Blog

Thoughts and insights from our work applying behavioral science to social problems.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

6 Behavioral Science Principles Critical for Effective Family Planning Programs

by ideas42

Unintended pregnancies are a persistent global challenge with significant health, financial, and social consequences that disproportionately impact those with the least. Despite significant strides in increasing the availability of contraceptive services, 49% (111 million) of all pregnancies are unintended each year in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), preventing women from having the opportunity to choose […]

Uncovering Hidden Biases in ChatGPT’s Written Content–and Preventing Them from Exacerbating Existing Inequalities

by Ariadna Vargas, Jeremy Barofsky, Miranda Allegar, Erik Simmons, and Maheen Shermohammed

ChatGPT is a cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tool that has the potential to revolutionize the way we produce written content. We may very soon see writers using it as their own personal assistants to generate ideas, publishers using it to generate content effortlessly, and programmers using it to write pieces of code quickly.  However, the […]