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Older people are analog and overwhelmed by the fast-paced digital world, while young people thrive in our online society. Right or wrong? The underlying question is: How do we define "age" in a digitized world where people are increasingly defined by their online fingerprint? Can companies that rely on the outdated concept of demographics still survive in an increasingly digital world? And how can companies truly understand their customers' needs after the end of third-party cookies? Spoiler alert: The world of Big Data as we know it is dead. And with it, the conventional concept of age. The demographic age is dead. Welcome to the new personality age. Never before has the statement "You're as old as you feel" been so true as it's today. BESTFIT founder and successful entrepreneur Sonja Kohn is living proof that age is just a number and that companies need more than demographic data to successfully understand and adapt to their customers' needs. "Today, data is the most valuable asset for any business," Sonja Kohn quotes well-known business magazine The Economist, "but the mistake most companies make is collecting the wrong information about their customers." With BESTFIT, a disruptive data generation platform, companies receive client’s EMOTIONAL DNA – a new area of data that reveals how people think and helps companies to hyper-personalize their communication and offerings. BESTFIT is a digital behavior science platform; a synergy of Science, Psychology, Technology & Business Intelligence merging HITM (Human Intelligence) and AI. With BESTFIT's engaging digital questionnaires, corporates and their clients can uncover personality traits, decision drivers, and preferences. For companies, it delivers holistic personality profiles, decision drivers and preferences, predictive intelligence that empowers impactful communication and personalized offers. For their clients, a +/- 3-minute, fun self-discovery experience. About the founder Sonja Kohn and BESTFIT Ms. Kohn has extensive multidisciplinary experience as a serial entrepreneur, having founded successful companies with partners such as UniCredit Bank Austria, Austria's largest bank. In 1994, she founded Medici, a financial services company based in Vienna, and in 1999 she founded Funds World, an online platform for investment funds, in a joint venture with Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank. Later, in 2015, Ms. Kohn founded BESTFIT - even then, she recognized that the way businesses generated and understood data was outdated. Today, her and her team's disruptive business innovation is revolutionizing the data industry by reinventing how data is generated and what kind of data companies can collect. Her remarkable understanding of business innovation and trends and her unstoppable interest in new business solutions are the drivers of her and her company's continued success. Knowing that hard work has been the foundation of her remarkable self-made career, she also supports young businesswomen by partnering with HenkelX Venture for the Xathon in Berlin - Europe's largest idea hackathon for women. Sonja Kohn has always had an excellent understanding of market trends and the needs of businesses. Her latest innovative venture is at the core of three exponentially growing industries - Digital, Data and Gamification. With their innovative platform, they won a DIAmond Award for greatest strategic impact, were selected by DIA's mediapartner Italian Insurtech Association as the best digital product for enterprises, and were selected by Gartner as Cool Vendors 2020 and 2021 in the insurance space.

There is substantial evidence on the importance of personality traits in predicting socioeconomic outcomes including job performance, health, and academic achievement (Barrick and Mount 1991; Hampson et al. 2006; Hogan et al., 1996; Hogan and Holland 2003; Robbins et al. 2006; Roberts et al., 2007, Ones et al. 2007; Schmidt and Hunter 1998). Personality is also a key factor that can have important consequences for the economic decisions that individuals make and the outcomes they achieve (Cobb-Clark & Schurer, 2012). The stability of personality traits over time is essential for predicting life and economic outcomes. Until the mid-1980s, the dominant attitude among personality theoreticians was that personality changes throughout life as the individual passes through psychological stages (e.g. Erik Erikson, in Munley, 1977). However, recent studies provide support to the stability of personality traits over time. According to Paul Costa (1987), a well-known personality researcher, there is no evidence for personality change due to age. "It is their habits that change, their vigor and health, their responsibilities and circumstances – not their basic personality" (Costa, Vancouver, 1987). A study by Gustavsson et al. (1997) found that personality traits, as assessed by the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) remained stable after 9 years. Reviewing the data from a nationally-representative panel survey that includes measures of Big-Five personality traits of more than 7,600 Australian households, in two phases (2005 and 2009), Cobb-Clark & Schurer (2012) concluded that personality traits do appear to be stable among working-age adults. Moreover, there was little evidence that economically meaningful, intra-individual personality change can be linked to the adverse employment, health, or family events that individuals experience.

