Maier, Maximilian;
Bartoš, František;
Raihani, Nichola;
Shanks, David R;
Stanley, TD;
Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan;
Harris, Adam JL;
(2024)
Exploring Open Science Practices in Behavioural Public Policy Research.
Royal Society Open Science
, 11
, Article 231486. 10.1098/rsos.231486.
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Abstract
In their book ‘Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness’, Thaler & Sunstein (2009) argue that choice architectures are promising public policy interventions. This research programme motivated the creation of ‘nudge units’, government agencies which aim to apply insights from behavioural science to improve public policy. We closely examine a meta-analysis of the evidence gathered by two of the largest and most influential nudge units (DellaVigna & Linos (2022 Econometrica 90, 81–116 (doi:10.3982/ECTA18709))) and use statistical techniques to detect reporting biases. Our analysis shows evidence suggestive of selective reporting. We additionally evaluate the public pre-analysis plans from one of the two nudge units (Office of Evaluation Sciences). We identify several instances of excellent practice; however, we also find that the analysis plans and reporting often lack sufficient detail to evaluate (unintentional) reporting biases. We highlight several improvements that would enhance the effectiveness of the pre-analysis plans and reports as a means to combat reporting biases. Our findings and suggestions can further improve the evidence base for policy decisions.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Exploring Open Science Practices in Behavioural Public Policy Research |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.231486 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231486 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Nudging, open science, pre-registration, public policy, selective reporting |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10185932 |
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