Behaviour Change and Psychological Governance

至少自2004年以来，“行为改变”已经成为英国和其他地方的政策制定者、研究人员和从业者的优先事项。行为改变倡议利用微妙的心理、空间或行政提示，鼓励人们在健康、幸福、财富和环境方面做出更好的决定。这方面的例子包括养老金默认选择、器官捐赠假定同意的建议、在人们家中使用智能电表，以及精心设计的空间安排以促进可持续旅行。根据行为经济学、神经科学和心理学等研究学科的见解，这些政策最近受到了上议院科学技术特别委员会的民主审查，同时也成为许多媒体评论的主题，探讨了“保姆国家”和心理操纵的指控。本系列研讨会旨在调查关于行为改变和在管理技术中使用心理学的争论中尚未得到解答的方面。具体来说，我们对治理的心理形式对国家人口和特定社会群体的影响了解不够。我们也不知道，如果通过参与性、观察性或解释性的社会科学方法，而不是经济学或行为科学方法，“行为改变”的替代方案会是什么样子。研讨会将开发一种新的方法，在更广泛的背景下评估“行为改变”议程——与我们关于大脑、思想、行为和自我的文化观念如何变化有关。来自政治科学、社会政策、批判心理学、批判神经科学、哲学和人文地理学等不同职业阶段的国际和英国学术参与者将与从事各种行为改变倡议的非学术政策制定者和实践者进行接触。他们将确定当前对积极心理学、幸福、幸福、繁荣和“正念”等特定分支的政策热情所带来的实践、政治和研究挑战。他们将研究两个最初的方面：(a)在公共政策中使用心理学的累积效应或意想不到的后果，以及(b)它们所依据的基本假设和原则。两年内将在阿伯里斯特威斯、伯明翰、布里斯托尔和达勒姆举办7场研讨会，其中1场研讨会将由兰开夏郡的协同变革社会企业主办。研讨会将探讨：-行为科学和心理学如何改变我们对政策制定者可用的工具和技术的看法；-我们设计的公共和私人空间如何受到神经科学知识的影响；-心理学方法如何促使我们重新思考我们对人格和文化的概念；-如何将这些观点应用于公共卫生和亲环境政策领域。其中一个研讨会将是一个专门的“暑期学校”，允许研究生在更非正式的环境中以与自己的研究项目更直接相关的方式参与研究主题，但借鉴该领域的合作伙伴的经验。该系列研讨会的一个主要目标是将行为改变的政治和伦理的理论观点与实际改变行为的更实际需求结合起来，以确定行为改变研究和实践面临的主要挑战。讨论会的产出将作为政策简报和专业出版物发表在学术期刊、编辑过的手册上。该系列的评论和论文将通过网站提供，而思想性文章将在博客上公开供评论。该网站还将作为在研讨会之间保持参与者之间联系的手段，并将在资金之后继续存在。

'Behaviour Change' has become a priority for policy makers, researchers and practitioners in the UK and elsewhere since at least 2004. Behaviour Change initiatives use subtle psychological, spatial or administrative prompts to encourage people to make better decisions concerning their health, happiness, wealth and the environment. Examples include default opt-in to pensions, proposals for presumed consent for organ donation, the use of smart energy meters in people's homes, and the arrangement of carefully designed spaces to facilitate sustainable travel. Drawing on insights from research disciplines such as behavioural economics, neuroscience and psychology, these policies have been subject to recent democratic scrutiny by the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee, as well as being the topic of much media commentary, exploring charges of the 'nanny state' and psychological manipulation.This seminar series aims to investigate as yet unanswered aspects of the debate over Behaviour Change and the use of psychology in techniques of governing. Specifically, we do not know enough about the effects of psychological forms of governance on national populations and specific social groups. Nor do we know what alternatives to Behaviour Change might look like if they were informed by participatory, observational or interpretive social science methods rather than economistic or behavioural science approaches. The seminars will develop a new approach for evaluating the Behaviour Change agenda in its wider context - in relation to how our cultural ideas about the brain, mind, behaviour and self are changing. International and UK based academic participants at a range of career stages from political science, social policy, critical psychology, critical neuroscience, philosophy and human geography will engage with non-academic policy makers and practitioners working on various Behaviour Change initiatives.They will identify the practical, political and research challenges posed by the current policy enthusiasm for particular branches of positive psychology, wellbeing, happiness, flourishing and 'mindfulness'. They will examine two original aspects: (a) the cumulative effect, or unintended consequences of the use of psychology in public policy, and (b) the underlying assumptions and principles on which they are based.7 seminars will be held over two years at Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Bristol, and Durham, and 1 will be hosted by Collaborative Change social enterprise, Lancashire. The seminars will explore:- how behavioural science and psychology have changed our ideas about the tools and techniques which are available to policy makers;- how the public and private spaces we design are influenced by neuroscientific knowledge;- how psychological approaches have urged us to rethink our conceptions of personhood and culture;- how such perspectives can be applied in the fields of public health and pro-environmental policies. One of the seminars will be a dedicated 'summer school' to allow postgraduate students to engage with the research themes in ways more directly related to their own research projects in a more informal setting, but drawing on the experience of Co-Is in this area. A key objective of the seminar series is to bring theoretical perspectives on the politics and ethics of Behaviour Change together with the more practical demands of actually changing behaviours in order to identify major future challenges facing research on and practice of Behaviour Change. Outputs from the seminars will be published in academic journals, an edited handbook, as policy briefings and in professional publications. Commentary and papers from the series will be made available through a website and thinkpieces will be provided publically on a blog open to comments. The website will also act as a means of maintaining contact between participants in between the seminars and will outlive the funding.