White House releases report on applying behavioral science to government policy
The White House’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST), a subgroup of the Office of Science and Technology Policy that has been working to make government more effective, recently released its second report. This might seem like quiet, behind-the-scenes-work, but it can make a big difference when scaled up across national programs. Mary Ann Bates, deputy director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) North America — a research center based at MIT that seeks to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence — has worked with the SBST over the past two years. "I've been impressed by key elements of their approach," she says. "They test relatively small tweaks to programs, but these can add up to real changes that improve lives." Report highlights include: a 53 percent increase in workplace savings plan enrollment rates by military service members — more than 4,800 new enrollments — and over...