According to the most recent column of Denise de Ridder in the NRC, the government should enable us to live healthily. The current National Prevention Agreement is not enough to provide a healthy environment. Read more here (Dutch).

On October 11, Michael Faure discussed the importance of introducing risk analysis at an early stage during education at the conference Risk Science and Decision Science for teenagers that took place at the Lorenz Centre of Leiden University. Faure acted as chair of this day covering the theme of risk and decision sciences on schools and was discussant…

Pearl Dykstra was interviewed recently by Sociologie Magazine about her role in Brussels as the Deputy Chair of the High Level Group of scientists advising the Cabinet of European Commissioners. “This was an opportunity for science and in particular for the social sciences” Read the full interview of Prof Pearl Dykstra in Sociologie Magazine (in Dutch)

What tools do we have to change people’s behavior? Can we motivate people with extrinsic rewards and punishments, or is intrinsic motivation the only driver for long-term behavior? Robert Dur discusses these questions in a podcast of De Correspondent and argues that policymakers should be open for all opportunities to change behavior. Additionally, Dur states…

The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) and the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie) launched the campaign “direct duidelijk” on October 31. The campaign is aimed at all government institutions in the Netherlands and aspires to stimulate and help them to communicate in an understandable way. The launch of “direct duidelijk” campaign took place…

The Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) and the Dutch Prison Services (DJI) of the Ministry of Justice and Security have a major interest in, and active research agenda on personal autonomy and self-reliance of offenders during and after detention. As part of a specific starting note of this agenda, Henk Aarts chairs a project that addresses the role of interactive technology in the…

A Netspar grant of 250.000 Euros was awarded to Hoeken, Lentz, Holleman, Evers-Vermeul, Pander Maat (UiL OTS) and Kalwij (REBO) for a project in which they will investigate the effectiveness of decision aids for pension scheme participants. Pension Decision Aids are interactive online tools that through a sequence of questions and information guide participants towards…

Caroline Hummels gave a presentation on researching transformation through embodied design at the Kees Overbeeke symposium (TU/e; October 19, 2018). Late Professor Overbeeke was one of the pioneers of embodied cognition, who introduced together with Gerda Smets this concept in the design field in the eighties. In her lecture, Hummels reflected on the design research…

Denise de Ridder presented her views on nudging at the Science Café panel discussion on Nudging and Manipulation on October 15, 2018, organized by De Balie Amsterdam – a platform for the freedom of speech, politics, culture, and media – in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, national newspaper De Volkskrant,…

On Thursday Oct 18, Robert Dur gave a keynote lecture at the ‘Dag van het gedrag’ (Day of Behavior) event, which was organized by the Dutch Behavioural Insights Network. Insights from behavioral economy are used more and more to shape policies at municipalities and other governmental organisations. During his lecture, Robert elaborated on examples of…