, Columnist
The Risks of Businesses Learning How Consumers Think
Companies' research into how people behave can make life more efficient -- or more onerous.
Rewards, too.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In recent decades, psychologists and economists have produced a flood of new findings about how human beings think and act. Those findings offer compelling lessons about how to change people’s behavior.
Governments have taken notice -- and so has the private sector. There are terrific opportunities here, but also real risks.