Our latest articles: Money Matters and The BE Police

Earlier this year we launched a new series of articles, taking readers on a 360-degree tour of how behavioural science is transforming our lives 24/7; how it is shaping better outcomes for us, enhancing communications, increasing our engagement and response rates and making us healthier and better off.

We now have two brand new articles in the series:

1. 'Money Matters' - We have a tendency to focus on our financial needs today, preferring to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to thinking about saving for tomorrow, particularly for retirement. To counter this phenomenon - known as 'present bias' or 'discounting the future' - some innovative initiatives have been developed to help people understand and engage more with their finances. In this article we discuss four simple, yet effective approaches that allow us to build greater engagement with our financial futures and help us pull our heads out of the proverbial sand!

2. 'The BE Police' - Although behavioural science has the power to do tremendous good in the world, it can also have a dark side - if used for the wrong purposes. 'Sludge' (as opposed to 'nudge') has come to define the use of behavioural science and nudges in a way that hurts, rather than promotes, the welfare of consumers. In this article, we investigate the growing role of regulators and other organisations as a type of 'BE Police', protecting consumers all over the world from these sludge tactics.

Look out for more articles which will be published in the new year!