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Expertise and policy advice

One of the most distinguishing features of the SCOOP research program is its interdisciplinary analytical approach to the study of changing historical and contemporary circumstances. Applying the integrated analytical framework requires domain expertise on cooperation at the level of families, communities, and organizations, and the changing societal level institutional arrangements in which they are embedded. It further requires theoretical and methodological expertise in modelling micro-level behavioural dynamics, moral dilemmas, and the success or failure of policies and interventions. SCOOP unites the leading scientists in all of these areas. It brings together leading Dutch scholars in Sociology, History, Psychology, and Philosophy. Together, they have built an innovative theoretical model to integrate their complementary expertise and developed an interdisciplinary joint research strategy. Using this approach, they will disentangle the mystery of cooperation and, their program will generate novel solutions for care, work, and inclusion and contribute to roadmaps for resilient societies.

Three Types of Policy Intervention

Scoop's ambition is to generate insights for evidence based policy advice and interventions. Three types of interventions can be distinguished.

  1. Behavioural interventions influence individual motives. Some of these policy interventions draw on the assumption that citizens make rational calculations, and will comply with the rules if such behaviour yields a net personal benefit. Others assume that individuals often cooperate because they have been socialized to believe this is “the right thing to do”. Activation of such obligations will often lead to moral behaviour. Yet other interventions assume that individuals can be made to cooperate because “it feels good” or because they are put in a good or particularly bad mood.
  2. Structural interventions change the opportunities and constraints for individual actions. For example, new tax regulations can lead to the abolishment of certain deductions.
  3. Procedural interventionschange the mechanisms through which individual actions are systematically transformed into (collective) outcomes.