Safety & Justice

Welcoming our new CEO, Bridgette Gray

by The ideas42 Team

ideas42’s Board of Directors enthusiastically announced the selection of Bridgette Gray as the nonprofit’s new CEO. Effective immediately, she will lead ideas42, one of the world’s top applied behavioral design firms.

Smart Court Appearance Strategies: Court Date Reminders

by Samantha Hammer, Alissa Fishbane, and Shannon McAuliffe

Court date reminders are becoming a go-to tool for many courts, and for good reason: the more rigorous evaluations have found that reminders reduce nonappearance by 20-40%. Just like the reminders we’ve come to expect from our doctors, dentists, and hair salons, court reminders—whether sent by text message, email, phone call, or mail—work by making the court date details and consequences for nonappearance clear and top of mind.

Black History Month: Honoring Black Behavioral Scientists

by ideas42

In the U.S., Black History Month is a time to reflect on the contributions made by Black people in all walks of life, across all industries and in all parts of our society. It’s also a time to celebrate and amplify the voices of those in the Black community and reflect on those who inspire […]

A Look Back on 2021: 5 Behavioral Science Takeaways

by ideas42

Every day, working with a wide range of partners around the world, we use behavioral science to address complex social problems. And each year, we take a moment to reflect on this work, what we’ve learned, and how to build on this knowledge going forward.  As 2021 draws to a close, here are five takeaways […]

On the Road to Justice: Reducing Fines and Fees for Low-Income Drivers

by Dinardo Rodriguez and Samantha Hammer

High levels of fines and fees imposed by traffic courts have become a major strain on low-income drivers in California. In 2020, Californians had $8.6 billion in delinquent court debt, imposing potentially disastrous economic consequences. These impacts fall disproportionately on people of color, who are both more likely to be low-income and more likely to […]

Honoring Black Behavioral Scientists and Examining the Psychology of Race in History

by ideas42

People often (erroneously) believe that a few leaders are responsible for the development of an emerging field, an idea, or event in history because of perceived “natural attributes” such as superior intelligence. This is known as “great man” theory–a flawed theory, of course, because in reality it is the tireless work of countless people that […]

Our Top Behavioral Science Highlights of the Year (Goodbye, 2020)

by ideas42

It’s become tradition of sorts that each December, we reflect on the year behind us and celebrate the newest evidence and social impact generated by behavioral science. Of course, 2020 is a difficult year to look back on with much fondness. And yet, even in one of the more challenging years in living memory, we […]

Ethical Machine Learning

by ideas42

  Applied together, it is fair to say that machine learning and behavioral science have the potential to significantly magnify social impact. Yet, as machine learning algorithms become more prevalent in the systems people use to make important decisions, there is deep, and not unfounded, concern that algorithms – even those designed with social impact […]