Dr. Matti T. J. Heino

Dr. Matti T.J. Heino works at the intersection of complex systems, behaviour change, and sensemaking – his PhD having been about bridging behaviour change and complexity sciences. Prior to academia, he led an applied life from the military to marketing and startups, more recently having been involved in e.g. the Finnish Behavioural Policy Team at the Prime Minister's Office. He is also a trainer in the Finnish 72hours.fi preparedness concept.

His current affiliations are with Heidelberg University (Medical Faculty Mannheim, as a post-doctoral researcher), the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI, as co-faculty), Tampere University (Unit of Social Research: Social Psychology, as a visiting researcher), and the World Health Network (WHN, as member of the Core Advisory Group, as well as the Science and Policy Group).

His core interests lay in growing antifragile communities in the Eastern flank of Europe, and especially Finland.

Publications:

An up-to-date list of publications can be found at Dr. Heino’s Google Scholar page.

Peer-reviewed scientific articles

Heino, M. T. J., Kostamo, K., Puukko, S., Sniehotta, F. F., & Hankonen, N. (2026). Experiences of advancing the use of behavioural science in public policy: An expert interview study. Behavioural Public Policy, 1–23.

Renko, E., Kohonen, K., Heino, M. T. J., Palsola, M., Aaltio, E., Jäppinen, M., Forrester, D., & Hankonen, N. (2026). Beyond training: Evaluation of practitioner behavior change booster components as part of a motivational interviewing training program. Psychological Services. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0001011

Schüler, J., Heino, M. T. J., Balagué, N., Chater, A. M., Gruber, M., Kanning, M., Keim, D., Mier, D., Moreno-Villanueva, M., Nussbeck, F. W., Pruessner, J., Shafie, T., Schwenk, M., & Bieleke, M. (2025). A complex systems view on physical activity with actionable insights for behaviour change. Nature Human Behaviour, 9(9), 1793–1801.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02279-2

Renko, E., Heino, M. T. J., Moilanen, J., Isokuortti, N., Kohonen, K., Jäppinen, M., & Hankonen, N. (2025). How do social contexts support practitioners’ uptake of Motivational Interviewing? Social identification and appraisal among child and family social workers. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), Article 1859. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-06133-8

Aaltio, E., Saurio, K., Heino, M. T. J., Pasanen, K., Isokuortti, N., Alasimonen, L., Moilanen, J., Hankonen, N., Forrester, D. & Jäppinen, M. (2025). Motivational interviewing training for child and family social workers in Finland: An exploratory evaluation study. The British Journal of Social Work, Article bcaf279. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaf279

Hankonen, N., Haukkala, A., Palsola, M., Heino, M. T. J., Sund, R., Tokola, K., Absetz, P., Araújo-Soares, V., Sniehotta, F. F., Borodulin, K., Uutela, A., Lintunen, T., & Vasankari, T. (2025). Effectiveness of the Let’s Move It multi-level vocational school-based intervention on physical activity and sedentary behavior: A cluster randomized trial. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 59(1), Article kaaf023. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaaf023

Palsola, M., Araújo-Soares, V., Hardeman, W., Haukkala, A., Heino, M. T. J., Sniehotta, F. F., Sund, R., Vasankari, T., & Hankonen, N. (2025). Evaluating the Let’s Move It intervention programme theory for adolescents’ physical activity: Theorised psychosocial mechanisms of behavioural change. British Journal of Health Psychology, 30(1), Article e12744. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12744

Heino, M. T. J., Proverbio, D., Saurio, K., Siegenfeld, A., & Hankonen, N. (2024). From a false sense of safety to resilience under uncertainty. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1346542. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1346542

Puukko, S., Heino, M. T. J., Kostamo, K., Saurio, K., Sniehotta, F. F., & Hankonen, N. (2024). How do behavioral public policy experts see the role of complex systems perspectives? An expert interview study. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 14(7), 417–425. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibae024

Heino, M. T. J., Proverbio, D., Marchand, G., Resnicow, K., & Hankonen, N. (2023). Attractor landscapes: A unifying conceptual model for understanding behaviour change across scales of observation. Health Psychology Review, 17(4), 655–672. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2022.2146598

Heino, M. T. J. (2022). Cognitive dynamics of a single subject: 1428 Stroop tests and other measures in a mindfulness meditation context over 2.5 years. Journal of Open Psychology Data, 10(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.5334/jopd.51

