# STAR Lab: In Conversation with Michael Hiscox ## expand\_more ## Interview by Michelle Nicholasen ![Man standing at podium with a screen behind him showing text about STAR Lab.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/wcfia/files/feature-starlab-mhiscox-700px.jpg?itok=q0w3qZNI) Twenty years ago, Michael Hiscox was a budding trade economist working in private sector governance. His research was aimed at understanding consumer behavior regarding Fairtrade certified goods. He and his colleagues conducted field experiments, including driving around New England visiting Whole Foods stores, to assess the impact of labeling Fairtrade certified coffee on sales. Their findings revealed that the label really did matter—and indicated consumer preferences for socially responsible products. This research was an important finding for the fair trade movement, and it set the stage for Hiscox’s work today. He is the director of the Sustainability Transparency Accountability Research (STAR) Lab, the newest research project at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. *Centerpiece* sat down with Hiscox to ask him questions about the work STAR Lab is doing. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. ### CENTERPIECE: What is STAR Lab? MICHAEL HISCOX: STAR Lab is a group of scholars at Harvard—behavioral scientists in business, economics, or government—who collaborate with companies that are implementing sustainability and corporate responsibility initiatives. We work with companies on how to incorporate behavioral science into these initiatives to determine what works effectively to address social or environmental problems. There are two big elements to what we do in terms of the research. One is that we almost exclusively focus on behavioral economics and its value and how, with a richer model of human decision-making, we might be able to help people make better decisions for themselves. And the other part is the rigorous evaluation—primarily through randomized controlled trials. We conduct field experiments with companies who are launching new initiatives, whether they be products or services aimed at helping customers reduce their climate impact or improve their employees’ well-being. So a lot of the projects that we're focusing on now are climate action projects in one form or another. ### CENTERPIECE: Do you include scholars at all levels of their careers, from undergrad on up? HISCOX: We have opportunities for scholars at various career stages. We have an undergraduate research group, composed of undergrads who typically have taken my classes. They have become engaged as research assistants and are working on projects that are aligned with the STAR Lab mission. We also have our first predoctoral fellowship that's gone to a PhD student here in the Department of Government, Aleksandra Conevska. And we have two postdoctoral fellows, Nurit Nobel and Saika Belal, who are working full-time on the STAR Lab projects now. ### CENTERPIECE: Can you give an example of a STAR Lab project that has been successful? HISCOX: Sure, I can discuss a project with the Commonwealth Bank in Australia. We thought their low-income customers could improve their financial well-being if they had access to government benefits for which they're eligible. This is a very common problem across advanced economies—there are welfare programs designed to help people in need, but eligible people don't take them up as expected. We designed a trial with the bank where they sent out different messages in their smartphone app to customers that might be eligible for an electricity rebate. When customers clicked on that message, they were taken to a simplified landing page with “click to call” buttons for their electricity provider to immediately have the rebate credited to their account. Of course, if you went through the normal government process, you'd have to go to a government website, read through several pages of text to discover that you had to then contact your electricity provider, then you would have to look up the phone number for your electricity provider and make the call. So what we did was simplify that whole process. We also created an online platform for the bank called Benefits Finder which enabled customers to enter a few extra pieces of information that the bank didn't have about them. The platform would generate a list of the major government benefits in Australia for which they were likely eligible, then direct them to a simplified web page which explained the process for applying for that benefit. We estimate now that over two million claims have gone through that website and over two billion dollars in government benefits have been distributed. We think that's done quite a lot to help the bank’s low-income customers. And now they've opened that platform up to individuals who are not even customers at the bank. ![feature-starlab-hiscox_quote-horizontal.