*The last time we met via Zoom for our weekly meeting, Hank urged us to look at the contributions that President Obama made in promoting the scientific practices of behavioral sciences to governing. This is a product of his guidance and wisdom. We do miss Hank’s intellect, insights, and guidance greatly but we are committed to continuing his legacy - promoting the application of the science of behavior to save the world (Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, 1971).
Roots of the Behavior President
Obama’s election as president marked something new in American history. He did not possess extensive government experience, was not a leader of a political party, and had not served as a governor or veteran legislator. Obama was elected because of his message, persona, behavior, and what he represented. He symbolized and preached hope and change, projecting himself as the person who could lead us in changing and evolving our culture (the social environment where behavior occurs) to promote tolerance, cooperation, equality, and justice. He rose from the obscurity of a state legislator to become the first Democrat in over three decades to win more than half of the popular vote. This was partly due to a group of behavioral scientists known as COBS, or the Consortium of Behavioral Scientists, who played a significant role in Obama's winning strategy and “...provided ideas on how to counter false rumors, like one that President Obama is a Muslim. It suggested how to characterize the Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, in advertisements. It also delivered research-based advice on how to mobilize voters.”
The November 19, 2012 issue of Forbes published an article titled How Behavioral Science Propelled Obama’s Win. The Brookings Institute noted on September 28, 2015, that before he was elected president, Obama became a believer in behavioral economics, a growing field that relies on behavioral science and economics to study how people actually behave, contrary to the assumptions of standard economic models. President Obama entered the White House with the goal of applying behavioral science to nudge the behavior of Americans toward better use of federal programs designed for their benefit. To achieve this, he created the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This culminated with Obama’s executive order, which advocated for the use of behavioral science guidance to formulate policies that would better serve us, the citizens, and help nudge and shape us to make better decisions.
Throughout the presidential campaign, he became both the messenger and the message. He was the perfect match for the moment, and behavioral science played a significant role in shaping his message and persona. At the time, many people identified with the goals he set for us. In the end, he faced two challenging and tumultuous terms in office, including a period of economic crisis and geopolitical upheaval. While he received the Nobel Peace Prize, many of his other policy accomplishments were mostly rescinded and buried by the next administration, as is often the case in our form of government. His major accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act, remains in some form or another. Through his message and behavior, Obama became the mirror for millions of people to see the ideals they hold dear reflected. Hope and change were in the air.
Evidence-Based Social Policy Initiatives
Obama established one of the most extensive initiatives aimed at incorporating rigorous scientific evidence into the shaping of public policy within the federal government. Public policy proposals are designed to influence the decision-making process, often in response to critical issues of public concern. Public policy typically serves as a strategic blueprint for resolving problems and frequently includes directives for actions or behaviors. A primary objective of public policy is to induce behavioral change for the greater good of society.
Obama was determined to employ evidence as a means of guiding decisions related to the allocation of resources for social programs. This approach necessitates purposeful intent, clear guidance, and the systematic collection of objective data to enhance the effectiveness of policy implementation. It allows for the development of social policies wherein decision-making is informed by real-time evidence-based information gathered from the field. This process is dynamic and continually evolves, adapting as dictated by the available data. Formulating program decisions based on rigorous evidence serves the dual purpose of discontinuing funding for ineffective programs while supporting promising initiatives. In his inaugural message, Obama articulated his administration's goal of expanding successful programs and discontinuing ineffective ones—a significant step for our government.
The following outline outlines the key initiatives:
Identify a significant social problem that could benefit both individual citizens and the nation if effectively managed through social policy.
Identify model programs that address the problem and have been proven to significantly reduce it through randomized trials or other rigorous research.
Secure funding from Congress to scale up evidence-based programs that systematically address the identified problem, following the methods validated by pilot models.
Make funds available to government or private entities with a proven track record of strong performance to replicate the validated model programs and develop new ones.
Continuously evaluate the progress of the projects as they are implemented, making informed decisions to ensure positive performance-based outcomes.
