About Us
Our Team
Since 2015, our applied behavioral sciences team at Duke University has partnered with banks, credit unions, fintechs, universities, and government organizations to run hundreds of experiments to find out how to improve the design of financial products and services for low and moderate-income households.
This interactive guide captures what we've learned so far - what worked and what didn't - across a variety of domains. Build a custom report that informs your decisions as you build your own financial products and services that improve your users' financial wellbeing.
How We Use Behavioral Science
Behavioral science is an evolving discipline that leverages research and methodologies from a variety of fields, such as behavioral economics, psychology, and other social sciences. We apply it to improve people's financial health and wellbeing by identifying and understanding key financial decisions and behaviors, designing evidence-based interventions, and rigorously testing them to learn what works and what doesn't.
Guide Me to Relevant InterventionsGuide Me to InterventionsGuide Me to Interventions
Build a custom report that can help inform your decisions as you build your own financial products and services.
Guide Me to Interventions
Build a custom report that can help inform your decisions as you build your own financial products and services.
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Annual Reports
2020 Annual Report
On our list of common misfortunes to plan for, here's one we likely wouldn't have thought of before 2020: global pandemic. Yet it has upended the lives of millions of people—sending them back to square one in any number of arenas, but certainly including financial wellbeing.
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2019 Annual Report
The average family in the United States is playing a financial game in which the odds are decidedly stacked in favor of the house. The house we are referring to is, of course, not just in Vegas. It's in every shopping mall, car dealership, internet browser, smart phone, Instagram account, restaurant, court room, and retail store in every community across the country.
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2018 Annual Report
Now that Common Cents Lab has concluded its third year, we are officially past the startup (or lift-off) phase and are, so to speak, ready to add fuel. This doesn't mean that the journey has been without turbulence. Designing products and processes to transform the financial lives of people with low incomes isn't simple, even with all we've learned to date.
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2017 Annual Report
With the second full year of Common Cents Lab in the books (in this book, to be more precise), there is much progress to acknowledge. While Common Cents Lab is a research entity, its work does so much more than create interesting research. It creates easier, more intuitive ways for people to save - which is something that most people say they want to do, but find difficult.
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2016 Annual Report
In the current state of the world, Americans are not financially secure. In a study we conducted with close to 1,000 LMI participants, 36% self-reported having less than $500 in savings (including retirement savings). Most people in the study did not feel financially secure, yet they had a strong desire to become financially secure.
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