I’ve spent years promoting various behaviors—a healthy lifestyle, implementation of soil conservation practices, and spending more time practicing a musical instrument.   Most of my efforts have had very little effect.  I’ve been using the wrong approach.  I want to share some ideas about what works.

First, what do we mean by behavior change?  I’m talking about getting somebody to take some sort of action (or to stop one like quitting smoking).  We could use the term persuasion.  Usually these efforts are campaigns.  A utility company might carry out a campaign to get people to conserve electricity, for example.  Getting somebody to floss his or her teeth falls in this category, too.

The approach I’ve usually used—and that almost everybody uses—is to convince people that this is the right thing to do.  That it’s in their own self-interest.  Get them informed and get them to care.  This doesn’t work, at least not very often.

We realize this.  It doesn’t take me very long to make a list of things that I’m not doing.  I know all about them, and I’m convinced of their benefits.  (If you can’t make a list like this for yourself, please contact me—I need you to teach me.)

It turns out that behavior change happens when three things are present at the same time.  One of these is ability.  How difficulty or easy is it to do?  If a behavior is within one’s ability, doing that behavior is possible!  A second of the three ingredients is motivation.  You have to care enough or you won’t do it.  One common mistake is to think that information, alone, will motivate people.

There are loads of possible motivators, and information is not usually the key.  Wanting to and being able to do something are not enough.  The third thing that is needed is a trigger.  Take, for instance, brushing your teeth.  My usual trigger is finishing breakfast.  However, if I miss breakfast, I may forget to brush, as well.

Let’s imagine we’re on a road trip, and that we’re hungry.  That is motivation, perhaps to get some fruit to eat.  If we have some cash and some time to spare, we have the ability, too.  Nevertheless, we won’t unless there is a sign saying, “Fruit Stand—Buy it Fresh!”  A trigger+motivation+ability=behavior.

When considering a behavior, we have to look at what the barriers are.  Do we need to make something easier to do?  Not always.  Create an incentive to increase motivation?  Sometimes.  Create or identify some cue to initiate the behaviors? Always!  We can engineer the trigger to modify motivation and/or ability.  It’s essential to recognize that people are different.  Some folks are motivated by a sense of justice, some by fear, others by desire for esteem from the crowd.

Researching your target population is always required.  I recently read about a behavior change experiment to get people to eat more fruits and vegetables.  Grocery store carts were equipped with a strip of tape across the top of the basket half way between the front and the back.  Shoppers were encouraged to place all the produce in front of the tape and everything else behind it.  Sales of fruit and vegetables shot up dramatically!

Behavior change=motivation+ability+a trigger.  More on this to come.

Robert Rowell,

Guest Blogger

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