The hidden science strengthening federal policies for Americans

The dangerous drug that never made it to market. The subscription that was easy to cancel. The benefits check that showed up on time. None of these make the news, because nothing went wrong—and that's exactly what a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) special feature wants readers to notice.

The special feature includes five papers that describe how agencies have used behavioral science to serve the public more effectively. The applications span consumer protection, financial regulation, pharmaceutical oversight, health insurance policy, and benefits administration. The papers show how embedding behavioral scientists inside federal agencies improves public programming and regulation. 

"Science in service: Behavioral research applications across federal agencies"

The collection's introduction was written by Alycia Chin, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Baruch Fischhoff, Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) and the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (CMIST), who frame the broader argument that effective policies must respond to how the public actually thinks and makes decisions. 

Chin and Fischhoff note that although a substantial body of behavioral and social science research pertains to government operations, only a fraction of it is published in scientific journals. The special feature illuminates the work behind the scenes, showing both what federal agencies do to serve the public and the vital role played by behavioral scientists.

The feature includes the papers: 

• “User interaction with digital platforms: A consumer protection perspective” (Lew & Raval, 2026)
• “Turning policy implications into policy impact: Lessons from behavioral science in financial markets” (Chin et al., 2026)
• “Applied behavioral and decision sciences in support of U.S. FDA’s drug regulatory mission” (Eggers et al.,2026)
• “The role of nonfinancial factors in the Congressional Budget Office’s health insurance coverage projections” (Hong & Hopkins, 2026) 
• “Payment integrity in government programs: Takeaways from incorporating the behavioral sciences in U.S. federal evaluations” (Duru et al., 2026)

Behavioral Science in FDA Drug Regulation

One of the five papers, co-authored by Sara L. Eggers, former FDA Director, Decision Support and Analysis Staff, Tamar Krishnamurti, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Fischhoff, examines how decision science improved outcomes at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). 

In the paper “Applied Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Support of U.S. FDA's Drug Regulatory Mission,” Eggers (who earned her Ph.D. at EPP), Krishnamurti (a former EPP research faculty member), and Fischhoff trace the work of CDER's Office of Strategic Programs across four connected cases. First, they examine the development of the Benefit-Risk Framework, which created a simple and consistent approach to evaluating whether a drug’s medical benefits outweigh its risks. This work exposed the need for more ways to manage scientific uncertainties and led to a dedicated internal consultation service providing regulatory decision support. Building upon the success of these initiatives, CDER implemented Patient-Focused Drug Development—a way to systematically collect and inform regulatory policy that represents the patient voice. Finally, the paper discusses FDA SOURCE, a dynamic simulation model that applies systems-thinking to identify and assess strategies for overcoming the U.S. opioid crisis.

Invisible safeguards and supports

This collection makes a broader point about scientific careers in public service. Eggers and Krishnamurti's paths from EPP training to applied roles inside federal science and health policy illustrate a core argument: rigorous social science training has a place not just in academia, but inside the agencies making decisions that affect millions of people. The authors suggest that deeper collaboration could strengthen both the science and the institutions it serves.

The PNAS feature illustrates that regulatory decisions, made by humans under uncertain conditions, are vastly improved by behavioral science tools. Fischhoff and Chin observe that it can be hard to recognize the harms we have been spared. Online scams that were avoided, harmful drugs that were kept off shelves, and tax dollars saved through efficient operations don’t typically make headlines. This special feature hopes to change that. 

I’m glad that we were able to honor these often unsung heroes, whose work in federal agencies helps make our country run and provide some of the return on its investment in basic science research.

Baruch Fischhoff, Professor, Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology