Teaching Behavioral Economics in Psychology

Our contemporary local and global communities face various forms of social issues. As a community psychologist, the author teaches college students in South Korea about the importance of context that shapes people's behaviors, under the title of Behavioral Economics in Our Community. In this presentation, the author wants to share what she learned from the students when they tried to apply the Behavioral Economics principles in the real communities. Students were required to identify one social issue per each to challenge in their communities and to propose an intervention program that nudges people to the desired direction. By paying attention to the social issues that need to be tackled to improve the individual and community well-being, students reflected on the Community Psychology principles. At the same time, by developing a feasible intervention program that borrows the Behavioral Economics principles, students learned how to make real changes in people?s behaviors. Specific examples of the students? successful projects will be shared in the presentation, including holding door for others, Korean spelling-check application for smartphones, and clean dumping of toilette paper. More importantly, the focus will be made on the process of each project as the students were also required to make a real contact with the person in charge, the person who can make decisions, the person who can influence the implementation of the project. In the presentation, therefore, the audience will learn about the contemporary South Korean socio-cultural environment as the context of Behavioral Economics application.