Robert J Fisher successfully analyzed the social desirability tendency of people according to which they provide answers that would help them gain the approval of others, however, when asked directly they would never admit that. The reason is that people are inclined to present themselves in a way that is consistent with social norms, and independent is a highly ranked value. When asked directly (and not in anonymity), respondents are engaged with impression management and feel greater pressure to make their responses consistent with social expectations. By asking indirect questions – in a projective manner (i.e. "the typical consumer would …", instead of "I will…") , the social desirability bias is reduced. The respondents project their own beliefs and evaluations when answering indirect questions. This is exactly why BESTFIT is achieving groundbreaking results: BESTFIT is a behavioural science-based platform that reveals through an engaging, 3-minute “discovery journey” of indirect questions deep personality traits and decision drivers. Never before have businesses managed to gather more authentic and genuine information about their target group.

Remember the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”? It tells us that taking one day at a time, dealing with things as they happen, and not worrying about the future is a good way to go about life. Lose Your Negativity Bias A negativity bias means that something positive will generally have less of an impact on our feelings than something negative. As Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk writes, “It’s hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness.” When we experience negativity, our body chemistry is affected. Over time, the stress hormone Cortisol weakens the body’s immune system and increases the risk of health problems. To live a happier life, it is important to “Accentuate the Positive,” as another song recommends. Make happiness a habit Each of us is the source of our own happiness. Self-understanding and mindfulness are part of the happiness equation Helping others is foremost Seeking to find the positive amidst the negative comes from practice. There is no prescription for being happy. But we can all focus more on what produces joy, so that we can create opportunities to repeat those moments. As Mahatma Gandhi said,” Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

Why insurers and wealth managers need to understand financial advisors now more than ever In the business world, behavioural science is the new dimension in understanding human thoughts, emotions and behaviours. However, while it’s being applied to customer segmentation strategies, little is still known about segmenting large networks of employees or professionals, particularly financial advisors. That’s why Axell recently partnered with the award-winning human intelligence and AI solution, BestFiT. BestFiT designed a simple, yet powerful personality profiling tool based on Nobel Prize winning academic research that avoids respondent bias with indirect questioning. Together, Axell and BestFiT have built a Strategic Advisor Personality Model that can be scaled to large advisor networks. Read the whole article here: https://axell-hub.com/blog/why-insurers-and-wealth-managers-need-to-understand-financial-advisors-now-more-than-ever/

Being an expert in behavioral economics and AI technology BESTFIT is a proud partner of HenkelX Ventures and has also been chosen to be part of the jury at Xathon in Berlin. It was an exciting time for us and we sincerely want to thank the Xathon Team for inviting us. #HI #powerofprediction #BESTFIT #success #businessintelligence #businessdevelopment #HenkelX #Xathon

Save the date! Don‘t miss BESTFIT presentation at DIA Munich about HI – the groundbreaking evolution of Smart data and AI. Discover how we apply scientifically proven behavioral psychological models to help insurance companies to exceed their business goals! #HI #BESTFIT #insurtech #innovation #powerofprediction #Smartdata #DigitalInsuranceAgenda #DIAMUC

On 21 November, at the DIA Conference in Munich, participants voted BESTFIT the DIAmond Award Winner for the greatest strategic impact. The focus of DIA is digital transformation, operational excellence and customer engagement. #proud hashtag#success hashtag#HI hashtag#AI hashtag#powerofprediction hashtag#BESTFIT hashtag#Data hashtag#businessintelligence hashtag#businessinnovation hashtag#DIAMUC

