Democratic institutions often operate on the assumption that citizens have the time, motivation and information to engage fully with public life. Behavioural evidence shows that this is rarely the case. People face competing demands, cognitive overload, and environments that make meaningful participation difficult. The result is predictable: lower turnout, declining trust, and participation patterns that privilege the well-resourced over the underrepresented.

Deliberative Democracy

We design and evaluate participatory processes—citizens’ assemblies, mini-publics, civic panels and other deliberative formats—that bring diverse people together to reason, debate and make decisions. Our approach ensures that these processes are behaviourally informed, inclusive, and structured in ways that reduce cognitive burden and power imbalances.

EthosLab assesses recruitment methods, facilitation quality, information design and group dynamics to ensure that deliberation leads to thoughtful, high-quality outcomes. We also support pilots and experimental trials that test design variations, enabling organisations to refine participatory models based on real behavioural evidence.

Political Participation

EthosLab studies turnout, mobilisation and everyday civic behaviour to understand why people participate—and why they do not. We analyse both psychological and structural barriers: low political efficacy, limited trust, confusing processes, digital exclusion, administrative burdens,linguistic, cultural and social norms that discourage engagement.

Our interventions make participation easier, more meaningful and more equitable. We design evidence-based nudges, mobilisation strategies, user-friendly engagement pathways and behavioural improvements to electoral and civic processes. Our goal is to ensure that participation reflects the whole population—not just those with the time, confidence or resources to engage.

Polling

Polling accuracy depends as much on human behaviour as it does on statistical technique. Respondents misreport, disengage, skip questions or interpret options differently depending on context. EthosLab improves polling by addressing these behavioural sources of bias.

We support questionnaire design, sampling strategies, mode selection and data interpretation through a behavioural lens. Our team works to reduce respondent fatigue, minimise social desirability bias, and improve comprehension—resulting in more reliable data and insights that truly reflect public sentiment.