Behaviour & psychology

62findings0stories

The findings

Action-Plan Prompts for Behavioral Search BarriersEncouraging job seekers to complete a detailed search action plan closed the gap between application intentions and actual applications, expanded the diversity of job search channels utilized, and significantly increased employment outcomes.RCT Adult Non-Cognitive Personality Trait MalleabilitySoft skills training produced a statistically significant increase in extraversion of 0.164 standard deviations (p < 0.05) in the experimental sample, as well as a 0.20 standard deviation increase in extraversion and grit (p < 0.05) in the propensity score-matched sample, with zero impact on placebo cognitive tests (arithmetic and digit span recall).RCT Ambiguity Aversion in Novel Financial ProductsHousehold risk aversion showed no statistically significant effect on actual insurance uptake (marginal effect = -0.00285, p > 0.10). Institutional trust in financial entities was weakly negative (marginal effect = -0.0676, p < 0.10), indicating that lack of clear understanding and product ambiguity, rather than pure risk preference, suppressed commercial demand.Observational Study Aspirational Video ModelingIntegrating aspirational media into business education contributed to a 70% training participation rate among invitees and a significant increase in labor hours across trained participants four months post-intervention.RCT Asymmetric Migrant-Recipient Preference Divergence40% of migrant senders expressed a desire for more control over how recipient households use remittances, and 56% report instructing recipients on fund usage; however, labeling resulted in a statistically non-significant change of -0.200 log points in expenditure on migrants' priority items.RCT Physical Marker Index of Worker AttentivenessInterim cash infusions increased worker attentiveness by 0.077 SDs overall (p=0.092) and 0.133 SDs among below-median wealth workers (p=0.037), whereas financial piece-rate increases produced no attentiveness improvement (-0.013 SDs, p=0.198).RCT Attributional Cognitive UnburdeningTreated workers receiving cash were 10 percentage points (30%) more likely to attribute negative affect to non-financial reasons (p=0.038) and 9 percentage points (62%) more likely to state reasons completely distinct from income or poverty (p=0.018).RCT Autonomous Motivation Enhancement via Self-Determination TheorySoft skills training generated statistically significant standardized increases in autonomous functioning and intrinsic/identified motivation of up to 0.2 standard deviations (p < 0.05), while placebo cognitive measures (timed arithmetic and digit span recall) showed zero statistically significant impact.RCT Becker-DeGroot-Marschak Contract Valuation DisconnectMean willingness-to-pay for the real policy was Rs. 68.4 (median Rs. 70). Modifying the exit threshold increased expected payout value by Rs. 40-70 but only increased willingness-to-pay by Rs. 10.86 (p < 0.01); reducing per-mm shortfall payouts reduced expected value by Rs. 10-20 and reduced willingness-to-pay by Rs. 11.90 (p < 0.01). Introducing basis risk (distant station) halved valuation, reducing bids by Rs. 29.45 (p < 0.01).RCT Behavioral and Personality Supervisory ScreeningLongitudinal tracking of manager traits, workplace climate, and promotion equity comparing candidate behavioral scores against subsequent performance; findings forthcoming.RCT Budgeting and Tracking Behavioral ChannelProposes that active interaction with labeling and weekly tracking in Padalapp improves migrant financial awareness and structured budget allocation independently of recipient compliance.Expert Theory Clarke Rational Basis Risk RejectionRisk aversion is negatively correlated with stated willingness to pay (p < 0.05) and shows no positive effect on actual uptake (marginal effect = -0.00285, p > 0.10), confirming theoretical models where basis risk reverses standard expected utility predictions.Expert Theory Coarse Categorization BiasRecruiters consistently lumped foreign-named applicants into a single lower-evaluated group based on assumed language barriers. Even when resumes explicitly listed multi-language fluency (English, French, mother tongue), active extracurricular involvement, or high-prestige backgrounds, callback rates remained suppressed at 5.9% to 11.3% compared to 15.7% for native English-named resumes.Observational Study Cognitive Bandwidth Attentiveness RecoveryReceiving early cash increased the probability of high workplace attentiveness by 7.7 percentage points overall (a 17.1% increase compared to the comparison group). Among workers with high preexisting financial strain, high attentiveness increased by 18.6 percentage points, while lower-strain workers showed no significant change.RCT Confidence-Independent Grit EnhancementTreatment produced zero statistically significant impact on self-confidence factors in Sample A (treatment effect = -0.010, p > 0.10) and Sample B (treatment effect = -0.104, p > 0.10), despite significantly increasing malleability beliefs (+0.36 to +0.38 SD, p < 0.01) and perseverance (+0.30 to +0.37 SD, p < 0.01).RCT Covert Market Choice Experiment FramingCovert framing successfully measured baseline discrimination where control group