Building brain health: Considerations for psychologists working in the public policy arena

Global year of potential policy shifts

2024 is a year of global elections, in the UK, USA, Europe, India, Mexico and many more around the world. About half of the world's population lives in countries that have elections this year. And public policymakers around the world are searching for ideas to transform health and social care, labour forces and their skills development, innovation and research.

These issues are often seen as issues for separate policies and government departments. But they are fundamentally interconnected and a clear, relatable message that resonates across national and local contexts is crucial for influencing public policy discussions.

Psychologists and public policy

Psychologists have the potential to play a significant role in the development of public policy. However, one of the biggest challenges for all health researchers and practitioners is translating specialist knowledge into practical information, communicated in a way that is useful for those making and implementing public policy.

Digital communication tools constantly shift and evolve, so psychologists may find their work and expertise are difficult to communicate to a wider audience in noisy and often controversial online debates. Even when an excellent piece of research is published in a journal or shared at a conference, there is still a long way to go before the implications cross the desks of those making public policy at a meaningful level.

Neither should there be a direct and automatic pathway; psychological research and ideas need some time for discussion, review, criticism, replication and revision. As the replication crisis has shown, not all psychological ideas and research findings are ready to be tested in the public policy arena. Psychological research results do not always neatly translate into practical or effective public policy.

Bridging the research-policy gap 

To bridge the gap between psychological research and public policy, we explored the application of the 'Brain capital' concept, a framework that integrates the psychology of health and wellbeing with broad policy initiatives. This approach illustrates how complex ideas can be succinctly communicated and adapted to local and national contexts, providing a clear strategy for addressing a confluence of public policy concerns simultaneously.

Many of today's challenges are rooted in health and psychology and as such are international and universally human challenges. Experts in the UK, the USA, and in Finland who we spoke to all pointed to the same challenges, including the numbers of people worldwide living with a neurological condition and numbers of adolescents with mental health disorders.

These challenges span across disciplines and areas of policymaking but require a clear framework. William Hynes, senior World Bank economist and former head of the OECD's New Approaches to Economic Challenges Unit, said that psychology and economics often suffer from the same difficulty when it comes to public policymaking. 

"Psychology and economics have focused on the individual and trying to figure out individual motivation and behaviour. But that's like trying to understand an individual ant to explain the behaviour of the entire nest." 

From research to policy

Hynes goes on to explain how this emphasis on the individual poses significant challenges in scaling psychological research to effective public policy. While psychological insights can greatly enhance individual wellbeing, translating these findings into broad-scale public policy strategies requires frameworks that can bridge the gap between individual interventions and social change.

One of the weaknesses of models used by economists has been the underestimation of the complex interdependence of components within complex systems - and this criticism equally applies to psychological models of individual behaviour. To succeed in the public policy sphere, psychological models need to be robust enough to demonstrate tangible effects even when implemented by individuals who are not trained psychologists and may have other competing priorities.

Furthermore, these models must be designed to withstand political pressures and realities. Policymakers need to deliver visible and measurable 'wins' to maintain public support for initiatives that often require significant investment and long-term commitment. This demands frameworks that fit within political and economic constraints, ensuring that policies can sustain public and stakeholder support throughout their implementation.

Aligning with policy objectives

Brain capital is a holistic model that focuses on the positive economic, social and health outcomes of brain health. Basically, preventable brain conditions as well as social and economic factors such as poverty, homelessness and a poor education have a negative effect on the psychological wellbeing of individuals, as well as on the economic and social health of communities. Resources that boost brain health including good education, safe neighbourhoods, access to healthcare and social support have positive consequences for economies and labour forces. 

Healthy brains contribute measurably to the wealth of society and the economy. Investing in policies and initiatives that enhance cognitive function has widespread positive implications across all sectors of the economy. Improving brain health can lead to increased productivity, innovation, and resilience.

The concept of brain capital aligns with national and international policy objectives; it also has specific metrics that can be assessed and understood by both researchers and policymakers, for example, the 'Brain Capital Dashboard'.  This is a publicly available framework that brings together a list of interrelated metrics including educational outcomes, digital literacy and malnutrition levels, to mention just a few. The metrics can be used to keep track of initiatives' impacts on brain health and their broader economic and social implications. 

For example, consider an early childhood nutrition programme designed to combat malnutrition. Researchers compare outcomes in areas where the programme is administered to areas without the programme, to identify whether there are positive outcomes related to cognitive development. These results may support policy decisions to invest in nutrition programmes, highlighting the link between early malnutrition, reduced brain health, and educational and career outcomes. Long-term tracking of these cohorts would provide valuable data on their economic, health, and social outcomes, further illustrating how research can guide policies to enhance brain capital and socio-economic outcomes.

Researchers who use the framework from the outset to design their study should find their results are easier to translate into policy because the results align with what policy makers are looking at.

Furthermore, the model is applicable to research relating to early childhood through to late adulthood. An added advantage is that researchers can use metrics that have been successfully applied in studies from other countries to their own research designs.

An example from Finland

We can see how this approach has been successful in applying psychological research and insight to public health programmes and policy. 

The Finnish Brain Association (FBA), alongside the National Brain Health Programme, recently used the brain capital concept to shift the focus of its activity to a more preventative model and one with measurable goals and outcomes.

The move towards promoting more holistic brain health aligns with national objectives and sustainable development goals.

Finland is using brain capital to build its National Brain Health Programme, to lead economic transition to a clean energy economy powered by top-tier education, digital literacy and wellbeing at the centre of the economy. 

"The whole idea is to prepare something, which really delivers additional value, especially at the societal level," says Mika Pyykko, executive director of the FBA.   

Although it's too early yet to assess outcomes, success will be measured in increased health and productivity, alongside reductions in the number of preventable brain conditions, which will consequently cut social and healthcare costs.

The BPS's Psychology Matters campaign aims to demonstrate the benefits that harnessing the power of psychology can bring.

About the authors

Ian MacRae is a Division of Occupational Psychology committee member. He is an independent researcher specialising in the psychology of work, digital communication, and emerging technologies. He has developed psychometric tests that have been used by hundreds of thousands of people. He is the author of several books that have been translated into a dozen languages, including High Potential and Dark Social and his latest book is Web of Value: Understanding blockchain and web3's intersection of technology, psychology and business.

Dr Harris Eyre is a physician and neuroscientist who leads the Neuro-Policy Program and Senior Fellow at the Rice University Baker Institute for Public Policy. His work focuses on advancing the brain-positive economic transition using public and private approaches. He leads the Brain Capital Alliance, advises the MD Anderson Cancer Neuroscience Program and is an adjunct with the University of California, San Francisco.

References

Eyre, H. A., Graham, C., Njamnshi, A. K., Vradenburg, G. (2024). 4 ways to make our economy brain healthy. Brookings Institution.

Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association. [EMEA] (n.d.). Brain Capital Dashboard. 

Hynes, W., Trump, B.D., Kirman, A. et al. (2022). Systemic resilience in economics. Nature Physics, 18, 381–384.