This database was prepared alongside the working paper "Behavioural Science and Nudge Interventions Database for SDG Acceleration" - by Hsiang Jien Naik, Changu Maundeni, Austin G. Hamilton, Aljaz Kuncic (UN RCO Albania Working Paper, August 2024)

Use these columns to filter for all interventions that relate to each SDG (SDG link + interlinkages)

Implementation Date

Impact % change

Impact % Point Change

Implementing organisation

Framing to boost productivity

Experiment with an electronics enterprise in China that involved changing the framing of employee bonuses. In the positively framed bonus treatment, employees are notified that if the week's average per-hour production reaches a certain threshold then a bonus is paid at the end of the pay period. In the negatively framed bonus before the work week begins employees are provisionally given the bonus before the work week begins, but are notified that if the average per-hour production does not reach a certain threshold, it is retracted at the end of the pay period

The punishment frame outperforms the bonus frame in both the individual and group treatments, total productivity increases by 1% when moving from the reward to the punishment

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

8.2.1 Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w15623/w15623.pdf

Savings and Finance

Information Availability

Disclosing interest savings from paying off balances in 36 months versus making minimum payments on credit card statements

The study evaluates the effectiveness of the 2009 Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act. It uses a difference-in-differences design to compare outcomes for consumer credit cards, which were subject to the regulations, with small business credit cards, which were not. The research focuses on the impact of regulatory limits on fees and the effect of mandatory repayment disclosures on consumer behavior.

Natural experiment

The CARD Act reduced overall borrowing costs by an annualized 1.6% of average daily balances, saving consumers $11.9 billion a year. Fees for borrowers with FICO scores below 660 declined by 5.3 percentage points of average daily balance, translating to $57.69 per account per year.

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

10.1.1 Growth rates of household expenditure or income per capita among the bottom 40 per cent of the population and the total population

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/26372597?searchText=Regulating+consumer+financial+products+Evidence+from+credit+cards&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DRegulating%2Bconsumer%2Bfinancial%2Bproducts%253A%2BEvidence%2Bfrom%2Bcredit%2Bcards%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ad6e4f5fcb0b147b09f6a9b4e8993142a

Environmental behaviour

Adjusting defaults for energy saving behaviour

Randomised controlled experiment whereby the default setting on office thermostats in an OECD office building where manipulated

A 1 degree decrease in the default caused a reduction in the chosen setting by 0.38 degrees on average. And small decreases in the default ( 1 degree) led to a greater decrease in chosen settings than large decreases in the default ( 2 degrees). Default chosen temp setting: 21.1 degrees celcius

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

13.2.2 Total greenhouse gas emissions per year

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.eneco.2013.04.011

Intergovernmental organisation

Social proof to encourage voting

N=61 200 000 on Facebook during 2010 Congressional elections. 2 treatment groups, T1 = 60 055 176 people who saw message encouraging them to go out and vote, a clickable (I voted) button as well as Facebook friends who had already voted. T2= 611 044 people who saw same message but with no picture or info on friends who have voted, and n= 613 096 control group who didn't get a message

T1 who received social cue message were 2.08% more likely to click I voted button, and were 0.39% more likely to vote than these who received no message. Difference in voting between T2 and T1 was also 0.39%, and information message group had the same turnout as control group

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230841708_A_61-Million-Person_Experiment_in_Social_Influence_and_Political_Mobilization

Environmental behaviour

Provided households with feedback comparing their energy usage to that of their neighbors to encourage energy conservation

The study analyzed two large-scale, random-assignment field experiments conducted by utility companies in partnership with Opower, providing households with peer comparison feedback on their energy usage. The results showed significant reductions in energy consumption, demonstrating the effectiveness of social norms feedback in promoting energy conservation.

The study found a reduction in energy consumption of 1.2% (PSE) to 2.1% (SMUD), with the decrease sustained over time (7 months [PSE] and 12 months [SMUD]).

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2.1 Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/43774381?searchText=Evidence+from+Two+Large+Field+Experiments+that+Peer+Comparison+Feedback+Can+Reduce+Residential+Energy+Usage&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DEvidence%2Bfrom%2BTwo%2BLarge%2BField%2BExperiments%2Bthat%2BPeer%2BComparison%2BFeedback%2BCan%2BReduce%2BResidential%2BEnergy%2BUsage%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ad633efb9e82e83a709861b5b5b0e8765

Academic + Private

Environmental behaviour

Provided households with feedback on their own and their peers' electricity usage through home electricity reports

This study investigates the impact of providing feedback on household electricity consumption through Home Energy Reports (HERs). The reports included information on the household's electricity usage compared to their neighbors and provided energy-saving tips. The study found that the effectiveness of these nudges varied significantly with the household's political ideology.

Political liberals reduced their electricity usage by 3.6% in response to the HER, while political conservatives reduced their usage by 1.1%.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2.1 Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/24538767?searchText=Energy+conservation+%22nudges%22+and+environmentalist+ideology+Evidence+from+a+randomized+residential+electricity+field+experiment&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DEnergy%2Bconservation%2B%2522nudges%2522%2Band%2Benvironmentalist%2Bideology%253A%2BEvidence%2Bfrom%2Ba%2Brandomized%2Bresidential%2Belectricity%2Bfield%2Bexperiment%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_phrase_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ac47f3e1e17effab43db8304f893e02ef

Environmental behaviour

Norm based messaging to influence water conservation

N= 106 669, 4 treatments. The intervention consisted of 1. A control group, 2. A treatment group that received a message containing technical advice, on reducing water usage, 3. Another treatment group that received both technical advise and appeal to pro-social preferences, and 4. The final treatment group received the advice, the appeal and a social comparison contrasting the household's water use in the previous summer to that of the utility's median residential consumer.

Technical advice had message had little impact but the appeal to pro-social preferences and the appeal augmented with social comparison reduced water usage by 2.7% and 4.8% respectively. Appeals to social norms are most effective in high-user groups (those whose consumption was higher than median in 2006) as it led to a 94.1% greater reduction in high-user groups (5.28% vs 2.72% relative reduction)

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

6.4.1 Change in water-use efficiency over time

https://sci-hub.se/10.1162/rest_a_00344

Academic + Government

Reducing friction, salience

Redesigning notices to encourage payment rates

BIT partnered with the Singaporean ministry of home affairs to simplify the traffic offence notice, make clearer how to pay a fine and emphasise the potential consequences.

Using an RCT involving over 36 000 people they find that the treatment led to a 2.81 and 3.98 percentage point increase in the percentage of people paying red light running and speeding fines by the first deadline

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Annual-update-report-BIT-2017-2018.pdf

Government + Private

Environmental behaviour

Cost information to encourage efficient purchases

Information on the lifetime energy cost of appliances is provided through labelling and training of sales staff.

The training treatments led to a reduction in average energy use of tumble driers sold by 3.4% and by 4.9% in the combined treatment of labelling and staff training

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

7.3.1 Energy intensity measured in terms of primary energy and GDP

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257552191_Bridging_the_Energy_Efficiency_Gap_A_Field_Experiment_on_Lifetime_Energy_Costs_and_Household_Appliances

Academic + Private

Eliciting implementation intentions

N=287 228 field experiment before 2008 Presidential election to test the efficacy of eliciting implementation intentions when calling potential voters. Found that helping voters elucidate a specific voting plan increased turnout

4.1 percentage point increase in voter turnout for those contacted. Effect is highest in single eligible voter households (9.1 percentage points) while multiple eligible voter households were unaffected.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/todd_rogers/files/do_you_have_a_voting_plan_0.pdf

Five different reminder letters were designed. The letters included either social norms, framed at different levels of specificity, or public-good nudges.

BIT, in collaboration with the HMRC Debt Management and Banking Team, conducted a randomised controlled trial in which 200 000 self-assessment tax debtors, who had declared their taxable income but had not yet paid what they owed, were sent one of five different reminder letters. The goal was to investigate whether the use of behavioural nudges could improve the effectiveness of these letters and motivate more taxpayers to make their tax payment.