participants sacrificed goods worth nearly twice the median daily per capita food expenditure to avoid selecting transgender workers, while eliminating experimenter demand bias.RCT Dual-Channel Performance EnhancementTechnical assistance improved final exam scores, revenue calculation accuracy, and business analyses performed; role models boosted optimism, seed fund applications, and business continuity without changing exam scores. Both channels independently raised household income by 15% (US$30–US$50/month).RCT Economic Trade-Off Benchmarking of Identity BiasControl group participants were willing to forgo grocery items worth nearly twice the median daily per capita food expenditure to avoid hiring a transgender worker; participating in 3-person group discussions reduced this willingness to sacrifice grocery items to zero on average.RCT Employee-Defined Commitment ContractsWorkers voluntarily selected positive production targets 28% of the time, and choosing commitment contracts increased production by 120 fields (a 2% increase over the baseline of 5,311 fields), while evening target choices boosted earnings by 3%. Workers missed self-selected targets only 2.6% of the time compared to 8.6%–14.1% for firm-imposed targets.RCT Experienced Participant Valuation SpilloverNew participants expressed a statistically significant higher willingness to pay for insurance policies (approx. Rs. 6–8 higher per policy) relative to returning multi-year study participants.RCT Financial Thought PrimingAt baseline, 83 percent of workers reported actively thinking about finances while working, 70 percent were "very worried" about future finances, and 68 percent reported difficulty producing emergency cash of INR 1,000 ($15.43 USD). Experimental priming treatments successfully brought existing financial thoughts top of mind.RCT Friendship Network Social ReinforcementFully treated friendship networks produced a 0.46 standard deviation increase in knowledge (versus 0.28 SD for students with zero treated friends) and a 0.24 standard deviation increase in positive sexual attitudes (versus 0.04 SD for students with zero treated friends).RCT Decoupling of General Formal Education and Specific Financial LiteracyDespite high general schooling attainment averaging 15.63 years completed, only 20.6% of household heads correctly answered both basic financial literacy questions at baseline.Observational Study Incentive Signaling and Intrinsic Motivation ParadoxOffering €250 per month increased meeting attendance by 5.3 meetings (ITT, p < 0.01) from a control mean of 7.3, costing an additional €1,530 to €1,868 per participant over two years. However, treatment generated precisely zero impact on overall human capital investment (index effect +0.019, p > 0.10) and caused a temporary 3 percentage point decrease in full-time employment during the first six months (p < 0.05).RCT Incentivized Token Peer-Reward MechanismToken references were among the top 10 most frequent terms in individual-to-individual messages (terms such as "token", "giveusername", "leaderboard"). The bilateral token economy successfully induced strategic peer searching and reciprocal communication across virtual channels.RCT Institutional Trust Building via Financial TransfersParticipants receiving conditional cash transfers were 7.8 percentage points more likely to express trust in the Job Youth Center after 24 months (control mean: 69.9%, p < 0.01) and 6.6 percentage points more likely after 12 months (control mean: 81.2%, p < 0.01). No significant changes were detected in underlying psychological traits such as locus of control, patience, or overall life satisfaction.RCT Intertemporal Goal CommitmentTreated students were 14.3 percentage points more likely in Sample A (p < 0.01) and 19.1 percentage points more likely in Sample B (p < 0.01) to commit one week in advance to the difficult task compared to control group baseline rates of 45% and 41%.RCT Intragroup Peer Discussion for Outgroup Discrimination Reduction3-person group discussions increased selection of transgender delivery workers by 17 percentage points (a 42% increase over control), while 2-person discussions increased selection by 13 percentage points. 25% of the short-term impact persisted after 2–9 weeks (4 percentage points or an 11% increase over control), whereas public non-discussion produced no significant change.RCT Intra-Household Information AsymmetryVarying information asymmetry produced no statistically significant differences in total remittances across information settings (e.g., p = 0.127 for equality of labeling impacts across information conditions).RCT Language-Matched Peer MentorshipSenior-junior pairs engage in twice-weekly structured interactions for eight weeks focusing on practical guidance and bond-building activities; empirical impacts on labor market outcomes and mental health are forthcoming.RCT Learning Dynamics and Remittance Decay DynamicsLow-baseline remitters increased weekly remittance probability (+0.010, p < 0.01) while recipient expenditures on priority items saw no statistically significant rise (-0.189 log points, p > 0.10), indicating an uncorrected perception gap that predicts long-term treatment effect decay if information updates occur.Expert Theory Internal Locus