Press Releases

Government advisory role for University lecturer

Release Date : 08 February 2010

A lecturer at the University of Reading has been awarded a prestigious Public Sector Placement Fellowship to work with HM Treasury to advise on the psychological factors people use when making choices.

Dr Rachel McCloy, of the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, will work alongside the Government Social Research Unit (GSRU) and the Government Economics Service Team (GEST) analysing how research into behaviour change can be used in developing policies. It is organised and joint funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The Government has run a range of high profile initiatives that aim to change people's behaviour, for example the "Think" Road Safety campaigns. Effective and efficient interventions require a deep understanding of the target audience.

Dr McCloy said: "It is very important that when policymakers look at how decisions and choices are made they take into account psychological factors too.

"They will play a major part in how people react to policies designed to, for example, encourage more organ donation or to persuade people to make higher contributions to pension schemes. Policymakers need to understand the key factors that affect people's decisions."

The work will also feed into the Cross-Government Behaviour Change and Insight Programme, led by the Cabinet Office, to make research in this area more accessible for analysts and those implementing policy.

The Fellowship scheme encourages social science researchers to spend time within a partner organisation to undertake policy-relevant research and to develop the research skills of partner employees