Professional Testing, Inc.
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From the Item Bank

The Professional Testing Blog

 

Cynthia G. Parshall, PhD
Principal Consultant
Touchstone Consulting

Introduction to Action Design

Recent examples of the literature include the following.

Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. New York: HarperCollins.

Ariely, D. (2012). The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. New York: HarperCollins.

Behavioral Science Team. A social purpose company jointly owned by the UK Government, Nesta, and the employees.  http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/about-us/

Beshears, J., & Milkman, K.L. (2013, April). Behavioral economics ideas for Action Design. http://www.slideshare.net/sawendel/temptation-bundling-and-other-health-interventions-addc-april-2013

Cialdini, R.B. (2006). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, revised edition.  New York: William Morrow and Company.

Clear, J. (2016). Achieve Your Goals: Research Reveals a Simple Trick That Doubles Your Chances for Success. Retrieved from http://jamesclear.com/implementation-intentions

Dynarski, S. (2015, Jan 17). Helping the Poor in Education: The Power of a Simple Nudge. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/upshot/helping-the-poor-in-higher-education-the-power-of-a-simple-nudge.html?mwrsm=Email&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. New York: Broadway Books.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Kuang, C. (2012). In the Cafeteria, Google Gets Healthy. http://www.fastcompany.com/1822516/cafeteria-google-gets-healthy

Martin, S.J., Goldstein, N.J., & Cialdini, R.B. (2014). The Small Big: Small Changes that Spark Big Influence. New York: Hachette Book Group.

Milkman, K.L., Beshears, J., Choi, J.J., Laibson, D., & Madrian, B.C. (2012). Following Through on Good Intentions: The Power of Planning Prompts. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper No 17995. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w17995

Social and Behavioral Sciences Team. An official website of the United States Government. https://sbst.gov/

Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Wendel, S. (2014). Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics. O’Reilly Media: Sebastopol, CA.

World Bank (2015). World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0342-0.License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2014/12/02/world-development-report-2015-explores-mind-society-and-behavior

 

Action Design Approaches for Survey Administration

Anderson, S.P. (2011). Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. New York: HarperCollins.

Cialdini, R.B. (2006). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, revised edition.  New York: William Morrow and Company.

Dillman, D.A. (2000). Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, second edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. New York: Broadway Books.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Martin, S.J., Goldstein, N.J., & Cialdini, R.B. (2014). The Small Big: Small Changes that Spark Big Influence. New York: Hachette Book Group.

Whitmore Sas, P. (2002, July 17). “Is there a quick list of tips for designing surveys?” Retrieved from http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~wit/surveys/title.html

Sinek, S. (2009, September). Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Wendel, S. (2014). Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics. O’Reilly Media: Sebastopol, CA.

 

Action Design Approaches for Honesty and Integrity

Ariely, D. (2012). The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. New York: HarperCollins.

Ariely, D. (May 22, 2015). (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies. Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com/watch/80047681?trackId=14170060&tctx=2%2C0%2C5760531b-7c48-4281-b84a-1944589a1632-174611389

Bateson, M., Nettle, D., & Roberts, G. (2006). Cues of Being Watched Enhance Cooperation in a Real-World Setting. Biology Letters, 2(3). Retrieved 2/4/18 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1686213/

Christakis, N.A., & Fowler, J.H. (2009). Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. Little, Brown and Company: New York.

Checklist for Plain Language (n.d.) Retrieved 4/21/18 from https://plainlanguage.gov/resources/checklists/checklist/

Checklist for Plain Language on the Web (n.d.) Retrieved 4/21/18 from https://plainlanguage.gov/resources/checklists/web-checklist/

Cialdini, R.B. (2006). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, revised edition. New York: William Morrow and Company.

