Emotional and behavioural reactions to the unexpected

Knowing which goal to approach is quite a task

In unprecedented circumstances such as the COVID-19 crisis, reliable expectations to guide behaviour are hard to come by.

In this Monash Lens article, BehaviourWorks’ lecturer Filia Garivaldis writes that, in the absence of previous experience, humans tend to revert to behaviours such as social norming, i.e, looking to what others are doing to understand what is acceptable, instead of following best-practice guidelines and common sense.

There are many other emotional, cognitive and behavioural manifestations of the unexpected context. Knowing which goal to approach, or what action to take, can therefore become quite a task.

However, we can learn to harness our emotions, control our thoughts, adopt helpful behaviours and make better decisions.

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Inspiring Change: The final chapter!

The tale of a 10+ year journey that started with the idea of an organisation, an approach to enact behaviour change, and most recently, a book was told during the launch of BehaviourWorks Australia’s new book - Inspiring Change: How to influence behaviour for a better world. Held at The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne on Thursday 18 April 2024.

How can behavioural science drive community action in times of crisis? This World Humanitarian Day

For World Humanitarian Day 2023 we ask - how can behavioural science help the humanitarian sector and drive community action in times for crisis? It takes a village.

Can we have a quiet word about behavioural science?

Was robodebt the result of sinister behavioural science? No. Here's why.

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