Mercier and Sperber prefer the term “myside bias.” Humans, they point out, aren’t randomly credulous. Presented with someone else’s argument, we’re quite adept at spotting the weaknesses. Almost invariably, the positions we’re blind about are our own.

If we are to use behavioural science as a lens to understand behaviour, we need to make sure that our lens is not always ‘zoomed in’ on the individual and their immediate situation but that we also ‘zoom out,’ so that we can see the wider social, cultural, economic and political environment. When we do this, we can see more clearly how our responses and behaviours are not only the result of our individual psychology but are also socially, economically and historically situated. There is a nuanced balancing act between the individual and these wider ways in which our behaviour is shaped that will inevitably be a source of debate and disagreement.

In this short follow up post we explain how and why we combine systems thinking and behavioural approaches. We start by introducing the concepts of ‘systems’ and ‘systems thinking’ before explaining why Systems thinking is useful to combine with a behavioural approach.

In 2010, Colombia's defense minister contacted an ad agency to create an idea to demobilize FARC members, the oldest guerrilla army in Latin America. The agency, after spending over a year talking to nearly 100 of its members, learned two main things (1). -First, guerrilla members are ordinary men and women and not only guerrillas, a fact which is often forgotten after 60 years at war. -Secondly, they are more likely to demobilize during Christmas as it is a sensitive and emotional period. Based on these insights, they had a clever idea to put a Christmas tree in strategic walking paths in the middle of the jungle that would light up when someone passed by with a message promoting demobilization. The results? Three hundred thirty-one people who demobilized named this idea as one of the reasons to do so. Over the years, several campaigns from the same agency were quite successful, and overall, they were named in over 800 demobilizations. Causality, of course, cannot be established. Nevertheless, any measurable, non-violent efforts like this one are praised. Next time you think you have a difficult-to-reach customer, maybe think again!

Schwartz has spent much of his career emphasising the shared, universal nature of values and in one paper with Anat Bardi, he demonstrates that Benevolence, Universalism and Self-direction values are consistently rated most important to most people across different cultures. The answers he has just given map pretty neatly onto Self-direction and Benevolence (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Value structure across 68 countries – Public Interest Research Centre (2011) based on Schwartz (1992) The Schwartz model shows that values have neighbours and opposites, that values close together (e.g. Humble, Honest) tend to have similar importance to people, that values far away (e.g. Equality, Social Power) act more like a seesaw – as one rises in importance, the other falls. When you add to this that values connect to behaviour (that Universalism and Benevolence are associated with cooperation, sustainable behaviour, civic engagement and acceptance of diversity – that Achievement and Power are most emphatically not), and that values can be engaged, you have more than a model: you have an imperative for all the activists and campaigners scrabbling around for the messages and tactics that are going to change the world.

“This research shows that the reward system has an important function in helping behavior and if we want to increase the likelihood of pro-social behavior, we must reinforce a sense of belonging more than a sense of empathy.

summary of key points of book

not really a lit review, but covers key behavior change concepts and how they can be applied to covid

This handbook has been compiled by Well Made Strategy (WMS) who have extensive professional experience developing impactful strategic communications across a range of sectors from security to financial inclusion, education, agriculture, health and governance. WMS helps individuals, organisations and networks harness the power of strategic communications to influence policy change, prepare for and anticipate crises, inform the national discourse, build will for social reform and nudge entire communities towards new ways of thinking and behaviours. We have developed this handbook to serve as a guide to strategic communications for those interested in using strategic communications but who may not have an in-depth understanding of the concept.

The purpose of this workbook is to provide a workspace for you to develop your own communications strategy by working through the various modules of the Strategic Communications for Social Change handbook. While the workbook is separate from the handbook, they are closely linked to each other.

It’s not that all change is bottom-up, but: long-lasting change usually is (here is why) it’s always worth asking yourself if what looks like a top-down change was initiated the bottom-up way. This phenomenon applies to many contexts: companies pivoting to what others (the bottom-up) proved working, managers promoting those employees who demonstrated deserving it, gatekeepers opening up once someone demonstrated having a (bottom-up) following. The top-down usually follows the bottom-up. More precisely, it goes as follows: The bottom-up initiates change, locally. If it sustains over time, the top-down formalizes it. The rest of the population adopts it, even if it lives far from who initiated point (1). The implication is: if you want change, do not live under the illusion that you need to wait for the top-down to give you the green light. The top-down will give you the green light once it is shown that your idea works (and it’s on you to show them).

types of people re: org change

Extension of System 1/System 2 thinking model from a social ecological perspective - Systems 1-5

"Pink alert" story - bearing silent witness - nurses

A new study published in Science has quantified the number of people who need to take a stand before they can affect societal change on important topics like sexual harassment and human rights. And that number? It’s a mere 25% of any group. Only 25% of people need to adopt a new social norm to create an inflection point where everyone in the group follows.

If you or a small group of colleagues are the ones trying to bring a new practice to your organization, you are an innovator. You are inspired by a new practice you discovered, but will likely face problems getting it accepted. Consider that the challenges you experience when spreading a new practice are totally normal. It doesn’t mean you are failing, should stop trying, or there is anything “wrong” with staff and colleagues. It just means that your role is to plan how to motivate other members of the system

This group of papers on the use of mobile phones in India for social and behaviour change is the product of research and a two-day multi-stakeholder consultation in May 2013 sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), leading to the formation of the organisation Mobile Social & Behavioural Change (MSBC). The white paper and the working paper present key areas where mobiles are contributing to social and behavioural changes and the limitations, as well as the scope, for expanding the social space for mobiles. The case studies paper is based upon examples of "mobile’s power to trigger new form[s] of social identity, including cultural, political and economic identities."

Supporting USAID's “renewed emphasis on the application of research and evaluation to inform strategic thinking about development for low- and middle-income countries with a focus on “achieving the social and behavior changes needed to end preventable child deaths and improve under five development“. All 1,313 papers identified can be accessed, searched and filtered to your interests