Risk, value, vitality: The moral economy of a global behavioural insurance platform

Abstract

Imagine your insurer were an ‘active life partner’, even a guardian of your future, which engaged with you on a regular basis, through a complex system of digital technology and behavioural science, to ensure you were leading the healthiest, longest, most valuable life possible. This is the foundation for a growing model of ‘behavioural insurance’ that has become a major approach in the industry. By capturing constant streams of data about consumer behaviour, and creating incentive programmmes to modify how people behave, insurers hope to unlock a key source of value and risk management. We critically analyze this model through a detailed case study of a world leader in behavioural insurance: Discovery Limited and its Vitality ecosystem of data-driven, behaviour-based, interactive wellbeing programmes for life/health insurance. We detail the behavioural theory of risk and the moral economy of ‘shared value’, which underpins the model of insurance that Vitality champions and justifies its activist approach to social change.