The Behavioral Code

The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better...or Worse

By: Benjamin van Rooij, Adam Fine

Narrated by: Danny Hughes

An American Psychology-Law Society’s Lawrence S. Wrightsman Book Award Winner

A 2022 PROSE Award finalist in Legal Studies and Criminology

A 2022 American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award Finalist

A Behavioral Scientist’s Notable Book of 2021

Freakonomics for the law—how applying behavioral science to the law can fundamentally change and explain misbehavior

Why do most Americans wear seatbelts but continue to speed even though speeding fines are higher? Why could park rangers reduce theft by removing “no stealing” signs? Why was a man who stole 3 golf clubs sentenced to 25 years in prison?

Some laws radically change behavior whereas others are consistently ignored and routinely broken. And yet we keep relying on harsh punishment against crime despite its continued failure.

Professors Benjamin van Rooij and Adam Fine draw on decades of research to uncover the behavioral code: the root causes and hidden forces that drive human behavior and our responses to society’s laws. In doing so, they present the first accessible analysis of behavioral jurisprudence, which will fundamentally alter how we understand the connection between law and human behavior.

The Behavioral Code offers a necessary and different approach to battling crime and injustice that is based in understanding the science of human misconduct—rather than relying on our instinctual drive to punish as a way to shape behavior. The book reveals the behavioral code’s hidden role through illustrative examples like:

• The illusion of the US’s beloved tax refund
• German walls that “pee back” at public urinators
• The $1,000 monthly “good behavior” reward that reduced gun violence
• Uber’s backdoor “Greyball” app that helped the company evade Seattle’s taxi regulators
• A $2.3 billion legal settlement against Pfizer that revealed how whistleblower protections fail to reduce corporate malfeasance
• A toxic organizational culture playing a core role in Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal
• How Peter Thiel helped Hulk Hogan sue Gawker into oblivion

Revelatory and counterintuitive, The Behavioral Code catalyzes the conversation about how the law can effectively improve human conduct and respond to some of our most pressing issues today, from police misconduct to corporate malfeasance.

©2021 Benjamin van Rooij (P)2021 Beacon Press

Critic reviews

“A timely contribution to the ever-growing literature on the use of behavioural sciences in regulatory governance (and public policy more broadly).”—From the Regulatory Frontlines

"The entire book is an exposition on shaping laws and codes to “human and organizational behavior” that should be a foundational part of any compliance library."—Compliance Week

"...this book is treading new ground by diving much deeper into the value that behaviorally oriented research has to offer to regulatory governance. It is a much needed contribution to the literature on how insights from behaviorally oriented research can be used more fully to improve the quality of law and regulation."—Regulation and Governance

Great book, narration == meh

This is a great overview of the current state of the art in the alignment of compliance to policies. The narrator has a few idiosyncratic pronunciations, e.g., ex-speer-i-ments vs ex-pair-a-ments.

Very important book!

This book is essential for showing how we need to bring the findings of behavioral science into our law schools and justice system.

Justice, Intent, and the Reality of it all

Van Rooij and Fine offer an honest analysis between law and human behavior. It is a call to action, open-mindedness, and a demand to, "step down from the ivory tower" (chapter 10).  The wrongs we have committed against each other, and our planet can only be recovered through implicit change. We must ask ourselves not only how we can make the world a better place, but why we make the world a better place.

more descriptive than inspiring..

good report on the state of the practice of Criminal Justice. could be required reading for CJ majors