By Social and Behavioral Sciences Team –
Last September, President Obama issued an Executive Order directing Federal agencies to integrate behavioral-science insights—research insights about how people make decisions and act on them—into the design of their policies and programs. The Executive Order also charged the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST), a cross-agency group of applied behavioral scientists, program officials, and policymakers, with providing policy guidance and advice to Federal agencies in support of this directive.
The Social and Behavioral Sciences Team 2016 Annual Report highlights SBST’s progress implementing the President’s directive over the past year in eight key policy areas: promoting retirement security, advancing economic opportunity, improving college access and affordability, responding to climate change, supporting criminal-justice reform, assisting job seekers, helping families get health coverage and stay healthy, and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of Federal Government operations. This report builds on SBST’s 2015 report, which detailed over a dozen projects that helped more service members save for retirement, more students go to college and better manage their student loans, more veterans access education and career counseling benefits, and more family farmers gain access to credit.
As discussed in this report, SBST has turned its attention to some of the most important policy challenges facing the Nation, such as ensuring access to healthcare coverage for the millions of Americans who still lack it, expanding economic opportunity for workers and their families, and reducing carbon emissions to protect the planet. SBST has also applied a behavioral perspective to helping to keep families in Flint, Michigan safe from lead in water and helping communities across the Nation implement the recommendations of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

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