BestFiT has been chosen to be part of the exclusive ALLIANZ BNLX INSURTECH DAY where Allianz Benelux was looking for innovative partnerships with the most successful industry solutions. We were excited to present ”Monetization of Behavioural Insights“ to industry business leaders. THE EVENT’S PURPOSE Allianz Benelux was looking for innovation partnerships. They aimed to connect with interesting startups and to find potential future partners during this one-day online event. BestFiT AS A PARTICIPANT BestFiT had the opportunity to present its business idea to the audience in a 15-minute pitch plus 5 minutes of Q&A. THE AUDIENCE The InsurTech Day was open to everyone within Allianz Benelux. Additionally, the event initiators ensured the attendance of the departments and managements relevant to each participating startup. Members of the Board of Management and heads of other European Digital Factories were also present. THE OFFER During the online event BestFiT had the opportunity to start interesting discussions and to find potential areas of collaboration with Allianz management. Furthermore, the event initiators provided a personal 1-hour meeting with any head of department attendees wanted to meet.

by Susan Alexander, PhD “Do as I say not as I do.” John Selden in Table-Talk, c. 1654: An environmentalist buys an SUV. A person on a diet can’t resist a piece of chocolate cake. Someone saving for a mortgage puts an impulse purchase on a credit card. A conservative investor buys the fund with the highest returns. All of these situations are familiar and are usually understood as examples of basic human nature. However, if one is a climate change activist, a doctor trying to encourage better health, or an investment advisor, the inconsistency between someone’s attitudes and his behavior is a matter of concern. Scholars call this inconsistency the value-action gap. The concept of a value-action gap, also called the attitude-behavior gap, the intention- behavior gap, and the belief-behavior gap, developed from the realization that, while there are growing concerns about climate change, people’s actions are not changing to reflect this issue. Consequently, research on the value-action gap has mainly been carried out by environmentalists, along with some social psychologists. Their findings are broadly applicable to all consumer behaviour. Studies suggest that a multiplicity of factors affect behaviour and consumer choices, with the result that identifying precisely why this gap exists is complex. For instance, factors influencing a consumer purchase include price, quality, convenience, and brand as well as values. Background Traditionally, the theory of reasoned action held that behaviour is the result of a person’s attitudes associated with that behaviour plus social norms. A person’s voluntary behaviour should thus be predicted by his attitudes and values (1). However, in the case of the environment, while as many as 54% of Americans agreed that environmental protection was a key priority (2), there was no corresponding increase in such actions as recycling or limiting energy usage(3). Other studies that examined the choice of cleaner vehicles, legally-logged wood, fair trade products, and organic dairy products similarly found environmentall- friendly attitudes did not influence consumer choice. Thus attitudes are not always an accurate indicator of behaviour and an individual’s decision-making process is difficult to predict. Positive attitudes do not necessarily result in positive behavior. What does affect behaviour? The relationship between attitudes and behaviour is the result of mediation between sets of attitudes as well as external and contextual limits, including economics and politics (4). Consumer decision-making involves a comparison of the costs and benefits of alternatives within a specific budget, rather than certain values (5). The gap can be attributed to brand strength, culture, finance, lack of information, lifestyle, personality, or trade-offs between different ethical factors. Time and convenience can also be major determinants of consumer behavior, as can price and quality (6). Other factors identified as affecting behaviour are budget and habit. In addition, people act impulsively7 and let selfishness trump altruism (8). The diagram below identifies factors that result in a value-action gap. The Information Deficit Theory One explanation for the disjunct between values and consumer choice is a lack of information. Consequently, providing more information should bridge this gap (9). Information produces knowledge, which then forms attitudes that lead to consistent behaviour (10). Filling the value-action gap with information results in behavioural change. The theory is illustrated by the graphic below. Unfortunately for supporters of the information-deficit theory, it remains unproven that mere information promotes changes in behaviour, as the same information can be understood in different ways—sometimes even in the opposite way expected (11). Thus other factors are assumed to exist besides a lack of information that result in a value-action gap. The concept of “bounded rationality” posits that individual decisions are limited by psychological and