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Taken together, the results suggest that habits may serve to define who we are, in particular when these are considered in the context of self-related goals or central values. When habits relate to feelings of identity this comes with stronger cognitive self-integration, higher self-esteem, and a striving toward an ideal self. Linking habits to identity may sustain newly formed behaviors and may thus lead to more effective behavior change interventions.

Huggies Little Snugglers are designed with a blowout blocker designed to provide up to 100% blowout protection—and to prove it, the trusted disposable diapers brand hosted Expensive $h*t, a one-hour event streamed across TikTok Live, Instagram Live, and YouTube Live. Babies wearing Huggies Little Snugglers were filmed as they crawled, wiggled and played while sitting on priceless designer items, collectibles, and antiques, highlighting that the only thing between the babies and the valuables was the diaper.

To address vaccine hesitancy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the “We Can Do This” COVID-19 public education campaign (the Campaign) in 2021 to promote vaccine confidence and increase vaccine uptake. The Campaign introduced a heavy-up media strategy to enhance its reach and engagement with its vaccine hesitant audience. This approach complemented the Campaign’s national media strategy while delivering an additional advertising dose to select priority designated market areas (DMAs) – that is, media markets – each month. We examine the relationship between the Campaign’s heavy-up strategy and initial COVID-19 vaccine uptake from August to December 2021. A stacked difference-in-differences (DID) analysis compared initial COVID-19 vaccine uptake between DMAs that received heavy-up (treatment) and DMAs that did not (control). The Campaign’s short-term heavy-up advertising strategy was associated with increased initial vaccine uptake in treatment DMAs. These results provide valuable insights for public health campaign strategy and evaluation, highlighting the effectiveness of increasing campaign dose in select markets to address vaccine hesitancy and improve public health outcomes.

To investigate factors associated with intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1,500 UK adults, recruited from an existing online research panel. Data were collected between 14th and 17th July 2020. We used linear regression analyses to investigate associations between intention to be vaccinated for COVID-19 “when a vaccine becomes available to you” and sociodemographic factors, previous influenza vaccination, general vaccine attitudes and beliefs, attitudes and beliefs about COVID-19, and attitudes and beliefs about a COVID-19 vaccination. 64% of participants reported being very likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19, 27% were unsure, and 9% reported being very unlikely to be vaccinated. Personal and clinical characteristics, previous influenza vaccination, general vaccination beliefs, and beliefs and attitudes about COVID-19 and a COVID-19 vaccination explained 76% of the variance in vaccination intention. Intention to be vaccinated was associated with more positive general COVID-19 vaccination beliefs and attitudes, weaker beliefs that the vaccination would cause side effects or be unsafe, greater perceived information sufficiency to make an informed decision about COVID-19 vaccination, greater perceived risk of COVID-19 to others (but not risk to oneself), older age, and having been vaccinated for influenza last winter (2019/20). Despite uncertainty around the details of a COVID-19 vaccination, most participants reported intending to be vaccinated for COVID-19. Actual uptake may be lower. Vaccination intention reflects general vaccine beliefs and attitudes. Campaigns and messaging about a COVID-19 vaccination could consider emphasizing the risk of COVID-19 to others and necessity for everyone to be vaccinated.

ResultsThe data reveal large variations in vaccine acceptance that ranges from 82 % in Denmark to 52 % in Hungary. Lack of vaccine acceptance is associated with lack of trust in authorities and scientists, conspiratorial thinking, and a lack of concern about COVID-19. ConclusionMost national levels of vaccine acceptance fall below estimates of the required threshold for herd immunity. The results emphasize the long-term importance of buildingtrust in preparations for health emergencies such as the current pandemic. For health communication, the results emphasize the importance of focusing on personal consequences of infections and debunking of myths to guide communication strategies

