GAABS Blog
BeSci News, Insights and Updates
Sharing the insights, news and updates to support behavioural science practitioners in solving real-world problems.
Your Tough Questions about Decision-Making in the Workplace
What do you say to an executive who truly believes that their organisation is making great decisions now and who is about to issue a hard pass on your offer of taking a look at decision-making in your workplace? This is the question that GAABS wanted to tackle for its first webinar for 2026.
To start, we wanted questions that were derived directly from lived experience. No pre-judgments or baseless biases here. No, no. Just gathering some sharp-pointed arrows for you to place in your quiver. Where did we look? Well, of course, we looked to our brilliant study co-leads from our 2025 study on Decision-Making in the Workplace. Dr. Melina Maleskis, Dr. Sheheryar Banuri, and Dr. Umar Taj graciously agreed to serve as panelists. And they helped us source some of their favorite tough questions with us and shared their best answers.
The Genius Myth: the Masterclass in cognitive bias we didn't know we needed
If you haven’t recently read a book that made you stop and shout “OMG, yes!” to a (usually) empty room, I recommend getting Helen Lewis’ “The Genius Myth” and sitting down for a few hours to take it in. It articulates something I've always felt but somehow struggled to put into my own words. The big take-away is that our societal belief in the concept of a genius is “a dangerous idea.” Curious? Read on to find out more.
Turn Less into More: Behavioural design lessons from trusted saving solutions in the informal economy.
Saving for a rainy day has always been difficult. Timeless saving lessons passed down through fables and biblical parables remain relevant today and financial advice is now more accessible than ever. Despite advice available from social media, self-help books, financial advisors and evidence-based scientific research, the problem of inadequate household saving rates is wicked and persists across the globe.
The Hexagon Framework: A Behavioral Approach to Building Financial Wellbeing
The article explores how emotions, habits, and decision-making shape financial wellbeing, and sets out six evidence-informed behavioural pillars that individuals, organisations, and policymakers can actively work with.
It’s a strong example of applied behavioural science in the financial wellbeing space, with relevance for practitioners across policy, regulation, and financial services
Planning Fallacy, Priming, and a Surprising Gender Reveal
Planning Fallacy is a bias that is so powerful that, even when we look right at it and shake our finger in its face, saying “No, planning fallacy! No!” it casually winks back, says “aren’t you adorable,” and hands us another best-case scenario, labels it “worst case” and sends us packing.
And in 2024, with the innocence that only a master’s student might have, I read about planning fallacy and thought, “Fun! Let’s see if I can use behavioural science to help.”
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Find out more about the kinds of submissions that GAABS accepts for review.
GAABS works with an all-volunteer Editorial Board to surface information believed to be of value to practitioners of behavioural science, but makes no warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of published content. Views expressed and representations related to data, findings and case studies are solely the responsibility of individual authors.