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Behavioural Science


Behavioural science seeks to understand the underlying factors that influence judgements and decision-making. These can relate to the individual or to the contextual environment. Someone living with very little income, for example, will find it more difficult to make long-term decisions around savings or accessing credit. Their constrained circumstances will force them to focus on their immediate needs. A good example of this is when low-income adults borrow from informal providers at very high rates for consumption.

Integrating behavioural insights into our data collection and analysis strategies can advance our understanding and predictions of financial behaviour and guide us to design financial services that really help adults achieve their goals. With current innovations in survey design and data collection, we can test these insights quicker and learn faster.

As part of our global i2i programme, we’ve looked into the barriers and opportunities for integrating new sources of data (e.g. social media) into financial service decision-making that can change the way we do business.

The Latest in Behavioural Science

Encouraging the uptake of health insurance through SMS communication
How to seed connections with customers through SMS and DMs  The last two decades have seen extraordinary growth in digital connectivity, [...]
Driving digital financial services with behavioural science
After conducting a systematic review of how behavioural science can be used to drive financial inclusion, our team was inspired to continue our [...]
Building foundations for new behavioural scientists in Africa
Behavioural science studies how people behave and tries to answer why they behave in the way they do. This is done by looking at how people process [...]
Digital app services in sub-Saharan Africa sees promising start
Expanded smartphone access in Africa underpins evolving consumer behaviour. Smartphone uptake in Africa is growing rapidly. GSMA reported that [...]
Sink or swim: Who is recovering as South Africa eases its lockdown restrictions?
On 1 May 2020, South Africa lowered its lockdown restrictions to Level 4 – a level at which the economy began reopening and several significant [...]
What’s the fuss? The rise of behavioural science for development
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world are asking individuals to stay at home. Lockdown, self-isolation and quarantine are becoming [...]
What does the “new normal” for South Africa look like post the COVID-19 lockdown?
As South Africans finally enjoy some exercise in the open air after six weeks of strict government-imposed lockdown, the biggest question on [...]
Behavioural science for financial services
We’ve been exploring how financial service providers can translate new insights from behavioural science into the design and delivery of financial [...]
The application of behavioural interventions
As we explore how behavioural science can narrow the gap between customer intention and customer action, we have started to look at examples from [...]
Africa’s behavioural science movement is gaining momentum
Africa’s financial service providers reach more individuals than ever before. However, challenges remain that undermine the contribution of [...]