Predicting People

In our fourteenth episode, Dectech's founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, tackle one pressing question: is AI about to disrupt traditional market research? They discuss three possible ways AI could be influencing the industry, including the rise of AI bots affecting survey responses, the increasing use of large language models as synthetic research participants or “digital twin...

In our thirteenth episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, dive into the critical question of product suitability - or as they prefer to put it, how to delight customers by offering the right products. In particular, they explore the many ways product ranges can go wrong, from dominated and missing options to the asymmetry of information between sellers and buyers. T...

In our twelfth episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, discuss the many nuanced challenges of data science. They explore five common, but often overlooked, pitfalls - from missing causes to spurious correlations. In a world where data science is of rapidly increasing interest to businesses, addressing these issues is highly relevant to avoid flawed data-driven decis...

In our eleventh episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, discuss the vast field of consumer decision making. In particular, they talk about why people buy the products they do and explore how advertising, brand perceptions, cognitive biases and flexible preferences influence our purchasing behaviour.  The insights discussed suggest that consumer decision making can b...

In our tenth episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, discuss New Year's resolutions. Drawing on their own experiences and insights from the cognitive science literature, they propose strategies that can help you to set effective resolutions and stick to them.  The episode explores interesting studies on factors that influence the effectiveness of behavioural change,...

In this ninth episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, discuss algorithms and whether they are able to outperform expert advice. Their conversation draws on a variety of commercial examples and traces the development of algorithms across multiple fields.  The episode explores a couple interesting Dectech case studies, from the world of credit underwriting to football...

In this eighth episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater, discuss the Nudge Movement. Specifically, they explore how the rise of Nudging in Behavioural Science has led to many policy problems being framed in individual rather than systemic terms. This is known as adopting an i-frame rather than an s-frame. The approach puts the focus on an individual’s behaviour rather...

In this seventh episode, Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater discuss the topic of trust. Specifically, they explore the intuitive sense we all have of who we do or don’t trust and how it can perhaps be explained. The episode also addresses why we need trust as a society and how businesses can earn and keep it, with reference to interesting Behavioural Science experiments...

In the sixth episode, we were delighted to have Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater discuss how AI is influencing financial services. Specifically, they consider whether AI can help to comply with the new Consumer Duty rules, and with protecting consumers. They explore what banking activities are being augmented by AI, what role AI can play in meeting the new Consumer Dut...

In the fifth episode, we were delighted to have Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater discuss the new Consumer Duty rules by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which come into effect this month. They broadly answer three key questions: how Consumer Duty came about, what the psychology behind Consumer Duty is, and what this now means for the financial service industry in...

In the fourth episode, we were delighted to have Dectech’s founders, Dr. Henry Stott and Professor Nick Chater discuss the currently high levels of inflation. They broadly answer three key questions: how economists measure inflation, how it is perceived by the wider population, and what is its effect on businesses?  Specifically, this episode explores the psychology of inflation using a Behavioura...

In the third episode, we were delighted to have Ash Schofield, CEO of giffgaff, joining our director Dr Benny Cheung to discuss data-driven decision-making and its role in business. Specifically, this episode explores whether there are too many marketers waiting for the perfect data to make decisions. Among the topics discussed are: data-driven decision obstacles, different decision types and thei...

In the second episode we were delighted to be joined by Georgina White and Philippa Rose, who spoke to us about the BT Insights Team, the challenges they face in proposition design and how Behavioural Science can provide solutions.

In the first episode we were delighted to be joined by Dr Lizzy Lubczanski, who spoke to us about applying behavioural science research and applications in her role as a Behavioural Research Manager at Swiss Re.