Launching the First Federal Effort to Apply Behavioral Science to U.S. Human Services Programs

In this history and overview of the first major federal effort to apply behavioral science to human services in the United States, the authors share how the unique context of federally funded human services programs made behavioral science a simultaneously promising and uncertain approach. The chapter details the efforts of a federal research office in the Administration for Children and Families, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to stand up a portfolio of work using behavioral science to diagnose problems that federally funded human services programs were facing, design behaviorally informed interventions to address these challenges, and test the interventions with randomized controlled trials. The chapter explores reasons that some programs that went through this behavioral diagnosis and design process ultimately did not complete evaluations, shares examples of the common types of nudges tested, and describes lessons learned about translating behavioral science to these complex populations and programs.