Review of the World Bank World Development Report, Mind, Society, and Behavior

The World Development Report is an annual World Bank publication that highlights the latest research and trends in international development programming. This major review carries substantial weight in setting the policy and program agenda for donor and recipient agencies around the world. The 2015 Mind, Society, and Behavior report is remarkable in that, in a field typically driven by economic principles and interventions, it focuses on the human cognitive processes that underlie social and economic decision making. This important, but often neglected, perspective is a substantial contribution to the development discussion. The report represents a noteworthy effort in identifying and compiling rigorous and up-to-date psychological research on human needs, motivations, and biases to inform key recommendations for development policy and programming investments.