The results from an intervention performed at Stanford using Facebook to form the habit of sun screen application in young adults.

1. Tanya Flores | Keith McDaniel May 2nd, 2010 Facebook + Sun Screen = Face Screen Shedding Light on The Use of Sun Screen habits.stanford.edu

2. Daily Sunscreen Application using our Intervention Applied Sun Screen Did Not Apply Sun Screen

3. What Did We Do?

4. Brought sun screen out of the bathroom We put sun screen on Facebook, taking it out of the private space, and putting it squarely in a social, public setting.

5. Triggered sun screen application on Facebook Using videos on Facebook, we worked to trigger sun screen application in the participants.

6. Set a new normal The participants were all familiar with us, and so we presented ourselves as examples in the process of sun screen application

7. WhyDid It Work?

8. Simplicity – Sunscreen, the social norm You use sunscreen daily? We create a social environment where sharing stories and anecdotes about daily sunscreen use makes applying sunscreen easy and simple. Following this new social norm increases your ability to habitually apply sunscreen.

9. Triggering – Just in time sunscreen By triggering sunscreen application early in the morning through a Facebook video, we create a spark trigger that is noticeable, associated with sunscreen, and during a time when people are motivated and easily able to apply sunscreen.

10. Motivation – Socially accepted sunscreen Using Facebook’s massive social network to increase people’s motivation to habitually use sunscreen we play on the human need to be socially accepted. People post about their sunscreen use and try to gain friends and new contacts.

11. What Would We Change? Make it more personal: Incorporate participants into the videos or allow participants to create their own videos Education vs. Entertainment: Investigate the trade offs between informational videos and entertaining videos Timing is everything: Making the timing of the triggers as close to the time of optimal sunscreen application as possible