Design of Effective Behavioral Interventions (PHD403)

Content

Behavioral science (e.g. "nudge" and "wise interventions") has in recent years produced a number of new approaches to changing consequential behaviors without the use of mandates or changes in financial incentives, and as a result it has gained influence in academic and policy circles. The goal of this course is to provide you with the knowledge and experience necessary to competently design and experimentally evaluate new behavioral interventions in an academic setting or as a working professional in a social entrepreneurship venture, traditional for-profit firm, government agency, or NGO. This course is also appropriate for students enrolled in a PhD program who plan to work in a more traditional policymaking or management role and want to have a solid grounding in relevant behavioral principles. This course is intended to prepare you to actually design your own interventions to influence the behaviors you care about in areas you are interested in, in the context of your academic research. This course is appropriate for students with interests in a wide range of social, policy, or business goals.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

• Students will learn the theories that serve as a foundation for effective behavioral interventions
• Students will know the design principles for creating effective interventions

Skills:

Students will be able to

• conduct a theoretical analysis of a problem and select a target of an intervention
• design a novel intervention
• identify and craft language that makes the difference between an intervention that works and an intervention that does not
• critically evaluate intervention studies in the literature
• provide feedback to colleagues that help their interventions be more effective

General competence:

• Students should become better producers, evaluators and users of research, and be helped to advance one step further in a sound scientific career.

Required prerequisite knowledge

Participants have to be enrolled in a PhD program.

Exam

Coursework requirements

In-class presentations, Active participation in discussions, Final project requirement

Course teacher(s)

Course teacher:

David Scott Yeager

Course coordinator:

Simone Valerie Häckl-Schermer

Method of work

The course will consist of five days of intensive lectures, group discussions, hands-on working sessions, and student group presentations (short pitches of project ideas). The lectures introduce students to foundational concepts that will enhance and clarify the key lessons they are meant to take away from the readings. During the discussions, Professor Yeager will answer student questions about the assigned readings (and recorded researcher talks, if applicable), and students will be asked to address key conceptual puzzles arising from the readings. Hands-on working sessions will give students practice in crafting copy that will maximize intervention effectiveness. In the student presentations, the students will pitch their intervention idea and will be provided with feedback. All students will be expected to provide useful feedback to every other student’s pitches, to build a learning community that can improve all students’ work.

Students are expected to prepare for and review lecture materials on their own, and meet in groups.

Open for

The course is open to interested PhD candidates at the University of Stavanger and other universities. Single Course Admission to PhD-Courses.

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course supervisor, the student union representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital subject evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature