Informing Policy Design

Domain
Social Science = social, behavioral, and
decision science
Behavioral science (individuals) includes
psychology, economics, neuroscience
Social science (larger groupings) includes
sociology, anthropology, political science
Decision science includes management
science, cost/risk/benefit analysis

Human Dimensions
Reducing risks, realizing benefits depends on
people (individuals, organization, polities).
Relying on intuition in system design and
evaluation is natural, but unfortunate.
The biological research community may lack
absorptive capacity for social science.
The social science community may lack
incentives for addressing biological science.

Some Issues
Scientific judgment in predicting outcomes
Ethical judgment in analysis
Communication to and from stakeholders
Normalization of pathology and virtue
Mismatch of technology and regulatory
mechanisms
Neglect of opportunity costs

Two Possible Mechanisms

Center(s) for applying existing social science,
creating needed evidence, and monitoring
adaptive design.
Shadow alternative evaluation process(es),
hoping for atrophy of poor existing ones.