The key perimeters of the task is simply that there must be a notable discrepancy between the normative expectations of what people should do and the descriptive empirical findings of what people actually do. Based upon this identified gap, you must identify a prescriptive solution to your chosen problem, designed to nudge people to act in the best interest of themselves, their institution and/or society. You are given a lot of flexibility in your chosen topic and encouraged to be creative, this could relate directly to finance if this interests you or be applied to other disciplines (e.g. management, accounting, marketing, human resources, strategy) commercial issues (e.g. improving sales, productivity), wider interests (e.g. fitness, fashion) or societal issues that you would like to address (e.g. health, environment, wellbeing). You are actively encouraged to pick a behavioural problem which is unique and therefore creativity is an important aspect of the marking criteria. This because the ability to create from what you have learned is generally regarded as the highest form of understand under Bloom’s (1956) famous taxonomy of learning. In essence, we could all paraphrase why auto-enrolment improves pension participation rates or why mandatory choice improves the number of people on the organ donor list, but it is far more challenging to come up with these ideas ourselves as well as synthesis knowledge from across different literature meaning you’ll be demonstrating a much higher level of understanding by being creative.

6SSMN365 – Social Psychology Of Financial Markets
Coursework Guidelines

Context / Background
In 2010, inspired by the ideas published in Thaler’s and Sunstein’ book Nudge, a small team was set up
originally in 10 Downing Street and then in the Cabinet Office to begin applying insights from behavioural
economics and psychology to try to improve government policy and services. Due to its quick success,
a range of behavioural units in other countries have since been set up and similar teams with a
commercial focus have also become increasingly common in large businesses and similar services are
now offered by a wide range of consultancy companies.

Your Task
Your task for this coursework is to put together an evidence-based proposal for a client to suggest a
nudge for a specific behavioural problem of your choosing, with the report styled as if you were a
behavioural scientist working in government or for a consultancy firm.

Your Brief
The key perimeters of the task is simply that there must be a notable discrepancy between the normative
expectations of what people should do and the descriptive empirical findings of what people actually do.
Based upon this identified gap, you must identify a prescriptive solution to your chosen problem,
designed to nudge people to act in the best interest of themselves, their institution and/or society.
You are given a lot of flexibility in your chosen topic and encouraged to be creative, this could relate
directly to finance if this interests you or be applied to other disciplines (e.g. management, accounting,
marketing, human resources, strategy) commercial issues (e.g. improving sales, productivity),
wider interests (e.g. fitness, fashion) or societal issues that you would like to address (e.g. health,
environment, wellbeing).

You are actively encouraged to pick a behavioural problem which is unique and therefore creativity is an
important aspect of the marking criteria. This because the ability to create from what you have learned is
generally regarded as the highest form of understand under Bloom’s (1956) famous taxonomy of learning.
In essence, we could all paraphrase why auto-enrolment improves pension participation rates or why
mandatory choice improves the number of people on the organ donor list, but it is far more challenging to
come up with these ideas ourselves as well as synthesis knowledge from across different literature
meaning you’ll be demonstrating a much higher level of understanding by being creative.

What is the word count?
Your word count is set at 1500 words, with the flexibility go a maximum of 10% over this word count.
This word limit excludes diagrams, tables, headings and references.

When is it due?
Your essay is due by Friday the 20th of March at 23.59, which is a strict deadline as submissions after
this will usually be capped not at the discretion of your module leader, but by the exam board.

Can I get feedback before submitting?
There is an optional deadline to upload one early draft of your coursework by the 4th of March at 23.59
for formative feedback. While this will not be graded directly (i.e. given a predicted percentage / grade),
you will be provided with informal constructive comments designed to help improve your essay before
the final submission date of Friday the 20th of March at 23.59. While your module leader will endeavour
to do this all within a week of submission, you should consider this is the largest third year module
running this term and therefore feedback will be provided on a first uploaded, first to get feedback basis.
So the earlier you submit for feedback, the quicker you will get your feedback.

6SSMN365 – Social Psychology Of Financial Markets
Coursework Guidelines

Section 1 – Normative Analysis
(It is suggested you use approximately 500 words for this section)

Your proposal should begin by outlining and explaining what the academic literature says about what is
expected to happened if the subjects relating to your chosen problem behaved ‘rationally’ and
conformed to some sort of standard model or theory, usually based upon them acting optimally.
As a consequence, this section will most likely be theoretical in nature and you may find it intuitive to think
about this section being akin to a textbook explanation of what should happen.

