Dr Chiara Varazzani is a behavioural scientist whose work bridges neuroscience, behavioural science, and public policy. She is the Lead Behavioural Scientist at the OECD, where she leads the Behavioural Science Team. In this role, she supports governments around the world in applying behavioural insights across a wide range of policy areas, including health, climate change, misinformation, financial decision-making, and the ethical and responsible use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. Chiara is also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Lead Author for the UN Environment Programme’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7).
Dr Varazzani’s research focuses on decision-making in complex systems - particularly how cognitive and emotional processes shape behaviour within public institutions. Her current work explores how to embed behavioural science early and systematically in the policy design process and how to scale its application effectively in the context of digital transformation and AI. She holds a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience from Sorbonne University, a Master of Science in Cognitive Sciences from École Normale Supérieure (ENS) and Paris Descartes University, and a Master of Science in Social Sciences from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales – EHESS).