Clear, J. (2017). Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals This Year. Retrieved on January 19, 2017 from http://jamesclear.com/identity-based-habits

De La Rosa, W. (2015). Trust & Transparency. Irrational Labs. Retrieved 5/8/18 from https://gumroad.com/l/HwcPG

Follow Web Standards (n.d.) Retrieved 4/21/18 from https://plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/web/

Gennaro, P.J. (2013). Moral Reminders, Bad Apples and the Power of Positive Examples. Retrieved 4/25/18 from https://insights.ethisphere.com/moral-reminders-bad-apples-and-the-power-of-positive-examples/

Gino, F., Ayal, S. & Ariely, D. (forthcoming). Self-serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions That Benefit Others. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Retrieved 3/21/18 from https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10996792/gino,ayal,ariely_self-serving-altruism_JEBO_Special%20Issue.pdf?sequence=1

Gino, F., Ayal, S., Ariely, D. (2009). Contagion and Differentiation in Unethical Behavior: The Effect of One Bad Apple on the Barrel. Psychological Science, 20(3).

Grolleau, G., Kocher, M.G., & Sutan, A. (2014). Cheating and Loss Aversion: Do People Lie More to Avoid a Loss? [University works] auto-saisine. 21 p. Retrieved 3/21/18 from https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01499042/document

Henn, S. (2008, July 21). Oh waiter! Charge it to my PAC. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved 3/21/18 from https://www.marketplace.org/2008/07/21/economy/oh-waiter-charge-it-my-pac

Kettle, K., & Häubl, G. (2011). The Signature Effect: How Signing One’s Name Influences Consumption-Related Behavior. Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research, 9. Retrieved 2/4/18 from http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/1009123/volumes/ap09/AP-09

Krug, S. (2014).  Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web (and Mobile) Usability. New Riders.

Nielsen, N. (1997). How Users Read on the Web. Retrieved 5/7/18 from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/

Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership (2018). A Simple Switch that Boosts Ethical Behavior: Focus on Gains Rather than Losses. Retrieved 5/7/18 from https://ethicalleadership.nd.edu/news/loss-aversion-and-unethical-behavior/

Parshall, C.G. (2017). Action Design and the Assessment Program: The Use of “Nudges” to Help Our Candidates Become Their Best Selves. Presented at the NBOME’s Research Advisory Forum, Chicago, October 17, 2017.

Shu, L., & Gino, F., (2012). Sweeping Dishonesty Under the Rug: How Unethical Actions Lead to Forgetting of Moral Rules. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(6).

Shu, L., Mazar, N., Gino, F., Ariely, D., & Bazerman, M. (2011). When to Sign on the Dotted Line? Signing First Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-Reports. Harvard Business School: Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit Working Paper Series. 10.2139/ssrn.1837611.

Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Wazana, A. (2000). Physicians and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Is a Gift Ever Just a Gift? Journal of the American Medical Association, 283(3).

Wendel, S. (2014). Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics. O’Reilly Media: Sebastopol, CA.

Writing for the Web (n.d.) Retrieved 4/21/18 from https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/writing-for-the-web.html

 

Developing Nudges for Your Exam Program

Anderson, E.T., & Simester, D. (2011). A Step-by-Step Guide to Smart Business Experiments. Retrieved on 5/23/18 from https://hbr.org/2011/03/a-step-by-step-guide-to-smart-business-experiments

Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. New York: HarperCollins.

Fried, C. (2018, March). Behavioral Economics: Are Nudges Cost-Effective? Retrieved on 8/10/18 from https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/anderson-review/nudge-worth

Holmes, B. (2018). Nudging grows up (and now has a government job). Retrieved on 7/24/18 from https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2018/nudging-grows-and-now-has-government-job

Irrational Labs (2018). Doing a Behavioral Diagnosis. Retrieved on 8/2/18 from http://irrationallabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Irrational-Labs-Behavioral-Diagnosis.pdf

Irrational Labs (2018). Designing Experiments 101. Retrieved on 5/23/18 from http://irrationallabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Irrational-Labs-Designing-Experiments-101.pdf

Kohavi, R., &  Thomke, S. (2017). The Surprising Power of Online Experiments. Retrieved on 8/23/18 from https://hbr.org/2017/09/the-surprising-power-of-online-experiments

Parshall, C.G., & Julian, E. (in press). Using Nudges to Improve the Exam Program.

