The LSE behavioural public policy knowledge exchange group: a position statement

Abstract The LSE Behavioural Public Policy Knowledge Exchange Group (hereafter the Group) was formed to bring together behavioural specialists across the public and private sectors, the international agencies and academia. The purpose of the Group was for its members to discuss the role that behavioural science ought to play in informing decisions that affect individuals and society. The hope was that, by having a Group of the various stakeholders in behavioural public policy meet regularly over an extended period, a shared understanding of the appropriate objectives of this subfield of public policy might be agreed upon. At the very first meeting of the Group, an attempt was thus made to identify some behavioural public policy principles that all members of the Group could accept. At that meeting, there was common consensus in supporting the use of behavioural public policy to strengthen individual agency in the decisions that people take that affect their own lives, to target externality concerns, and to protect and nurture the social instincts.