Understanding behaviour to design change
The Herbert Simon Society Srl Benefit (HSS Srl) is the consulting company, created by the Herbert Simon Society, founded in 2022 for the professional application of cognitive sciences and in particular behavioral economics and artificial intelligence to management, the organization, public policy and design of products and services. The mission of HSS Srl is to translate frontier knowledge in the scientific field into concrete applications for companies, public institutions and organizations.
Knowledge of human behaviour is at the heart of any effective transformation. For this, HSS Srl applies the principles of Behavioral Design and Behavioral Insights to create solutions that improve decisions, optimize user experiences and drive change in a sustainable and realistic way.
HSS Srl works for organizations that want to overcome cognitive barriers, improve interactions with their users and design more effective systems, using a scientific approach based on data and experimentation.
What is behavioral design
Behavioral Design is an interdisciplinary approach that combines Behavioral Sciences with Design Thinking to design environments, products and services that can guide and influence human behavior in a predictable and effective manner.
Based on the principles of cognitive psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience, Behavioral Design helps to create systems, interfaces and processes that reduce decision-making friction, Improve engagement and promote more informed and beneficial choices for individuals and organizations.
This approach is used in different sectors, from the design of digital experiences to the optimization of public policies, from education to the improvement of business processes, with the aim of making choices easier, intuitive, effective and goal-oriented.
What we do
We apply behavioural sciences to help companies and institutions design more effective solutions and increase the quality and profitability of investments.
Behavioral Insights & Data Analysis
We analyze people’s behavior through data and theoretical models, to provide concrete insights into decision making, engagement and cognitive barriers.
Behavioral Design & Choice Architecture
We design environments, interfaces and processes that drive behavior in a natural and effective way, leveraging the principles of nudge, boosting and design thinking.
Customer analysis
We test solutions in the field to validate strategies and refine decisions based on scientific evidence.
Strategic design for innovation
We design services and products that take into account changes in customs and habits and the limitations of human rationality, its adaptive capacity.
Organization and Motivation of the Staff
We intervene within companies to make the work environment welcoming, involve staff to meet their needs and improve individual and organizational performance.
Training & workshop
We support companies and organisations in integrating Behavioral Design Thinking into their decision-making processes, offering courses, workshops and capacity building programmes.
Our approach
Our intervention method is divided into three main stages and is based on continuous interaction with the top management.
Understand
We use innovative methodologies to analyse both qualitative and quantitative data in order to understand the real motivations of consumers/users’ choices.
Design
We translate consumer/user analysis into practical solutions for new products and services by breaking down the traditional barriers of resistance to change.
Experiment
We create solutions that can be tested immediately on the market thanks to the application of Design Thinking methodologies. This avoids errors and reduces risks.
Team
Riccardo Viale
Riccardo Viale (MD) is Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Cognitive Economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Milan-Bicocca and of Behavioral Economics at LUISS, Rome. He is President of the Behavioral Insights Bicocca (BIB) research group and Co-Scientific Director of the Master “Behavioral Design of Public Utilities and Services”.
Early in his career he was CNR-Nato Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford University, Research Scholar at Italian Academy of Columbia University, at Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin and at Chinese Academy of Science, Bejing. He has served as a reviewer and panel member for the European Research Council’s Mind and its Complexity Consolidator Grants.
He is currently Head of the Italy Behavioral Insights Team (Team di Analisi Comportamentale) at the Prime Minister’s Department of Civil Service. He is Founder and Secretary General of the Herbert Simon Society and Editor-in-Chief of Mind & Society (Nature-Springer). He is also the author of numerous books and publications, including Economics, Bounded Rationality, and the Cognitive Revolution (with Herbert Simon, Robin Marris, and Massimo Egidi; Elgar, 1995), Handbook on Bounded Rationality (Routledge, 2021), Nudging (The MIT Press, 2022), Cognitive Economics (Elgar, forthcoming), and co-editor (with Gerd Gigerenzer and Shabnam Mousavi) of The Companion to Herbert Simon (Elgar, 2024).