of Control and Psychological Goal-SettingTeaching structured behavioral goal-setting strategies to unemployed workers significantly increased total job application submissions and restored job search activity by shifting perceived control over labor market outcomes.RCT Locus of Control Effort AllocationJobseekers with an internal locus of control demonstrated higher baseline human capital investment index scores (+5.16 vs -5.00) and lower search effort index scores (-4.35 vs +4.42) compared to those with an external locus of control. Cash transfers generated significant net income gains for external locus youth (€22.86 increase, p < 0.01), whereas internal locus youth actively adjusted income sources resulting in no significant net income change (€7.69, p > 0.10).RCT Managerial Goal-Setting AlignmentMoving a teacher from the 50th to 90th percentile in student test score value-added increased managerial subjective performance ratings by 0.7 standard deviations; managerial preferences for professional development and test prep increased test scores by 0.25 SD (p < 0.05), while subjective incentives generated no statistically significant increase in teacher bias or favoritism relative to objective pay.RCT Motivational Reminder Effect of Financial PrimingFinancial priming increased output by 0.111 SDs among poorer workers when delivered while cash-rich (p=0.148), whereas priming delivered while cash-poor decreased output by 0.078 SDs relative to cash-rich priming (p=0.418).RCT Negative Serial Autocorrelation Shock BeliefExperiencing a drought shock in the previous year negatively predicted ex-ante demand for insurance (p < 0.05) and reduced actual insurance purchase probability by 7.8 percentage points (marginal effect = -0.0781, p > 0.10).Observational Study Non-Incentivized Service Spillover EffectHouseholds in treatment villages saw an 8.1 percentage point increase (71% increase from 11.4% baseline) in incentivized newborn visits and a concurrent 6.1 percentage point increase (73% increase from 8.4% baseline) in non-incentivized sick-child follow-up visits.RCT Patient Reporting Reticence from Social ProximityPatients were 7.4 to 10.3 percentage points less likely to file complaints when complaints led to tangible monetary or peer-shaming consequences for providers (a 25% to 33% reduction from the Complaint Box mean of 29.3%), driven primarily by patients who personally recognized health workers participating in the session.RCT Payday-Driven Effort SpikesWorkers exhibiting above-average payday effects were 13.8 percentage points more likely to select positive production targets, selected targets that were 351 fields higher, and after two months were 20.6 percentage points (73%) more likely to select commitment contracts, yielding a 9% output increase when commitment contracts were offered.RCT Peer Saturation and Information DiffusionEvaluates whether achieving a 75% training saturation threshold in local administrative units increases social spillover effects and program uptake compared to a 25% threshold.RCT Perceived Marginal Product of EffortRaising perceived effort productivity caused treated students to be 8.5 percentage points more likely in Sample A (p < 0.01) and 12.9 percentage points more likely in Sample B (p < 0.01) to consistently choose challenging, high-reward tasks across all five rounds compared to control baseline rates of 25% and 17%.RCT Positional List-Order Choice BiasExactly 31.3% of control group applications and 31.1% of treatment group applications were directed to the first vacancy mentioned on the call or text message, despite first-listed vacancies comprising only 22% of all available matches.RCT Post-Intervention Behavioral RelapseFollowing program termination, the post-intervention treatment dummy returned to zero/statistically insignificant levels across goal completion, gap indicator (-5.16, p > 0.10), and biweekly productivity (0.387, p > 0.10), proving that productivity gains were driven strictly by active reminders rather than permanent habit formation or career concerns.RCT Prescriptive-Descriptive Norm Disconnect ActivationPro-transgender participants made supportive statements 2.5 times more frequently than anti-transgender statements during discussions, relying on moral arguments regarding rights and equality. Participating in group discussion raised participants' estimates of their neighbors' willingness to hire transgender workers by 24 percentage points.RCT Present Bias in Human Capital InvestmentPatient jobseekers exhibited significantly higher baseline human capital investment index scores (+4.95 vs -5.14, p < 0.05) and lower search effort index scores (-4.24 vs +4.58, p < 0.05) than impatient jobseekers. Providing conditional cash transfers (€250/month) did not produce statistically significant increases in human capital investment or employment across either patient or impatient subgroups.RCT Provider Retaliation Threat DeterrenceThe threat of provider retaliation muted provider reciprocity increases from 42 percentage points down to 26 percentage points relative to the Complaint Box control (a reduction from a 40% increase to a 25% increase over the control mean of 1.039) and suppressed patient complaint card intensity from 1.053 extra cards down to 0.190 