BIT found that both norm-based and public-good messages increased the likelihood of individuals paying their taxes due, with large differences observed within the various norm-based messages. • The basic-norm statement raised the tax payment rate by 1.3% and the countrynorm statement by 2.1%, within 23 days of communication • The minority-norm statement had an even larger effect, raising the number of taxpayers making payments by 5.1% • Both public-good messages, which relied on gain and loss framing, raised tax payments by 1.6% • Descriptive norms had a significantly larger effect on payments than injunctive norms.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Environmental behaviour

Plan making to encourage water conservation

The treatment group received a postcard with their bill that prompted them to enter their water consumption next to the average neighbourhood household consumption in the same month, this was designed to make their consumption more salient against a benchmark. The postcard also prompted participants to establish personal goals for water use reduction with the aim of helping them form clear intentions.

Plan making reduced water use by between 3.4%-5.5% compared to the control group.

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

6.4.1 Change in water-use efficiency over time

https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en#page107

Intergovernmental organisation

Environmental behaviour

Social norms, feedback, salience

Households received either 1. a brightly-coloured sticker on the water bill provided people with direct feedback on their own water consumption in comparison to that of the average household in their neighbourhood 2. a similar sticker but with the reference point as the average consumption in Belen 3. a postcard with their bill that prompted them to enter their water consumption with that of the average Belen household in the same month

Central America

The World Bank’s Governance Global Practice Group and the Central America Countries Unit, and ideas42 conducted a randomised controlled trial in Belén, Costa Rica, to test different behavioural interventions to foster water savings.

The authors found that “Neighbourhood comparison reduces water use by between 3.5% and 5.6% of control group consumption, but City comparison has no significant effect on water consumption” (Datta et al., 2015: 16)

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2.1 Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Intergovernmental + government + NGO

Environmental behaviour

Providing a recycling bin to households significantly increased recycling participation by reducing the effort required to recycle

The study evaluated the effectiveness of nine different pro-recycling messages and interventions on recycling behavior in Peru. Messages emphasizing environmental and social benefits, social comparisons, and authority had no significant effect. However, providing households with a recycling bin significantly increased recycling participation, suggesting that reducing logistical barriers is more effective than messaging alone.

Providing a recycling bin increased recycling participation by approximately 4.5 percentage points (6% increase over the sample mean) and improved the volume and weight of recyclables collected.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.5.1 National recycling rate, tons of material recycled

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/43774256?searchText=%28Ineffective%29+messages+to+encourage+recycling+Evidence+from+a+randomized+evaluation+in+peru&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D%2528Ineffective%2529%2Bmessages%2Bto%2Bencourage%2Brecycling%253A%2BEvidence%2Bfrom%2Ba%2Brandomized%2Bevaluation%2Bin%2Bperu%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A08a54f061a30338b1254ba5e97228853

Academic + NGO

Savings and Finance

Reminders to increase savings

Among the 66% of new customers with a cell phone the bank randomly assigned some clients to receive one regular text message reminder to make a deposit each month. Among those assigned to get regular reminders the bank also randomised whether the message used gain or loss language. Clients were also randomly assigned to receive a late text message reminder if they had not made any deposits in a given month, if the client received both messages it was either a gain frame for both or a loss frame for both.

Clients who received monthly reminders saved 6% more than individuals who did not. Reminders also made clients 3 percentage points more likely to save their targeted amount by the end of the commitment period.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w16205/w16205.pdf

Academic + Private

Environmental behaviour

Social norms and energy conservation

N= 600,000. The paper evaluates a series of programs run by OPOWER. OPOWER randomised the experimental population into a treatment group which would be mailed Home Energy Reports, and a Control group, which would not. The treatment group was further randomised so that the reports were sent at different frequencies e.g. monthly, bimonthly or quarterly. The home energy reports have 2 key components - the social comparison module which compares the household to the mean and 20th percentile of its comparison group and categorised the houses into, great, below average and good. The second component is the Action Steps Module which is a set of energy conservation tips that are targeted to different households based on historical energy use patterns.

The paper finds that the effects of sending home energy reports are equivalent to a 11%-20% short-run price increase or a 5% long run price increase. It also finds that the treatment results in high-usage households decreasing usage by 6.3% while low-usage households only reduced consumption by 0.3%

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2.2 Domestic material consumption, domestic material consumption per capita, and domestic material consumption per GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2011.03.003

Information Availability

Adding nutrition labels to pre-packaged foods to inform consumers about the caloric and nutrient content

This study investigated the impact of nutrition labels on pre-packaged food purchases in university dining facilities. Over three semesters before and after the introduction of labels, sales data showed a significant reduction in the mean total calories and fat purchased, suggesting that labels encouraged healthier food choices.

Introduction of food labels resulted in a 7% reduction in mean total calories purchased per week (from 476.2 to 445.3 kcal, p < 0.001) and a 7% reduction in total fat purchased per week (from 21.5 to 19.9 g, p < 0.001). Percent of sales from “low-calorie” and “low-fat” foods (p < 0.001) increased, while percent of sales from “high-calorie” and “high-fat” foods decreased (p < 0.001)

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666315001993

Labour law Compliance

Salience, Social norms, Priming, Personalisation

Test “nudges” in reminder letters sent to employers who had defaulted on their previous month’s levy payment

Southeast Asia

A two-arm trial was designed to test “nudges” in reminder letters sent to employers who had defaulted on their previous month’s levy payment. A sample of 1 000 Foreign Domestic Worker employers who had not paid their previous month’s levy were chosen on a purely random basis.

76% of employers who were sent letters which included the Behavioural Insights interventions made a full payment and 85% made a partial payment, compared to 71% and 82% respectively for the control group

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Reminders, Feedback, Social support

Sending text message reminders to increase atendance and decrease drop out rates

ASK set out to find out if, using insights taken from behavioural science, it would be able to successfully encourage adults with low English and Maths skills to stick with literacy and numeracy programmes.

The experiment found that average attendance increased by 7% for those students who were sent the text messages in comparison to the control group who had been sent no messages at all. Moreover, the dropout rate of students (those who never come back after the mid-term break) decreased by 36% in the group sent messages relative to the control.

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.6.1 Proportion of population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed level of proficiency in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy skills, by sex

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Personalised route plans and timely reminders

The study encourages alternative modes of transport by using a personalised route tool coupled with follow up reminder emails.

The personalised route tool with follow up emails led to 7.2 percentage reduction in reported drive alone behaviour

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2.2 Domestic material consumption, domestic material consumption per capita, and domestic material consumption per GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/21-002_d78ef6ca-b99a-4b13-93eb-be1027914a18.pdf

Consumer Protection, Health

Reducing friction, Choice design

A forced active re-enrollment - reducing consumer inertia in health insurance choices can inadvertently exacerbate adverse selection

The study examines the impact of consumer inertia on health insurance choices within a large firm that changed its insurance offerings. By analyzing data before and after a forced active re-enrollment, the study identifies significant inertia and quantifies its monetary cost, ultimately finding that reducing inertia can worsen adverse selection and reduce overall welfare.

Reducing inertia by three-quarters improves consumer choices over time but exacerbates adverse selection, leading to a 7.7% reduction in welfare, essentially doubling the existing 8.2% welfare loss from adverse selection in the observed environment.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.8.1 Coverage of essential health services

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/42920667?searchText=Adverse+selection+and+inertia+in+health+insurance+markets+When+nudging+hurts&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DAdverse%2Bselection%2Band%2Binertia%2Bin%2Bhealth%2Binsurance%2Bmarkets%253A%2BWhen%2Bnudging%2Bhurts%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ad1a78ebb76c246704331264af47a443c

Savings and Finance

Reminders vs financial incentives for loan payments

Field experiment with a micro lender in Uganda to test the effectiveness of privately implemented incentives for loan repayment. Using a randomized control trial the study measures the impact of three different treatments: Borrowers are either given a lump sum cash reward upon completion of the loan (equivalent to a 25% interest rate reduction on the current loan), a 25% reduction of the interest rate in the next loan the borrower takes from the bank, or a monthly text message reminder before the loan payment is due (SMS).

On average the size of the treatment effect is similar across all the treatment groups. Customers who receive one of the treatments relative to the control group had on average an 8% increase in the probability of paying all their instalments on time and the average days of late payments dropped by 2 days per month. The effect of SMS reminders was greatest among small loan holders and less experienced borrowers.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17020/w17020.pdf

Academic + Private

Making taxes more visible by including them in posted prices for alcohol

This study investigates the effects of tax salience on consumer behavior by conducting a field experiment in a grocery store and analyzing state-level alcohol sales. It finds that making taxes more visible by including them in posted prices significantly reduces demand, and provides a theoretical framework for understanding these behavioral responses.

