Together with The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS), researchers Dr Sophie van der Zee and Prof. Martijn de Jong of Erasmus School of Economics have published an insightful paper called “Start with the End: Effect Measurement of Behavioural Influencing in Military Operations”.
As part of the project Platform Influencing Human Behaviour, commissioned by the Royal Netherlands Army, and in collaboration with authors from HCSS (Laura Jasper), Sophie Van der Zee and Martijn de Jong co-authored the paper with the aim to build and share knowledge on information-based Behavioural Influencing (BI) in the military context, dissecting the ethical, legal and military-strategic issues and boundaries involved.
Together with MSc student Santeri Puttonen, Van der Zee and De Jong examined which research methods from behavioural economics can be used to influence people's behaviour in a military context. Relevant practical application of the theories is teached during the MSc specialisation Behavioural Economics at Erasmus School of Economics.
The paper provides an overview of methods to measure the effect of behavioural influencing operations in a military context, with a focus on the processes and different stages associated with effect measurement. In doing so, it seeks to explore under which conditions, and with which tools the effects of behavioural influencing tactics can be measured. This allows for determining the effectiveness of interventions, and it aids the effectiveness and predictability of the use of behavioural influencing tactics. As such, this paper serves as a basis and steppingstone for further research into the topic.
About Martijn de Jong
Martijn de Jong's substantive research focuses on consumer well-being (reducing undesirable behaviours; promoting responsible and prosocial behavior), the development of cross-national consumer behavior theories, and sensitive consumer behavior. He generally uses large-scale international datasets to develop generalisable theories. His methodological interests include market research techniques (conjoint methodology, survey methodology, computational text analysis), cross-cultural data analysis, Bayesian statistics, Machine learning (Python, R, JavaScript).
About Sophie van der Zee
Sophie van der Zee has a multi-disciplinary background in psychology, economics, and computer science. She combines this multi-disciplinary background in a double position as Assistant Professor at Erasmus School of Economics and at Erasmus School of Law. At the law school, Sophie is the director of the Centre for the Law and Economics of Cyber Security (CLECS). In this research centre, researchers from a variety of backgrounds together study how legislation, economic incentives, and human behaviour affects cyber security. At the economics school, Sophie is the academic director of the MSc Behavioural Economics.
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For more information, please contact Ronald de Groot, Media & Public Relations Officer at Erasmus School of Economics, rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, or +31 6 53 641 846.