With the ongoing rollout of smart meters in Ireland, time-of-use (ToU) tariffs are currently being introduced as a new way to pay for electricity. Such tariffs can bring important benefits to both consumers and society, in terms of reduced electricity bills and CO2 emissions, respectively. At...

Self-isolation is a vital element of efforts to contain COVID-19. We report an online experiment with a nationally representative sample (N=500) that tested behaviourally informed decision aids to support self-isolation. The experiment had three stages that tested interventions designed to help...

Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic will save lives. We tested communication strategies to promote social distancing via an online experiment (N = 500) commissioned by Ireland's Department of Health. A control group saw a current informational poster. Two treatment groups saw similar...

Encouraging consumers to seek out and switch to lower-rate mortgages is important both for the individual consumer's finances and for functioning competitive markets, but switching rates are low. We conducted an experiment with mortgage-holders to test whether official advice on how to select...

How do people perceive and integrate multiple contextual risk factors for COVID-19 infection? We elicited risk perceptions from a nationally representative sample of the public (N = 800) using three psychologically-distinct tasks. Responses were compared to a sample of medical experts who...

Contact-tracing mobile phone apps have the potential to play a role in controlling the spread of COVID-19, but their success hinges on widespread uptake by the public. We report a study that behaviourally pre-tested COVID Tracker, Ireland's contact-tracing app, prior to its launch with a large...

The market of private health insurance is characterised by high level of consumer inertia. Low consumer activity is probably linked to product complexity, abundance of choice options and low consumer understanding. These factors may overwhelm consumers and reduce willingness to engage with the...