical oversight, democratic deliberation around nudging, and how behavioral science can scale across public and private sectors.

Sarah has almost 10 years of experience developing chain strategies and digital patient engagement and adherence, lifestyle change, global and public health, and positive organizational psychology. She has worked and partnered with clients and organizations such as Ogilvy, Bupa, Oxitec, GlaxoSmithKline, the Bartlett School of Architecture, and the UK Department for International Development. In her areas of subject matter expertise are behavioral economics and cognitive and affective science. Sarah is especially interested in how our effective experiences, for example, moods, emotions, feelings of empowerment influence cognitive processes, biases, and behaviors. Sarah holds a Master of Science Degree in Marketing from University College Dublin and a Master of Science and Social Cognition from UCL. She currently works as the Lead Inventor for ?WhatIf! Innovation. For reference, this episode was recorded last year before Sarah began working at ?WhatIf! Innovation. In this episode, we discuss: Fundamental needs that drive everyday behaviors Sarah’s work on healthcare engagement and health behavior change Creating mental health products that promote resilience against mental health challenges and facilitate patient engagement and adherence. Turning challenges of applying behavioral science into opportunities. What does nudging mean in 2019? Where academic versus leaner approaches are necessary P values, effect sizes and sample sizes How we can ensure that we are delivering the greatest good to the greatest number Regulation and legislation in behavioral science Moving from isolation to integration: the evolution of behavioral science units