Posting tax-inclusive prices reduced demand by 8 percent; increases in excise taxes reduced beer consumption more significantly than increases in sales taxes.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/25592504?searchText=Salience+and+Taxation+Theory+and+Evidence&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DSalience%2Band%2BTaxation%253A%2BTheory%2Band%2BEvidence%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A58da2284be52028958fca5968855f783

Academic + Government

Bidirectional text messaging to remind parents about their adolescent's vaccination and well-child care appointments

The study evaluated the effectiveness and cost of using bidirectional text messaging to increase vaccination rates and well-child care among adolescents. Parents of 4,587 adolescents were randomized to receive either the text message intervention or usual care, and the intervention group's outcomes were compared to those of the control group over six months.

Intervention patients were more likely to complete all needed services (RR 1.31, 95% CI 1.12–1.53), all needed vaccinations (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.12–1.50), and any vaccination (RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.20–1.54). 75% of control patients had a missed opportunity versus 69% of the intervention (P = .002).

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.b.1 Proportion of the target population covered by all vaccines included in their national programme

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5848090/pdf/nihms948492.pdf

Savings and Finance

Varying the timing of reminders for repayment

CGAP partnered with the Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics and Jumo—a mobile money marketplace that offers digitally-delivered credit in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia—to design a series of experiments to measure consumer response to different types of communications linked to a digital credit offer in Kenya.

Borrowers who received evening reminders were 8% more likely to repay their loan than those who were sent reminders in the morning.

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

1.4.1 Proportion of population living in households with access to basic services

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Public Service Delivery

Information for benefit take-up

Tests the role of information regarding programme benefits, costs and rules in improving take up of the earned income tax credit (ETC).

Relative to the control notice, a notice with a simplified layout and less repetition improved take-up by 6%. Providing benefit information raises take-up by 8% relative to the baseline. The paper estimates that if the most effective treatments were to be applied it could reduce overall incomplete take up by 3 percentage points (from 25% to 22%)

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

10.4.2 Redistributive impact of fiscal policy4

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/bhargava/Paper%203%20Bhargava%202013.pdf

Academic + Government

Labour law compliance

Increasing social security registration of domestic workers

180,000 households above a certain income were randomised into treatment or control group, with treatment group receiving behaviourally informed letter reminding them of their obligation to register their domestic workers and providing instructions to do so.

The domestic worker registration rate increased by 8.9% compared to the control group, i.e., an average of two more households per thousand registered their domestic workers.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

8.8.2 Level of national compliance with labour rights (freedom of association and collective bargaining) based on International Labour Organization (ILO) textual sources and national legislation, by sex and migrant status

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.uninnovation.network/assets/BeSci/UN_Behavioural_Science_Report_2021.pdf

Social signalling for child immunization

Sierra Leone

Despite high vaccine take-up many parents fail to complete the 5 immunizations required in the child's first year of life. This paper introduces a durable signal in the form of differently coloured bracelets received upon vaccination to signal immunization. Experiment covers 120 public clinics over a 22 month period.

The impact of the social signal varies significantly with the social desirability of the action. In particular, the signal has a weak effect when linked to a vaccine with low perceived benefits and a large, positive effect when linked to a vaccine with high perceived benefits. The bracelets that signal completion of the immunization cycle led to a 10.3 percentage point increase in children receiving their 4th vaccine and a 13.3 percentage point increase in receiving their fifth vaccine. Overall, “Signal at 5” had a significant impact on increasing the average number of vaccines completed in a timely manner. Compared to the comparison group, the average number of vaccines completed increased from 4 to 4.4, which represents a 9 percent increase.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.b.1 Proportion of the target population covered by all vaccines included in their national programme

https://www.poverty-action.org/study/social-incentives-childhood-immunization-sierra-leone

Visual cues, Reducing friction, Framing

Three different types of communications to send to the users who had not completed the process (nudge postcard highlighting ease, colourful incentive letter, generic letter)

The CRA designed an experiment to investigate whether sending additional communications to those users who had started to sign up for My Account, but had not completed the registration, would motivate them to complete the process.

The incentive letter resulted in a 9% increase in registration and the generic letter resulted in a 6% increase, compared to only 3% following receipt of the postcard.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Email reminders to encourage library users to return borrowed items on time

The study analyzed the effect of different email messages on promoting rule compliance among library users in Barcelona. By randomly assigning users to receive various types of reminder emails, the study found that general reminders significantly reduced the proportion of late returns and the number of days items were overdue.

The study found that all four email treatments significantly reduced the proportion of late returns and the number of days items were overdue. For example, the proportion of late returns decreased by up to 4.3 percentage points, and the number of days overdue decreased by up to 0.87 days. // Focusing on previously late users (Table 6), we see that all four email treatments are negative and significant; both for the proportion of late returns per user and for the average number of days between the return date and the due date per user. For instance, from column (2) we see that the treatment effects (compared to the control) range from 2.4% points for the REMINDER to 4.3% points for the PENALTY. As for the number of days between the return date and the due date, the reduction lies between 0.54 and 0.87 days. Evaluated at the means of the control group, the treatment effects correspond to a reduction in the proportion of late returns up to 10%, and a reduction of over 100% for the number of days between the return and the due date.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292113001207

Environmental behaviour

Health-based framing to inform households about the human health effects of their marginal electricity use to induce persistent energy-saving behavior

The study conducted a randomized controlled trial with 118 households to test how different messages about household energy use impact conservation behavior over time. Using advanced metering technologies, the study found that a health-based frame led to persistent energy savings of 8-10% over 100 days, while a traditional cost-savings frame resulted in no significant savings after 7 weeks.

The health-based framing led to persistent energy savings of 8-10% over 100 days, while the cost-savings frame resulted in sharp attenuation of treatment effects after 2 weeks with no significant savings versus control after 7 weeks.

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

13.2.2 Total greenhouse gas emissions per year.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268116300257

Default tip suggestions on credit card machines in New York City taxis to influence the amount passengers tipped

The study examines the impact of default tip suggestions on tipping behavior using data from over 13 million New York City taxi rides. By analyzing a regression discontinuity design, it shows that default suggestions significantly influence tip amounts and highlights a potential cost when default tips are set too high, leading some customers to leave no tip at all.

An increase in tip amounts of approximately $0.27-$0.30, which is more than a 10 percent increase in the average tip at that margin. Higher default suggestions reduced the probability of using a default tip by 24 percentage points and increased the likelihood of leaving no tip by over 50 percent (1.7 and 2.8 percentage point increases).

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

8.5.1 Average hourly earnings of female and male employees, by occupation, age and persons with disabilities

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/43189487?searchText=Default+tips&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DDefault%2Btips%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A81b3b2c8c6c25c39dbceb59d7da64ba6

Descriptive social norms to motivate voting

The study explores how descriptive social norms can influence voter turnout. It examines the impact of communicating to individuals that a high percentage of their peers are voting, thereby motivating them to vote as well. The research demonstrates that highlighting high voter turnout rates among one's peers can significantly increase an individual's likelihood of voting.

In New Jersey the high turnout script was over 7 percentage points more likely to produce a response of 100% likely to vote. In California the evidence supports the hypothesis that the high turnout script increases turnout intention relative to the low turnout script (between 1.5 to 3.9 percentage point difference)

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/todd_rogers/files/descriptive_social_norms_and_motivation_to_vote-everybodys_voting_and_so_should_you.pdf

Visual values affirmation to influence student performance

A group pf 150 refugee students were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. The treatment was a visual affirmation task to try and reduce the stereotype threat faced by mostly refugee youths in the Amel association international youth literacy and numeracy program. The re-affirmation of values that are important to students has been shown to increase confidence and positive self-image which can be conducive to improving performance

Students who completed the affirmation task had a 6.9 percentage point increase in their Arabic test scores. Applying the same values had no significant effects on the math and English scores, however, these had very low starting points to begin with which could have affected the students ability to assimilate the material in the short period of the program cycle.

