What We Are Up To

Tackling Misinformation: Stuart McGinn, News Anchor, 680 News, speaks with psychology investigator and BEworks CEO Kelly Peters about the psychological roadblocks affecting pandemic recovery.

According to a recent report published by BEworks – “COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A Behavioral Lens on a Critical Problem”, demographic factors are not as good predictors of vaccination intentions as one might think!

During an interview with Radio Canada La Reveil, our Associate, Pierre-Jean Malé stated that the report identifies four traits that describe how people think and predict people’s intentions about vaccines. These traits are – Adherence to conspiracy theories, Scientific knowledge, Open-mindedness and Concerns about the vaccine.

A new study that was released this week found almost one-third of Canadians are on the fence when it comes to getting a COVID-19 vaccine while 9 per cent don’t intend to get vaccinated at all. The study commissioned by BEworks, a Canadian scientific think-tank.

Kelly Peters, co-founder of BEworks, joins Devon Peacock on the Morning Show to discuss.

BEworks showed that belief in conspiracy theories played a factor, with “vaccine-opposed” people 429 percent more likely to believe conspiracy theories, while people who are on-the-fence were 163 percent more likely to believe conspiracy theories. “Understanding why people are hesitant (or object out-right) and then deploying scientifically-grounded solutions will be essential if we want to encourage Canadians to get vaccinated,” said lead investigator and BEworks CEO Kelly Peters.

The study (COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A Behavioural Lens on a Critical Problem) shows that the way people think is significantly more predictive of their willingness to get vaccinated than their demographics alone.

A ground-breaking study conducted by BEworks indicates that four cognitive factors are driving Canadians’ vaccine intentions.

Belief in conspiracy theory may increase COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy! According to a study – COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A Behavioural Lens on a Critical Problem, conducted by BEworks understanding why people are hesitant and then deploying scientifically grounded solutions is essential if we want to encourage Canadians to get vaccinated.

Here is what Kelly Peters, Co-founder, and CEO, BEworks, had to say about the report on The Jamil Jivani Show.

Timestamp for Kelly’s interview is from 1:56 – 9:54

There is no better time to go BEyond traditional notions of success and innovation, and aspire to be greater

Major transformations are driven by a growing consensus that an existing paradigm has ceased to function adequately. Most stakeholders agree we are at a major turning point. There is a significant opportunity to improve how we serve customer’s needs, how we motivate our teams with purpose, and how we empower leaders to drive with aspiration. But it is not enough to simply reject the status quo; rejecting one paradigm without simultaneously substituting it with another can be dangerous.

Behavioral science offers that new framework.

The Southern Ontario Behavioural Decision Research (SOBDR) Conference brings together researchers from Ontario universities (and beyond!) with an interest in the study of how people make judgments and decisions.

Registration and program details to come.

In partnership with Sheridan College, BEworks was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant, through the College and Community Innovation Program – Applied Research Rapid Response to COVID-19. The grant is designed to ‘Optimize Interventions to Combat COVID-19 Misinformation Online’. We will partner to apply our expertise in behavioural science to help devise and test interventions. We also have MediaSmarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy, as a partner. Our academic collaborators Gordon Pennycook, Paul Seli, and David Rand, are amongst the world’s leading misinformation researchers and have published extensively on the causes of and solutions to misinformation.

Can behavioral economics aid in our industry recovery?

Travel Health Insurance Association (THIA) News spoke to Kelly Peters, CEO of BEworks, to get her insights into how the insurance industry can influence smart consumer decisions when recovery begins.

During the “Debiased Hiring Through Behavioural Science” webinar, the President of Clarity Recruitment Joe Diubaldo, will be speaking with Dhushan Thevarajah, the Chief Operating Officer at BEworks and Dr. Shelbie Sutherland, an associate at BEworks on various topics concerning diversity and inclusion including:

Behavioural Economics and importance on diversity and inclusion pertaining to hiring;
Examples of Issues concerning Diversity and Inclusion in hiring;
The typical approaches to improve these issues (and their limitations);
How to think about this challenge differently etc.

The purpose of this webinar is to better understand the challenges facing Diversity and Inclusion initiatives so that we can start to build better solutions moving forward.

It’s no secret that the world has changed. The pandemic has ravaged societies and economies, and financial companies are increasingly worried about the possibility of investors panicking and making poor decisions during the market-volatility that seems to be the new norm. Aware of the importance of understanding human psychology in these uncertain times, leading financial research firm Morningstar put behavioural economics center stage at its most recent investment conference.

Behavioural science thinktank BEworks and The Ontario Securities Commission celebrate joint success in identifying a strategy for protecting ageing investors.

Kelly Peters’ keynote talk at BlockHack Global focused on the topic of consumer technology adoption. In many cases, developers and organizations build a solution anticipating droves of consumer interest, only to find that unanticipated barriers are curbing uptake rates.

In her talk, she provides an overview of BE for blockchain developers looking to overcome adoption challenges at the very outset of their conceptual stage. She shares some key behavioural insights that can be used to understand how people typically make decisions, and how they can apply these lessons to overcome the most common pitfalls facing adoption today.

In this report, we outline key questions and problems raised by the pandemic, highlight relevant research we and others are conducting, and outline preliminary thoughts on how we might work together to bring behavioural science to the fight against COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced massive behavioral change for both investors and advisors alike. How can investment advisors maintain and build their relationships with their clients under these new conditions?