The Power to Improve Lives
The Behavior Change for Good Initiative unites a world-class, interdisciplinary team of academic experts with leading organizational partners to help advance the science and practice of behavior change. We identify what works at scale by conducting mega-studies (massive random-assignment A/B tests), in which we simultaneously test our Scientific Team’s best ideas for changing a target behavior. Our approach gives us the power to understand which strategies work best overall, what works best for whom, and how to most effectively use behavioral science to transform people’s lives for the better.
A New Method for Conducting Social Science Research at Scale: The Megastudy
Megastudies improve the impact of applied behavioural science
A paper introducing BCFG’s pioneering approach to conducting behavioral science research at scale using “megastudies” was recently published in Nature. A megastudy is a massive field experiment in which many interventions are evaluated simultaneously on the same objective outcome in the same population. The megastudy approach allows dozens of ideas proposed by a diverse array of scientists to be tested at once, making direct, “apples-to-apples” comparisons among different strategies for spurring behavior change possible. This approach can accelerate the speed at which knowledge is generated and more effectively and efficiently inform policy decisions than standard social science research methods.
We partnered with 24 Hour Fitness (a large U.S. gym chain) on the megastudy featured in this paper. Our study involved a 4-week digital program aimed at encouraging exercise among 61,293 gym members. Independent teams of 30 scientists from 15 U.S. universities designed 54 different versions of the program, which comprised the different interventions we tested to boost gymgoing. Forty-five percent of the different, 4-week digital programs tested significantly increased weekly gym visits during the 4-week intervention period. The top-performing intervention increased weekly gym visits by 27% by encouraging gym goers not to miss more than two planned gym visits in a row (if they missed one, they could then earn a nine cent bonus for returning to the gym and avoiding a second missed visit). Importantly, impartial judges—public health experts, behavioral science practitioners, and lay people—were unable to predict which program designs would be most effective at spurring physical activity. These findings reinforce the importance of simultaneously testing many ideas to identify which strategies work best for changing behavior.
Spring 2022 BCFG Virtual Events
The Behavioral Science Authors series features interviews with BCFG Team Scientists who have written new books aimed at a popular audience. We hope you’ll join us for these exciting conversations! Register here.
Work with BCFG
At BCFG, we identify what works at scale by conducting megastudies (massive random-assignment A/B tests), in which we simultaneously test our Scientific Team’s best ideas for changing a target behavior. Our approach gives us the power to understand which strategies work best overall, what works best for whom, and how to most effectively use behavioral science to transform people’s lives for the better. Interested in working with us? Consider one of the open positions on our team.
BCFG Postdoctoral Position
We’re hiring a postdoctoral researcher to contribute to our large-scale field experiments on behavior change, starting in the Summer of 2022. The position will be guaranteed funding for three years and is intended to help a promising behavioral science scholar prepare for a faculty position at a top business school.
The postdoctoral researcher will work closely with Professors Katherine Milkman and Angela Duckworth, along with others on BCFG’s 140+ member Scientific Team (which includes 2 Nobel Laureates, 4 MacArthur Genius Award winners, and 9 members of the National Academy of Sciences), to conduct field experiments testing ways to improve health, savings and educational outcomes (with a particular focus on encouraging vaccination).
Qualified applicants should have earned a PhD in a behavioral science discipline (e.g., economics, psychology, marketing, organizational behavior, management, public health) by the time of the position’s start, have some relevant research and data analysis experience (particularly with regard to conducting field studies and econometric analyses), and a passion for applying behavioral science to real-world problems.
Interested applicants can apply for the position by emailing a cover letter, CV, a co-authored manuscript draft or publication, and contact information for two references to bcfg@wharton.upenn.edu.
Research Assistant
We’re recruiting two full-time research assistants to start in June 2022. These positions are ideal for people seeking to gain more research experience before applying to graduate programs in behavioral science or related fields. Research assistants will work on the analysis of field data from a wide variety of settings and assist with the implementation and management of field experiments on behavior change. Interested? Learn more and apply here.
Featured Research
A megastudy of text-based nudges encouraging patients to get vaccinated at an upcoming doctor’s appointment
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 2021
Teaching temptation bundling to boost exercise: A field experiment
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, October 2020
Forgoing earned incentives to signal pure motives
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2020
BCFG Tip Sheets
We created a toolkit for encouraging vaccine adoption (with a focus on COVID-19), which summarizes the main take-aways from BCFG’s megastudies on nudging flu vaccination uptake with a guide for implementation.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BCFG asked our talented team of 100+ behavioral scientists to provide their tips for encouraging masking-wearing, which we complied into an easy-to-read flyer.
BCFG in the News
A Penny for Your Squats?, New York Times December 2021
These are the best ways to up your workout habits, according to study of over 60,000 people, CNN Health December 2021
Philly announces first winners of its vaccine lottery, The Philadelphia Inquirer June 2021