David Halpern

Leads the Behavioural Insights Team, which sits inside the UK government advising departments on applying nudges to policy. Author of Inside the Nudge Unit, which documents the team's habit-timing work (HMRC tax compliance, Home Office visa reminders, cited in Episode 3), the EAST Framework the team developed (Episode 7), and a historical scarcity example (Episode 8).

Referenced again in Episode 134 for Inside the Nudge Unit and the EAST Framework's first principle — make it easy — which the episode treats as genuinely powerful and then argues has under-discussed costs, most sharply in organ donation (see Organ Donation Opt-Out Country Comparison Study).

Cited again in Episode 226, where Phill Agnew credits Halpern's book as the direct inspiration for launching his own "Nudge Unit" training cohort, following the same EAST framework — including a £1.6 million HMRC tax social-norm result and a five-fold insulation-installation increase via chunking (see BIT HMRC Tax Social-Norm and Insulation-Chunking Cases).

Discussed in

• Episode 3 — 3- Why marketers want to know your habits
• Episode 7 — 7- How the UK government nudges British people
• Episode 8 — 8- The power of scarcity and why less is more (referenced)
• Episode 134 — 134-there-s-a-problem-with-the-world-s-most-famous-nudge
• Episode 226 — 226-introducing-nudge-unit (cited as direct inspiration for Agnew's own training course)

Related

• Habit Formation & Destabilization
• Behavioural Insights Team Pre-Habit Interventions
• EAST Framework
• BIT Make-It-Easy Studies
• BIT Make-It-Attractive Studies
• BIT Make-It-Timely Studies
• Inside the Nudge Unit
• BIT HMRC Tax Social-Norm and Insulation-Chunking Cases