cards (p = 0.033 for difference in card intensity between PD and PD-R).RCT Public Decision Visibility Inefficiency Without DeliberationMaking choices public without prior discussion produced zero statistically significant change in transgender worker selection compared to the private individual control group (0 percentage point effect, compared to +17 percentage points in 3-person discussion).RCT Recipient Time-Inconsistency in Remittance SpendingBaseline survey evidence reveals that 55% of migrants want more influence over the overall household budget in the Philippines, and 37% specifically desire more control over remittance spending decisions due to divergent preferences between senders and receivers.Expert Theory Reporting Intensity Dual-Margin DivergenceWhile tangible provider consequences reduced the overall probability of a patient filing a complaint by 7.4 to 10.3 percentage points (extensive margin), conditional on filing a complaint, patients increased complaint severity by sending 1.053 additional frowning cards in Peer Disclosure (p < 0.05) and 0.771 additional cards in Monetary Penalty (p < 0.05), representing a 33% to 44% increase over the control mean of 2.436 cards.RCT Risk Intolerance Alteration via Depression TreatmentDepression treatment increased participants' risk intolerance, leading to a reduced likelihood of experiencing negative income shocks, while showing no impact on durable goods ownership or household sanitation.RCT Salience-Driven Compensation CaptureTotal worker compensation increased by 25% to 30% (COP 334,133 to COP 421,469 / USD $152–$191 per month, p < 0.01; bonus increase coef = 203,042 to 228,628 COP, p < 0.01) despite weekly prizes representing only 2% of salary (COP 30,000 / USD $15 gift certificates).RCT Social Excuse Mechanism in Transnational TransfersProviding a social excuse resulted in a 36.35 € increase in remittances under education labeling compared to private information (102.7 €), but across all 28 information treatment tests, 23 showed no statistically significant differences (e.g., p = 0.127 for equality of labeling effects across information treatments).RCT Social Prestige & Peer Visibility Amplification84% of participating loan officers appreciated sharing program recognition and prizes with friends and family, 74% valued public praise for their work, and 76% praised the monthly bulletin feature, driving a 63% positive perception of branch work environment despite internal competition.RCT Social Proof Credibility BuildingStationing team members inside formal money transfer branches combined with social proof photo postings significantly reduced intake suspicion, achieving a 56% retention rate in branch recruitment.RCT Sophistication and Learning in Self-ControlAfter two months of work experience, workers with high payday sensitivity were 20.6 percentage points (73%) more likely to voluntarily select commitment contracts than low-payday-effect workers, and access to commitment contracts increased output by 9% for this group.RCT Supervisor-Reinforced RemindersTarget achievement increased by 70.0 percentage points (coefficient = 0.698, p < 0.10; with controls coefficient = 0.854, p < 0.05) and the workload gap index decreased by 9.58 points (p < 0.05) during Phase 2 when branch managers provided weekly reminders, whereas Phase 1 showed no statistically significant effect (coefficient = -0.081, p > 0.10).RCT Symbolic In-Kind Salience NudgingDistributing 284 small in-kind prizes (1.4 per month per branch) alongside public bulletin feature profiles increased goal achievement likelihood by 70 percentage points (p < 0.05) when paired with supervisory reminders, despite prize values representing only 2% of total compensation.RCT Temporal Distance in Goal SettingChoosing production targets the evening prior under higher environmental uncertainty successfully increased worker net earnings by 3%, proving that greater temporal distance strengthens self-control commitment relative to baseline.RCT Transient Remittance Belief MisalignmentLow-baseline remitters increased remittance amounts (+174.94 PhP/week, p < 0.05), yet recipient spending on migrant priority items showed no significant increase (-0.200 log points, p > 0.10), indicating potential treatment attenuation over longer time horizons.RCT Unprompted Rumination Measurement in Real-Effort WorkControl workers exhibited high spontaneous financial rumination (60%), whereas cash receipt increased task focus by 11.5 percentage points (15.5% increase, p=0.032) and eliminated financial rumination in 13.7 percentage points of workers (32.7% reduction, p=0.044).RCT Vicarious Deliberation Spillover in Passive ListenersPassive listeners in the 2-person discussion arm increased their selection of transgender workers by 13 percentage points relative to control, capturing roughly 76% of the 17 percentage point gain observed in fully active 3-person discussions.RCT Wealth-Differentiated Sanction Sensitivity in ReportingWealthier patients were significantly more willing to file complaints when reports generated monetary penalties for providers compared to poorer patients (interaction coefficient = +0.076, p = 0.045), whereas lower-wealth patients showed heightened reticence when complaints carried tangible consequences.RCT