This episode introduces the choice triad model—a transdisciplinary framework that integrates strategic design, behavioural science, and systems thinking. Originally proposed in “Choice posture, architecture, and infrastructure: systemic behavioral design for public health policy” (Schmidt, Chen & Soldan, 2022), the episode offers a reflective walkthrough of the paper’s core ideas and practical implications, especially for those working at the intersection of behavioural strategy and policy design.
Rather than focusing solely on individual behaviour, the authors offer three intersecting lenses for understanding and shaping public health policy:
Choice posture – the predispositions, histories, and values of agents within the system
Choice architecture – how decisions are shaped by immediate environments and cues
Choice infrastructure – the underlying systems, structures, and policies that support or constrain behaviour
Using the Flint water crisis as a case example, the episode explores how these three dimensions interact in real-world contexts—and how they can be used across the diagnosis, generation, and evaluation phases of intervention design.
It covers:
A clear explanation of each component of the triad
How the model applies across stages of intervention development
Why infrastructure and posture can quietly undermine even well-designed nudges
What a more systemic view of behaviour change can offer for complex public health and policy challenges
As always, this audio version was generated using NotebookLM and curated by Elina Halonen. It’s intended as a listenable way into the ideas—for when reading the paper isn’t an option, but engaging with the thinking still is.
Source:
Schmidt, R., Chen, Z., & Soldan, V. P. (2022). Choice posture, architecture, and infrastructure: systemic behavioral Design for Public Health Policy. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 8(4), 504-525.
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