Behaviour architects: a framework for employing behavioural insights in public policy practice
Behaviour architects: a framework for employing behavioural insights in public policy practice

Summary/Abstract: Objectives: Responses to policy initiatives of citizens and organisations often differ from those expected by policydesigners. The article offers an analytical framework for holistic mapping of mechanisms driving policy addressees’behaviours.Research design & methods: Article uses systematic literature review of policy design and behavioural insights studiesto develop the framework. The framework is then empirically tested in a case study of a policy implemented in 2015 bythe government of Poland to address the problem of obesity in school children. Methods include in-depth interviewswith adults parents, school principals, canteen staff, surveys, and focus groups with parents and teenagers, ethnographicobservations in school canteens.Findings: The empirical test proved the utility of the analytical framework in identifying flaws in policy design. Frameworkhelped: (1) articulating an overall theory of change of regulation; (2) reframing the policy issue in behavioural terms,i.e., stating who, how, and in what context did not comply, and (3) identifying reasons for non-compliance related tocapacity, motivation and opportunities of the policy subjects.Implications / Recommendations: The article proposes that policy designers should work as behaviour architects in orderto design more effective public policies and avoid policy failures. They should consider mechanisms facilitating orhampering expected behaviours of policy addressees.Contribution / Value added: This article contributes to the theory and practice of policy design. It operationalisesdeterminants of policy compliance from the perspective of applied behavioural science. It helps public policy scholarsand practitioners to think systematically about policy subjects’ behaviours, decisions, and their determinants whenanalysing and designing policy solution.Article classification: theoretical article – conceptual article.JEL classification: H8, D9.

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