We start by asking the right question.

In 2008, the question was: What if we could apply academic research about human behavior and decision-making to design more effective programs and policies?

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Our Story

Social scientists Antoinette Schoar, Eldar Shafir, and Sendhil Mullainathan saw an opportunity to use insights from psychology, economics, and data science to create evidence-based solutions to persistent problems such as poverty. They established a small behavioral science lab at Harvard to test the idea. 

In 2010, that lab became ideas42, the first stand-alone applied behavioral design nonprofit in the United States. What started as a handful of researchers in a cramped office has grown into a team of behavioral scientists, designers, and issue experts working globally.

What’s with that 42?

Our Impact

When you understand what gets in people’s way, you can remove those barriers.

  • Our redesign of Mexico’s national retirement statements helped 20 million workers save more for retirement. 

  • We simplified court reminders and reduced missed court appearances by 36% in New York City, preventing 30,000 arrest warrants over three years. We’re now scaling this work across the country.

  • We created adaptable tools to help cash transfer recipients across multiple countries turn emergency relief funds into long-term financial security.

  • Our innovative approaches to online education with Calbright College keep students engaged and on track to graduate.

  • We established the New York City Mayor's Office Behavioral Design Team, which has been building capacity for evidence-based improvements to the City’s programs and services for 10 years.

How We Work

We use a rigorous, iterative design methodology.

Across our partnerships, ideas42 teams collaboratively identify high-impact problems, diagnose key behavioral drivers, engineer context-sensitive solutions, assess what works, and ultimately scale proven practices. We call this approach IDEAS, and it’s core to everything we do.

Hover over each letter to learn more!

Featured
I

IDENTIFY

Define the right opportunity.

We work with partners to uncover opportunities to leverage behavioral insights – stripping away assumptions about problems and solutions to focus on the right entrypoint.

D

DIAGNOSE

Understand what’s driving behavior.

We draw on behavioral science theory, mixed methods research, and the lived experience of end-users to uncover the contextual drivers of people’s decision-making and behavior.

E

ENGINEER

Design solutions that fit the real world.

We apply a range of design frameworks to develop and refine targeted interventions tailored to context, constraints, and – above all – the people they are designed to serve.

A

ASSESS

Test what works – and improve what doesn’t.

Whenever possible, we rigorously evaluate impact through RCTs or lean experimentation, learning from results to iteratively improve interventions and guide decisions. 

S

SCALE

Sustain and spread proven solutions.

We help partners adapt effective interventions for broader reach, cost-effective implementation, and sustained impact over time.

While not every engagement includes every step, this framework reflects how ideas42 approaches problem solving — combining behavioral science, design thinking, and experimentation to create scalable solutions that meet the needs of our partners.

Testimonials

  • “Collaborating with ideas42 has been an exceptional experience for our team at Navicore Solutions. Their expertise in behavioral science provided us with fresh perspectives and innovative strategies that significantly enhanced our work. Their commitment and personalized approach made the entire experience enjoyable and deeply rewarding. We highly recommend ideas42 to any organization looking to elevate their approach through the power of behavioral science.”

    — Isis Malagrino, Vice President of Customer Experience, Navicore

  • “The behavioral science approach added more focus and direction to the design strategies. This provided guardrails and ensured we were developing tests with more impact potential.... We’re grateful for ideas42’s behavioral design partnership. Collaborating in parallel with another team on features and interventions surfaced fresh perspectives on our approach and processes.”

    — Kennan Cepa, Director of Research and Policy, SaverLife 

  • “Working with ideas42 has been transformative for Calbright. They helped us identify barriers that our focus population of working adult learners might face and then quickly design, test, and scale solutions that have had a measurable impact on key outcomes. The student-centered, data-driven, and equity-focused nature of ideas42's work is closely aligned with Calbright's own approach to student success, and our collaboration with them has allowed us to enhance our educational model to better meet the needs of the diverse learners we serve.”

    — Marisa Bold,Head of Strategic Growth and Development, Calbright College

  • “The team at ideas42 brings an awesome combination of thoughtfulness and genuine intellectual curiosity to their work. Collaborating on voter communications, they consistently went the extra mile to understand and demonstrate why certain strategies work, digging into the underlying psychology rather than taking anything at face value. They're the kind of partners who dive in fully — engaged, creative, and always willing to think differently about hard problems. On top of all that, they’re genuinely funny and kind people to work with. It’s a pleasure working alongside them.”

    — TJ Pyche, Vice President, Ready for Tuesday

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