Applying Behavioural Science: evaluating the impact of your messages | Psychology of communications | Conference | 29 June 2017

© Behavioural Insights ltd
Behavioural insights and
communication
Ashley Perry

Antimicrobial resistance

“… we suggested that without
policies to stop the worrying
spread of AMR, today's already
large 700,000 deaths every year
would become an extremely
disturbing 10 million every year,
more people than currently die
from cancer. Indeed, even at the
current rates, it is fair to assume
that over one million people will
have died from AMR since I
started this Review in the summer
of 2014.”

3,227 GPs in high-prescribing
practices were sent feedback
letters

No Letter
(control)
Received Letter (treatment)

• Intervention group reduced prescription by 3.3% relative to control, i.e.
73,406 fewer doses across 791 practices.
Hallsworth et al. (2016). The
Lancet.

3 clear actionable steps
Make it easy

Signed by Dame Sally Davies,
Chief Medical Officer
Use the right messenger

“The great majority (80%) of
practices in Birmingham & the
Black Country prescribe fewer
antibiotics per head than yours.”
Make the most of social
tendencies

About the Behavioural Insights Team

The Behavioural Insights Team
Evidence-based
policy +
Behavioural
science
Social
impact+

Frameworks to apply behavioural insights

SOCIAL
TIMELYATTRACTIVE
EASY

We ran a trial on the ‘Tax Return Initiative’ with
HM Revenue & Customs
Direct to form
Webpage

Percentage submitting their tax returns
19.2%
23.4%
Webpage Direct to Form
N=8430

Encourage attendance to breast screenings

Make it easy to plan ahead

Percentage of bookings

Dr D Halpern
1 Plough Place
London
EC4A 1DE
David,
You really need
to open this
Dr D Halpern
1 Plough Place
London
EC4A 1DE

Payments for white, personalised envelopes vs.
brown envelopes with no message
21.8%
26.0%
Brown Personalised

Increase business support take-up
Hello Subscriber,
Thousands of businesses are benefiting from professional advice. Now
Growth Vouchers cover half the cost of getting professional advice for
your business. Click here to apply.
•Growth Vouchers is a government scheme to help business like yours get
strategic business advice.
•Businesses can get a grant of up to £2,000 towards the cost of this advice.
•It will take you only a few minutes to register.
•These vouchers are only for businesses with fewer than 50 employees (FTE).
The vouchers can be used for strategic business advice in areas from finance
and cash flow to management skills to even making the most of digital
technology. Click here to find out more and apply.
Colin Ford:
Head of SME Education

Growth Vouchers
Variant Opening paragraph
Control Thousands of businesses are benefiting from professional advice. Now
Growth Vouchers cover half the cost of getting professional advice for your
business. Click here to apply.
Time Growth Vouchers is a government scheme that covers up to half the cost of
getting professional advice for your business. The vouchers are only available
for this financial year so don’t miss out. Click here to apply.
Money Growth Vouchers offer up to £2,000 from government to cover half the cost
of getting professional advice for your business. Click here to apply.
Social Thousands of businesses are applying for Growth Vouchers. It’s a
government scheme that covers up to half the cost of getting professional
advice for your business. Click here to apply.
Chosen You have been chosen to receive information about Growth Vouchers as we
think you may be eligible for this scheme. Growth Vouchers cover half the
cost of getting professional advice. Click here to apply.

Click-Through rate of each message

With HMRC,
our tax trials
brought
forward
£200 million in
12 months.
Nine out of ten people pay their tax on time.

Percentage paying their taxes by each letter
33.6% 35.8% 36.6% 38.6%
Control Local Norm Debt Norm Local + Debt Norm
N=34,383

How to raise
£500,000 for
charity in
one day?

Proportion giving away a day’s salary to charity
5%
7%
11% 12%
17%
Control group Celebrity Sweets Personal email Sweets +
Personal email
N=6175

1. Control 2. Norm
3. Norm & Picture 4. Norm & Logo

5. Three Die 6. Nine Lives
7. Reciprocity 8. Action

Name Message Image
1. Control
2. Norm Every day thousands of people who see this
page decide to register.
3. Norm & Picture Every day thousands of people who see this
Group of people
4. Norm & Logo Every day thousands of people who see this
NHS Logo
5. Three Die Three people die each day because there are
not enough organ donors.
6. Nine Lives You could save or transform up to nine lives
as an organ donor.
7. Reciprocity If you needed an organ transplant would you
have one? If so, please help others.
8. Action If you support organ donation, please turn
you support into action.

Proportion joining the organ donor register after a
simple online prompt
2.3%
2.8% 2.9% 2.9% 2.9% 3.1% 3.2%
2.2%
Control Action Social Norm Norm & Logo Nine Lives Three Die Reciprocity Norm &
Picture
N=1,085,322

Our organ
donation trial
added 100,000
organ donor
registrations in
one year.

Text messages and FE students
Hi Rubina, it never hurts
to plan ahead. Decide
when you will practice
and mark next week’s
class in your diary.
Manchester College
Hi Rubina, well done, you've
reached the mid-term break! Take
time to practice what you've learnt
& stay connected:
http://fb.me/manchestercoll2015
Manchester College
Rubina, how will what
you've learnt help at
home or at work? Share
this at your next GCSE
Maths class.
Manchester College

Weekly attendance and attainment

Any questions
httphttp://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/publications/eas
t-four-simple-ways-to-apply-behavioural-insights/
?

Ashley.Perry@bi.team
Thank you!

Visit the CharityComms website
to view slides from past events,
see what events we have
coming up and to check out
what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk

29 June 2017
London
#CCPsychComms
Psychology of
communications
– what can communicators learn
from the behavioural sciences?

Applying Behavioural Science: evaluating the impact of your messages | Psychology of communications | Conference | 29 June 2017

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Applying Behavioural Science: evaluating the impact of your messages | Psychology of communications | Conference | 29 June 2017