I would say that I typically use one of two strategies to give a brief example of behavioral science.

The first is describing some of the areas with obvious and relatable intention-action gaps like eating healthier, going to the gym or saving for retirement. It is typically easy for others, regardless of their knowledge of behavioral science, to identify with reasons why someone might want to follow through on these things but don’t. For example, you buy a liter of soda and drink it all much more quickly than you planned, end up waking up too late to fit in a gym visit or decide to spend money you might save on eating out with friends. Behavioral science helps to systematically identify the reasons why these drop offs happen and tips and tools to support follow through (like sticking to only have soda outside of the house, finding a gym buddy you are accountable to and having savings drawn directly from your pay check before you even see it in your bank account).

The second strategy is to highlight one of a list of my favorite psychological biases (what can I say, I am a behavioral science nerd!). For example, you might ask them if they know how a household item like a microwave, blender or bicycle works and then ask them to actually describe the details. Most people are overconfident about their knowledge of how something works until they try to go more in-depth with their explanation – this is known as the illusion of explanatory depth. This has consequence in a lot of interesting and diverse areas like how people make political decisions.  Behavioral science is the study of biases like this one, that occur in some form for most (if not all) people.