What We Are Up To

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?

BEworks co-founders renowned Behavioural Economics Professor Dan Ariely & Applied BE Pioneer, Kelly Peters, are hosted by Catherine Milum, Head of Wealth Sales at Manulife. Their discussion is focused on helping advisors understand investor behaviour amidst the pandemic and arm them with actionable insights to guide clients at this critical time.

Where: Manulife

In The Wall Street Journal

In this conversation, Kelly and Cristina discuss how social norms and nudging norm behavior can be a powerful way to influence behavior during the pandemic. Cristina also discusses the interesting research she has been doing during the pandemic.

In this Toronto Star article, our colleague Juan Camilo Salcedo, PhD is interviewed about surveys that measure employee comfort with returning back to life as we know it, return to school, return to work, or return to live entertainment. Everyone has their measurement tools out in an attempt to understand what it is that will help introduce the psychological and physical comforts necessary to bring people back in some capacity.

The top six banks have deferred mortgage repayments at nearly double the rate of their U.S. counterparts, accounting for approximately 16% of their mortgage portfolios, which amounts to over $250 billion. Many people, driven by well-documented behavioural biases, fail to grasp the negative impact that this will have on their finances over the long-term, and instead treat the deferrals as a way to enjoy some extra cash for discretionary spending.

Host Kelley Keehn interviews David Lewis and Kelly Peters of BEworks, as they discuss necessary changes to discretionary spending so that consumers and banks can be prepared to resume payments when required.

In this whitepaper in partnership with JUST Capital, we explore the challenges faced by organizational leaders as they look to traverse the complexities of the new WFH environments faced by their employees.

Leaders today are in uncharted territory, seeking new toolsets and evidence-based approaches to make a meaningful difference on the well-being and productivity of employees.

This interview hosted by Martin Whittaker, CEO of JUST Capital, on Wednesday, features a candid discussion with Dan Ariely, and Kelly Peters, world leaders on behavioral science and co-founders of the world’s leading applied Behavioral Economics firm, BEworks.

Speaking to the importance of scientific thinking and the biases all leaders should look to avoid as they navigate these new waters.

Risk, Liberty, and Scientific Thinking in the Time of COVID-19

In this conversation, Kelly and Cass discuss liberty in the context of public health, the role of scientific thinking in democracy, how people’s risk perceptions are shaped in response to mortality fears, and much more

In this conversation, Kelly and Dilip discuss how behavioral science can inform COVID-19 responses, and how it is resulting in a focus on digital transformation for educators and organizations alike.

How can we use creativity to solve complex business problems?

On the Human Risk Pocast, Kelly and Christian Hunt talk about how Kelly came to establish BEworks, the kinds of problems they help solve and how they deliver scientific solutions to the business community. We also explore the impact COVID is having on business and business models today.