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.5.1 Parity indices (female/male, rural/urban, bottom/top wealth quintile and others such as disability status, indigenous peoples and conflict-affected, as data become available) for all education indicators on this list that can be disaggregated

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://nudgelebanon.org/2019/02/20/increasing-students-testing-performance/

Combination, Visual Cues, Choice Design

A traffic light-style color-coded labeling system and rearranged cafeteria items to make healthier choices more accessible and less healthy choices less accessible

This study evaluated the impact of a two-phase intervention aimed at improving food choices among minority and low-income employees in a hospital cafeteria. The interventions included traffic light-style color-coded labels and the strategic rearrangement of food items to promote healthier choices, resulting in a significant increase in the purchase of green-labeled (healthy) items and a decrease in the purchase of red-labeled (unhealthy) items.

Labeling intervention decreased red item purchases by 11.2% (95% CI: -13.6%, -8.9%) and increased green purchases by 6.6% (95% CI: 5.2%, 7.9%). Choice architecture intervention further decreased red purchases by 4.1% (95% CI: -6.8%, -1.4%).

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease.

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379712003637

Academic + Hospital

Reminders for low-income college entry

Text messaging campaign through which college intending high school graduates and their parents received 10 text message reminders of key college related tasks required for successful matriculation. The reminders were customised to provide campus specific information and were timed for delivery near each tasks deadline. Each message invited recipients to request follow-up counsellor assistance by responding directly via text.

In some cities students who received the texts were over 7 percentage points more likely to enrol in college than their counterparts in the control group, while in other cities there was no impact

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.5.1 Parity indices (female/male, rural/urban, bottom/top wealth quintile and others such as disability status, indigenous peoples and conflict-affected, as data become available) for all education indicators on this list that can be disaggregated

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.008

Using salient variable messages to decrease highway speed

Nudge Lebanon in collaboration with the traffic management centre placed a salient image of overlooking eyes, coupled with a message informing drivers that their speed was being monitored on a variable message sign

The treatment only produced significant results on drivers substantially above the speed limit of 100km/h, who reduced their speed by about 11.5% compared to the control group.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.6.1 Death rate due to road traffic injuries

https://nudgelebanon.org/2021/09/22/decreasing-highway-speed-using-a-salient-variable-message-sign/

Deterrence messages to inform taxpayers about the potential fines and legal actions for noncompliance, aiming to increase tax compliance

The study conducted a large-scale field experiment in the Municipality of Junín, Argentina, to examine the effects of deterrence, reciprocity, and peer-effects messages on property tax compliance. Results showed that deterrence messages significantly increased compliance by almost 5 percentage points, while reciprocity and peer-effects messages had mixed results.

The deterrence message increased the probability of compliance by almost 5 percentage points compared to the control group, representing an increase in compliance rates of approximately 12%.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.3 Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268115001067

Savings and Finance

Survey content as shocks to increase the salience of bank overdraft fees

The study examines how limited consumer attention affects the likelihood of incurring overdraft fees. Using survey questions about overdrafts as attention shocks, it finds that increased salience of overdraft fees significantly reduces the probability of incurring these fees, especially among consumers with lower education and financial literacy.

Taking an overdraft-related survey reduced the probability of incurring an overdraft fee by 3.7 percentage points in the survey month and each overdraft-related survey taken within the last two years reduced the probability by an additional 1.7 percentage points.

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

10.2.1 Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by sex, age and persons with disabilities

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17028/w17028.pdf

Peer comparison to reduce over prescription of antibiotics

Experiment using peer comparison in letters sent by the Australian governments chief medical officer to high prescribing GP's. The letters highlight the differences between a GP's prescribing rates and the rates of other GP's in the region.

Compared to GP's who did not receive a letter, the peer comparison letters caused a 9.3% -12.4% reduction in antibiotic prescription rates over the 6 months following the intervention. In contrast, sending doctors a letter containing educational material without the peer comparison cut prescriptions by only 2.4 per cent on average over the six months. Over a 12 month period the peer comparison letter interventions reduced prescription rates by 9%

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.d.2 Percentage of bloodstream infections due to selected antimicrobial-resistant organisms

https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/05/nudge-vs-superbugs-12-months-on-report_0.pdf

Commitment/Ownership

Planning prompts for Vaccine intentions

Field experiment to measure the effect of prompts to form implementation intentions on realised behavioural outcomes. All employees received reminders by mail about vaccination but treatment group's mail included prompt to indicate either date they planned to be vaccinated or date and time they planned to be vaccinated.

The vaccination rate among control condition employees was 33.1%. Employees who received the prompt to write down just a date had a vaccination rate 1.5 percentage points higher than the control group, a difference that is not statistically significant. Employees who received the more specific prompt to write down both a date and a time had a 4.2 percentage point higher vaccination rate, a difference that is both statistically significant and of meaningful magnitude.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.b.1 Proportion of the target population covered by all vaccines included in their national programme

https://www.pnas.org/content/108/26/10415

Information availability, Reducing friction

Collection letters were modified to incorporate a direct and detailed plan of where – website, service centre locations, mailing address –; how – specific instructions; and when – the deadline – they were to file the return

The Ontario Government conducted a Randomised Controlled Trial which was designed to test how effective informing its communications with the indebted employers with implementation intentions would be in motivating the employers to act and pay the tax they were due.

The outcome of the intervention was a 4.2 and 6.1 percentage point increase in tax filing relative to the unmodified letter in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The number of employers filing their return within one month of receiving the letter increased from 45.7 to 49.9% in 2014 and from 46.9 to 53.0% in 2015

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Nudging to improve safe water behaviours

N=400 compounds chosen via a random-number generator. Criterion for inclusion in the study was that the compound had to have a child under the age of 5. Baseline survey to collect information on water consumption behaviour and exposure to point-of-use technologies. Enumerators then read an educational script about the dangers of unsafe drinking water, followed by detailed presentations of 3 POU products in a randomised order, all 3 of the products substantially reduce contamination in drinking water. After introducing the POU products 50% of participants were presented with wither a positively framed marketing message, while the other 50% heard a contrast framed message that contrasted what one stands to lose from non-use with the gains from using the products. After this participants were randomly assigned one of the 3 POU technologies for a 2-month trial.

Messages that framed safe water usage as both avoiding disease and improving health rather than just a positive frame that only mentions improving health raised usage rates by 14%

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.9.2 Mortality rate attributed to unsafe water, unsafe sanitation and lack of hygiene (exposure to unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) services)

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.02.010

Academic + NGO

Environmental behaviour

Email prompts to encourage energy efficient practices

South Africa

RCT of the effect of emails that incorporate providing information, reminders, social competition and assigning responsibility on office energy usage.

Inter-floor competition plus advocates was the only statistically significant intervention that led to a 14% reduction in energy use.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2.2 Domestic material consumption, domestic material consumption per capita, and domestic material consumption per GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en#page106

Savings and Finance

Commitment devices for remittances

N=501 Pilipino migrants. The intervention was a pilot to help inform Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges, and Universities and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) on whether there is sufficient demand for a new financial product called "Edu Pay". Participants were asked to play 4 games with the order randomised to see if their likelihood to remit changed under different circumstances. The games mimicked real-life choices. Finally, the migrants were offered the Edu Pay product, which gave them the opportunity to send tuition payments directly to schools in the Philippines from a BPI branch in Rome. Edu Pay also sent the migrant attendance records and grade reports from the child' s school so that they could better monitor their academic performance. Researchers then examined whether participants' decisions in the games predicted their demand for the Edu Pay product.

The introduction of labelling for education raised remittances by more than 15% relative to migrants who were not offered the labelled or direct payment product. Labelling also increased the likelihood that migrants would remit at all by 4.6 percentage points. Adding the ability to directly send this funding to the school only added a further 2.2 percent. Furthermore, researchers found that behaviour in this game was useful for predicting whether migrants would sign up for the Edu Pay product.

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

17.3.1 Additional financial resources mobilized for developing countries from multiple sources

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/testing-commitment-devices-remittances-among-filipino-migrants-rome

Environmental behaviour

Changing printer defaults to double-sided printing to reduce paper consumption

The study investigated the effects of two interventions—changing the default printer setting to double-sided printing and sending a moral appeal email—on paper consumption at a large Swedish university. The results showed that changing the default printer setting led to a 15% reduction in paper use, while the moral appeal had no significant impact.

Changing the default printer setting to double-sided printing reduced paper consumption by 15% on average (t(1249) = 2.45, p = 0.014).