Kwasnicka, D., Keller, J., Perski, O., Potthoff, S., ten Hoor, G. A., Ainsworth, B., Crutzen, R., Dohle, S., van Dongen, A., Heino, M. T. J., Henrich, J. F., Knox, L., König, L. M., Maltinsky, W., McCallum, C., Nalukwago, J., Neter, E., Nurmi, J., Spitschan, M., … Sanderman, R. (2022). White paper: Open digital health – accelerating transparent and scalable health promotion and treatment. Health Psychology Review, 16(4), 475–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2022.2046482

Lazarus, J. V., Romero, D., Kopka, C. J., Karim, S. A., Abu-Raddad, L. J., Almeida, G., Baptista-Leite, R., Barocas, J. A., Barreto, M. L., Bar-Yam, Y., Bassat, Q., Batista, C., Bazilian, M., Chiou, S.-T., del Rio, C., Dore, G. J., Gao, G. F., Gostin, L. O., Heino, M. T. J., … Øvrehus, A. (2022). A multinational Delphi consensus to end the COVID-19 public health threat. Nature, 611(7935), 332–345. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05398-2

Hogenelst, K., Schelvis, R., Krone, T., Gagné, M., Heino, M. T. J., Knittle, K., & Hankonen, N. (2022). A within-person approach to the relation between quality of task motivation, performance and job satisfaction in everyday working life. Motivation and Emotion, 46(5), 588–600. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09962-1

Heino, M. T. J., Knittle, K., Noone, C., Hasselman, F., & Hankonen, N. (2021). Studying behaviour change mechanisms under complexity. Behavioral Sciences, 11(5), Article 77. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11050077

Kwasnicka, D., ten Hoor, G. A., van Dongen, A., Gruszczyńska, E., Hagger, M. S., Hamilton, K., Hankonen, N., Heino, M. T. J., Kotzur, M., Noone, C., Rothman, A. J., Toomey, E., Warner, L. M., Kok, G., Peters, G.-J., & Luszczynska, A. (2021). Promoting scientific integrity through open science in health psychology: Results of the Synergy Expert Meeting of the European Health Psychology Society. Health Psychology Review, 15(3), 333–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2020.1844037

Chevance, G., Baretta, D., Heino, M. T. J., Perski, O., Olthof, M., Klasnja, P., Hekler, E., & Godino, J. (2021). Characterizing and predicting person-specific, day-to-day, fluctuations in walking behavior. PLOS ONE, 16(5), Article e0251659. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251659

Knittle, K., Heino, M. T. J., Marques, M. M., Stenius, M., Beattie, M., Ehbrecht, F., Hagger, M. S., Hardeman, W., & Hankonen, N. (2020). The compendium of self-enactable techniques to change and self-manage motivation and behaviour. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(2), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0798-9

Heino, M. T. J., Knittle, K., Fried, E., Sund, R., Haukkala, A., Borodulin, K., Uutela, A., Araujo-Soares, V., Vasankari, T. & Hankonen, N. (2019). Visualisation and network analysis of physical activity and its determinants: Demonstrating opportunities in analysing baseline associations in the Let’s Move It trial. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 7(1), 269–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2019.1646136

Heino, M. T. J., Knittle, K., Haukkala, A., Vasankari, T., & Hankonen, N. (2018). Simple and rationale-providing SMS reminders to promote accelerometer use: A within-trial randomised trial comparing persuasive messages. BMC Public Health, 18(1), Article 1352. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6121-2

Heino, M. T. J., Vuorre, M., & Hankonen, N. (2018). Bayesian evaluation of behavior change interventions: A brief introduction and a practical example. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 6(1), 49–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2018.1428102

Heino, M. T. J., Fried, E. I., & LeBel, E. P. (2017). Commentary: Reproducibility in psychological science: When do psychological phenomena exist? Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 1004. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01004

Hankonen, N., Heino, M. T. J., Hynynen, S.-T., Laine, H., Araújo-Soares, V., Sniehotta, F. F., Vasankari, T., Sund, R., & Haukkala, A. (2017). Randomised controlled feasibility study of a school-based multi-level intervention to increase physical activity and decrease sedentary behaviour among vocational school students. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1), Article 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0484-0

Hankonen, N., Heino, M. T. J., Kujala, E., Hynynen, S.-T., Absetz, P., Araújo-Soares, V., Borodulin, K., & Haukkala, A. (2017). What explains the socioeconomic status gap in activity? Educational differences in determinants of physical activity and screentime. BMC Public Health, 17(1), Article 144. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3880-5

