To the extent that people think consumer attitudes have soured, I think just going out there and trying to reassure people, I don't think that in and of itself is effective ...

I think actions speak louder than words and I think people will experience things on the ground that will either confirm their concerns or diminish them. We have a limited number of policy tools. I think we've used them, we could continue to use them, that remains to be seen.

From press Q&A as reported by Market News International

The Federal Reserve is one of a growing number of organizations that have already taken some implications of behavioral research to heart. This year, we began to automatically enroll new employees into our System’s savings plan, defaulting them into an asset allocation fund that includes fixed income, domestic, and international equity investments. Employees who do not want to participate can, of course, easily opt out. But our early experience mirrors well-known research findings: so far, an overwhelming fraction of employees who were defaulted in remain in. Of course, this choice reflects the Federal Reserve System’s appreciation of the striking findings of behavioral economics concerning the sensitivity of saving decisions to default enrollments.

I am often asked, by the way, whether I believe that the economy drives psychology or psychology drives the economy. I always respond that I believe the economy drives psychology; and that, if I believed the reverse, I would have become a psychologist.