Behavioural Science Meets Metascience

Behavioural Science Meets Metascience

You are warmly invited to a workshop entitled “Behavioural science meets metascience”, which will take place at the University of Oxford on 11-12 September 2024. The workshop is generously funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UKRI) and will be hosted at St John’s College, with support from the Department of Economics. This two-day workshop will bring together researchers both from within and outside of the University as well as practitioners of behavioural science and members of external funding bodies.

WEDNESDAY 11TH - THURSDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER 2024

VENUE: ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD

Arrival information will be sent to participants two weeks before the event.

 

Program:  The goal of the workshop is to think about the organization and communication of science, and how psychology and behavioural science can inform the way science is conducted.

Day 1  of the workshop will focus on how metascience can inform behavioural science (e.g., how “crowdscience” can be used to better design and evaluate behavioural science interventions). We will discuss different organizational structures and the pooling of expertise as well as cover recent examples of large-scale initiatives that have attempted to mutualize resources to produce knowledge.

Day 2  of the workshop will instead focus on how behavioural science can inform metascience. In particular, the goal of this second day will be to think about the biases of researchers and how they influence the conduct of science and construction of knowledge. Professor Dorothy Bishop will give a keynote talk related to this topic. This day will feature fewer presentations and more brainstorming sessions so we can collectively produce concrete outputs based on our discussions.

For enquiries, please email events@economics.ox.ac.uk

 

To view all the recordings from the workshop, click here

To view all the presentation slides, click here

 

Schedule

Day 1

TREATING BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE AS A METASCIENCE OBJECT

9:00 – 9:30      Welcome  

9:30 – 11:00    Session 1: The anatomy of behavioural science research: a case study  

  • Learning from the published literature: a meta-analysis on commitment devices - Anna Popova  
  • Bringing commitment devices to real-life settings: a case study with the UK Behavioural Insights Team – Hubert Wu  
  • Reflections on the behind-the-scenes of “nudge units” - learning lessons and shared insights – UK BIT team 
11:00 – 11:30   COFFEE BREAK 

11:30 – 12:45 Session 2: Documenting and representing research processes  

  • Managing projects and documenting workflows – Marton Kovacs 
  • Learning from trial-and-error and opening file drawers – Taisuke Imai 
  • Integrating art with technology to represent research in movement – Paula Bambach
12:45 – 14:00    LUNCH BREAK 

14:00 – 15:00   Session 3: Collaboration structures and failed partnerships  

  • Responsible collaborations across geographical, sectoral and disciplinary boundaries  – Research on Research group, Department of Education, Oxford 
  • Partnering with businesses: challenges and proposals – Luigi Butera 
15:00 – 15:30   COFFEE BREAK 

15:30 – 17:00   Session 4:   Doing behavioural science at scale  

  • Forecasting social science: challenges and hopes – Daniel Evans 
  • Conducting megastudies in the field – Florian Schneider  
  • Assessing robustness and improving replicability – Nicolas Jacquemet 
Day 2

USING BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE TO INFORM METASCIENCE AND RESEARCH POLICY

9:00 – 9:30      Welcome 

9:30 – 10:30    Session 5: Views from funding bodies on the behavioural science lever 

  • Behavioural science meets metascience: a policy and funder perspective – UKRI/DSIT Metascience Unit 
  • Forecasting at Open Philanthropy -  Benjamin Tereick  
10:30 – 11:00   COFFEE BREAK 

11:00 – 12:30    Session 6: Learning from past evidence and assisting evaluations  

  • How do researchers and policymakers update their beliefs? – Eva Vivalt

Panel discussion: Helping researchers evaluate and learn from evidence 

  • Fighting the “blind spot”: Doing pre- and post-mortems; adversarial approaches 
  • Blinding the audience: registered reports, blind reviews

Panel moderator: Anandi Mani; panelists: Eva Vivalt, Matteo Galizzi, Rachel O’Boyle 

12:30 – 13:30    LUNCH BREAK 

13:30 – 14:30    Keynote lecture -  Professor Dorothy Bishop  

"Understanding how cognitive biases affect research"

14:30 – 15:00    COFFEE BREAK 

15:00 – 16:00   Revisiting biases in research production and evaluation  

  • Interactions in breakout groups  
  • Proposals for a manuscript and policies  

16:00 – 16:30     Stocktaking and closing remarks 

16:45 – 18:15      Walking Tour (optional)

 

Further information

Expand All

LONDON TO OXFORD

Train

You can buy a train ticket to Oxford at London Paddington station. There are regular direct trains; the journey is approx. 1 hr. Train times:

http://www.thetrainline.com/

From Oxford train station the department is a 30-minute walk. Please note we do not reimburse taxis unless no public transport options were available (proof required). If you choose to use a taxi between the rail station and the department, please allow 15-20 minutes to get here (due to traffic/one-way system).

 

Oxford Tube (London to Oxford Coach)

You can also buy a bus ticket to Oxford on the Oxford Tube which regularly runs from various places in London to Oxford. The tube takes approximately 100 minutes and is cheaper than the train. Return tickets last for 3 months. For further information please see: 

http://www.oxfordtube.com/

 

AIRPORT COACHES

Heathrow to Oxford

Catch the Airline Bus from either the Central Bus Station (Terminals 1&3), stand 14A or Terminal 5, stand 10 to Gloucester Green bus station in Oxford. The bus runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please see link for daily departure times:

http://airline.oxfordbus.co.uk/timetables/

 

Gatwick to Oxford

Catch the Airline Bus from either the South Terminal Lower Forecourt (stands 1&2) or North Terminal Lower Forecourt (stands 4&5) to Gloucester Green bus station in Oxford. The bus runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please see link for daily departure times:

http://airline.oxfordbus.co.uk/timetables/

 

OTHER DIRECTIONS

Oxford to Heathrow or Gatwick

Return to Heathrow or Gatwick with the Airline Bus:

http://airline.oxfordbus.co.uk/

Buses depart from Gloucester Green bus station, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

 

Buses depart approximately every 30 mins (Heathrow) or hour (Gatwick) (please check online) and the journey time is approx 90mins to Heathrow or 2.5 hours to Gatwick (dependent on traffic). You can buy a ticket on board. The driver will ask which terminal you plan to get off so that he can put your bag in the right part of the bus.

 

Please complete your arrival form linked here: https://forms.microsoft.com/e/pFZ8HJfbMx

or email events@economics.ox.ac.uk

 

Accommodation is very limited for this conference, however we may be able to consider your request. If you have not been offered accommodation and require an overnight stay in Oxford, please contact events@economics.ox.ac.uk before 28th August 2024. We may not be able to fulfil requests after this time.

 

If you are speaking, and you wish to submit your presentation in advance (for the organisers to load on to the conference venue IT system), please email them in advance to: Juliette Caucheteux

Otherwise, please bring your slides on a USB flash drive to plug in to the conference venue computer.

 

The workshop program features a group of fantastic presenters; however, a large portion of the workshop will include brainstorming sessions. Please familiarise yourself with the presentations on the schedule and be prepared to talk about your own work in brainstorming sessions. This may include bringing printed materials or papers to help illustrate how you organise and communicate your work and scientific processes.

Please bring any supporting materials with you. There is no printing for guests on-site.

To view all the recordings from the workshop, click here

To view all the presentation slides, click here