This essay was adapted from a talk given at Nudgestock 2021 and appeared in Behavioral Scientist’s award-winning print edition, Brain Meets World. T

Is Everything BS?

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2024-06-27 14:30:06

This essay was adapted from a talk given at Nudgestock 2021 and appeared in Behavioral Scientist’s award-winning print edition, Brain Meets World.

Taking BS to mean behavioral science, the answer to that question is, not quite. But most things are. Most things involve a heavy dose of behavioral science. I would argue, however, the contrary does not apply. I don’t want us to start thinking that BS is everything. It is necessary but not sufficient in many, many cases.

I’d add that BS (behavioral science) without creativity—indeed BS without a tiny little whiff of BS (meaning bullshit)—may be actually suboptimal. If you don’t use behavioral science to expand the potential solution space to a problem by adding a psychological dimension in addition to the other aspects or metrics you’re considering, you’re probably missing a huge opportunity.

This is the vital thing: to a great extent, I think everything is BS. There are huge numbers of problems that persist in the world that probably could be solved much more quickly if people would consider a behavioral or psychological dimension. At the same time, I don’t want us to make the opposite mistake—to immediately go in, look at a problem, and assume that it has to be solved exclusively by the application of behavioral science. A lot of things are a mixture.