"People think automatically”
"People think socially; social norms guide much of behaviour”.
"People think with mental models”.

These quotes constitute the basis of the World Development Report 2015 of the World Bank, entitled "Mind, Society, and Behaviour”. The Report argues that design of development programmes must take into account these factors---social and psychological factors—that influence human behaviour. It goes on to provide evidence from a variety of studies and development projects to reinforce the above conclusions that people think, and context matters.

You may think that I am writing a caricature; no, it is the official Report of the World Bank published just recently in 2015. Most development practitioners who promote participatory development have always known this. In their projects, they always start with understanding what is the perception and analysis of the problems by the people themselves—the beneficiaries. It has also been generally known from practice that context—especially social context—shapes people’s thinking; beneficiaries are products of their contexts.

So, why this Report now? What has triggered such a reflection by the World Bank?

It appears that economists generally, and those in the World Bank particularly, did not care much about people’s own thinking, and social norms influencing that thinking. It is precisely because of that the family planning programmes generally targeted on fertility-control measures without understanding why couples produced many children (as a risk-mitigation mechanism). The Report explains this succinctly on page 3: "Individuals are not calculating automatons. Rather, people are malleable and emotional actors…standard economics places human cognition and motivation in a black box..”.

So, this ‘discovery’ is essentially for economists, mostly macro-economists, and mostly those who design development policies and programmes. For practitioners of development, for citizen leaders and social activists, this has been not only known for decades, but even put to active use. The development and promotion of participatory research methodology is based on the realisation that all people think, can think, and want to think, about their (and their family’s) future. By sharing their knowledge and experience, the beneficiaries can actively participate in designing and implementing development projects. Such an approach ensures relevance and sustainability of development policies and interventions.

In later part of the Report, there is another significant conclusion:

"Experts, policy makers, and development professionals are also subject to the biases, and…social and cultural influences..” (p. 180).

That policy-makers think according to their mental models is  common knowledge. That the mental models of policy makers and development professionals are different from those of the people in communities—the beneficiaries—is also common knowledge, but uncommonly acknowledged. Perhaps this Report will convince policy-makers and project designers that they must examine their own biases before making plans for others’ development. Hopefully, policy makers and development professionals (especially economists amongst them) would also acknowledge that there is no such thing as ‘pure and objective’ reality.

Despite its repetitive and polemic nature at times, this Report may indeed serve a major purpose in the world today—it may convince elites—global elites—that all people can think, and that their own thinking is as partial as anyone else’s. In that sense, this Report may re-affirm the value of people’s knowledge, expertise and choices. It may provide support to the approaches of numerous community organisers and civil society activists that ‘people do think, and context indeed matters’.

Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President PRIA, New Delhi  April 13, 2015