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2.1 Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009506961500090X

Planning prompts on sticky notes to remind and encourage employees to schedule colonoscopy appointments

The study investigated whether planning prompts could increase colonoscopy screening rates among employees due for the procedure. Employees received mailings with a planning prompt attached to a sticky note. The study found that the planning prompts significantly increased the likelihood of scheduling and receiving a colonoscopy compared to a control group.

The planning group had a 7.2% colonoscopy rate compared to 6.2% in the control group, a relative increase of 15%.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743512005476

Academic + Private Company

Information availability, choice design

Allocation and tax satisfaction

Examines whether direct tax payer allocation can help make paying taxes less aversive. Lab experiment involving 401 respondents of a nationally representative sample. Participants were randomly assigned in a 2x2 between subjects design such that 2 (no information about current use of tax dollars vs. information about current use of tax dollars) x 2 (no opportunity to allocate 10% of tax dollars vs. opportunity to allocate 10% of their tax dollars.

Participants who had the option to allocate 10% of their tax payments were 15.5% more satisfied than those who did not.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public services

https://sci-hub.se/10.1509/jppm.11.084

Accessible healthy food

Examines how slight changes in the accessibility of different foods in a pay by weight food salad bar affects eating behaviour.

Making a food more difficult to reach by varying its proximity about 10 inches or changing the serving utensil e.g. from a serving spoon to tongs, reduces intake of the food between 8-16%

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

2.1.1 Prevalence of undernourishment

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&context=marketing_papers

Default options (opt-in vs opt-out) for organ donation

The study analyzes how different default policies (opt-in vs. opt-out) affect organ donation consent rates. It compares organ donation rates across countries with presumed consent (opt-out) and explicit consent (opt-in) laws, finding that presumed consent significantly increases donation rates.

The study found that countries with presumed consent policies have organ donation rates that are about 16.3% higher than those with explicit consent policies, increasing the donor rate from 14.1 to 16.4 per million.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.8.1 Coverage of essential health services

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8996952_Medicine_Do_defaults_save_lives

Savings and Finance

Information Availability

Participants received regular progress reports on their savings goal to help translate intentions into action.

The study explored the discrepancy between individuals' optimistic self-predictions and their actual behavior in achieving savings goals. It involved university students who set savings goals and received progress reports to test whether regular feedback could improve goal achievement.

Participants in the progress-report condition reported a higher rate of savings goal achievement (70%) compared to the control condition (60%) . They strongly intended to save, made overly optimistic self-predictions even when it was costly to do so, and werewilling to pay very little for a service that could help them save more because they did not anticipate its impact on their futurebehavior. By contrast, students who were informed of the service’s actual impact were willing to pay more for it, and students didnot underestimate the impact of the service on fellow students.

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

1.2.2 Proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240287794_Good_Intentions_Optimistic_Self-Predictions_and_Missed_Opportunities

Environmental behaviour

Information Availability

Feedback to reduce outdoor wood stove pollution

The researchers attached an information sign to the levers of the wood smoke dampeners, in the treatment households. This provided real-time feedback on the levels of pollution associated with each setting so that the choked, closed or mostly choked settings showed higher levels of contamination than the mostly open and open settings.

Households receiving the information sign showed a reduction of nearly 13% in the frequency in which they used the choked and most polluting setting and a drop of more than 17% in residential pollution emissions.

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

11.6.2 Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (e.g. PM2.5 and PM10) in cities (population weighted).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10640-021-00582-w#Bib1

Savings and Finance

Including last year’s premium next to this year’s premium in insurance renewal notices

The FCA conducted three field trials to assess how effective offering different types of disclosure to consumers would be in motivating them to negotiate their insurance policy at the point of renewal.

Putting last year’s premium on renewal notices caused between 11% and 18% more consumers to switch or negotiate their home insurance policy. The effect was larger for consumers offered higher price increases at renewal.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Priming altruism by including a quote by Adam Smith about the value of volunteering

Leandro Galli of Warwick Business School conducted a series of Randomised Controlled Trials to test the effectiveness of different nudges in motivating volunteers to complete their training. The nudges were applied to the email reminders volunteer mentors were sent. The messaging and framing used in the emails included the following: • Priming altruism by including a quote by Adam Smith about the value of volunteering • Expressing gratitude, either in terms of helping future mentees or for their contribution to economic growth • Messages about anticipated pride, how proud people could feel for helping future mentees.

Priming altruism successfully increased the number of people completing their mentoring training by 18%

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Public Service Delivery

Motivating public sector workers using social recognition and lottery tickets

Social recognition and lottery tickets were used to improve record keeping relating to the use of funds in 140 randomly selected health facilities in Nigeria. In the social recognition experiment an enumerator scored workers on how well a cash book had been filled out, the scores were converted into stars and displayed for visitors to see. In addition, the accounting staff of the best performing facility were honoured by the Secretary of Health and had a photograph taken with the official in a special ceremony. In the lottery experiment, each star was converted into a lottery ticket that would be drawn at the end of a four-week period.

In one state the social recognition intervention led to a 13 percentage point increase in scores on the cash book but had no effect in a different state. The experiment suggests that the same incentives can produce different results in different localities, even when the implementing agency is the same

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/440211517949747866/pdf/123249-eMBeD-Nigeria-HC-Brief.pdf

Intergovernmental organisation

Information Availability

Feedback to nudge drivers to safety

Field experiment that uses an app to measure driving performance and give feedback to drivers. 4 groups: personal best nudges, average performance nudges, last score nudges and control group. Data was collected on 1069 drivers over a 3 month period

The personal best and personal average nudges improved driving performance by 18.17% and 18.71% standard deviations compared to the average control group performance scores calculated by the app.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.6.1 Death rate due to road traffic injuries

https://sites.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/doc.cfm?did=66780

Academic + Private

Environmental behaviour

Information Availability

Environment and health-based messaging to inform residents about the externalities of electricity consumption, motivating energy conservation

This study investigated the effectiveness of nonprice information strategies to motivate conservation behavior. It found that environment and health-based messaging outperformed monetary savings information in driving energy conservation, with families with children achieving up to 19% energy savings.

Environment and health-based messaging motivated 8.2% energy savings versus control. Families with children achieved up to 19% energy savings.

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

13.2.2 Total greenhouse gas emissions per year

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/26461531?searchText=Nonprice+incentives+and+energy+conservation&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DNonprice%2Bincentives%2Band%2Benergy%2Bconservation%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A3af560b161de5b2a1d9cb31aaca1700d

Public Service Delivery

Information Availability

Using the medium of a mobile application called Citizens Connect, through which residents can submit public service requests to the city government, the Office provided residents of the City of Boston with images of work being performed on public service requests that they made, for example requests to have potholes filled, graffiti cleaned and streetlights fixed, amongst others

Using the medium of a mobile application called Citizens Connect, through which residents can submit public service requests to the city government, the Office provided residents of the City of Boston with images of work being performed on public service requests that they made, for example requests to have potholes filled, graffiti cleaned and streetlights fixed, amongst others

Natural experiment

In the months following receipt of the treatment, residents submitted 19.6% more service requests to the government, and did so in 9.3% more categories.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Symbolic awards to enhance volunteer retention by recognizing contributions to the public good

This study examines the effect of symbolic awards on volunteer retention in Wikipedia, which relies on voluntary contributions. By randomly assigning awards to newcomers, the study aims to understand if such recognition can sustain volunteer engagement. The findings suggest that purely symbolic awards significantly increase retention rates among new editors.

The symbolic awards increased the share of editors remaining active in the following month by 20% (p = 0.000) and raised the share of authors who continued to contribute content by 13% (p = 0.017).

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/45149188?searchText=Fostering%20public%20good%20contributions%20with%20symbolic%20awards%20A%20large-scale%20natural%20field%20experiment%20at%20wikipedia&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DFostering%2Bpublic%2Bgood%2Bcontributions%2Bwith%2Bsymbolic%2Bawards%253A%2BA%2Blarge-scale%2Bnatural%2Bfield%2Bexperiment%2Bat%2Bwikipedia%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A2be365a2cfd3d1d29b15da21eca909a0

Environmental Behaviour

Choice design, Social norms

Reduced plate size and social cues to encourage hotel guests to waste less food

This study tested two nudges to reduce food waste in hotel restaurants by reducing plate size and providing a sign encouraging guests to help themselves multiple times rather than taking large portions at once. Both nudges resulted in a reduction of food waste by approximately 20%, with no negative impact on guest satisfaction, suggesting a potential win-win for both the environment and hotel profitability.