On September 15, 2015, Obama issued an executive order directing federal agencies to incorporate and implement evidence-based findings from behavioral science into their practices and services. This directive elevated the role of behavioral science in guiding government services. The executive order explicitly stated, "By improving the effectiveness and efficiency of government, behavioral science insights can support a range of national priorities, including helping workers to find better jobs; enabling Americans to lead longer, healthier lives; improving access to educational opportunities and support for success in school; and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy." The behavioral initiative underscored the recognition that behavior plays a central role in addressing many of the critical issues facing our nation.
A Brief Window into Some of Obama’s Behavior-Based Initiatives
The primary objectives of the behavior-based initiatives initially focused on designing the kind of government Americans deserve. Access to government programs must be accessible as well as intuitive. Information and choices among program options should be clear. Forms should be simple and easy to complete. As a consequence of revisions on the design and implementation of these government forms, making it more accessible and easier to fully complete, the data that were collected for each project to assess effectiveness and measure behavior change, demonstrated that as a result of the changes on how these forms and information request was being managed and modified, after a year (2015) - the results demonstrated:
More service members began saving for retirement.
More students were going to college and managing their student loans.
More Veterans were taking advantage of education and career counseling benefits.
More small farms were gaining access to credit.
More families were securing health insurance coverage.
These improvements in government programs' integrity and efficiency resulted in saving taxpayers dollars.
The second progress report in 2016 demonstrated that behavior-based programs implemented were:
Promoting retirement security.
Advancing economic opportunity.
Improving college access and affordability.
Responding to climate change.
Supporting criminal justice reform.
Assisting job seekers.
Help families get health coverage and stay healthy.
To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Government operations.
In 2014, the Social Science and Behavioral Sciences Team was established, later becoming known as the "US NUDGE UNIT." Dr. Maya Shankar, a prominent behavioral scientist, led this initiative. Currently, she serves as the Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google. The concept of "nudge" derives from the book written by Richard Thaler and Sunstein, initially published in 2009 and revised in 2021. The fundamental idea behind it is that individuals can make better decisions when their environment is designed to gently guide them in the right direction, thus creating what's known as a "choice architecture." This approach allows for influencing the likelihood of individuals choosing one course of action over another.
Under Dr. Shankar's leadership, the principles outlined in Thaler and Sunstein's book were applied practically during the Obama administration. Through initiatives like the text-messaging program developed in collaboration with the Department of Education, these behavioral science concepts were instrumental in creating more accessible and inclusive government programs, effectively putting the "nudge" theory into action. This initiative demonstrated that common-sense measures, such as simplifying communication and enhancing the clarity of choices, could significantly impact participation in Federal Programs, ultimately making government programs more accessible and inclusive for all. (For further insights into Dr. Maya Shankar's experiences during her time with the Obama administration, you can listen to her interview on freakonomics.com in Episode 34, which aired on July 2, 2021. This interview provides a deeper understanding of the principles and outcomes of these behavioral science-based interventions in government programs.)
Obama also introduced behavior management into his Community Redevelopment Policies. On February 27, 2014, he introduced his My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) initiative. He was concerned about addressing the systemic issues facing urban minority youths and communities. He addressed the issue that the social environment in such communities contributed to the persistence of poverty. He identified the problem with the lack of positive mentors modeling prosocial behavior in those communities. Introducing the program, he talked about his troubled youth. He noted that he was lucky enough that the environment in which he grew up stifled many of the severe repercussions of his missteps. He mentioned the positive influence of his parents and grandparents. Still, he noted the important roles of his teachers and his mentors - members of the community who would “…push me to work hard and study hard and make the most of myself. And if I didn’t listen they said it again. And if I didn’t listen they said it a third time. And they would give me second chances, and third chances. They never gave up on me, and so I didn’t give up on myself.”
The MBK initiative focused on joining cities, towns, businesses, educational institutions as well as organizations and foundations to take steps to connect young people to mentoring support networks and to teach the skills they need to find a good job or go to college and work their way into the middle class. MBK focused on achieving six milestones:
Getting a healthy start and entering school ready to learn.
Reading at grade level by third grade.
Graduating from high school ready for a skilled trade or college.
Completing postsecondary education or training.
Successfully entering the workforce.
Keeping participants on track giving them second chances.
