Behavioural Analysis

The behavioural approach to social and political analysis concentrates on a single, deceptively simple question: Why do people behave in the way they do? What differentiates behaviouralists from other social scientists is their insistence that (1) observable behaviour, whether it is at the level of the individual or the social aggregate, should be the focus of analysis; and (2) any explanation of that behaviour should be susceptible to empirical testing. Behavioural scholars take the view that, whatever theoretical categories any analysis uses, social enquiry is fundamentally about trying to understand what it is that (some) people do, think or say. Scholars working in the behavioural tradition have investigated a wide range of substantive problems. Behaviouralists have extensively analysed the reasons that underlie the main form of mass political participation in democratic countries: voting (for example, Heath et al., 1994; Clarke et al., 2009). They have also examined the origins of participation in other, more unconventional, forms of political activity such as demonstrations, strikes and even riots (for example, Barnes and Kaase, 1979; Parry et al., 1992; Anderson and Mendes, 2006).