People often judge how embarrassing an activity or condition is on the basis of its perceived prevalence. They infer prevalence in part by considering how often they hear other people discussing it. But how often a condition is discussed is a function not only of its prevalence but also of how embarrassing it is. If people fail to take this into account, they will tend to judge embarrassing conditions as being rarer, which will accentuate their embarrassment, and, in turn, further amplify their reluctance to disclose those conditions - a “spiral“ of shame and silence. We present results from two studies that support the existence of such a feedback process. The first, a cross-sectional survey study, asked respondents a series of questions about different embarrassing and non-embarrassing conditions. Respondents (1) indicated whether they had the conditions, (2) judged how embarrassing the conditions were, (3) reported whether they had disclosed, or would disclose, having the conditions to others, and (4) estimated what fraction of survey respondents had the conditions. As predicted, reports of disclosure were negatively related to judgments of embarrassment, and when embarrassment was greater, estimates of prevalence were lower, both for conditions that respondents had and for conditions they did not have. The second, an experimental study, manipulated whether people received a high or low estimate of population prevalence for 5 different conditions, and found that receiving a high prevalence estimate reduced embarrassment and increased self-reported willingness to disclose the condition to others, and vice versa.

This study aims to (1) identify and categorize the strategies used in digital health interventions over the past 25 years; (2) explore the differences and changes in these strategies across time periods, countries, populations, delivery methods, and senders; and (3) serve as a valuable reference for future researchers and practitioners to improve the effectiveness of digital health interventions.

The result is META BI (Mapping of Environment, Target group and Agent for Behavioural Interventions), a classification system describing interventions across 20 dimensions and using 17 distinct psychological mechanisms. META BI is aligned with a system lens, shifting the focus from single true effects to contextualised assessments. It can help to understand, compare and evaluate nudges and selected interventions for the desired effects.

Here's an interesting question: what if the best way to change someone’s behaviour is to encourage them to fail? And what impact would that have on your marketing campaigns and messaging? In Canada, the Ministry of Health decided to see if they could encourage people to quit smoking by telling smokers that they’ll probably fail to quit smoking...

ife events have been theorized to elicit personality trait changes. However, the empirical evidence for event-related personality development remains inconclusive. Even comprehensive reviews and meta-analyses are limited by the availability of effect sizes, the control for relevant confounders, and the way time is treated in the analyses. To overcome these limitations, we conducted a coordinated data analysis and examined event-related personality changes across seven large-scale panel studies (Ntotal = 196,256). Furthermore, we investigated corresponding event-related changes in life satisfaction and self-esteem as benchmarks for the interpretation of effect sizes. Integrating the results across panel studies, we found several consistent changes in the Big Five personality traits in response to life events. For example, new employment predicted increases in conscientiousness and emotional stability, whereas marriage predicted a decrease in openness. However, event-related changes in the Big Five personality traits were small (average bstd = 0.05), with effect sizes similar to those of event-related changes in self-esteem but smaller than corresponding changes in life satisfaction. Building on these findings, future research should focus on the life events with replicable effects on personality development and examine how these life events lead to personality changes.

A team at the Nutrition Council is working on a new initiative: get more leafy greens on people’s plates. They have worked on and tracked many initiatives over the years, about topics ranging from added sugars to vitamins. They gather information about leafy greens consumption in the population, interview nutrition experts, farmers, and professional chefs. This time, they also have a set of thinking styles from a study they did using Data Science that Listens.

Our audience told us that one of the big reasons they didn’t feel comfortable bringing up the topic was that they were scared they’d be wrong. We realized we needed to take a step back and focus more on building knowledge of early signs first—the campaign had to help them walk before they could run.

But sometimes it can be hard to find the time (and motivation) to exercise. So, what's the least amount of exercise you can get away with doing while still seeing these benefits? That answer depends on how fit you are to begin with. Here's some good news: the lower your starting point is in terms of fitness, the less you have to do to see a benefit.