Hankonen, N., Heino, M. T. J., Araujo-Soares, V., Sniehotta, F. F., Sund, R., Vasankari, T., Absetz, P., Borodulin, K., Uutela, A., Lintunen, T., & Haukkala, A. (2016). ‘Let’s Move It’ – a school-based multilevel intervention to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour among older adolescents in vocational secondary schools: A study protocol for a cluster-randomised trial. BMC Public Health, 16, 451–466. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3094-x

Non-refereed scientific writings

Renko, E., Heino, M. T. J., & Hankonen, N. (2026). Individual pathways of changing (de)motivating styles: Qualitative process evaluation of a training intervention with a complex systems lens [Conference abstract]. Implementation Science, 21(Suppl. 1).

Heino, M. T. J., & Proverbio, D. (2025). Evidence is in the past, risk is in the future: Tail events and foresight in public health [Conference abstract]. European Journal of Public Health, 35(Suppl. 4), Article ckaf161.1837. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaf161.1837

Heino, M. T. J., Saurio, K., Peters, G.-J. Y., Twose, J., Perski, O., & Hankonen, N. (2025). COVID-19 protective behaviors: Identifying key determinants of face mask use with CIBER plots and machine learning [Preprint]. OSF. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/skgua

Heino, M. T. J. (2023). Understanding and shaping complex social psychological systems: Lessons from an emerging paradigm to thrive in an uncertain world [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qxa4n

Publications intended for professional communities

Vogt, H., Oksanen, L.-M., Pettersson, J., Sironen, T., Aivelo, T., Zöldi, V., Jalonen, H., Uusikylä, P., Niskanen, V.-P., Rantamäki, A., Heino, M. T. J., Ahonen, P., Pohjankoski, P., Brunila, T., Hakola-Uusitalo, T., Tuomala, J., Immonen, W., Värttö, M., Vastapuu, L., … Rajavuori, M. (2026). Koronapandemian hallinta ja saadut opit Suomessa: Koronapandemian opetukset -tutkimushankkeen loppuraportti [Management of the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons learned in Finland: Final report] (Valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminnan julkaisusarja 2026:2). Valtioneuvoston kanslia. https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/items/c2654aea-8597-4270-a2a8-94c438a46f16

Hankonen, N., Heino, M. T. J. & Saurio, K. (2025). Käyttäytymistieteet osana julkista hallintoa [Behavioural science as part of public administration]. In Käyttäytymistieteellinen tutkimuskatsaus 1/2025 [Behavioural science research review 1/2025]. Valtioneuvoston kanslia. https://vnk.fi/kayttaytymistieteellinen-toiminta

Šalamon, Š., Bar-Yam, Y., Heino, M. T. J., Bertram, N., Bilodeau, S., & Fox, G. (2024). No amount of hand-washing can make COVID-19 a seasonal virus. WHN Science Communications, 5(8), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2408-825

Bilodeau, S., Bar-Yam, Y., Gonzales, L., Heino, M. T. J., & Bertram, N. (2024). Avian flu outbreaks: Understanding the impact and taking precautions. WHN Science Communications, 5(7), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2407-224

Šalamon, Š., Ewing, A., Fox, G., Bilodeau, S., Gershenson, C., Heino, M. T. J., Schneider, M. F., & Bar-Yam, Y. (2024). SARS-CoV-2 und COVID-19: Von der Krise zur Lösung [SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: From crisis to solution]. WHN Science Communications, 5(5), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2405-255

Gershenson, C., Bar-Yam, Y., Bilodeau, S., Heino, M. T. J., Ewing, A., & Šalamon, Š. (2024). Increased infection risks after COVID-19 infections. WHN Science Communications, 5(3), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2403-645

Šalamon, Š., Ewing, A., Fox, G., Bilodeau, S., Gershenson, C., Heino, M. T. J., Schneider, M. F., & Bar-Yam, Y. (2024). SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: From crisis to solution. WHN Science Communications, 5(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2401-334

Heino, M. T. J., Korkalainen, E., Lassander, M., Ojanen, V., & Tuominen, J. (2023). Cognitive intrusion: Why hybrid influencing works? (Publications of the Prime Minister’s Office 2023:15). Valtioneuvoston kanslia. https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/165103

Rubin, M., Bilodeau, S., Bar-Yam, Y., Harris, J., Ewing, A., & Heino, M. T. J. (2023). Breathing clean air: The importance and benefits of HEPA filters at home. WHN Science Communications, 4(8), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2308-843

