Apolitical, June 4, 2019: Seven behavioural insights tips from pioneering cities
Cities have used behavioural insights to boost payment of back taxes, recruit a more diverse police force, and improve trash collection, among other things. Using behavioural insights is one of the most important tools a city can have in its government innovation toolbox.
A partner in most of these efforts so far is the Behavioral Insights Team, or BIT, a U.K.-based social purpose company that helps cities develop and evaluate ideas for improving government services. Over the past three years, BIT has launched 99 experiments in 37 U.S. cities as part of the What Works Cities program.
These are typically low-cost but rigorous experiments that use randomized control trials to test whether tweaks to letters, emails, text messages, and other city communications with residents produce a measurable change in how people respond. It doesn’t always work. But when it does, cities can scale up those strategies knowing that it will pay off.
The City Hall success stories are starting to pile up. Syracuse, N.Y., saw a $1.5-million jump in payments of property taxes owed after mailing out letters with a handwritten message on the envelope. Chattanooga, Tenn., found dozens more people of colour applying to become police officers after testing new messaging on its recruitment postcard. New Orleans found residents eligible for free health care were 40% more likely to see a doctor after receiving a text message saying they had “been selected for a FREE doctor’s appt.” More case studies and use cases are in the BIT report, “Behavioral Insights for Cities.”
“We’re trying to get marginal shifts in behaviour that are cost-effective,” said Hallsworth, noting that strategies shown to work can be scaled up. “So even relatively small improvements can be quite successful.”
