President Obama on Tuesday directed federal agencies to incorporate “behavioral science insights” into their daily work to improve how federal agencies deliver programs and services, which includes the hiring of psychologists by the government.
“A growing body of evidence demonstrates that behavioral science insights — research findings from fields such as behavioral economics and psychology about how people make decisions and act on them — can be used to design government policies to better serve the American people,” Obama said in an executive order issued Tuesday.
Obama pointed to automatic payments into retirement accounts and streamlining the application process for federal financial aid for college as examples of behavioral science insights helping Americans get ahead.
“[T]o more fully realize the benefits of behavioral insights and deliver better results at a lower cost for the American people, the federal government should design its policies and programs to reflect our best understanding of how people engage with, participate in, use, and respond to those policies and programs,” Obama wrote. “By improving the effectiveness and efficiency of government, behavioral science insights can support a range of national priorities, including helping workers to find better jobs; enabling Americans to lead longer, healthier lives; improving access to educational opportunities and support for success in school; and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy.”
Under the order, agencies are being asked to identify programs for which applying behavior science insights might lead to “improvements in public welfare.” It also asks agencies to help test the usefulness of these behavioral insights, and to “recruit behavioral science experts to join the federal government as necessary to achieve the goals of this directive.”
Obama tapped the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, which works under the National Science and Technology Council, to “apply findings and methods from the social and behavioral sciences to help the policies, programs, and operations of government better serve the nation,” to help department officials carry out the directive.
Obama also wants department heads to look for ways to make government more efficient in the process.
“For policies with a regulatory component, agencies are encouraged to combine this behavioral science insights policy directive with their ongoing review of existing significant regulations to identify and reduce regulatory burdens,” Obama wrote.
Furthermore, agencies are directed to “identify programs that offer choices and carefully consider how the presentation and structure of those choices, including the order, number, and arrangement of options, can most effectively promote public welfare, as appropriate, giving particular consideration to the selection and setting of default options.”
Obama’s order also encourages independent agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the CIA and the Postal Service to comply with the executive order.
Read Obama’s executive order here:
