Why behavioural interventions won’t singlehandedly solve inequality

1 min read · Sept 18, 2023
New Power Labs

A recent research report explored whether individuals overcome economic disadvantages by resisting biases that impede optimal decision-making. That is, do individuals remain poor through bad choices?

The study analyzed almost 5,000 participants across 27 countries to understand how cognitive biases and behavioural patterns intersect with economic mobility. While it does not reject the notion, “that individual behavior and decision-making may directly relate to upward economic mobility,” it found strong evidence against the idea that individual behaviour alone causes poverty - which explains why behavioural approaches alone have been largely ineffective. 

This is the challenge of trying to change behaviours without changing the architecture that we operate in. Behavioural architecture teaches us that the way you ask a question influences the answer you receive. It’s the systems - not just individual people - that shape economic inequality. 

Contributed by: Kasha Huk

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