How Babies’ Faces on Shop Doors Can Reduce Crime: With Tara Austin

2020-08-16

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Tara Austin is a strategist and was recently the Chief Strategy Officer for Kindred in London. Many of us know her for her public speaking events, like her presentation at Nudgestock in June 2020, and the amazing work she did with Rory Sutherland, Sam Tatam, and Jez Groom at Ogilvy over many years. We discussed a project she did with Ogilvy Change referred to as the Babies in the Borough. On the heels of the London riots in 2011, Tara wanted to see how a paper she’d read a few years earlier might apply to reduce c...

We discussed a project she did with Ogilvy Change referred to as the Babies in the Borough. On the heels of the London riots in 2011, Tara wanted to see how a paper she’d read a few years earlier might apply to reduce crime in England. With the help of a master street painter, Ben Eine, the team gathered photos of babies from locals in the neighborhood and had them rendered on the security doors of businesses. After the babies’ faces were added to the shop shutters, the city saw declines in theft, vandalism and public urination year-over-year.

We also talked about Edward de Bono, his development of lateral thinking and the six thinking hats. De Bono’s work can help us improve our decision making, which is likely to lead to greater happiness in our lives, and that’s always a win.

Thank you for checking out our conversation with Tara, and if you like it, please leave us a review.

Links

Tara Austin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-austin-78b2a780/

HOME Creative Consultancy: https://www.homeagency.co.uk/

The Grocer magazine: https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/

Ben Eine, street artist: https://beneine.co.uk/

Pinkie Campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hWxU_ICoHM

Edward DeBono, PhD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Bono

“Six Thinking Hats”: https://www.debonogroup.com/services/core-programs/six-thinking-hats/

The “Cute Matters” paper is actually “Baby Schema in Infant Faces Induces Cuteness

Perception and Motivation for Caretaking in Adults”: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260535/

Glocker, Melanie L et al. “Baby Schema in Infant Faces Induces Cuteness Perception and Motivation for Caretaking in Adults.” Ethology: formerly Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie vol. 115,3 (2009): 257-263. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01603.x

Lateral Thinking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_thinking

Jaywalking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking

Beggar’s Banquet Records: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_Banquet_Records

Common Biases & Heuristics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHpBr0VFcaT8wIUpr-9zMIb79dFMgOVFRxIZRybiftI/edit

Ozan Varol: https://ozanvarol.com/

Musical Links

Dolly Parton “9 to 5”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxUSsFXYo4

The Killers “Human”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIZdjT1472Y

Lou Reed “Satellite of Love”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2EgYq_NCY

U2 “Satellite of Love”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q1zWNITuyg

Gretchen Peters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r07tGdLpKIQ

Loretta Lynn “The Pill”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DcdONaKSQM