Meet the IIU’s Behavioural Science Fellow: Matthew Blackshaw
Based on your skills and past experience, what unique perspectives do you bring to this work?
Working as a policy researcher at Parliament, I have become well-practiced in trying to quickly make sense of the new issues each day brings. This work has also taught me how seemingly innocuous government policies and program design choices become political as they unevenly impact different households, regions, and industries. Along with this analytical perspective, my time in non-profits has shown me what can happen when purpose and enthusiasm is allowed to fill the narrow spaces between constraints. Confronting both the importance and the limitations of federal institutions has informed the ways in which I’d like to seek practical outcomes through this work.
What attracted you to apply to the Fellowship program?
The federal government can — and must — be better at doing what we need it to do. By more carefully considering how individuals and organizations behave, public servants can make services, programs and regulations more effective. My hope is that through this Fellowship, I can, in some small way, help make government more responsive to the challenges we face today.
Why do you believe government departments should embrace the application of experimentation and Behavioural Science?
Governments are, understandably, sensitive to the risks that can come with rushing untested ideas into practice. However, I think they should also be more sensitive to the harms that are caused by continuing to do things that we know aren’t working well. I believe a greater appetite in government for thoughtful, iterated experimentation can make it easier to address some of the persistent problems we have institutionally and in our country.
What is your favourite behavioural science bias, heuristic, or effect — and why?
The default bias is one of the simplest but most powerful tools policy makers and program designers have in their kit. At the same time, it also presents a barrier to exploring new ways of doing things within government. As public servants, it’s important that we understand how we can harness this bias, while also recognizing how it influences us and the way we work.
