Behavioural sciences can make our lives better: here’s how
By: Paulius Yamin*
Changing our behaviours can change the world. Many of the problems we face in our country could be solved or drastically reduced if we changed our daily behaviours. Of course laws, public policies and educational campaigns are important, but they will have no impact if we, ordinary citizens, do not participate in the solutions and change our thinking and how we act.
Around the world, administrators, policy makers and legislators have begun to realize this. The behavioural changes that many policies require to be successful (think of alcohol abuse, domestic violence or discrimination, for example) do not often happen spontaneously. Because of this, institutions such as the European Commission and the governments of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany or the United Kingdom, among hundreds more around the world, have created specialized units to apply insights from the behavioural sciences to public policy challenges.
One of the worldwide referents when talking about improving coexistence in cities through changes in citizen behaviours is the experience of the Lithuanian descendant Antanas Mockus as Mayor of Bogotá (Colombia). Faced at the beginning of his mandate with the highest rates of homicides and deaths in traffic accidents in the history of the 7-million people metropolis, Mockus created the term "civic culture" to refer to a public policy strategy that seeks to influence the behaviours, culture and consciousness of citizens to improve coexistence. Applying participatory and pedagogical campaigns to change citizen behaviour, Mockus achieved results seldom seen in public policy interventions: in 11 years (1993-2004), citizens of Bogotá reduced with his campaigns homicide rates by 70%, traffic accidents by 65%, and per capita residential water consumption by 46%, for example.
So why do we need more behavioural sciences and more civic culture in Lithuania? Because initiatives based on them benefit us all. Because they improve our quality of life and our ability to live together and cooperate to achieve common benefits. Because at a relatively low cost, they can increase the effectiveness of public policies and private initiatives that improve our lives and our society.
To be able to do this, the first step is for public administrations to understand that in order to generate changes in people's behaviour it is not enough to create laws and regulations that prohibit, increase fines or increase prison sentences. Of course Lithuania makes a lot of progress every day, but we want it to make even more progress on strategic issues for the welfare of all citizens. It is time for Lithuania to join our European neighbours and think of specialised teams of scientists that work on including behavioural sciences as a comprehensive public policy strategy to improve the quality of life of citizens. A strategy that grows from citizens' ideas and actions, and also from detailed data on behaviour and perceptions, from serious psychological and social diagnoses, and from the findings and successful experiences in the behavioural sciences that are being developed in the best research and policy centres in the world for several years now (including for example Harvard University, the London School of Economics, the World Bank, the OECD, several UN agencies and hundreds of governments and NGOs).
But while the power of the state and local administrations is very important to achieve these changes, there is no need to wait for them to take the initiative. Often, it is enough for a small group of citizens to come together and decide to make small changes and inspire others. In fact, around the world there are hundreds of examples of low-cost interventions that have succeeded in transforming people's behaviours in order to, for example, reduce alcohol consumption, reduce domestic violence and bullying in schools, reduce water and energy consumption at home, or increase the percentage of people who recycle or pay taxes (as experiences in Colombia, Ecuador, the United States, Europe and Australia have shown). Currently, thanks to a "Mokslas stipendijas" by Mariaus Jakulio Jason Fondas, at VGTU we are researching how to transform driver behaviour to improve safety, reduce harmful emissions and improve integration with automated systems.
We all have very good excuses to avoid change, of course, but it does not matter how good we think they are, or how much we hear others repeat them as well: if we do not start thinking more about others, changing our daily actions and cooperating with others to bring about change, neither the excuses nor the complaining to which we are accustomed will make the problems that affect us all disappear.
If you are interested in these issues and have ideas to change Lithuania and the world contact me on Twitter @pauliusyamin
* Paulius is a Lithuanian descendant who lives with his Colombian family in Vilnius. He’s an MJJ Fondas Scholar, a Research Fellow at VGTU, a Partner at the Behavioural Lab LT and a PhD Candidate and Researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In the past, he has worked as external consultant for the International Labour Organization (the UN agency in charge of work issues), as Head of the Behavioural and Cultural Team at the Colombian Government, and as research assistant for Antanas Mockus.
Originally published in www.15min.lt