the changelog
Volume 2, Issue 2 | March 2023
BENCHMARKING RESEARCH, POLICY, AND DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA
The Centre for Social and Behaviour Change hosted its inaugural Behaviour Science Dialogue in Kerela earlier this month. Public policy experts, behavioural economists, and social norms researchers, including Dr Luis Artavia-Mora, Shekhar Menon, Nirat Bhatnagar and Dr Sujoy Chakravarty, joined the conference.
The event showcased the range and depth of our research and policy initiatives and included stimulating intellectual discussions. As we advance into the year, we aim to amplify our impact by continuing cutting-edge research and increasing advocacy of applied behaviour science in India. Learn more about the Dialogue here.
PROJECTS
WHAT MAKES A GOOD STORY: UNDERSTANDING HOW NARRATIVE PERSUASION CAN TRANSFORM HEALTH BEHAVIOURS
Through a perception survey, we analysed the impact of compelling Entertainment-Education (EE) narratives in driving desired social outcomes for Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplement consumption among pregnant women and Minimum Diet Diversity (MDD) for children between 6 and 23 months. In the coming months, a 500-respondent lab-in-the-field RCT in Sewapuri, UP, will test our MDD edutainment videos against existing collateral currently used by the government to address these indicators. Read more.
If you’re interested in participating in our research studies, click here!
PUBLICATIONS
Awareness, perceptions, and choices of physicians pertaining to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in India: A formative research study
BY Ishu Kataria, Mariam Siddiqui, Katherine Treiman, Shaylen Foley, Meenu Anand, Sutapa Biswas, Digant Shastri, Neerja Bhatla, Diksha Radhakrishnan, Pavan Mamidi and Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan
Academic article
Financial Uncertainty, Worker Productivity and Savings Decisions: Experimental Evidence from India
BY Aishwarya Deshpande
Working paper
COVID-19 Vaccination Status and Hesitancy: Survey Evidence from Rural India
BY Sneha Shashidhara, Sharon Barnhardt and Shagata Mukherjee
Working paper
BORROWED WISDOM
Recommended reading/listening/watching/learning
If you are new to the field, Behavioural Science 101 is a great resource to help you understand fundamental concepts and get started. Lately, the community has been discussing the ethics of AI in behavioural science, so what’s a better way to learn about AI than through Netflix, Amazon and pizza? Be careful, though — there are serious pitfalls to using ChatGPT to fuel your research. Bonus: Listen to Dr Cassie Kozyrkov (Chief Decision Scientist at Google) in conversation with Dr Joe Sweeney (Advisor, Future of Work at Intelligent Business Research Services (IBRS)) to dive deeper into AI in decision-making.
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook for more, and sign up for our newsletter here.