From 2010 to 2014, he served as Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. He is currently a columnist for Corriere della Sera.
Felice Giuiani
Felice Giuliani is a psychologist and holds a PhD in Economics. He coordinates the Applied Behavioral Economics Unit at the Herbert Simon Society, where he leads research and consulting projects applying behavioral science to social, organizational, and policy challenges.
He was a visiting PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and has collaborated with various companies in Italy and abroad as a researcher and research manager in user research and consumer insights. He supports organizations in the strategic implementation of behavioral science methods and tools across areas such as marketing, product and service design, and human resources. He also works as a lecturer, trainer, and business consultant, with the aim of translating scientific knowledge into concrete, sustainable, and high-impact solutions.
Sergio Campo Dall'Orto
Sergio Campo dall’Orto is Director of the Master’s program “Behavioral Design of Public Utilities and Services” and Adjunt Professor of Design Startup at the School of Design at POLI.design. With a degree in Political Science with an economics focus, he has built a long-standing career at the intersection of technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and public-private collaboration.
His areas of expertise include technology transfer, smart cities, e-commerce, and innovation policy. He has coordinated numerous national and European programs and has served on advisory boards for institutions such as the European Commission, Regione Lombardia, the Municipality of Milan, and the Department of Public Administration. He has also taught in several universities including the University of Milan, the University of Bergamo, and LIUC.
Author and editor of numerous publications on innovation, telework, and technology strategy, he has consistently promoted the diffusion of entrepreneurial culture and open innovation in both academic and industrial settings.
Veronica Cucchiarini
Veronica Cucchiarini is a researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, where she lectures in the Master’s course Behavioral Economics for Decision Making. She earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, with a specialization in problem solving and decision making under conditions of risk and uncertainty.
Her research explores the application of behavioral science to public policy, finance, and organizational contexts, with a special interest in how cognitive biases and heuristics influence individual and collective choices. She serves as the Scientific Coordinator of the Behavioral Insights Bicocca (BIB) research group, which operates within the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology and Social Sciences (CISEPS), promoting interdisciplinary collaborations across behavioral economics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence.
Veronica collaborates with the Herbert Simon Society association and serves as a consultant for the Italy Behavioral Insights Team (Team di Analisi Comportamentale) at the Prime Minister Department of Civil Service, supporting evidence-based innovation in the public sector.
Davide Pietroni
Davide Pietroni is Associate Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Chieti-Pescara, where he teaches Psychology of Negotiation in the Master’s Degree Program in Psychology. He previously served as Chair of the Master’s Program in Economics and Behavioral Sciences, where he currently teaches Choice Design and Persuasion. He holds his PhD in Cognitive Science and a degree in Psychology from the University of Padua
He works as a consultant and trainer for the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers, public institutions, and private companies, focusing on empowerment and the emotional-strategic management of conflict. He is also a member of the Behavioral Analysis Team (Team di Analisi Comportamentale) at the Prime Minister Department of Civil Service.
His scientific work has been published in numerous national and international journals. Together with Professor Rino Rumiati, he is co-author of five books on negotiation and mediation psychology, published by Raffaello Cortina, Il Mulino, and Il Sole 24 Ore.
Davide Fabbrico
Davide Fabbrico is a third-year PhD student in Statistics and Data Science. His research focuses on Bayesian analysis for complex and high-dimensional data, with particular interest in the development of flexible, interpretable, and computationally efficient statistical models. He is particularly interested in addressing methodological challenges arising in nonlinear regression, variable selection, and structured data settings, such as compositional and network data. His interests also include optimization-based approaches to social choice, such as learning metrics on rankings that yield well-defined collective decisions.
He holds a Master’s degree in Statistics and Data Science, with a focus on statistical learning and Bayesian methods, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with a specialization in applied mathematics. He took part in a research collaboration at the University of Cambridge, focusing on Bayesian methodology for biomedical data analysis.
In addition to his research, he is involved in teaching and often takes part in collaborative study groups.
Consultancy agreements
