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Behavioural economics is said to be one of the trending subjects in academia also in the general public. Since some of the concepts and everyday aspects can be relatable. This has helped improve traction with the awarding of the Nobel prizes to economists in the recent decade. Books, articles and columnists have emerged over time and engaged people across all spectrums. There is a whisper amid this realm of knowledge losing its sheen? It did, my thoughts a great deal for a while. Further in my investigation of the subject matter, I came across these findings.
Difficulty in terms of practical approaches
In the studies published over some time, a trend was always observed. i.e., everything is “experimental”. It is time-consuming and always to be dealt with care, to arrive at a result. The problem with this is most of the studies which try to replicate the same fail to achieve the same or similar results. It can lead to a lot of demotivating factors in terms of pursuing a particular behaviour research-based topic. The reason, why much of the research does not lead to the same or similar results of findings -could be the geographical conditions, people and culture, economic conditions, beliefs and biases. All this a researcher should keep in mind, to analyse why the results do not match the ideas of the paper they are trying to replicate. In this subject matter called a ‘behavioural science,’ it’s the study of the ‘behaviour’ that stands out than that of being a “science”.
The generalised notion of efficacy of nudges
The simple application of behavioural economics is in terms of the application of ‘nudges. Most of the time efficacy of this concept in terms of understanding its effectiveness is very minimal. It is reported to be less than 10% of the total population being influenced by it. The gain from the exercise of nudging people, to a particular practice to bring a change is said to be a maximum increase to say 5% as per studies and reports in the past year.
Need to rethink in terms of approach
Many of the studies that's published off late were mostly in line with gaining a doctorate, gaining a name in academia. It does improve in terms of the sound methodology and the findings of the researcher. The fact that creating a kind of weird situational context and generating behavioural results, and then generalising it to every situation context is very questionable. In many cases, the kind of control settings of the experimental setting is getting a bit cliché and losing its creativity quotient. Opening our minds to new ideas brainstorming are some of the ways one can stimulate better studies. These can further impact our societies which continue to evolve.
Every discipline has its uniqueness. The aspect to generate knowledge and evolve in the process is the result of the learnings we do overtime. The impact of a change in the approach to new learnings, improved research techniques and brainstorming, multi-disciplinary studies could pave the way to new findings. It is the only way forward to revive a realm of knowledge and strengthen its base. Behavioural economics, I feel would continue to stay, by a change in the approach and continue to marvel us with the changes in human behaviours over time.
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