environmental constraints and that day-to-day responsibilities constrain actions (12). The graph below shows two learning curves and illustrates that, even though a person may acquire new information, it takes time for it to “sink in.” In the meantime, value action gaps are common during the period represented by the trough in the graph. The Value-Action Gap and Behavioral Economics Behavioral economics studies the impact of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors on an individual’s economic decisions. Like the theory of reasoned action cited above, economic theory traditionally assumed that economic decisions were logical and resulted in efficient markets. However, it has become obvious that markets are not completely rational. This is due to: Heuristics. People make nearly all of their decisions using “rules of thumb.”(13) Framing. People use mental filters such as stereotypes and anecdotes tounderstand and respond to events. Market inefficiencies resulting from non-rational decision making. Daniel Kahneman (2002), Robert J. Shiller (2013), and Richard Thaler (2017) all received Nobel Prizes in Economic Sciences for their work in this field which established that people’s non-rational decisions are uncertain and defy economic theory. They exhibit value- action gaps. Behavioral finance is a subset of behavioural economics It explains why market participants make irrational and erroneous decisions that create market inefficiencies. Decisions reflect under- or over-reactions to information which, in extreme cases, lead to market bubbles or crashes. These poor decisions have been associated with overconfidence, over-optimism, herd behaviour and lack of attention to information. Other examples of investor value-action gap behaviour include unwillingness to take profits or cut losses. AI in Behavioral Finance Increasingly, trading decisions are made either by human beings with the assistance of AI or wholly by AI. A ground-breaking study concluded that AI reduced the impact of bounded rational decision making. AI also decreased market information asymmetry, improved decision making and increased market rationality (14). The use of AI for online trading and decision making has impacted economic theories, including those relating to counterfactual thinking, game theory, portfolio optimization, and rational expectations. BestFit: Decreasing the Consumer Value-Action Gap Just as AI has assisted in closing gaps in financial market trading, it can also assist companies in identifying consumer bias and narrowing the value-action gap. Because such gaps are largely unacknowledged or unconscious, simple questions may not uncover the consumer’s actual preferences and result in ineffective recommendations for products and services. In contrast, the BestFit platform can determine a more accurate customer profile and result in a better, more successful experience for both consumer and seller. (1) Fishbein, M. and Aizen, I. (1075). Belief, attitude, intention, and behaviour: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addition-Wesley. (2) Dunlap, R.E. (September–October 2002). "An enduring concern". Public Perspective: 10–14. (3) Cohen, M and Murphy J. (2001). Exploring Sustainable Consumption: Environmental Policy and The Social Sciences. Oxford: Elsevier Science. (4) Blake, J. (1999). “Overcoming the value-action gap in environmental policy: Tensions between national policy and local experience.” Local Environment: 4(3): 257-278. (5) Sammer, K. & Wűstenhagen, R. (2006). “The Influence of Eco-Labelling on Consumer Behaviour – Results of a Discrete Choice Analysis for Washing Machine.” Siness Strategy and the Environment. 15(2): 185- 189. (6) Young, W., Hwang, K., McDonald, S., & Oates, C. (2010). “Sustainable Consumption: GreenConsumer Behabiour when Purchasing Products.” Sustainable Development: 18:20-31. (7) Boulstridge, E., and Carrigan, M. (2000)."Do consumers really care about corporate responsibility? Highlighting the attitude—behaviour gap." Journal of Communication Management. 4 (1): 355–368. (8) McEachern, M. & McClean, P. (2002). “Organic purchasing motivations and attitudes: are they ethical?” International Journal of Consumer Studies. 26(2):85-92. (9) Dickson, M. (2001). “Utility of now sweat labels for apparel consumers: Profiling label users and predicting their purchases.” The Journal of Consumer Affairs. 35(1): 96-119. (10) Blake, J. (1999). "Overcoming the 'value-action gap' in environmental policy: Tensions between national policy and local experience." Local Environment.4 (3): 257–278Myers (11) Myers, G. & Macnaghten, P. (1998). “Rhetorics of environmental sustainability: ommonplaces and places.” Environment and Planning. 30(2): 333-353. (12) Jackson, T. (2005). Motivating Sustainable Consumption: A Review of Evidence on Consumer Behaviour and Behavioural Change. A report to the Sustainable Development Research Network. London:SDRN. (13) A rule of thumb is a principle not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation but is easily learned and applied and based on practical experience rather than theory. (14) Marwala, T. & Hurwitz, E. (2017). Artificial Intelligence and Economic Theory: Skynet in the Market. London: Springer.