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/wcfia/files/feature-starlab-hiscox_quote-horizontal.png?itok=uIT18nwD) ### CENTERPIECE: That’s great. And these benefits—they're not connected to sustainability, right? These are just available benefits? HISCOX: Part of our mission here was to improve financial well-being for low-income customers. The bank had a social purpose, which was to improve Australia's financial well-being. And so this was a good fit for us. And that was the work that we focused on up until about a year ago, when the bank turned its focus to climate work and climate action. Right now, the largest project that we have in development is improving customer access to their low-interest-rate loan that would finance customers putting rooftop solar on their houses and installing heat pumps to improve energy efficiency and lower their electrical costs. This is a great area for behavioral work because it's a very difficult set of decisions that have to be made by a homeowner about what's best to do for their home. There are many options for different systems, batteries, heat pumps, and other renovations—plus how you can finance those changes and what government rebates are available. A lot of homeowners get stalled at that early stage, thinking they should make their homes more energy-efficient, where it seems very complicated and difficult. And so they put off making any kind of big renovation. ### CENTERPIECE: And I don't suppose you're going to simplify that in one app. HISCOX: Right. That is our big challenge at the moment—how to provide a decision helper for people to help access the credit. And it's not just the access to financing that stops people, it's the complicated nature of this decision that seems overwhelming. What we're trying to do is to simplify at least the first step, which is to pick a rooftop solar system that they could pay for with this low-interest loan. Then we may set up a renovation helper platform just like Benefits Finder where people can say, well, I've done rooftop solar, what about heat pumps and what about better insulation and better windows? And ultimately with home renovation, it's going to also cover climate risk, which is relevant for us all—how vulnerable are we to extreme weather events? And what windows do we have, and what kind of roof do we have, and everything else. We have a stream of work here which is valuable not just for homeowners, but for small and medium enterprises who have to make the same kinds of decisions about the energy efficiency of their small business. ![Row of brick houses with solar panels on the roofs under a blue sky.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/wcfia/files/feature-starlab-houses-700px.jpg?itok=b4NK-Q55) ### CENTERPIECE: If you can make that one-stop shopping, it would be a huge help. HISCOX: It's my favorite project to talk about. To get roughly 80 percent of home electricity use in Australia to be carbon-neutral, we don't need new technology, we don't need a tax, we don't need new ideas. We just need to help people get the rooftop solar system on their roof. ### CENTERPIECE: You recently attended a [behavioral science hackathon](https://au.eventscloud.com/website/2548/home/#Home). Can you tell us about that? HISCOX: We took eight Harvard students—two teams of four—to Sydney, Australia for this hackathon, and it was organized and hosted by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Teams of students from Harvard and other universities competed to develop innovative solutions to promote sustainable behaviors, such as adopting solar energy and reducing carbon emissions. The ideas generated ranged from gamified apps to personalized energy-saving recommendations. For instance, one team proposed a virtual reality platform that simulates the benefits of renewable energy adoption, while another suggested a social networking app to encourage peer-to-peer sharing of sustainable practices. These ideas showcase the potential of behavioral science in driving positive environmental outcomes through technology and social engagement. And our two Harvard teams won the competition! They were given $5,000 in funding for their projects. And I think they’re invited back to present the next stage of their research in September. So we might take them all back to Sydney then. They're all in my behavioral class, “Nudging for Good,” which has 707 students at the moment—the most it's ever had. The two teams got a round of applause in class when they got back from winning the competition. ### CENTERPIECE: That’s exciting. Where do you see STAR Lab going in the future? HISCOX: Well, I do have dreams for it to expand and have a bit more of a permanent staff and a larger group of postdoctoral fellows who are working full-time with the partners. At the moment, we really can't keep up with the demand. Qantas Airways wants us to work on a range of things as well as Bank of Ireland. We're talking with a few other companies, but at the moment, our problem is really capacity. If we had more people, we could do so much more. So ultimately, I hope to have a little center that has a larger group of permanent researchers as well as our faculty and student affiliates who work on the projects with us. ## Captions 1. On March 14, 2024, Michael Hiscox presented “The Case for Behavioural Science in Climate Action” at the fourth CBA-UTS Behavioural Experimentation Hackathon in Sydney, Australia. *Credit: Andreas Ludwig* 2. Row of brick houses with solar panels. *Credit:* [*Adobe Stock*](https://stock.adobe.com/images/row-of-house-with-solar-panels-on-roof-on-blue-sky-background/300194473) See also:- [ Centerpiece: Spring 2024 ](/newsletter-issues/centerpiece-spring-2024)