What happens when we bring behavioural science and realist research into the same conversation? And could the two approaches help address some of each other’s limitations?
Alejandro is joined by Dr Justin Aunger, Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, whose work spans behavioural science, patient safety, health services research, realist synthesis and realist evaluation.
Drawing on his experience across both traditions, Justin explores a challenge familiar to many realist researchers: programme theories can be rich and context-sensitive, butthe language used to describe interventions and mechanisms can vary considerably from one study to another. Behavioural science, meanwhile, has developed increasingly structured ways of describing intervention components and the processes through which behaviour may change.
The conversation explores what realist research might learn from concepts such as behaviour change techniques, mechanisms of action, and behavioural settings, and whether these could provide a more shared language for describing what interventions actually do, how people respond and why outcomes occur. Justin also introduces the idea of causal chain configurations, offering one possible way of connecting intervention resources, proximal and distal contexts, changes in reasoning and outcomes.
But integration also brings trade-offs. Alejandro and Justin discuss the risks of adding further complexity to an already demanding approach, whether behavioural frameworks adequately capture social and organisational mechanisms and why greater standardisation should not come at the expense of the flexibility that makes realist approaches valuable.
Whether you are a realist evaluator, realist reviewer, behavioural scientist, intervention researcher, healthcare researcher, student, supervisor, or PhD researcher, thisepisode offers an accessible exploration of what these traditions might learn from one another and how a more shared language could strengthen the accumulation and practical use of realist knowledge.