· Personalized Healthcare is the integrated practice of well-being, healthcare and patient support, based on an individual’s unique biological behavioural social and cultural characteristics. Services tailored proactively for each patient at several levels empowers the individual by “the right care for the right person at the right time” leading to better outcomes. (Simmons, L. et al. 2014. Patient engagement as a risk factor in personalized health care: a systematic review of the literature on chronic disease). · The first step to personalization, however, is collecting the right data. According to an article published in Health Data Management, “Many healthcare organizations are using consumer insights—including demographic and psychographic data, past care program data and claims history—to develop tailored communications designed to maximise patient participation.” (Kenney, K., 2018. HIT Think Four ways payers and providers can use tech to aid patients' experience). · In the current age of the internet, social media and instant gratification, people and particularly millennials are demanding more personalization and greater use of technology when it comes to their healthcare (Hussey, K. 2016. How Personalization Drives Effective Patient Engagement and Delivers Enriched). · Research has shown that "persuasive games and gamified systems can be strategically designed to motivate desirable behaviour change; for example, to help people overcome addictive behaviours such as substance abuse, promote personal wellness, manage diseases, engage in preventive behaviours and avoid risky behaviours ". The authors conducted a large-scale study of 660 participants that examined how people of different personalities (as identified by the Big-Five Personality) respond to various persuasive strategies that are widely used in persuasive health games and gamified systems. Their results revealed that people's personality traits play a significant role in the perceived persuasiveness of different strategies (Orji et al., 2017. Towards personality-driven persuasive health games and gamified systems). · Current research demonstrates a large gap between the budget allocated to public health campaigns and the effect achieved through the implementation of such campaigns. The authors argue "that health communicators need to look at personality as a segmentation variable for audience selection and message designing purposes". Their results "clearly reflected the contention that personality indeed serves as an important factor for predicting the attitudinal reactions to various appeals. Personality can be used as a pivotal segmentation variable when designing health campaigns." (Dutta, M. J., & Vanacker, B. (2000). Effects of personality on persuasive appeals in health communication). · The authors stress the importance of effective communication in health care and recognises that communication skills are becoming an integral part of professional training. Patients are viewed as having varying needs and priorities when consulting with a health professional. The authors present a model, based on the MBTI, that they have developed for applying type preference to health care communication" (Allen, J., & Brock, S. A. (2013). Health care communication using personality type: patients are different!). · Tailoring as a strategy to enhance motivation to process health information - by enhancing the relevance and salience of information. Analyses showed significantly greater cognitive activity among those receiving the tailored materials. Specifically, they reported significantly more positive thoughts about the materials, made more positive personal connections to the materials, had more positive self-assessment thoughts, and had more positive thoughts indicating behavioural intentions than those who received none-tailored or generic materials (Kreuter, Bull, Clark, & Oswald, 1999) (in Rimer, B. K., & Kreuter, M. W. (2006). Advancing tailored health communication: A persuasion and message effects perspective.). · Tailoring has been defined as “any combination of strategies and information intended to reach one specific person, based on characteristics that are unique to that person, related to the outcome of interest, and derived from an individual assessment.” The basic premise behind tailored health communication is that information that is customised to an individual (rather than a group) will be viewed as more personally relevant, will be more likely to be read and cognitively processed, and ultimately will have a better chance of stimulating behavioural change. Tailored health communication programs have the potential to achieve both high efficacy and high reach. Indeed, early applications of tailoring demonstrated that the practice was capable of positively affecting behaviours as diverse as smoking cessation, dietary change, and mammography screening. Moreover, recent reviews and meta-analyses have concluded that such interventions are generally efficacious across a broad range of health behaviours. Studies have also demonstrated the high reach of many tailored interventions (Noar, S. M., Grant Harrington, N., Van Stee, S. K., & Shemanski Aldrich, R. (2011). Tailored health communication to change lifestyle behaviours.).

BESTFIT's research provides insights into New Yorkers' resilience and vulnerability to COVID-19. 17% fall into the high-risk category that might benefit from support, while 32% are medium risk and 51% are low risk. To learn more, read our report. .