Parshall, C.G., & Parikh, S. (2018). Access Isn’t Enough: The Use of Behavioral Tools to Transform an Adult Education Benefit Program. Presented at the annual meeting of BSPA, Washington, DC, May 18.

Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Wendel, S. (2014). Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics. O’Reilly Media: Sebastopol, CA.

 

Pain Points – Addressing Your Big Problems the Behavioral Design Way

Ariely, D. (2012). The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. New York: HarperCollins.

Bell, M. (2017, October). How the likes of Amazon are moving beyond nudge theory. Retrieved on 7/24/18 from https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/how_the_likes_of_amazon_are_moving_beyond_nudge_theory/2542

Campaign Monitor (n.d.) A/B test your email campaigns. [Blog post]. Retrieved on 8/7/18 from https://help.campaignmonitor.com/ab-test-your-email-campaigns

Dee, G. (2018). How to Spot a Nudge Gone Rogue. UCLA Anderson. Retrieved 10/10/18 from

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/anderson-review/rogue-nudges

Dynarski, S. (2015, January). Helping the Poor in Education: The Power of a Simple Nudge. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/upshot/helping-the-poor-in-higher-education-the-power-of-a-simple-nudge.html?mwrsm=Email&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Fried, C. (2018, March). Behavioral Economics: Are Nudges Cost-Effective? Retrieved on 8/10/18 from https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/anderson-review/nudge-worth

Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. New York: Broadway Books.

Holmes, B. (2018, February). Nudging grows up (and now has a government job). Retrieved on 7/24/18 from https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2018/nudging-grows-and-now-has-government-job

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Murphy, K. (2008). Enforcing Tax Compliance: To Punish or Persuade? Economic Analysis and Policy, 38(1), 113-135. Retrieved 9/26/18 from https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/40261/69540_1.pdf?sequence=1

NBR (2009). Behavioral Finance Basics: Your Mind and Your Money. [Video file.] Retrieved on 7/24/18 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NabwWNL_AXI

Parshall, C.G. (2017). Action Design and the Assessment Program: The Use of “Nudges” to Help Our Candidates Become Their Best Selves. Presented at the NBOME’s Research Advisory Forum, Chicago, October 17, 2017.

Parshall, C.G., & Fremer, J. (2018). Using Nudges to Encourage Rule-Following by Our Test-Takers. Presented at the annual meeting of COTS, Park City, UT 10-12, 2018.

Parshall, C.G., Julian, E, & Horber, D. (2018). Improve Your Candidate Experience with Action Design. Presented at the annual meeting of ICE, Austin, TX, Nov 6-9, 2018.

Parshall, C.G., & Parikh, S. (2018). Access Isn’t Enough: The Use of Behavioral Tools to Transform an Adult Education Benefit Program. Presented at the annual meeting of the Behavioral Science & Policy Association (BSPA), Washington, DC, May 18, 2018.

Riley, G. (n.d.) Intention-Action Gap (Behavioral Economics). Retrieved 9/26/18 from http://www.ideas42.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/UNEP_consuming_sustainably_Behavioral_Insights.pdf

Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2011). A strategy for recycling: Change the recycling-bin-to-garbage-bin ratio. [Blog post]. Retrieved 9/26/18 from http://nudges.org/2011/05/02/a-strategy-for-recycling-change-the-recyling-bin-to-garbage-bin-ratio/

Wendel, S. (2014). Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics. O’Reilly Media: Sebastopol, CA.

 

Nudges and the work-from-home world –
How to inspire your team from a distance

Amabile, T.M., & Kramer, S.J. (2011). The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School

Jachimowicz, J., Matz, S., & Polonski, V. (2017). The Behavioral Scientist’s Ethics Checklist. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://behavioralscientist.org/behavioral-scientists-ethics-checklist/

Pink, D. (2011). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York, New York: Riverhead Books.

Sinek, S. (2009). How Great Leaders Inspire Action. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en