Public policy based on behavioral approach

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 Science and Industry University

2 Industrial Eng., Iran university of science & technology. Tehran, Iran

3 Iran University of Science & Technology

Abstract

 Introduction: In developed countries, governments (regardless of the rightness or wrongness of their goals) by complex methods tocontrol the society and direct the social behavior of the citizens, and they intervene in the society so that the citizens behave in accordance with their interests with satisfaction, positive feeling and completely with their own authority and show the whole society. Policy makers usually use the laws and dynamics governing, the behavior of individuals andcommunities, advantage of them by benefiting from them, healthy behaviors (by their own standards, of course), coherent societies and stable systems have created The fact is that many daily human behaviors are not done with reflection or even consciously, but are based on feelings, habits, expectations of others, environmental conditions, perceptual and cognitive errors and etc. This question is raised, how can the complexity of human behavior be included in policy making? Change in complex and extensive human and social systems (and that too in the short term) is likely to be very limited, and politicians, academics, and the public must adjust their mental scale to fit the facts. Public policies are diverse and diverse in terms of approaches, methods, goals and topics; in many of these policies, we can raise the question of how to bring benefits and benefits to individuals and the whole society by making changes in the behavior of people and communities. Getting rid of drug and psychoactive addiction, saving energy, legality, greater stability and stability of the family institution, political participation, improving driving and traffic behaviors, improving eating habits, helping fellow humans, observing health and preventing diseases, and dozens of other behaviors. All of them are behavioral issues that can be subject to the attention of policy makers in different fields. The aim of this research is to identify the components and requirements of public policy implementation with a behavioral approach.
Methodology: This research is a philosophical point of view, an interpretive point of view, an observational point of view, an inductive point of view, the point of view of strategy, the point of view of archival research, from the point of view of time horizon, the point of view of single-section type and the point of view of collection techniques and procedures. Data based on published documents/articles. The research strategy was a systematic literature review and the technique used was thematic analysis. total of 376 researches/articles refined during 4 stages and at the end, 191 researches remained. These articles were extracted from 6 international reliable databases (ScienceDirect, Emerald, Sage, Springer, Wiley and Routledge). Six databases have been selected to review the articles in this field because these databases complement each other ,cover each other's strengths,weaknesses and increase the validity of the research.
In order to check the validity, by using the three-way technique, the calculated codes and compiled themes were adapted to other sources (selected articles and existing books in the field of behavioral policy) and their accuracy ensured. In addition, the members of the research team asked to check the calculated codes and compiled themes. In this way, the text of the interviews revised with the extracted codes by two members of the team. The inclusion and comprehensibility of the themes also confirmed by the research team. Finally, an external auditor used to evaluate the coded codes and developed themes.
To calculate the reliability of coding in this research, the test-retest reliability technique used. In this way, a coder encodes a text in two different times. In retest reliability, a number of articles selected as samples and each of them coded again in a certain time interval. In this study, six articles (each from the same database) selected and the researcher re-coded each of them twice, at a fourteen-day interval. The total number of codes in a two-week interval is equal to 70, and the total number of agreements between codes is equal to 29. According to the retest reliability formula, the retest reliability rate is 82.9% and considering that it is more than the recommended minimum value of 60%, it can be said that the coding of the article has sufficient and necessary reliability.
Results and Discussion: According to the findings, 98 meaningful propositions, 126 codes and finally, 8 themes identified as components of behavioral policy: 1) structuring choices, 2) preserving freedom and discretion, 3) leveraging restrictions. Cognitive biases, 4) valuing and liberalism, 5) information-centric, 6) evidence-centric, 7) manipulation of norms, preferences and beliefs, and 8) social contractism. In addition, 117 meaningful propositions, 133 codes and finally, 24 themes were identified as operational requirements of behavioral policy.
Conclusion: The effective implementation of behavioral policy requires taking into account 24 requirements, including avoiding any kind of coercion, defining the principles and territory precisely, bias control strategies, using different methods and disciplines, establishing policy laboratories and flipping units, using scientists and experts. The following concepts are the results: behavioral, evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness, use of feedback loops, experiments with a sufficient number of subjects, flips do not work always and everywhere, attention to evidence, analysis of the decision-making process, precise definition of the problem, selection of information sources and appropriate communication channels, awareness of the intentions and goals of policymakers, defining the framework of using nudges, considering social-psychological-cultural characteristics, having a political network, attracting the support of policymakers, cooperation of policy stakeholders, being aware of the preferences of policy stakeholders , incorporating dynamism and flexibility, ethical considerations and transparency.

Keywords


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