A Crash Course in Understanding Meta-Analyses
A while back a meta-analysis on “The effectiveness of nudging…” was published and it took off, after it received a reply attacking its...
Merle van den Akker
- Aug 4
- 6 min
Death of a Nudge (?)
For those tuned into the field of behavioural science, you cannot have missed the recent meta-analysis gone viral: “The effectiveness of...
Merle van den Akker
- Jul 28
- 5 min
History Repeats: Are We Due For Our Roaring Twenties?
In an article by Jeremy Gutsche there was a mention of the roaring twenties returning. To put this in a little context, Jeremy argues ...
Merle van den Akker
- Jul 21
- 6 min
Why Achieving Your Goals Doesn’t Feel Like Anything: A Neuroscientific Explanation
You dreamt about it. You planned it. You worked on it. There were triumphs, initial sub-goals met. There were setbacks, life happened....
Merle van den Akker
- Jun 29
- 4 min
Immediate Gratification as Presented by Mainstream Media
In my previous article I talked about subscriptions; how they’re designed to fly under the radar payment wise, whilst at the same time...
Merle van den Akker
- Jun 15
- 5 min
Stop creating solutions – Define the problem first!
A while back I had the pleasure of hearing Elina Halonen talk about COM-B. She is not the creator of this tool, but she is known for...
Merle van den Akker
- Jun 8
- 4 min
The Influence of Culture on Conspicuous Consumption
Conspicuous consumption – the idea of consuming as a signal of value to others – is something I always struggled to understand. Not...
Merle van den Akker
- Jun 2
- 6 min
More Behavioural Financial Non-Advice
In part 1 I outlined 6 key pieces of information behavioural science has dug out on managing your money. We discussed knowing where your...
Merle van den Akker
- May 25
- 6 min
The Metaverse: Explanation from a Behavioural Scientist
Chances are that you’ve heard of the Metaverse. It’s vaguely linked to Facebook and whatever Zuckerberg is up to these days. It also...
Merle van den Akker
- May 18
- 6 min
Behavioural Science on Personal Finance
This is not financial advice! As the subheader indicates, this is not financial advice. I'm not qualified. Most people giving financial...
Merle van den Akker
- May 11
- 4 min
The Seven Systems of Memory
A while back I was having dinner with a friend of mine who holds a PhD in neuroscience. We were discussing, or rather criticizing, some...
Merle van den Akker
- Apr 21
- 6 min
The Story Your Brain Tells You
Not too long ago I was watching a YouTube video by Better Ideas, a self-improvement channel making content on, well, unsurprisingly,...
Merle van den Akker
- Apr 14
- 4 min
Behavioural Change Should Target Trends – Not Events.
A lot of literature on behavioural change focuses on how to slowly and incrementally integrate a new behaviour into your life. Think of...
Merle van den Akker
- Apr 6
- 8 min
The Effect of Payment Methods on Personal Finance Management: My PhD Summarised!
The main point for me to start this blog was to be able to disseminate academic work to an audience that was much wider than academia....
Merle van den Akker
- Mar 16
- 5 min
The Never Ending Issue With Lifestyle Inflation
Lifestyle Inflation. You’re supposed to aspire to always become a better, happier, healthier, wealthier version of yourself. But when...