CI Webinar: Dilip Soman, University of Toronto

The Architecture of Choice 

Abstract

The central purpose of every organization - be it a business, a not-for-profit, a social enterprise or a government entity is to change the behaviour of its stakeholders. Yet, most organizations struggle to do this. In this webinar, we will first look at developing a framework to better understand the different types of challenges that organizations face with behaviour change and next, we’ll focus on why they struggle with this behaviour change. Particularly,  by using the language from behavioural economics, we’ll make a distinction between two types of decision-making agents; "Econs" are forward looking, unemotional and can process large volumes of information whereas, "Humans" are impulsive, spontaneous, emotional, and often dazed and confused with information and too much choice. The challenges faced by behaviour change occur because products, processes, retail environments and communications are often designed for econs when, in fact, they should be designed for humans.

How do we address these challenges? We’ll first need to understand the basics of behavioural economics and identify key principles. Secondly, we’ll look at developing a framework for how we can best apply these to create the right environments to help facilitate behaviour change (choice architecture). Third, we’ll look at the methods of behavioural economics and finally, discuss several use cases and examples of this approach.

Dilip Soman PhD,

Professor and Corus Chair in Communications Strategy

Co-Director, Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR)

Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto