Mechanisms
Twelve ways to move behavior.
A policy designer thinks in mechanism-first terms: not 'should we work on housing policy?' but 'which intervention mechanism is most likely to move this specific outcome?' These pages cross-cut policy areas to show every registry trial of each mechanism — the simplifications, the defaults, the cash transfers, the social-norm messages — so you can see how a given mechanism has performed across very different public-sector problems.
→ What other people do
Social norms
Social-norms interventions communicate what other people in a relevant comparison group are doing. The classic form is a letter or message that says, in effect, 'most people in you…
5 experiments →
→ What happens if you do nothing
Default
Default interventions change the choice that takes effect when the person doesn't actively choose. Opt-out organ donation, automatic retirement-plan enrollment, and pre-checked pri…
9 experiments →
→ Reduce the steps
Simplification
Simplification interventions remove steps, fields, decisions, or cognitive load from a process. Examples include pre-populated tax forms, single-page benefits applications, and one…
12 experiments →
→ Tailor the message
Personalization
Personalization interventions tailor the content of a communication to the individual recipient — their name, their balance, their specific situation, the consequence that applies …
4 experiments →
→ Tell them what they don't know
Information
Information interventions provide a fact the recipient didn't have or hadn't focused on — a financial aid eligibility, a school quality rating, a deadline. The mechanism assumes th…
23 experiments →
→ Reach the right people
Targeting
Targeting interventions identify a subset of a population with a different expected response — high-risk patients, eligible-but-not-enrolled families, frequent absentees — and dire…
8 experiments →
→ Build skills
Human capital
Human-capital interventions invest directly in a person's skills, education, or capability — job training, early-childhood schooling, college coaching, financial literacy. The mech…
32 experiments →
→ Give people money
Cash transfer
Cash-transfer interventions give recipients money — conditional on behaviors (Progresa), unconditional (GiveDirectly), or as part of a larger package (graduation programs). The mec…
16 experiments →
→ Change the relative cost
Price signal
Price-signal interventions change the financial cost of a behavior — congestion pricing, plastic bag charges, sugar taxes, copays, EITC, subsidies. The mechanism is straightforward…
12 experiments →
→ Mobilize through people
Community engagement
Community-engagement interventions work through existing trusted relationships — community health workers, peer educators, neighborhood associations, faith communities. The mechani…
12 experiments →
→ Stable shelter as foundation
Housing
Housing interventions provide or stabilize housing as a precondition for other outcomes — housing-first for chronic homelessness, rental assistance for at-risk families, supportive…
4 experiments →
→ Help future-self beat present-self
Commitment device
Commitment-device interventions let a person bind themselves in advance to a behavior their future self might rather skip — savings programs that lock in deposits, smoking-cessatio…
3 experiments →