Design for Behavior Change

Design for Behavior Change Think about:What behaviors would you like to see changed? Julie Dirksen, Usable Learning

There’s a question I’ve been thinkingabout most of my professional life…

Why do people do the wrong* things? It’s a simple question, but it has a complicated answer.*By wrong, I don’t mean morally wrong…

Why do people do the wrong* things? It’s a simple question, but it has a complicated answer .*By wrong, I don’t mean morally wrong…

Answer 1: They don’t know any better I can’t buy printer paper from my brother- in-law? It has to go How do you figure through sales tax, again? purchasing? 1800 Calories? Seriously???

Answer 1: They don’t know any better Fast Food Smoking Texting while driving People don’t still smoke because nobody happened to mention it was a bad idea, so why does it still happen?

I know, but… “I know it’s a bad idea, and I never do it (except when Texting while I do, and then I feel guilty).” driving “I know it’s a bad idea, but I only do it once in a while, and I’m very careful.” “I know it’s a bad idea for other people, but I can do it because I’m really good at it.” “Huh? What’s the big deal?” Except for the last, none of these are knowledge problems, so adding more information probably won’t change things.

So, why?

Answer 2: Logical decision-making isn’tlogicalFrom Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis

The Rider

The Elephant

So, when there’s aconflict…Who do you think wins?

The Rider can hold out for a while… … but it gets tired quickly.Shiv, B. and A. Fedorikhin. 1999

Answer 3: We learn from experience How many of you know that it’s bad to text while driving? How many of you learned this through personal experience?

What do we really meanwhen we say “We learn fromexperience?”A friend of mine got two free personal trainingsession with her YMCA membership.She thought she was getting oriented, but thetrainer put her through a monster workout.She was so sore the next day she could barelymove.So, what did she learn from that experience?

Here’s the thing.. …the elephant isn’t stupid. This sucks…I am not doing this again…

So let’s go back to our textingexample… What are each of these drivers learning from their experiences?

Answer 4: Urgency mattersWe are creatures of urgency: Maybe I should consider retirement planning…

Which do you think works better: I guess I’ll be glad I know this someday… I’m really glad I know this now…

And the future is sooooo far away…

Oooo, shiny!

Visceral Matters Remember the fruit salad vs cake? The effect was much more pronounced if people were looking at the cake and fruit salad when they made their choice.

We have trouble with this… We are also loss averse…

We make decisions differently for ourfuture selves Future self Current selfPronin et al 2008

Answer 5: Change is slow

We develop unconscious competence • Familiarization • Comprehension • Conscious Effort • Conscious Action • Proficiency • Unconscious CompetenceGloria Gery, Electronic Performance Support Systems

We develop unconscious competence Glucose Metabolic Rate after several weeks of Tetris PracticeHaier et al, 1992

Change is hard If you are used to this: Then this feels bad:

The elephant is a creature of habit

Repeat after me: Change is a process, not an event.

Answer 6: Sometimes the changes aredownright fraught Characteristics of a fraught decision: • Benefits Now – Costs Later (or Costs Now – Benefits Later) • Degree of Difficulty • Frequency • Feedback • Knowing What You Like

Answer 7: We lack self-efficacy How do your learners feel? Things just I do happen to me no control in control fixed mindset growth mindsetMindset, by Carol Dweck

Answer 8: We don’t have enoughwillpower Think heads or Were you right? tales.

Willpower is not created equallyGreene and Paxton, 2009

Willpower is like a muscle:

Removing temptation helps

Distraction helps

What’s even more important than willpower… Resiliency

Answer 9: Social Matters

We pay more attention when peopleare involvedOkita et al 2009

We use other people as cues for how to act

We listen to authority figures, but……you have to have the right authority figure.If you are talking to kids about drug and alcohol use, who is the real authority figure?http://www.projectalert.com

Answer 10: Environment Matters

Design changes behaviorJohnson and Goldstein, 2003

Make it easy for people to succeedDon Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

Create anenvironment thatsupports them The Freedom Trail, Boston

So what do we do about it?

Make things immediate • How can we create a sense of urgency?

Create opportunities to practice

Meet people where they are Pre-contemplation Contemplation Planning Action MaintenanceProchaska & DiClemente

Have people learnfrom experience • Role plays • Simulations • Trials • Observations

Avoid cycles of failure

Design for the elephant

Opinion Leaders, Testimonials, SuccessStories

Use good models - TAM Technology Acceptance Model Perceived Perceived Technology Usefulness Ease of Use Acceptance

Use good models – Diffusion ofInnovation • Relative Advantage • Compatibility • Complexity • Trialability • ObservabilityEverett Rogers , Diffusion of Innovations

Help them make less fraught decisions(but don’t decide for them) The benefits of paper are…

Fix the environment

Now you try • Make it immediate • Create opportunities to practice • Meet people where they are • Have people learn from experience • Avoid cycles of failure • Design for the elephant • Opinion leaders, testimonials, success stories • Use good models • Fix the environment How can you use some or all to address the behavior you want to change?

Questions?Julie Dirksenjulie@usablelearning.comTwitter: usablelearningDesign For How People Learn

References • Shiv, B. and A. Fedorikhin. 1999. Heart and Mind in Conflict: Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Research 26 (December): 278–282. • Haidt, Jonathan, The Happiness Hypothesis (book) • Gery, Gloria, Electronic Performance Support Systems (book) • Haier, R.J., B.V. Siegel Jr., A. MacLachlan, E. Soderling, S. Lottenberg, and M.S. Buchsbaum. 1992 Regional glucose metabolic changes after learning a complex visuospatial/motor task: a positron emission tomographic study. Brain Research 570: 134–14. • Thaler, Richard and Sustein, Cass. Nudge (book) • Okita, S.Y., J. Bailenson, and D.L. Schwartz. 2008. Mere Belief of Social Action Improves Complex Learning. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference for the Learning Sciences. • Johnson, Eric J. and Goldstein, Daniel G., Do Defaults Save Lives? (Nov 21, 2003). Science, Vol. 302, pp. 1338-1339, 2003. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1324774 • Norman, Donald, The Design of Everyday Things (book) • Greene and Paxton, Patterns of Neural Activity Associated with Honest and Dishonest Moral Decisions, PNAS 106:12506-12511 (July 28, 2009). • Prochaska, JO; Norcross, JC; DiClemente, CC. Changing for good: the revolutionary program that explains the six stages of change and teaches you how to free yourself from bad habits. New York: W. Morrow; 1994 • Rogers, Everett Diffusion of Innovations (book) • Pronin E, Olivola CY, & Kennedy KA. (2008) Doing unto future selves as you would do unto others: psychological distance and decision making. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 34(2), 224-36.

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Design for Behavior Change

by Julie Dirksen

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