Nearly five years ago, in April 2020, just a few months into the pandemic, Jay van Bavel – a social psychologist at New York University – published a landmark paper aimed at helping those in power do just that. Bavel and colleagues' paper was influential as it made clear that governments couldn't rely solely on rules and regulations; they needed to motivate the public to follow them. In doing so, they proposed 19 behavioural principles – policies that were rooted in decades of psychological research and designed to help guide the public's response to the pandemic. Many of these principles were adopted by governments around the world, in the hope that psychology might help 'nudge' us, or even shove us, towards safer behaviours. These principles took many forms, from encouraging a shared sense of identity – 'we're all in this together' type thinking – to targeting fake news and misinformation. These questions were especially important to my own research, on adolescent social development and mental health. Could we really get young people to stick to these restrictions? And to what extent were the huge social sacrifices being asked of young people worth it in the long run? These unknown questions were hugely important to understand and to collect data on, and to understand what policies worked and were worth implementing. So, my interest was piqued, and it wasn't too long before I found myself in the unusual position of having first-hand experience of very different approaches to the behavioural principles in action…

To support intervention developers in selecting BCTs to target specific MoAs, an online resource, called the Theory and Technique Tool (TaTT), was previously developed. This tool provides an evidence-based grid showing which BCTs are likely or unlikely to change certain MoAs. Recently, new tools—the Behaviour Change Technique Ontology (BCTO) and Mechanisms of Action Ontology (MoA Ontology)—were developed to include a wider range of BCTs and MoAs and provide more precise and computer-readable BCT and MoA definitions. By aligning the TaTT with these newer tools, we can support (1) ontology users in hypothesising about likely BCT-MoA links, and (2) TaTT users in identifying more detailed yet relevant BCTs and MoAs from the ontologies and using these in computer applications. This study aimed to map the newer ontologies’ categories to the TaTT’s 74 BCTs and 26 MoAs. Researchers carefully compared and discussed definitions from both tools to create mappings. The study found that 85 BCTs in the newer ontology corresponded to 74 BCTs from the TaTT, and 56 MoAs in the newer ontology corresponded to 26 MoAs from the TaTT. By linking the ontologies to the TaTT, this work makes it easier to use these tools together. This helps design and report behaviour change interventions more clearly and supports advanced uses like automated data analysis.

What can behavioural scientists do differently when working on complex problems? Given the need for differentiated methods for different kinds of systems, and particular caution about existing approaches for complex and chaotic domains, applied behavioural scientists should be considering the appropriateness of the cornerstones of applied work, such as defining target behaviours. early on in strategic development, as shown in the table below. The Cynefin framework is a ‘sense-making’ framework – where sense-making is defined by the author David Snowden as “making sense of the world in order to act in it”. It distinguishes between 3 primary systems: ordered, complex, chaotic, which are defined by the type of constraints (or absence of constraints) in that system. Each type of system is described not just how it is constrained, but also describes how to best take action.

What can behavioural scientists do differently when working on complex problems? Given the need for differentiated methods for different kinds of systems, and particular caution about existing approaches for complex and chaotic domains, applied behavioural scientists should be considering the appropriateness of the cornerstones of applied work, such as defining target behaviours. early on in strategic development, as shown in the table below. The Cynefin framework is a ‘sense-making’ framework – where sense-making is defined by the author David Snowden as “making sense of the world in order to act in it”. It distinguishes between 3 primary systems: ordered, complex, chaotic, which are defined by the type of constraints (or absence of constraints) in that system. Each type of system is described not just how it is constrained, but also describes how to best take action.

Our Behavioral Determinants Framework overlays the foundational theories from social psychology and behavioral economics onto the core challenge of marketing – identifying the factors that influence what people do. Our interventions are aimed at those behavioral determinants that move audiences beyond awareness and into action. To simplify it all, we categorize these behavioral determinants into three categories: Fun, Easy and Popular. After all, fun, easy and popular is the heart of why we humans do just about anything. The Behavioral Determinants Framework helps us frame target behaviors to address an audience’s own wants and needs rather than trying to convince them to change their values and beliefs.

Personalized nudging (PeN) promises greater intervention effectiveness, especially for heterogenous populations. However, developments in PeN are hindered due to a lack of conceptual clarity and high methodological variability. We present a framework for PeN to tackle these challenges. We argue that personalization is contingent on personal data availability and choice environment malleability. Applying these factors to a nudge’s content, design, and underlying mechanism, we suggest that various levels of PeN exist, from simple name changes to more technologically sophisticated adaptive approaches. These levels highlight various novel methodological considerations, which we split into theory-driven (top down) and data-driven (bottom up) approaches. Finally, we discuss how our framework supports practitioner goals and reveals future research directions.

