Behavioural Economics Training Course

Participants can frame a business or policy problem as a specific behavioural decision challenge.

• Problem statements separating observed outcomes from assumed behavioural causes
• Target behaviours defined by actor, action, timing and decision context
• Journey mapping identifies choice points, delays, drop-offs and abandonment
• Baseline metrics establish current behaviour before intervention design begins
• Behavioural maps connect triggers, actions, consequences and environmental conditions
• Root-cause questions distinguish capability, opportunity, motivation and process barriers

Participants can identify common heuristics and biases affecting financial and operational decisions.

• Availability heuristic shapes perceived probability after vivid recent events
• Anchoring influences estimates, prices, targets and negotiation outcomes
• Representativeness drives pattern assumptions from small or unrepresentative samples
• Confirmation bias filters evidence supporting existing beliefs and commitments
• Overconfidence distorts forecasts, investment judgements and project risk estimates
• Hindsight bias complicates incident reviews, audits and performance assessment

Participants can apply prospect theory to choices involving gains, losses, uncertainty and reference points.

• Prospect theory explains asymmetric responses to gains and losses
• Reference points determine whether outcomes appear as gains or losses
• Loss aversion affects switching, claims, repayment and investment decisions
• Diminishing sensitivity changes perceived value across outcome magnitudes
• Probability weighting distorts responses to unlikely risks and rewards
• Framing alternatives changes choices without changing underlying economic outcomes

Participants can diagnose intertemporal choice problems and select appropriate behavioural responses.

• Present bias explains delayed saving, repayment and preventive action
• Hyperbolic discounting changes preferences between immediate and future outcomes
• Commitment devices restrict future choices to support stated intentions
• Implementation intentions specify when, where and how planned actions occur
• Temptation bundling pairs necessary actions with immediate positive rewards
• Reminder timing aligns prompts with moments of motivation and capability

Participants can use mental accounting concepts to analyse budgeting, spending and debt decisions.

• Mental accounts separate money by source, purpose and perceived ownership
• Fungibility failures explain inconsistent spending, saving and debt repayment choices
• Budget labels influence expenditure restraint and category-specific decision making
• Windfall gains receive different treatment than earned income or refunds
• Payment timing changes perceived cost through decoupling and salience
• Partitioned pricing affects price comparisons, add-ons and total cost perceptions

Participants can assess how social information, identity and reciprocity affect behavioural outcomes.

• Descriptive norms communicate what comparable people currently do
• Injunctive norms signal actions that groups approve or expect
• Social comparison messages require credible and relevant reference groups
• Reciprocity influences responses to concessions, gifts and service recovery
• Identity cues affect participation, trust and compliance with requested actions
• Peer effects require careful separation from shared context and selection

Participants can redesign decision environments using practical choice architecture techniques.

• Choice architecture maps how presentation shapes decisions without removing options
• Default rules influence enrolment, renewal, consent and contribution decisions
• Active choice prompts require explicit selection instead of passive continuation
• Simplification reduces cognitive load in forms, disclosures and digital journeys
• Friction audits identify unnecessary steps, documents, waits and handoffs
• Salience directs attention toward relevant information at decision moments

Participants can segment audiences according to behavioural barriers and decision contexts.

• Behavioural segmentation groups people by barriers rather than demographics alone
• Decision contexts identify channel, timing, stakes and information conditions
• Personas document goals, constraints, beliefs and likely behavioural responses
• Qualitative interviews test assumptions about motives, language and perceived risks
• Administrative data reveals completion patterns, timing and repeated decision points
• Segment priorities balance expected impact, reach, fairness and implementation feasibility

Participants can select evidence sources and interpret behavioural findings with appropriate caution.

• Literature reviews distinguish established findings from context-specific experimental results
• Observation records actual behaviour rather than reported intentions or preferences
• Survey design reduces leading questions, acquiescence bias and response burden
• Interview protocols explore decision processes without imposing researcher assumptions
• Administrative records support behavioural baselines, segmentation and outcome measurement
• Triangulation compares qualitative, quantitative and operational evidence sources

Participants can create intervention options linked directly to diagnosed behavioural mechanisms.

