Successfully achieving a behavior change requires three types of power: want power, will power, and won't power: Want power requires patients to understand that making a change is consistent with their own internal vision of what they have for themselves and their lives, not what someone else wants Will power involves patients figuring out what they need to do to make the change — whether it's getting up earlier to have time to exercise, grocery shopping in a different way, or a willingness to get on a treadmill even when they're tired — before they are good at it, when it's still uncomfortable or distressing Won't power requires acknowledging what is getting in the way of making a specific behavior changed and figuring out a way to say “no” to whatever is pushing them toward counterproductive behaviors

The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) conducted research with local partners in Peru, Senegal, Tanzania, and Vietnam to understand the factors that affect an individual’s decision to practice handwashing with soap. The research informed the implementation of handwashing project activities in the four countries. Following national and local government implementation, WSP and its partners gathered valuable lessons, which inform this handwashing with soap toolkit. The toolkit, intended for practitioners interested in behavior change, is organized into four modules, each with reports and presentations about the lessons learned from the projects, as well as mass media, direct consumer contact, and interpersonal communication tools used throughout the project.

Halpern et al. ended up demonstrating the importance of loss aversion in two different ways. The more obvious is that smokers are far more likely to quit if they stand to lose money if they fail. The more subtle is that the very prospect of incurring losses makes people far less willing to enter a smoking-cessation program. Despite the greater comparative effectiveness of the deposit program, the reward program is likely to be more successful, because far more people will sign up for it.

Our analysis suggests that TED talks succeed in disseminating ideas and sparking public interest. At the same time, they reflect institutionalized, corporatized modes of mass communication rooted in elitist discourses and practices. Contrary to popular perceptions, we therefore conclude that while TED talks are an effective vehicle for information dissemination, they are an unlikely catalyst for social change.

Strategies for Enhancing Health in the Built Environment

Mental contrasting is essentially contrasting your happy, dream goal with your current reality, emphasizing the need for action, while implementation intentions are "if-then" statements about how you will deal with obstacles. The link goes to a journal article in which this combined technique was used to help women become more physically active, and the effect was sustained over months.

Brilliant commercial and faux website from Humane Society

Great example of sales/marketing methods to learn from

Thinking about far-off events in terms of days, it turned out, did make a person more able to feel for his or her future self—a self who has, after all, the same wants and needs.