In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

Sustainable consumer behavior

Towards integrating construction risk management and stakeholder management: A systematic literature review and future research agendas

[Excerpt] Most conservation initiatives require changes in human behavior. For example, the establishment of a protected area will typically require some people to change their land-use or fishing practices. Yet conventional attempts to encourage proenvironmental behavior through awareness campaigns, financial incentives, and regulation can prove ineffective (1, 2). Insights into inducing behavior change from the social and behavioral sciences are therefore of critical importance for conservation scientists and practitioners (2–4). Conservation initiatives have begun to leverage a wide range of such behavioral insights (5) particularly regarding cognitive biases and social influence (see the figure). However, their application in the diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts in which many conservation programs operate raises important ethical and implementation-related challenges.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/362/6417/889.full.pdf

How behavioral science can help conservation

Key aspects of building retrofitting: Strategizing sustainable cities

Decision aids, ranging from rating systems to design software to regulatory standards, guide the design and evaluation of infrastructure projects. To present the information in these decision aids, there must first be some options such as, attributes are or are not presented, and, just as in other domains, these factors are likely to influence decisions in infrastructure development. The authors of this paper seek to better understand how choice structures influence engineering decisions. Prospect theory, which is well established in the behavioral sciences, asserts that people tend to think of possible outcomes relative to their starting point, not the resulting end point. For instance, framing a decision outcome as a loss in value (rather than a gain) can reduce the decision makers’ acceptance of risk and, in turn, lead to more conservative outcomes. To measure framing effects in engineering decisions, this paper uses the Envision rating system for sustainable infrastructure, which aims to help ...

Using Framing Effects to Inform More Sustainable Infrastructure Design Decisions

Providing descriptive norms during engineering design can encourage more sustainable infrastructure

To increase the long-term sustainability of architecture and engineering decisions, this research combined theory from behavioral science and civil infrastructure design to examine whether ...

Ruth Greenspan Bell

Papers

Using Framing Effects to Inform More Sustainable Infrastructure Design Decisions

Providing descriptive norms during engineering design can encourage more sustainable infrastructure

Bringing Choice Architecture to Architecture and Engineering Decisions: How the Redesign of Rating Systems Can Improve Sustainability