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Behavioural Insights
Thoughtful analysis of how psychology shapes financial behaviour, spending habits, and long term decision making, translating academic research into practical insights that help individuals make smarter, more intentional financial choices.
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 16, 20225 min read
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 9, 20224 min read
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
Jun 2, 20226 min read
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 26, 20226 min read
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 19, 20226 min read
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
May 12, 20224 min read
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 21, 20226 min read
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 14, 20224 min read
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
Apr 7, 20228 min read
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