Reducing plate size led to a 19.5% reduction in food waste (p < 0.001), and providing a salient sign led to a 20.5% reduction in food waste (p < 0.001).

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.3.1 (a) Food loss index and (b) food waste index

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176513001286

Consumer Protection, Eating Behaviour

Information Availability

Mandatory nutrition labeling in the salad dressing market

This study analyzes the impact of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) on consumer behavior by using supermarket scanner data to compare product choices before and after the implementation of mandatory nutrition labeling. The findings show that mandatory disclosure led to a significant decrease in sales of high-fat salad dressings, demonstrating that consumers use the available nutrition information to make healthier choices.

Natural experiment

The market share of high-fat salad dressings declined significantly after the implementation of mandatory labeling, with products containing more than 13 grams of fat per serving experiencing the largest decreases in sales. The market share of the highest fat unlabeled products is 29% for the least educated supermarket pre-NLEA and 23% post-NLEA.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/10.1086/467468?searchText=The+Impact+of+Mandatory+Disclosure+Laws+on+Product+Choices+An+analysis+of+the+Salad+Dressing+Market&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DThe%2BImpact%2Bof%2BMandatory%2BDisclosure%2BLaws%2Bon%2BProduct%2BChoices%253A%2BAn%2Banalysis%2Bof%2Bthe%2BSalad%2BDressing%2BMarket%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Adc4115a70ac49b7fa39e1a1485fd4a52

Environmental behaviour

Visual cues, Information Availability, Salience

Climate-friendly choice label and information posters to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their meal choices

This study investigated the relationship between the global warming potential (GWP) of meals and consumers' liking of them in a university canteen. It examined whether providing information about climate-friendlier meals through labels and posters affected meal choices and customer satisfaction. The results showed that offering climate-friendly meals with appropriate labeling increased the number of climate-friendly meal purchases without affecting taste satisfaction.

During the pre-test, 46.2% of the purchased hot meals were climate-friendlier. This increased to 55.9% during the intervention with the climate-friendly choice label, showing a significant effect (χ2(1) = 175.05, p < .0001).

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

13.2.2 Total greenhouse gas emissions per year.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666315003797

Environmental behaviour

Information Availability

Feedback frequency to reduce information acquisition costs

In a randomised control trial residential electricity customers are exposed to price increases, with some households also receiving displays that transmit high frequency information about usage and prices.

Households only experiencing price increases reduced demand by 0-7% whereas those also receiving information feedback reduced demand by 8%-22%.

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

7.3.1 Energy intensity measured in terms of primary energy and GDP

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w18344/w18344.pdf

Academic + Private

Social normative messages in tax letters to encourage tax compliance by informing recipients that most people in their area pay their taxes on time

The Behavioral Insights Team in the U.K. conducted a field experiment to test the effectiveness of social normative messages on tax compliance. Taxpayers in arrears received letters with a standard reminder or with an added message stating that the majority of people in their area pay their taxes on time. The study found that the social normative messages significantly increased compliance rates.

The difference in compliance rates between the control group and the most effective treatment group was 15.5 percentage points.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.3 Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all

https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Behaviour-Change-Insight-Team-Annual-Update_acc-2010-11.pdf

Reminders to improve court attendance

SMS reminder sent to defendants the day before their court appearance in a domestic violence case. Tested using an RCT with 4388 defendants.

The SMS led to a 4.1 percentage point reduction (23%) in non-attendance, the reminders also reduced the amount of time taken to finalise each court case from 74 to 69 days

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.3.3 Proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism

https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Annual-update-report-BIT-2017-2018.pdf

Savings and Finance

Mandated disclosure of payday loans

Field trial to examine whether and how various ways of presenting the costs of payday loans impacts an individuals decision to continue borrowing from payday lenders. Information was randomly presented to borrowers in 3 different ways - the first treatment directly compares the APR on a payday loan to the APR on other financial instruments, the second treatment provides borrowers with information about the accumulated fees in terms of dollars of having a $300 outstanding loan for 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months or 3 months. This information is compared with the equivalent fees for borrowing the same amount on a credit card. The third treatment presents customers with the information on the typical repayment profile for payday borrowers reported in a frequency format

Individuals receiving the second treatment are 5.9 percentage points less likely compared to the control group to borrow from the payday lender in the pay cycles following the intervention. The first, second and third treatment reduce borrowing on average by 16%, 23% and 12% respectively compared to the control group

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://sci-hub.se/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2011.01698.x

Academic + Private

Contraceptive adoption

N=749 married women of child bearing age who had given birth in the past 2 years. Vouchers for contraceptive access were provided to eligible women, with the women randomly divided into 2 groups. In one group the women privately received the vouchers while in another group the husbands were also involved in the voucher program. The couple treatment which essentially gives husbands veto power over contraceptives approximates the spousal consent rules governing many family planning services in developing countries.

Women in the individual group redeemed the voucher for contraceptives 10 percentage points more (53% vs 43%) than women in the couple group. Voucher redemption was even greater among women who believed their husbands wanted more children than they did, 16 percentage points higher.

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

5.6.1 Proportion of women aged 15–49 years who make their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care

https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/contraceptive-adoption-fertility-and-family-zambia

Academic + Government

Priming, Choice design, Framing

Three nudges—priming with a green environment, default pre-portioned salads, and increasing perceived variety—at a self-service buffet to promote vegetable consumption

The study tested three nudges—priming with a green environment, default pre-portioned salads, and increasing perceived variety—at a self-service buffet to promote vegetable consumption. The results showed that the default nudge increased vegetable intake, while priming and perceived variety reduced total food intake primarily through a decrease in meat consumption.

The default experiment increased vegetable intake by a mean of 45g. The default experiment successfully increased the energy intake from vegetables among the study participants (124 kcal vs. 90 kcal in control, p<0.01). Both the priming condition and perceived variety reduced the total energy intake among the study participants (169 kcal, p<0.01 and 124 kcal, p<0.01, respectively), mainly through a decrease in the meat-based meal component .

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease.

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317578416_Comparison_of_three_nudge_interventions_priming_default_option_and_perceived_variety_to_promote_vegetable_consumption_in_a_self-service_buffet_setting

Information Availability

Nudges to encourage adequate nutrition

N=127 villages. This study tested the impact of two approaches designed to increase parental awareness of developmental deficits on child nutrition and physical growth. Villages were randomly assigned to either a home-based growth chart to enable parents to monitor their children's health and development and compare to the expected range or to community-based monitoring where information about their child's height and weight were provided at community meetings, in this treatment, parents of stunted children under the age of 2 received nutrient supplements. Parents in the control group did not receive any intervention.

Villages that received growth charts experienced a 22 percentage point reduction in the prevalence of stunting among children malnourished at baseline. While community based monitoring with nutritional supplements did not significantly impact stunting rates.

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

2.1.1 Prevalence of undernourishment

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

https://www.poverty-action.org/study/evaluating-impacts-home-based-growth-charts-and-community-monitoring-stunting-zambia

Social norms, Reducing friction, punishment

Designing different versions of a letter meant to reduce excess contributions

The Agency designed an experiment to find out if using behavioural “nudges” in the communications sent to the account owners would be effective in reducing the number of excess contributions made.

Amongst the 4 000 individuals who had excess contributions to remove between September and December 2014, 47% of those who had received the social norms or simplified information letters voluntarily removed the money, whereas only 41% of those receiving the compliance letter and 38% of those receiving the proposed return alone did so. This showed that the use of nudges, in both cases, were significantly more effective than sending the return alone, but compliance letter was not.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Labour law compliance

Building persistent compliance with labour law

Experiment to test if small changes to the audit process could lead to better outcomes for workers, businesses and the community. The alternative audits used simplified language, salient banners for the most important information, checklists for planning, social norm information regarding compliance rates, timely reminders to advise of annual wage increases, progress graphics to better understand the audit process among others, these adjustments were introduced in layers. The trial involved 1860 small businesses.