• Behavioural hypotheses specify mechanism, target action and expected measurable change
• EAST framework structures interventions around easy, attractive, social and timely
• MINDSPACE identifies messenger, incentives, norms, defaults, salience and commitments
• Intervention portfolios combine communication, process, product and policy changes
• Mechanism mapping prevents superficial use of nudges without causal rationale
• Assumption logs record evidence gaps, delivery dependencies and anticipated risks

Participants can develop behaviourally informed messages for financial, policy and operational decisions.

• Message framing tests gains, losses, avoided harms and immediate benefits
• Plain-language drafting reduces ambiguity, jargon and unnecessary information burden
• Personalisation uses relevant facts without creating inappropriate targeting or exclusion
• Action prompts specify the next step, channel and expected completion time
• Disclosure design prioritises material information at consequential decision points
• Warning messages balance attention, credibility, comprehension and behavioural response

Participants can design proportionate experiments to estimate the effect of behavioural interventions.

• Randomised controlled trials compare outcomes between treatment and control groups
• A/B tests isolate message, design or process changes under defined conditions
• Pre-registration documents hypotheses, outcomes, sample rules and analysis plans
• Primary metrics capture target behaviour rather than attention or stated satisfaction
• Statistical power estimates sample requirements before launching a test
• Difference-in-differences evaluates changes when random assignment is unavailable

Participants can interpret intervention results and communicate findings without overstating causal claims.

• Effect sizes show practical magnitude beyond statistical significance alone
• Confidence intervals express uncertainty around estimated intervention effects
• Attrition analysis tests whether missing observations distort reported outcomes
• Heterogeneous effects identify differing responses across predefined audience segments
• Multiple testing controls reduce false-positive findings across many comparisons
• Decision memos translate results into scale, revise, pause or stop recommendations

Participants can evaluate behavioural interventions for autonomy, fairness, transparency and avoidable harm.

• Autonomy review checks whether people retain meaningful choice and understanding
• Sludge audits identify burdens deliberately or accidentally obstructing beneficial action
• Distributional analysis examines who benefits, who bears costs and who is excluded
• Vulnerability assessments consider literacy, distress, dependence and power imbalances
• Transparency standards clarify intervention purpose, data use and available alternatives
• Governance controls assign approval, monitoring, escalation and remediation responsibilities

Participants can apply behavioural methods to savings, borrowing, insurance, investment and customer communications.

• Savings defaults and automatic escalation support long-term contribution behaviour
• Repayment prompts address procrastination, avoidance and minimum-payment anchoring
• Credit disclosures reduce misunderstanding of rates, fees and repayment horizons
• Insurance communications address probability neglect and claims decision friction
• Investment communications manage recency bias, loss aversion and overtrading
• Fraud warnings use timely interruption, specificity and trusted messenger effects

Participants can prepare behavioural interventions for controlled implementation and ongoing management.

• Implementation roadmaps sequence design, approvals, build, pilot and scale decisions
• RACI matrices assign accountability across product, operations, legal and analytics
• Operational metrics monitor delivery fidelity, reach, cost and unintended consequences
• Feedback loops incorporate customer complaints, frontline observations and outcome data
• Change communications explain revised processes to staff, partners and affected customers
• Scale criteria define evidence thresholds, resource needs and governance approvals

Participants can build, review and present a complete behavioural intervention dossier for a defined workplace decision problem.

• Problem definition states target behaviour, affected population and baseline evidence
• Behavioural diagnosis identifies mechanisms, frictions, biases and contextual constraints
• Audience segmentation prioritises groups using need, feasibility and expected impact
• Intervention design links selected techniques to explicit behavioural hypotheses
• Evaluation plan specifies comparison groups, metrics, timeline and decision thresholds
• Ethics review documents autonomy, fairness, transparency and foreseeable harms
• Implementation roadmap assigns owners, dependencies, controls and monitoring measures
• Peer review challenges assumptions, evidence quality and presentation recommendations