Global inequalities are widening and the Covid-19 pandemic, polarisation, geopolitical conflicts and technological disruptions have exposed institutional fragilities worldwide. Understanding what drives successful governance and innovation is critical to addressing these challenges.

Join Mónica Wills Silva, BIT’s Director of International Programmes, as she sits down with Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor James Robinson, to hear his insights on how inclusive political institutions and innovation drive sustainable economic growth.

Professor Robinson’s expertise provided a rare opportunity to connect theoretical insights with practical policymaking, and offered actionable strategies for tackling global challenges, including inequality, climate change, and digital transformation.

The BIT podcast

Discover the fascinating and surprising world of behavioural insights by listening to the BIT podcast, brought to you by the Behavioural Insights Team. Find out how understanding the ways people really think and behave through behavioural science can help deliver a fairer society for us all.

Links

To learn more about BIT’s work visit our website: www.bi.team

Behavioural science is constantly evolving. But what are the latest developments, who is at the forefront of this work and what questions are they raising?

Recorded at the Behavioural Exchange conference #BX2025 in Abu Dhabi, Michael Hallsworth, BIT’s Chief Behavioural Scientist, explores the next frontier of the field with some of its most innovative practitioners - asking the question ‘How will AI affect the ways we apply behavioural science to real-world problems?’

We hear from:

🎙️ Sanjog Misra, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing and Applied AI at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business - on using AI to deliver super-personalised messaging at scale

🎙️ John List, Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago - how AI can open up ‘option C thinking’

🎙️ Rasha Attar, the Director of the UAE’s Behavioural Science Group - on developing a tailored large language model to enhance understanding of public responses to policy areas

🎙️ Iyad Rahwan, Director at Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Center for Humans and Machines - on the ethics of AI and user transparency

Tune in to hear how the field of behavioural science is expanding in new and unexpected directions, and how artificial intelligence is being used not just to apply the science more effectively but also reshape the very questions we ask.

The BIT podcast

Discover the fascinating and surprising world of behavioural insights by listening to the BIT podcast, brought to you by the Behavioural Insights Team. Find out how understanding the ways people really think and behave through behavioural science can help deliver a fairer society for us all.

Links

To learn more about BIT’s work visit our website: www.bi.team

The Behavioural Insights Team have spent the last 10 years developing solutions that are informed by behavioural science. These insights do not emerge overnight. Instead, they are grounded by a firm understanding of the systems in which we operate. Reading academic (or policy) papers is an important step to developing evidence based interventions, but it will only get you so far if you want to understand the context in which you want to implement an intervention. Instead, we argue that you need to leave the office and try to experience the context as closely as you can, either by directly experiencing it, or by directly speaking to the people that do.

To try to convince you that you should step away from our desk, we’ve created a podcast which we think will give you a much better sense of why you can’t read your way out of a complex policy problem. In this podcast, Alex Gyani and Rory Gallagher from BIT’s Sydney office speak to Zoe Powell, Saul Wodak, Allison Wong, Edwina Crawford and Sophie Munroe about their experiences of going out into the field and some of the insights they took from that process. We’ll describe projects that have tackled domestic violence, unemployment and the health and safety of gig economy workers. If you want to know more about those specific projects, just follow the links posted in this description.

Note: that this podcast describes the court processes involved in domestic violence cases. While no acts of violence are described in the podcast, if you are affected by domestic violence or abuse, there are a number of services you can reach out to.

Australia: Call 000 if you are in immediate danger. To access 24/7 counselling and support call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

New Zealand: Call 111 if you are in immediate danger. Call 0800 456 450 free from any phone, 9am to 11pm every day.

UK: Call 000 if you are in immediate danger. For free and confidential advice, anytime call 0808 2000 247.

US: Call 911 if you are in immediate danger. For free and confidential advice, anytime call 1800 799 7233.

Musical credits

Intro: Next to you by Jessie Villa

Outro: Cassette Deck by Basketcase

Additional music by Enrize Studio