The behaviourally informed changes we made to the audit communications and process (including timely reminders) reduced non-compliance with monetary entitlements by a further 24 per cent (14.6 per cent compared with 19.3 per cent for the standard audit).

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

8.8.2 Level of national compliance with labour rights (freedom of association and collective bargaining) based on International Labour Organization (ILO) textual sources and national legislation, by sex and migrant status

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://behaviouraleconomics.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/projects/building-persistent-compliance-labour-law.pdf

Savings and Finance

Information Availability

Sending annual summaries, text alerts, and mobile banking service sign-ups on unarranged overdraft charges

Many banks now provide text alert services and mobile banking apps to help consumers better understand and reduce the costs of their current account or switch to another account that better meets their needs. The FCA wanted to find out how effective these, fairly recent, market strategies had been in facilitating an overall more beneficial result for the consumer. The researchers conducting the study measured the average balances and overdraft charges on accounts of those customers who have received their annual summaries compared to those who had not to test the impact of sending the summaries on consumer behaviour.

Natural experiment

Text alerts reduced unarranged overdraft charges by 6% and mobile apps reduced unarranged overdraft charges by 8%. Signing up to both text alerts and mobile apps reduced unarranged overdraft charges by 24%.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Environmental behaviour

Commitment/Ownership

Symbolic commitments, where hotel guests made a pledge and received a pin, to encourage environmentally friendly behavior such as towel reuse

The study investigated the impact of commitment and self-signaling on environmentally friendly behavior among hotel guests. By making a specific commitment to reuse towels and receiving a pin symbolizing this commitment, guests were over 25% more likely to hang at least one towel for reuse, leading to increased environmental conservation efforts.

Guests who made a specific commitment and received a pin were over 25% more likely to hang at least one towel for reuse, increasing the total number of towels hung by over 40%. Specifically, 73% of guests in the specific commitment with pin condition hung towels for reuse, compared to 57% in the control condition.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/10.1086/667226?searchText=Commitment+and+behavior+change+Evidence+from+the+field&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DCommitment%2Band%2Bbehavior%2Bchange%253A%2BEvidence%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2Bfield%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ad0a97c7c54d5ae45fd36c6206a59fcb0

A "smarter lunchroom makeover" that made fruits and vegetables more convenient, attractive, and normative to encourage students to eat healthier foods

The study examined the impact of a series of low-cost interventions in school cafeterias to encourage healthier eating among students. By improving the convenience, attractiveness, and normative aspects of fruits and vegetables, the interventions significantly increased the selection and consumption of these foods.

The smarter lunchroom makeover increased the likelihood of students taking a fruit by 13.4% (P = .012) and a vegetable by 23% (P < .001). Fruit consumption increased by 18% (P = .004) and vegetable consumption by 25% (P < .001).

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022347612014783

Savings and Finance

Commitment/Ownership

Commitment savings accounts that restricted access to funds until a specified future date to encourage saving

This study conducted a field experiment in rural Malawi, offering smallholder farmers ordinary savings accounts and commitment savings accounts. The commitment savings accounts allowed farmers to restrict access to their funds until a future date of their choosing. The study found that the commitment savings accounts led to increased savings, higher agricultural input use, and greater crop sales and household expenditures.

Only the commitment accounts had significant impacts on savings, later allowing those farmers to purchase 26% more agricultural inputs than the Control.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

8.10.2 Proportion of adults with a financial account or mobile-money-service account

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228292985_Commitments_to_Save_A_Field_Experiment_in_Rural_Malawi#:~:text=In%20collaboration%20with%20a%20microfinance,future%20date%20of%20their%20choosing.

Academic + Intergovernmental organisation + Private

Three custom smartphone applications with different motivational frames to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior in aging adults

The study developed and tested three smartphone applications designed to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior among adults aged 45 years and older. Each app employed different motivational frames (analytic, social, affective) to engage users, and the results showed significant improvements in physical activity levels and reductions in sedentary behavior over an 8-week period.

Participants across all 3 apps reported significant mean increases in weekly minutes of brisk walking (average increase of 100.8 minutes) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (average increase of 188.6 minutes). They also reported a decrease in daily television viewing time by 29.1 minutes.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23638127/

Savings and Finance

Randomizing advertising content (eg. Photos of attractive women) and deadlines to analyze their impact on consumer loan demand

This study used a large-scale direct-mail field experiment in South Africa to examine how different types of advertising content affect consumer demand for loans. The researchers found that certain advertising features, such as including a photo of an attractive woman or not suggesting a particular loan use, significantly increased loan demand, comparable to a substantial interest rate reduction.

Showing fewer example loans, not suggesting a particular use for the loan, or including a photo of an attractive woman increases loan demand by about as much as a 25% reduction in the interest rate

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

10.2.1 Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by sex, age and persons with disabilities

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/40506282?searchText=What%27s+Advertising+Content+Worth+Evidence+from+a+Consumer+Credit+Marketing+Field+Experiment&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DWhat%25E2%2580%2599s%2BAdvertising%2BContent%2BWorth%253F%2BEvidence%2Bfrom%2Ba%2BConsumer%2BCredit%2BMarketing%2BField%2BExperiment%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A95dca74767b055f6e212c0be414bcf80

Savings and Finance

Salience to reduce credit card debt

The behavioural economics team of the Australian government tested the effect of different reminder messages on credit card repayment behaviour, and designed messages to encourage consumers to make higher repayments using framing and social norming

Those receiving an SMS paid on average an extra $134 off their credit card, 28% more than the control group. Receiving an SMS resulted in a

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://behaviouraleconomics.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/projects/credit-cards-final-report-accessible.pdf

Increasing accessibility of healthier food options

One of two lunch lines was arranged to display healthier foods

Sales of healthier food increased by 18% and grams of less healthy food consumed decreased by 28%

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22294661/

Opt-out organ donation

Different implementation dates in different countries

Multi-country

Examines organ donation in 22 countries over 10 years and finds that presumed consent legislation has a positive and sizeable effect on organ donation rates.

25-30% higher donation rates in presumed consent countries

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.8.1 Coverage of essential health services

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://economics.mit.edu/files/13164

Environmental behaviour

Reducing plate size to minimise food waste

B4Development partnered with the Qatar green building council. A group of students was randomly assigned to 2 buffet tables, one with normal sized plates and another with smaller sized plates.

A 2-cm decrease in plate diameter led to a 30% decrease in average food waste per person

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.3.1 (a) Food loss index and (b) food waste index

http://b4development.org/sustainable-healthy-lifestyles/

Consumer behaviour

Framing newsletter subject lines to improve opening and click-through rates on monthly newsletters

BIS conducted an experiment to see if it was possible to increase the number of businesses opening and clicking through on the content of a newsletter (the GREAT newsletter), which was sent to around 18 000 existing and potential SMEs that had subscribed to receive it.

Applying prevention priming to the email content was the most effective, increasing click through rates to links by 30% in the case of pre-start-up businesses.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

9.3.1 Proportion of small-scale industries in total industry value added

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Government + Academic

Environmental behaviour

Different default options (opt-in vs. opt-out) influence individuals' willingness to pay for carbon offsetting programs

The study investigates the impact of default options on individuals' contributions to carbon offsetting programs. Conducted in Gran Canaria, the field experiment compared two treatments: opt-in, where participants had to actively choose to pay for carbon offsets, and opt-out, where the payment was included by default unless participants chose to opt-out. Results indicated that the opt-out treatment significantly increased the likelihood and amount of contributions to the carbon offsetting program.

The proportion of acceptance for the carbon offsetting policy was significantly higher in the opt-out treatment (e.g., 81% at the €10 bid) compared to the opt-in treatment (e.g., 62% at the €10 bid)​​.

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its actions

13.2.2 Total greenhouse gas emissions per year.

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257556094_Can_Defaults_Save_the_Climate_Evidence_from_a_Field_Experiment_on_Carbon_Offsetting_Programs

Commitment devices, Social norms, Reminders

Verbal and written commitments, social norm messaging, and reminders to reduce missed appointments (DNAs) in healthcare settings

This study tested the effectiveness of three behavioral interventions to reduce missed medical appointments (DNAs) in two healthcare centers. By introducing verbal commitments, having patients write down their appointment details, and communicating positive social norms, the study aimed to decrease DNAs. Results showed significant reductions in missed appointments when these interventions were implemented.

