Behavioural Strategies to Strengthen Health Programmes and Policies

The document argues that traditional health interventions relying on education or financial incentives often fail because human decision-making is driven by an automatic, intuitive system (System 1) rather than a purely rational one (System 2). It details six behavioural principles—present bias, framing, time-inconsistent preferences, reminders/cues, social norms, and choice architecture—and provides evidence-based examples of how these can be leveraged to improve medical outcomes, such as increasing vaccination rates in India or reducing antibiotic over-prescription in the UK.

• Present bias causes individuals to weigh near-term benefits and costs more heavily than future ones, meaning smaller, immediate rewards are often more effective than larger, remote ones. In Udaipur, India, providing immediate gifts of lentils and serving plates increased child immunization rates from 6% per village to over 38%.
• The way information is framed significantly alters decision-making; people tend to be risk-averse when options are presented in a positive frame (lives saved) but risk-seeking in a negative frame (lives lost). For example, the phrasing of ventilator descriptions for elderly patients affected opt-in rates, with a positive frame yielding 30% and a negative frame only 12%.
• Commitment devices help align a person's 'future self' with their 'present self' to maintain healthy habits. In the Philippines, a 'deposit contract' where smokers invested approximately $11 and forfeited it to charity if they failed a nicotine test led to higher quit rates at six and twelve months.
• Simple reminders and sensory cues can drastically reduce appointment no-shows and improve hygiene. SMS reminders in four London mental health clinics reduced no-shows by 25%-28%, while the scent of citrus in a Florida teaching hospital's surgical intensive care unit increased hand-washing compliance by nearly 50%.
• Social norms—both descriptive (what others do) and injunctive (what is desirable)—strongly influence behaviour. In the UK, comparing GP antibiotic prescribing rates with better-performing local peers resulted in approximately 73,000 fewer antibiotic prescriptions.
• Choice architecture, specifically the use of defaults, can lead to massive differences in participation rates. In Western European countries, organ donation registration is significantly higher in nations with 'opt-out' (presumed consent) systems compared to 'opt-in' systems.
• The 'Deworm the World Initiative' leveraged opt-out defaults to help deworm more than 185 million children across India and Kenya during 2015-2016.
• Intrinsic social rewards can be more effective than financial incentives in pro-social contexts. In Zambia, hairdressers encouraged to sell condoms using a public 'thermometer' display of their community contribution sold twice as many packs as those receiving money.

APA

World Economic Forum (2018). Behavioural Strategies to Strengthen Health Programmes and Policies. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_35662_WP_Behavioural_Strategies_to_Strengthen_Health_Programmes_Policies.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Behavioural Strategies to Strengthen Health Programmes and Policies. 2018. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_35662_WP_Behavioural_Strategies_to_Strengthen_Health_Programmes_Policies.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Behavioural Strategies to Strengthen Health Programmes and Policies |date=March 2018 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_35662_WP_Behavioural_Strategies_to_Strengthen_Health_Programmes_Policies.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2018behavioural, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Behavioural Strategies to Strengthen Health Programmes and Policies}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = mar, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_35662_WP_Behavioural_Strategies_to_Strengthen_Health_Programmes_Policies.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }