Going to college is a quagmire of complex decisions. Over the years, students have made choices with a variety of options, short- and long-term effects, and unknowable outcomes – from initially deciding whether or not to attend college to announcing majors, figuring out financing, and getting good grades.
Against this backdrop, the deliberate application of behavioral science has the potential to change the academic and career trajectories of countless people. However, colleges and universities do not embed behavioral science into their institutions like some businesses or governments do. Instead, behavioral scientists and research organizations are mostly involved in higher education from the periphery, designing to push for changes in specific, singular, and time-bound student behaviors, such as choosing a university or completing financial aid.
Michael Hallsworth of the Behavioral Insights team recently published the Manifesto for Applied Behavioral Science, creating a great time for leaders in higher education to embrace behavioral science as a holistic way of thinking. Hallsworth's manifesto outlines the major criticisms and obstacles that behavioral science currently faces after its first decade and offers ideas on how to address them in the next decade. Hallsworth's three recommendations are particularly promising in helping higher education accomplish its mission in the short and long term: using behavioral science as a lens, seeing systems, and building behavioral science into organizations.
Here's how each project can make an impact on higher education.
From the perspective of behavioral science
Behavioral scientists are often given a broken thing to fix and are asked to choose their tools, whether it's changing defaults, adjusting social norms, and so on. However, Hallsworth warns that instrumental analogies "limit behavioral science to specific aspects of fixed intended interventions."
I would add that it prevents us from asking the deeper question of what drives student behavior, the cost of which is evident in the many futile efforts to scale up successful, localized interventions. To make matters worse, some attempts to nudge students without fully understanding the antecedents and consequences of their actions have led to unintended consequences, such as lower grades and loan defaults.
To help higher education accomplish its mission in the short and long term: to take behavioral science as a lens, to look at systems, and to integrate behavioral science into organizations.
Hallsworth argues that the first step to effectively applying behavioral science is diagnosing behavior by understanding people's goals, strategies, feelings, beliefs, and explanations for that behavior. Only then should you define your intended behavioral outcome and, importantly, how to get there.
Although using behavioral science as a perspective often requires more upfront investment to understand the scope of the problem, the payoff is a more student-centered, impactful solution.
When we look at behavioral science as a lens, Holsworth argues that behavioral science will move away from a narrow set of definitions to understand the complex adaptive systems that affect the populations we care about. In higher education, these systems include university policies, classroom practices, technological tools, Xi space design, and more.
When we look at this system, we improve our ability to design interventions that can have a positive cascading effect rather than changing a single, isolated behavior. For example, some psychological interventions (e.g., growth mindset, social belonging, differential education) have a disproportionately large impact when delivered during critical transition periods (such as orientation or the beginning of a student's first semester). These short courses change student behavior from the start, allowing these changes to compound and fundamentally change the college experience for students.
This requires a redefinition of what those working in higher education are addressing: instead of helping students navigate complex bureaucracy, they should focus on redesigning the processes and structures of higher education.
Adopting this recommendation will require a redefinition of what those working in higher education are addressing: instead of helping students navigate complex bureaucracy, they should focus on redesigning the processes and structures of higher education.
The same goes for employees who use behavioural approaches to support higher education. Seeing a system that determines satisfaction and retention, burnout, and mental health certainly benefits faculty and staff, but also indirectly helps improve student life.
However, until colleges and universities integrate behavioral science into their day-to-day operations and become behavioral support organizations, it is unlikely that any beneficial change will ripple across the institution and produce positive outcomes at scale.
Once we look at student success through the lens of behavioral science, and see the complex systems behind student decision-making, it becomes clear that behavioral scientists' job is best not as mechanics who fix broken systems, but as engineers who design better systems. As a result, higher education needs to decentralize these engineers across the organization.
To that end, Hallsworth advises organizations to change their thinking about behavioral science, "from projects to processes, commissions to culture." Universities can only be supported behaviourally if behavioural science expertise is disseminated across units and incorporated into all key organisational functions.
So, how can higher education make this transition?
1. Leverage faculty
Leaders with deep expertise in behavioral sciences may already be employed in the social and behavioral sciences sector. Consider how to focus their efforts internally to address institutional challenges, perhaps using their own classrooms or departments as a testing ground. When they find promising solutions, build the infrastructure to disseminate and implement these ideas at the university and system-wide.
In contrast to the normal approach to higher education, which provides additional unpaid and undervalued committee work to teachers, funding and recognition, incentivizes teachers to make higher education policy an important part of their academic portfolios.
Behavioral scientists are better off not as mechanics who repair broken systems, but as engineers who design better systems. As a result, higher education needs to decentralize these engineers across the organization.
2. Practice cross-functional training
I've been providing behavioral science professional development to universities for the past few years, but this work tends to be focused on a single function, such as an academic advisor or faculty. Instead, create training that includes representatives from across the campus (e.g., admissions, financial aid, registrars, student affairs).
Not only will this disseminate behavioral science knowledge throughout the institution, but it will also bring together key players who influence the student experience, making it easier for them to see the adaptive systems that determine whether students graduate or drop out.
3. Make behavioral scientists engineers
Whether you're looking for a teacher or an outside consultant, involve behavioral science experts in the conversation as early as possible. From redesigning college-to-career pathways to building new cafeterias, behavioral scientists can help collect and interpret student voices, anticipate and circumvent behavioral challenges, and identify measurable and meaningful evaluation metrics. The impact of their expertise is greater when they work in an environment where they already have knowledge of disseminating behavioral science.
Prepare for the future of higher education
With colleges and universities mostly avoiding the sunk costs and scars of early adopters of behavioral science, I believe higher education is poised for a paradigm shift in how to help students succeed.
These three recommendations to redefine the scope of behavioral science could have a huge impact on higher education as we strive to improve enrollment, affordability, durability, equity, Xi, graduation, and career success. And, looking to the future, thoughtfully integrating behavioral science into the day-to-day operations of higher education will also help build institutions that can successfully navigate the next major disruptor.