The Big Impact of Small Changes

February 25, 2018
It's not always about life-changing decisions—sometimes small changes can make a big impact.
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You don't make decisions in a vacuum. Context matters, perhaps more than you think. On this episode of Choiceology with Dan Heath:

  • We explore the subtle, sometimes hidden structures that influence your decisions.
  • You'll see how small changes in the way choices are presented can have a huge impact on everything from vandalism to traffic congestion to retirement savings.
  • Tara Austin of Ogilvy Change tells the dramatic story of how she and her team worked to reduce street crime in a London neighborhood after a devastating riot—a surprisingly simple project that had a measurable impact. (You can see images from the project in this BBC News article.)
  • You'll hear about an experiment we ran on a busy intersection in an attempt to reduce collisions between bicycles and pedestrians, using nothing but a roll of duct tape.
  • And behavioral design expert Sille Krukow explains how choice architecture can channel our inherent laziness to help us make better decisions.

Choiceology is an original podcast from Charles Schwab.

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