While you are not required to answer all of the following, you may find it useful for direction to consider
the following questions when seeking how best to frame this section:

• Why do we want people to following the normative expectations? Who benefits from this?
• What is the seminal work behind the normative expectations, who proposed it and what does it say?
• Why is this standard model or theory regarded as being optimum/rational thing to do?
• What are the assumptions inherent within the model or theory? Are they realistic?

Section 2 – Descriptive Analysis
(It is suggested you use approximately 500 words for this section)

In this section, your proposal should clearly contrast the normative expectations of what is expected to
happen with what empirical findings of what people actually do. Your discussion in this section should
rely heavily on data and therefore evidence. This might arise from large datasets, from experiments or
a wide range of other methodologies. While you’re not expected to gather or analyse the data yourself,
you are however expected to find studies that have done this for you and contradict the normative
expectations you outlined in the previous section, with a focus on what causes this phenomenon.

Once again, your not required to answer all of the following, but you may find it useful to consider the
following questions when writing this section:

• What were the descriptive findings and why does it contradict the normative expectations?
• Why is this contradiction between the descriptive findings and normative expectations important?
• Who wrote the study and where was it published? Why is it important?
• What data was gathered and what methodology was employed to analyse the data?
• What systematic bias or biases are best able explain this deviation from the normative

expectations of what people should do with the descriptive findings of what people actually do ?

Section – Prescriptive Analysis
(It is suggested you use approximately 500 words for this section)

In this final section, you will ‘prescribe’ a solution to close the gap between the normative expectations of
what people should do with the empirical descriptive analysis of what people actually do. In this section,
you must focus on predominately on one ‘nudge’ and explain why you anticipate this to be successful.
Important in this section is to explain the choice architecture and specifically where the nudge will be
used by your client to have the most success.

Finally, when writing this section, you might consider the following questions:

• What is your chosen nudge? (This question is vital)
• Why do you expect this nudge to be successful? Why is this aspect of human behaviour

important? What evidence is there it has worked in other areas in the past?
• Where should this nudge be specifically used by your client to have the most impact? Why do you

consider this aspect of the choice architecture to be important?
• Are there any ethical concerns arising from the nudge from a libertarian paternalism perspective?

6SSMN365 – Social Psychology Of Financial Markets
Coursework Guidelines

What is the marking criteria?
The examiner will adopt the perspective of being your client, the following rubric will be used when
marking your proposal and will be based upon the following five criteria, weighted as following:

How will you be graded?
The following seven point Likert scale ranging from not satisfying the assessment criteria at all to meeting
it exceptionally will be adopted, as shown below. This will essentially create a marking algorithm and
mean that your feedback will be directly linked to the grade awarded to you. So for example,
receiving ‘satisfied’ on creativity will compute to a grade of 12.5% (i.e. (0.25*(3.5/7).

Criteria Weighting Requirement

Creativity & Contribution 30%
How new is your topic? Has it been done before?
How important is your behavioural problem from

a client’s perspective?

Understanding & Argument 30%
How well are you able to explain and therefore convince
your client of the normative expectations, the descriptive

empirical findings, and why you believe your chosen
perspective nudge will be successful?

Synthesis of evidence &
Academic Theory 25%

How well does your chosen descriptive empirical findings
contradict your normative expectations? How convincing

and reliable is the use of evidence and theory in
prescribing a solution to your chosen problem.

Structure & Scope 10%

How clear and concise is your proposal?

Could your chosen client pick up your proposal,
understanding it and implement it with relative ease?

Presentation 5%

How professional is your report?

Would a consultancy company be happy to send this to
a client in its current form? This includes grammar and
spelling but also things like use of diagrams and tables.

Criteria Weighting Not at all Satisfied
Slightly

Satisfied

Below

Average
Satisfied

Satisfied
Above

Average
Satisfied

Highly
Satisfied

Exceptional

Creativity 25%

Understanding 25%

Synthesis of
evidence and

academic theory
25%

Structure & Scope 10%
Presentation 5%