Behavioural Science for Curious Professionals

Most of us like to believe our decisions are rational. We weigh options, consider evidence, choose wisely. Behavioural science has spent fifty years gently disagreeing. The field — drawing on psychology, economics and neuroscience — shows that the mind relies on shortcuts, habits and rules of thumb that are usually useful and occasionally disastrous.

The good news is that knowing the patterns changes how you move through them. Once you notice that a frame can be flipped, that a default carries weight, or that a crowd is not always wise, you begin to make choices on purpose rather than by accident. The ideas are not difficult. They are simply easy to forget in the middle of a busy week.

This hub gathers our briefings and articles on behavioural science — from cognitive biases to the psychology of conversation — written for professionals who want ideas they can actually use, in the time it takes to travel to work.