Abstract

Tests of behavioral insights have become increasingly more common, and have been deployed by UK government and agencies. Typically these field experiments aim to change individual-level behaviors. The current paper tests the potential of behavioral insights for changing group-level behavior. This paper reports the results of a field experiment carried out with the Department of Communities and Local Government. The field experiment tested whether a normative message (vs. a neutral or no message) could encourage parish councils to register an asset of community value (social action). There was no statistically significant effect from this intervention, but the process of designing and implementing this field experiment shows the potential for theories of behavior change to be used by government departments.