Journal article

Use caution when applying behavioural science to policy

H IJzerman, NA Lewis, AK Przybylski, N Weinstein, L DeBruine, SJ Ritchie, S Vazire, PS Forscher, RD Morey, JD Ivory, F Anvari

Nature Human Behaviour | NATURE RESEARCH | Published : 2020

Abstract

Social and behavioural scientists have attempted to speak to the COVID-19 crisis. But is behavioural research on COVID-19 suitable for making policy decisions? We offer a taxonomy that lets our science advance in ‘evidence readiness levels’ to be suitable for policy. We caution practitioners to take extreme care translating our findings to applications.

University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Horizon 2020 Framework Programme


Funding Acknowledgements

The preparation of this work was partly funded by a French National Research Agency "Investissements d'avenir" program grant (ANR-15-IDEX-02) awarded to H.I., a Huo Family Foundation grant to A.K.P., an ERC 647910 (KINSHIP) grant awarded to L.D., and an ERC 851890 (SOAR) grant awarded to N.W. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.