For Facilitators, Trainers and Consultants Create & Share Beautiful Card Decks Design custom decks without the technical headaches. No fighting with bleeds or crop marks. Just beautiful cards, ready to print or share.

Our study suggests that concerns around personalization and AI persuasion are warranted, reinforcing previous results by showcasing how LLMs can outpersuade humans in online conversations through microtargeting. We emphasize that the effect of personalization is particularly remarkable given how little personal information was collected (gender, age, ethnicity, education level, employment status and political affiliation) and despite the extreme simplicity of the prompt instructing the LLM to incorporate such information (see Supplementary Section 2.5 for the complete prompts). Even stronger effects could probably be obtained by exploiting individual psychological attributes, such as personality traits and moral bases, or by developing stronger prompts through prompt engineering, fine-tuning or specific domain expertise.

The Trauma-Informed Storytelling Toolkit offers customizable Google Doc templates and resources to help nonprofits share stories that promote safety and resist harm.

But because the very act of providing an answer closes the loop. You've solved the riddle. The thrill of the chase is over. Now everyone else is just expected to take your precious answer and dutifully apply it – to products, campaigns, media plans – without having experienced the journey that got you there.

What works better is grouping the reasons someone struggles with a service, rather than segmenting the people who experience those struggles. This is the basis of the Universal Barriers to Access approach. Over time, the Government Digital Service received thousands of calls from people unable to use parts of its services. By analysing this data, we identified 11 common barriers—recurring patterns that explain why services fail for users, regardless of their background or situation.

All Behavior Change publications in one place

A practical, interactive tool that introduces Behaviour Change Techniques, considered to be the ‘active ingredients’ of behaviour change interventions. The tool walks you through how to identify and deliver Behaviour Change Techniques, drawing on the COM-B model and Behaviour Change Wheel.

A practical, online tool to walk you through the essential considerations to understanding and influencing behaviours that may be at play in your better-health issue.

A practical, interactive tool to help you consider which implementation types may be the most appropriate for delivering your chosen intervention.

A practical, interactive tool to help you consider which implementation functions may be the most appropriate for delivering your chosen intervention.

A practical, interactive tool to help you consider and define your target behaviour and target population, as you create a ‘behavioural specification’.

We find that, acrossdomains, interventions designed to change individual determinantscan be ordered by increasing impact as those targeting knowledge,general skills, general attitudes, beliefs, emotions, behavioural skills,behavioural attitudes and habits. Interventions designed to changesocial-structural determinants can be ordered by increasing impactas legal and administrative sanctions; programmes that increaseinstitutional trustworthiness; interventions to change injunctivenorms; monitors and reminders; descriptive norm interventions;material incentives; social support provision; and policies that increaseaccess to a particular behaviour. We find similar patterns for health andenvironmental behavioural change specifically. Thus, policymakersshould focus on interventions that enable individuals to circumventobstacles to enacting desirable behaviours rather than targeting salientbut ineffective determinants of behaviour such as knowledge andbeliefs. (PDF) Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380329032_Determinants_of_behaviour_and_their_efficacy_as_targets_of_behavioural_change_interventions [accessed Jan 23 2025].

When people feel positive, they are positive about advertising, so brands should be targeting – or, better yet, creating – moments of happiness and relaxation.

n this essay, Sherine Guirguis and Michael Coleman tell the story of the lesson that shaped their careers. It was a lesson that occurred while navigating a particularly challenging set of circumstances—how to deliver polio vaccines to children in remote areas of Pakistan under Taliban control.

A lot of people would like to make the world better, but they don’t know how. This is a great tragedy.

Here, we develop a novel cognitive framework by organizing these interventions along six cognitive processes: attention, perception, memory, effort, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. In addition, we conduct a meta-analysis of field experiments (i.e. randomized controlled trials) that contained real behavioural measures (n = 184 papers, k = 184 observations, N = 2 245 373 participants) from 2008 to 2021 to examine the effect size of these interventions targeting each cognitive process. Our findings demonstrate that interventions changing effort are more effective than interventions changing intrinsic motivation, and nudge and sludge interventions had similar effect sizes.