BEHAVIORAL CONFLUENCE 2026

Objectives of BC 2026

• To foster interdisciplinary dialogue between behavioral scientists, psychologists, economists, sociologists, neuroscientists, educators, designers, and public policy experts.

• To showcase culturally grounded and context-sensitive research and interventions.

• To promote actionable insights that can influence individual choices, institutional practices, and policy decisions.

• To facilitate international collaboration around behavioral decision science.

Who Should Attend?

Policymakers and Public Administrators | Public health professionals and health decision-makers | Mental Health and Education Professionals | Economists and development practitioners | Industry leaders and behavioral designers | NGO and CSR representatives | Researchers, scholars, and academicians in Behavioral Sciences

Rationale and Relevance

Traditional models of behavioral decision-making have predominantly emerged from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic (WEIRD) contexts. These amazing models offer good foundational insights. It is less explored if their explanatory power is equally applicable to diverse socio-cultural ecosystems, such as the Global South and East, where decisions are deeply embedded in community values, institutional trust, systemic constraints, and affective histories.

Behavioral Confluence 2026 seeks to take up this discourse by creating a confluence of scientific approaches, lived experiences, cultural variability, and contextual realities. It aspires to highlight research, interventions, and applications that are responsive to real-world decisions across domains like health, sustainability, education, governance, digital well-being, parenting, workplace behavior, and justice systems.

Societal impact

Behavioral Confluence 2026 is positioned as an academic dialogue and as a platform for contributing to tangible social change. Behavioral decision-making has its roots in the choices of individuals and communities that influence their well-being, cooperation, equity, and resilience.

Policy challenges in countries like India are often not due to a lack of schemes or resources. The challenges lie in the low uptake, resistance, or inadequate communication. Behavior decision science offers solutions to such hazards that can shift outcomes without requiring major financial investments. Behavior Confluence 2026 is the right platform to discuss and disseminate such solutions with the involvement of educators, practitioners, and NGO workers.

The confluence will promote the idea of the solution mindset as a social resource. The solution mindset framework focuses on enhancing the capability for reflective, constructive decision-making in individual and group contexts. From the classroom to the workplace and to local governance, this mindset supports healthier interactions, conflict resolution, and long-term goal setting.

Behavioral Confluence 2026 emphasizes context and culture. By considering the components like community norms, linguistic variations, familial influences, or the importance of social perception, the confluence aims to generate behavioral approaches that resonate with lived experiences.

There will be opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration at the confluence. There will be representatives from public health, mental health, the education system, youth initiatives, and policy think tanks. An outcome of this initiative could be co-created projects, community pilots, or curriculum innovations, all of which hold potential for long-term societal impact.

Contributions to Policymaking

As governments face challenges that involve human attitudes and actions from climate mitigation and public health to digital safety and civic engagement, policy frameworks are referring to behavioral science for answers. Behavioral Confluence 2026 is the right space to explore how behavioral insights can be systematically integrated into public policy design, implementation, and evaluation.

Behavioral decision science has the possibility to provide policy systems with tools to understand real-world choices that diverge from theoretical rationality. It can answer various questions, such as why citizens refrain from following through on welfare schemes, why students disengage despite access to digital learning, or why environmental campaigns often fail to create lasting behavioral change. Utilizing the panels and dialogues of Behavioral Confluence 2026, government officials, policy researchers, and behavioral scientists will engage with questions such as: How do we localize behavioral nudges in culturally diverse contexts? What ethical concerns arise from influencing public behavior? How can behaviorally-informed design improve citizen compliance and public trust?

Behavioral Confluence 2026 will also be an open forum that exhibits policy trials and interventions serving as learning tools for future policy making. Discussions will include how to frame information, structure incentives, reduce friction, and build default systems that work with human cognitive patterns. It also intends to promote behavioral foresight in policy anticipatory governance is an emerging priority. Sessions can include exploration of how behavioral science can aid in long-term planning related to digital ecosystems, population health, and urban mobility.