Michael Hallsworth

Our behavior is strongly influenced by factors that lie outside our conscious awareness, although we tend to underestimate the power of this "automatic" side of our behavior. As a result, governments make ineffective policies, businesses create bad products, and individuals make unrealistic plans. In contrast, the behavioral insights approach applies evidence about actual human behavior--rather than assumptions about it--to practical problems. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, written by two leading experts in the field, offers an accessible introduction to behavioral insights, describing core features, origins, and practical examples.