After two years, 250 communities in all 50 states participated in the MBK initiative. When Obama left office, the program was on its way to continue expanding opportunities and creating pathways to success. New initiatives included preventing youth violence as well as fostering national service and social innovation. To this day My Brother’s Keeper continues being sponsored by the Obama Foundation. The program is no longer part of the federal government.
On April 15, 2016, Obama issued an executive order calling on departments and agencies of the Federal government to take measures to identify uncompetitive markets and promote competition. This order was the Pro-Competition initiative. The White House Council of Economic Advisers, in their research, identified a decline in competition in numerous sectors within the American economy. They noted the price we pay due to anti-competitive behavior: “Across our economy, too many consumers are dealing with inferior or overpriced products, too many workers aren’t getting the wage increase they deserve, too many entrepreneurs and small businesses are getting squeezed out unfairly by their bigger competitors, and overall we are not seeing the level of innovative growth we would like to see.” The executive order instructed the relevant government agencies to report back within 60 days with a list of specific areas they can promote competition, the steps they can take, and when they intend to do so. Accountability and action were made clear and were identified as an expectation, setting objective and measurable behavior goals for the respective agencies.
In January 2014, Obama instituted the first national guidelines on school discipline. The guidelines urged schools to remove students from classrooms for disciplinary reasons as a last resort. Education Secretary Arne Duncan noted, “Unfortunately, a significant number of students are removed from class each year—even for minor infractions of school rules—due to exclusionary discipline practices, which disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities.” The new guidelines urged schools to:
Each school was required to establish a clearly delineated disciplinary policy specifying expectations for behavior and consequences for positive behavior as well as the consequences for misbehavior. This provided the use of disciplinary incidents as learning opportunities to teach the student the consequences for specific behavior so they can learn to improve their behavior.
Education Secretary DeVoss rescinded the Obama-Era Guidance on School Discipline.
Reflecting on these policy shifts, it becomes apparent that the continuity of behavior from one administration to the next is crucial. This highlights the need to reconsider the structure and function of our government to better adapt to the current social and political environment. Recognizing that government decisions and policies are influenced by behavior within the current social context is essential in this evolutionary process.
In 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Let's Move initiative to address childhood obesity within a generation. The initiative aimed to instill healthy habits, such as healthy eating and physical activity, in children. While it faced controversy and criticism, data shows that it transformed food environments in many public schools by offering healthier meals. Although early data did not show a significant reduction in childhood obesity rates, it's important to acknowledge that behavioral changes evolve gradually. One challenge faced by the Let's Move initiative was its collaborative nature, involving various government agencies and private entities, without dedicated full-time employees. Despite this, Michelle Obama continues to promote it, emphasizing its importance in tackling the urgent issue of obesity, which has both personal health and economic implications.
In April 2013 Obama announced the launch of the Brain Initiative, “…it’s going to require us as a country to embody that spirit of discovery that is what made America, America.” The primary objective was “to develop new tools for mapping brain circuits.” The brain is the organ of behavior and, as such brain connectivity. The interaction of behavior with the environment plays a significant role in shaping brain connectivity and its network known as maps. The fact is that a healthy social environment facilitates the neuronal wiring of a healthy brain. As expected, the project faced many methodological and logistic challenges. As a consequence of the research we now have a better understanding of how neurons and brain circuits are involved in emotion, behavior, and learning. It did provide us with the early steps towards a more complex understanding of the neuronal underpinnings of human behavior.
Clearly, implementing these initiatives was an ambitious and challenging task, particularly within the social context of our evolving and decaying political environment. Most of Obama’s policies focused on intentionally managing behavior change. Intent and rigorous program evaluation and data-based decision-making should be a component of any government policy initiative to guide and change behavior toward the common good. Think about it. We are going to leave it at that, for now…
We, as behavioral scientists, are very concerned about what is happening in our country. As one of our previous essays says, there is bad behavior everywhere. In the next few postings, we will address how cultures/society evolves and what drives the changes; what behaviors are required to establish and maintain a civil society and what will be required for our culture to evolve towards the greater good. Heavy stuff. As always we thank you for reading our postings. We welcome your comments and feedback. Please pass it on!