ABSTRACT
The application of behavioural insights to public policy, defined here as behavioural public policy, is in any substantive sense, a relatively recent endeavour, although decades of social science research underpin the approach. In this chapter, the author contend that the focus on both internalities and utility is less than ideal for the future development of behavioural public policy. If the aim of policy makers is to help create the conditions for people to flourish as they themselves see fit, then, to reiterate, facilitating reciprocity, as an aspect of behavioural public policy, is potentially an important arm of this effort. Some suggestions for how policy makers might do this include emphasising the importance of this motivator of human behaviour in their rhetoric, decentralising public policy decision making to sub-national levels, and ensuring that income and wealth are not concentrated excessively in the hands of a small proportion of the population.
