Blog

Smart Court Appearance Strategies: Behaviorally Designed Court Forms

by Samantha Hammer, Alissa Fishbane, and Shannon McAuliffe

Around the country, courts are focused on improving appearance rates—to move cases forward efficiently, reduce warrants for nonappearance, and increase access to justice. To help courts and partners discover and adopt effective approaches, the (Un)warranted team at ideas42 has crafted this four-part series breaking down leading practices. This first installment will focus on behaviorally designed court […]

ideas42 at 15: A Decade and a Half of Impact Driven by Applied Behavioral Science

by The ideas42 Team

Fifteen years ago, ideas42 was founded on the belief that many of the world’s greatest challenges could benefit from harnessing a deep understanding of human behavior.

Since then, we’ve been at the forefront of pioneering a new approach: centering insights about how people actually make decisions, and reflecting sensitivity to the unique contexts that shape people’s everyday lives.

ideas42 Applauds Biden Administration Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

by Merage Ghane and Ted Robertson

As a leader in creating strategies and validated solutions around bias evaluation and mitigation in artificial intelligence (AI), ideas42 welcomes the Biden Administration’s recent actions to promote guidelines for the responsible use of AI in healthcare. Advances in behavioral science offer powerful tools to guide the management and use of algorithms across the entire life-cycle.  […]

Sowing Sustainability: Behavioral Insights Shaping Farmers’ Decisions to Plant Cover Crops

by Jessica Li and Cecilia Shang

Record high temperatures, droughts, floods, and other severe weather events are more than headlines for the people that feed our populations. For farmers, these events are a direct threat to their livelihoods. A harsh weather event or an unusual change of the season can ruin an entire season’s crops. How can we protect farmers and […]

How do you solve a problem like distracted donors?

by Sarah Welch

Surprisingly, people often need less information and time to act than we expect. Giving donors less time can often lead to more action.

Uncovering the Lives Behind Better Cash Transfers

by Mukta Joshi, Wen Wen Teh, and Ariadna Vargas

Pictures of a cash transfer recipient with her savings box  In many parts of the Global South, millions of individuals face the harsh realities of extreme poverty each day. They carry the heavy burden of not having enough resources to meet their needs, and this constant struggle takes a toll on their mental bandwidth. It […]

Values, Impact, and Norms, Oh My! New Research into How Donors Give

by Nick O'Donnell and Bradley Noble

New research on donor behavior can spark innovations to increase proactive, strategic, and impactful giving. This can mean more funds for more charitable organizations to solve critical social problems around the world.

Five Behaviorally Informed Ideas for Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health

by ideas42

Behavioral science has the power to catalyze progress across the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) sector. Over the last decade, our Global Health team has worked on more than 250 projects in over 30 low-and middle-income countries applying behavioral science to programs across the ecosystem. From reducing provider bias during contraceptive counseling to boosting male […]

Combatting Negative Self-Perception to Increase Youth Employment: Evidence from an Egyptian Labor Program

by Bradley Noble and Catherine MacLeod

Stable employment and career opportunities are critical components of development, but many people living in developing countries still lack access to them. To combat this, countries institute labor programs to match job seekers with employers, but too often these programs fail to design for the context in which job seekers actually behave. As a result, […]

Putting Communities First: How AI Can Revolutionize Local Governance

by Ariadna Vargas and Jeremy Barofsky

Memphis, Tennessee, is often the subject of negative media attention, particularly when it comes to crime and poverty. However, after working for months with local non-profit organizations as part of our Narrative Change work, we were able to confirm what residents of the city have always known—that there is so much more to Memphis than […]