Verbal commitments reduced DNAs by 3.5% in the following month. // Written commitments reduced DNAs by 18% compared to the previous 6 months average (P<0.05). // The combined interventions led to a 31.7% reduction in DNAs compared to the past 12 months' average. // Ceasing the interventions for one month resulted in a rise in DNAs, while reactivating them led to a 29.6% reduction (all P<0.05).

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.8.1 Coverage of essential health services

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221694062_Commitments_norms_and_custard_creams_-_A_social_influence_approach_to_reducing_did_not_attends_DNAs

Academic + Government

Testing if Ramadan is a timely moment to conduct pre-diabetes screening

The intervention tests the effectiveness of setting up pre-diabetes screening stations during Ramadan to test whether it is a timely moment to conduct capillary blood glucose tests, which require fasting to produce accurate results and is the cheaper and more effective option at identifying early or pre-diabetes. However fasting at any other time would be difficult to arrange in the while community.

Of the 2,177 screened individuals, 5.3% were found to have undiagnosed diabetes and 26.6% were identified as being pre-diabetic. These people were referred to dietary and lifestyle education programs. Therefore the treatment identified around 690 people (31.9%) who were unaware they had diabetes and were likely to develop the disease

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease

https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en#page108

Commitment devices, Intertemporal Decisions

Commitment mechanisms to test if asking donors to commit to future increases in donations would result in higher donation amounts

The study conducted two large-scale field experiments with charities to investigate intertemporal choices in charitable giving. Donors were asked to increase their donations immediately, in one month, or in two months. Results showed that allowing donors to commit to future donations significantly increased the average amount donated.

First experiment: The average increase in donations was SEK 24.6 per solicitation in the treatment group compared to SEK 18.6 in the control group, a 32% increase.// Second experiment: The average increase in donations was SEK 16.61 per solicitation in the treatment group compared to SEK 15.03 in the control group, an 11% increase.

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272711000764

Resource management

Information Availability

Effects of information on social acceptability of alternatives

Experiment to study whether providing information can increase public acceptance of forest management. Simulated images of the consequences of different forest management practices were shown to participants, who would then rank the acceptability of the practice on a seven point scale. The analysis of the survey responses was clustered according to the participants self reported forest management beliefs

In the mixed belief cluster, viewing the information about consequences led to a 33% increase in the acceptability of alternatives to clear-felling in Australian wet eucalypt forests.

Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

15.2.1 Progress towards sustainable forest management

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00267-009-9392-7

Asking customers if they wanted to downsize portion size

This experiment activated consumers self control by having the servers ask the customers if they wanted to downsize their portion of starchy side dishes.

14%-33% of customers accepted the downsizing offer and they did so whether or not they were given a nominal 25% discount. The total calories served to the downsizers were on average 200 calories less than the control group.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

https://sci-hub.se/10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0224

Opt-in versus opt-out default options on influenza vaccination rates among university employees

This study examined whether changing the default option for flu vaccination appointments would influence vaccination rates. Employees at a university were randomly assigned to either an opt-in or opt-out condition, with the opt-out group being automatically scheduled for a flu shot appointment unless they cancelled. The results showed that the opt-out condition significantly increased the vaccination rate compared to the opt-in condition.

In the opt-out condition, 108 of 239 participants (45%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 39%-52%) were vaccinated at the occupational health department, compared with 80 of 239 participants (33%; 95% CI, 27%-39%) in the opt-in condition (P=.008), a 36% relative increase.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.b.1 Proportion of the target population covered by all vaccines included in their national programme

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/45097121_Opting_In_vs_Opting_Out_of_Influenza_Vaccination

Commitment/Ownership

Offering smokers a savings account in which they deposit funds for six months, with the funds forfeited to charity if a urine test for nicotine is failed

Southeast Asia

The study designed and tested a voluntary commitment product, CARES, to help smokers quit smoking by depositing their money into a savings account, which they would lose if they failed a nicotine test after six months. The study found that those offered the CARES contract were more likely to pass the smoking cessation test at both six and twelve months compared to the control group.

Smokers offered CARES were 3.4 to 5.7 percentage points more likely to pass the 12-month urine test than the control group, representing a 35.3% to 36.5% increase over baseline likelihoods of smoking cessation.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all ages

3.a.1 Age-standardized prevalence of current tobacco use among persons aged 15 years and older

https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/stable/25760239?searchText=Put+Your+Money+Where+Your+Butt+Is+A+Commitment+Contract+for+Smoking+Cessation&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DPut%2BYour%2BMoney%2BWhere%2BYour%2BButt%2BIs%253A%2BA%2BCommitment%2BContract%2Bfor%2BSmoking%2BCessation%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A929c7fbb47029b7bc80ff3c373df5533

Labour law compliance

Information Availability

Salience to influence worker welfare reports

B4Development partnered with the workers welfare forum to implement 2 interventions aimed at improving the programs grievance reporting system. The second intervention consisted of salient, multi-lingual leaflets and posters that were dispatched to selected accommodation sites.

The intervention led to a 40% increase in the number of complaints per worker in the treatment group.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment

8.8.2 Level of national compliance with labour rights (freedom of association and collective bargaining) based on International Labour Organization (ILO) textual sources and national legislation, by sex and migrant status

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

http://b4development.org/the-2022-fifa-world-cup-qatar/

Role of simplification and information in college decisions

Tests the importance of simplification and information. In one treatment professionals helped low to moderate-income families complete the FAFSA and the families were given an estimate of their eligibility for government aid as well as information about local postsecondary options, in this treatment professionals also offered to file the FAFSA on the families' behalf. A second randomly chosen group of individuals received only personalized aid eligibility information but did not receive help completing the FAFSA, while the control group only received a brochure on the importance of higher information and general information on college costs and financial aid

Those who were offered help were 15.7 percentage points more likely to file compared to the control group. While participants in the information only treatment were no more likely to file their FAFSA than the control group

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.5.1 Parity indices (female/male, rural/urban, bottom/top wealth quintile and others such as disability status, indigenous peoples and conflict-affected, as data become available) for all education indicators on this list that can be disaggregated

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w15361/w15361.pdf

Public Service Delivery

Framing vouchers as a unique opportunity — Increasing uptake of government programmes

The Department conducted a trial to find out how effective the use of different behavioural nudges would be in encouraging more application to the Growth Vouchers Programme.

Those sent the 'chosen' email were more than 40% more likely to click through than those sent the control message.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

9.3.1 Proportion of small-scale industries in total industry value added

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Environmental behaviour

Deterrents and nudges to improve fishery reporting compliance

Fishers tend to underreport their salmon catching even though they are require to report. This study implements a deterrence based intervention involving penalties and SMS messages.

Once a deterrence based measure was implemented, salmon fishers were 41% more likely to report a salmon catch and fishers who received an SMS were 6% more likely to report a catch

Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

14.4.1 Proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels

https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-abstract/78/8/2809/6364351?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Public Service Delivery

Visual cues, salience, framing

Information about the web service was presented against a blue background colour so that it stood out, testing the application of salience; the benefits of renewing their license online, such as saving time, were highlighted, testing the application of gain and loss framing

The Government of Ontario, in an effort to improve the efficiency of vehicle licence sticker renewals, collaborated with the Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR) centre to see if the Government could encourage more vehicle owners to renew their sticker online.

The most effective intervention was that which incorporated both salience and gain framing – that is where the online service was highlighted against a different background and the benefits of renewing online emphasised. When sent this version of the notice, vehicle owners demonstrated a 4.3 percentage point increase in online uptake compared with those who were sent the original letter. The percentage of online transactions rose from 10.3 to 14.6% of total renewals.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

16.6.2 Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/behavioural-insights-and-public-policy_9789264270480-en

Savings and Finance

Digital finance campaigns for women

In round 1, different behaviourally informed text messages (or financial incentives) encouraging current customers to refer mobile wallet services to women were used, while women in control group did not receive any messages. In round 2, behaviourally informed messages were tested against the company's standard marketing message.

Prompting clients with social norms and reciprocity messages led to a 1.9 percentage point increase each (a 42% increase) increasing the number of users sending referrals, compared to the control group. This was almost just as effective as highlighting monetary incentives which led to a 2.6 percentage point increase in referrals.

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

https://www.ideas42.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/JazzCash-Project-Brief_2.pdf