Summary

The European Commission has a good record of accomplishment of using behavioural evidence in policymaking. Here are a few concrete examples where behavioural evidence helped design EU policies:

• the drafting of the Key Information Documents for complex financial products built on behavioural experiments that pre-tested different features of these documents
• the Review of the Tobacco Products Directive relied on behavioural evidence on the images and warning messages discouraging people from (taking-up) smoking
• the Proposal for a new energy label also drew on behavioural testing about what works best for consumers

In order to formalise its existing in-house competences in behavioural sciences, the European Commission launched in 2019 the ‘Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights’.

Speakers

The following keynote speakers and panellists participated in the event:

• Cass Sunstein – Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University
• Vladimir Šucha – Director-General of the Joint Research Centre, European Commission
• Sabrina Artinger – Senior Research Advisor at the German Federal Chancellery
• Marco Simoni – President of Human Technopole Foundation
• Dan Dionisie – Head of the Economic Analysis and Evaluation Unit at the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers.

Practical information