Behavioural Science Toolkit

Welcome to the Behavioural Science Toolkit — a resource developed with the support of RiskWi$e, an initiative funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Behavioural Insights in Technology Adoption (ARC-BITA).

RiskWi$e is the National Risk Management Initiative aimed at equipping the grains industry with improved strategies and resources for understanding and managing risk. By combining the latest research with industry expertise, the program aims to deliver practical solutions that support long-term resilience and profitability for grain growers across Australia. RiskWi$e is led by CSIRO and is made possible thanks to the involvement of all partners. It incorporates behavioural science across all themes and activities, supported by UWA.

This toolkit is specifically designed to provide practical, research-backed tools and behavioural insights to help growers, advisers, researchers, and industry professionals make better decisions in the face of risk and uncertainty.

What is behavioural science?

Behavioural science is the study of human behaviour to understand how and why people make decisions. It is particularly useful for developing effective interventions for behaviour change.

Behavioural economics focusses on how psychological biases and mental shortcuts influence decision-making under uncertainty. It recognizes that people may deviate from purely rational decision-making.

Read about 6 behavioural economics concepts that might affect your farm management decisions.

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Risk and behavioural science

Pannell Discussions released a Risk in Australian grain farming series of 17 easy-to-read discussions, explanations and examples on risk and behavioural science written for the Australian grains industry.

Pannell Discussions include:

Download the brochure for the full range of articles by UWA's Professor David Pannell.

How do we make decisions?

Can a structured process to decision making reduce the effect of biases? This blog post describes seven steps to more effective decision making:

1. Identify the decision

2. Identify the possible outcomes

3. Identify your preferences

4. Estimate likelihoods for each scenario

5. Choose from the alternatives

6. Take action

7. Review your decision and its consequences

When the stakes are high, having a clear process will help to make decisions that are ‘more right, more often’.

Decision Support Tools

The RiskWi$e Decision Support Tools database is a collation of over 60 various tools available to Australian grain farmers for farm, business, and price risk management and decision-making.

Work is in progress to evaluate each tool's approach to capturing and presenting risk.

Register & download the DST database