Heino, M. T. J., Bilodeau, S., Fox, G., Gershenson, C., & Bar-Yam, Y. (2023). Crafting policies for an interconnected world. WHN Science Communications, 4(10), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2310-348

Heino, M. T. J., Bilodeau, S., Bar-Yam, Y., Gershenson, C., Raina, S., Ewing, A. & De Souza, L. E. (2023). Building capacity for action: The cornerstone of pandemic response. WHN Science Communications, 4(6), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2306-015

Šalamon, Š., Heino, M. T. J., Bilodeau, S., Ewing, A., Raina, S., Gershenson, C., & Bar-Yam, Y. (2023). Towards a culture of mask-wearing. WHN Science Communications, 4(6), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2306-815

Fox, G., de Souza, L. E., Ewing, A., Heino, M. T. J., Bilodeau, S., Gershenson, C., Feigl-Ding, E., & Bar-Yam, Y. (2023). The case for keeping masks mandatory in health care. WHN Science Communications, 4(5), 1. https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2305-586

Heino, M. T. J., & Hankonen, N. (2022). Itsekontrolli on yhteisöponnistus: Systeemisiä näkökulmia käyttäytymisen muutokseen [Self-control is a community effort: Systemic perspectives on behaviour change]. In E. Mäkipää & M. Aalto-Kallio (Eds.), Muutosten tiet kietoutuvat yhteen (pp. 69–79). Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu.

Heino, M. T. J. (2022). Varautumisosaaminen, yhteisöllisyys ja selkeät toimintasuositukset lisäävät kriisivalmiutta [Preparedness competence, community and clear recommendations increase crisis readiness] (Käyttäytymistieteellisen ennakoinnin raportteja). Valtioneuvoston kanslia.

Heino, M. T. J., Kanerva, M., Lassander, M., Ojanen, V., & Tammes, H. (2021). Strengthening coronavirus response through behavioural understanding: Capacities and opportunities for voluntary protection (Reports of the Behavioural Advisory Working Group to the Prime Minister’s Office, Finland). Valtioneuvoston kanslia.

Heino, M. T. J., Kanerva, M., Lassander, M., & Ojanen, V. (2021). ). Koronaväsymystä? Vai inhimillistä kyllästymistä, turhautumista, tottumista ja pyrkimystä normaaliin [COVID fatigue, or human boredom, frustration, habituation and striving for normality?] (Käyttäytymistieteellisen neuvonantoryhmän raportteja). Valtioneuvoston kanslia.

Heino, M. T. J., & Verhaltenswissenschaftliche Beratergruppe. (2021). Itseohjautuvuuden tukeminen viestinnällä [Supporting self-direction through communication]. Valtioneuvoston kanslia.

Hotulainen, P., Lappalainen, T., Ripatti, A., Aivelo, T., Laine, L., Ollila, H. M., Heino, M. T. J., Brand, T., Myllärniemi, M., Lehtonen, L., Saramäki, J., Ranki, A., Poutvaara, P., Koskela, J., Kannala, J., & Taipale, J. (2020). ). Pandemian torjunnan toinen erä: Eroon koronasta -tutkijaryhmän muistio [The second round of pandemic control: Memorandum of the Eroon koronasta research group].

Lappalainen, T., Ripatti, A., Hotulainen, P., Korhonen, J. T., Ollila, H., Laine, L., Kannala, J., Koskela, J. T., Siironen, J., Ranki, A., Heino, M. T. J., Saurio, K., … & Kovács, G. (2020). Pienimmän riesan tie: Koronaepidemian tukahduttaminen turvaa terveyden ja talouden [The road of least harm: Suppressing the COVID-19 epidemic protects health and the economy].

Thesis and dissertation

Heino, M. T. J. (2025). Complex systems and behaviour change: Bridging far away lands [Doctoral dissertation, University of Helsinki]. Helda http://hdl.handle.net/10138/594566

Heino, M. T. J. (2016). No use reasoning with adolescents? A randomised controlled trial comparing persuasive messages [Master’s thesis, University of Helsinki]. Helda.. https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/163800

Audiovisual material and information and communication technology software

Heino, M. T. J. (2023). Motivation time series data [Data set]. OSF. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/52U4S

Heino, M. T. J., & Sund, R. (2019). Source code: Visualisation and network analysis of physical activity and its determinants [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2628764

Heino, M. T. J., Vuorre, M., & Hankonen, N. (2018). Source code: Bayesian evaluation of behavior change interventions: A brief introduction and a practical example [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1209814