Unlocking Behaviour Change
by Robert West
Latest episode
Jamie vs AI in creative persuasive messaging: Part 1 Jamie goes first
Jamie vs AI in creative persuasive messaging: Part 1 Jamie goes first
About this podcast
Welcome to the Unlocking Behaviour Change (UBC) podcast – a show all about psychology and changing behaviour. Meet your hosts: Professor Robert West and Jamie West OBE (not really, but he wanted a title). In this opening episode Robert and Jamie introduce the topic of the first season: decision-making. They tease a brand new framework to help make sense of it all and dive into the concept of cognitive dissonance.
Want more? Check out our latest books:
Energise: The Secrets Of Motivation: https://shorturl.at/bbA7y
React: Harness Your Animal Brain: https://shorturl.at/yiFQ9
Sign up to Robert’s Substack: https://robertwest100.substack.com/
Subscribe to the UBC YouTube channel: / @unlockingbehaviourchange
Episodes
The newest 20 of 76 episodes
- Jamie vs AI in creative persuasive messaging: Part 1 Jamie goes first · 27 min · Episode 77Robert challenges Jamie to create an ad campaign that encourages active travel (e.g. cycling to work) . . . The catch is he’s also asked the AI to do the same thing. Join the duo…
- Can we tell when people are lying to us? · 25 min · Episode 75As UK Celebrity Traitors nears its finale, Robert and Jamie discuss the psychology of lying and deception – and just as importantly, how good are we at detecting lies? A mega…
- Communication for behaviour change · 27 min · Episode 74Robert has been to China, and goes on about what an amazing time he had ...! In what’s left of the episode, Robert and Jamie give an overview of how to think about ‘active…
- Can we make economic theory more accurate if we base it on behavioural science? · 26 min · Episode 73In the previous episode, Robert castigated economics and economists' concept of 'utility' as fundamentally flawed, leading to models whose predictions keep being wrong. This…
- Economists have it all wrong: How we should be looking at 'utility' · 29 min · Episode 72Robert has a bone to pick with economic theory . . . In fact, he wants to pick its bones clean and start over with a much better theory for everyone! Join the duo as they discuss…
- The good and the bad consequences of classifying things differently! · 24 min · Episode 71Derisory amounts of money paid for a piece of work called an 'honorarium' seem ok when if they were a 'fee', it would be insulting! Robert and Jamie discuss how we react…
- Classifying the world - how we do it and what are the consequences? · 30 min · Episode 70Robert and Jamie discuss the crucial question of how we classify and label things: one of the most basic things that we do in our mental and social world. But in an infinitely…
- 'Stats beat experience every time (almost)' · 27 min · Episode 69Robert and Jamie pay tribute to Dolly Parton - and Jamie plugs his video on her which can be found here - and then discuss how our intuitions about probability can be seriously…
- How do we understand and use probability in decision-making? · 27 min · Episode 68Robert and Jamie discuss various ways in which we understand probability, including a tendency to 'overchunk' probabilities ('possible', 'likely'), and how these can lead to…
- Why every behavioural scientist should understand 'Bayesian' probability · 28 min · Episode 67Robert makes the bold claim that 'probability' underlies all knowledge and that behavioural scientist should always be thinking about knowledge and claims we make in terms of…
- The Odyssey, AI and the human condition · 26 min · Episode 66Robert and Jamie discuss the ubiquitous phenomenon, illustrated by one of the episodes in The Odyssey, that the first priority of our motivational system is not necessarily our…
- How does COM-B compare to the Theory of Planned Behaviour? Part 2 - What COM-B adds · 28 min · Episode 65In the second half of a two-parter, Robert explains the limitations of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and how the COM-B model addresses these. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is…
- How does COM-B compare to the Theory of Planned Behaviour? Part 1 - Understanding the TPB · 28 min · Episode 64The COM-B model of behaviour was put forward in 2011 as a comprehensive model of behaviour, capturing influences that lay within individuals (capability and motivation) as well…
- Decision fail number 5 of 5: 'I didn't ask' · 28 min · Episode 63Last but not least in our miniseries on decision fails we have 'I didn't ask'. Even when we think we know it all, we should often ask for another opinion or perspective. And we…
- Decision fail number 4 of 5: 'I didn't imagine' · 27 min · Episode 62In the mini-series on decision fails - common things that we fail to do that result in mistakes when making decisions - this episode covers our failures of imagination. Robert…
- Decision fail number 3 of 5: 'I didn't think' · 27 min · Episode 61Continuing on the ‘Top 5 Decision Fails’, Robert and Jamie discuss: ‘I didn’t think’. Why don’t leaders appear to think through the consequences of starting wars? When will the…
- Decision fail number 2 of 5: 'I didn't check' · 26 min · Episode 60In this mini-series on the top five decision fails, Robert and Jamie discuss five important things we fail to do, or do properly, that lead to mistakes in decision-making. We…
- Decisions fails number 1 of 5: 'I didn't look' · 27 min · Episode 59In this new mini-series, Robert and Jamie go through candidates for the five biggest decision-making mistakes and how to avoid them - maybe. The first one is ‘I didn’t look’…
- Changing the behaviour of family and friends · 28 min · Episode 57The Behaviour Change Wheel is geared towards behaviour change interventions that might be delivered by governments, comms agencies, service providers, companies or teams whose…
- Some slightly weird behaviour change techniques, and how to get the most out of practice · 27 min · Episode 58Robert and Jamie delve into a class of Behaviour Change Techniques called 'Advise specific behaviour BCTs' in the BCT Ontology. Some are a bit weird, but among them is advising…
