This document summarizes the scientific research behind the Do Something Different (DSD) approach to behavior change. It discusses that knowing does not necessarily lead to doing, and that most interventions focus on knowledge rather than action. DSD bridges this gap by helping people take small actions to increase behavioral flexibility. Studies found this led to sustained weight loss and lower stress. The approach uses digital technologies to reach people and change behaviors rather than what they think. Independent evaluations found those who participated in DSD tasks showed more sustained inclusive behavior changes than those who did not.

1. The Science Bit
Professor Karen Pine
Do Something Different
www.dsd.me

2. Backed by years of scientific research.
Do Something Different.
Such a simple idea….

3. The science bit

4. The Professors Behind
Do Something Different
Professor Ben (C)
Fletcher
Professor of Psychology,
University of Hertfordshire
D. Phil (Oxon) 1978
– Practitioner Occupational
Psychologist & Practitioner
Health Psychologist
– Health and Care Professions
Council Fellow Academician
Academy of Social Sciences,
Chartered Scientist

5. Professor Karen J Pine
Professor of Psychology,
University of Hertfordshire
PhD (Herts) 1997
– Member British
Psychological Society
– Chartered Scientist
Between them they have published
hundreds of peer-reviewed articles,
conference papers and books- see
dsd.me for more details

6. Fletcher, B. (C)., (1983)
“The role of category
information in word
recognition”.
Memory and Cognition, 11 (3), pp. 237 – 250.
D. Phil (Oxon) 1978
– Practitioner Occupational Psychologist &
Practitioner Health Psychologist
– Health and Care Professions Council
Fellow Academician Academy of Social
Sciences, Chartered Scientist

7. Pine, K. J. & Messer,
D. M. (1999).
“What children do and what children
know: Looking beyond success using
Karmiloff-Smith’s Representation
Redescription Framework”.
New Ideas in Psychology, 17, pp. 17-30.
Pine demonstrated that what people
do can be disconnected from what
they know (the knowing-doing gap)
and that this has its roots in our
cognitive development.

8. Most interventions tackle
‘knowing’
not ‘doing’

9. After an early lung
cancer diagnosis a number of
people ignore medical
advice and continue
to smoke cigarettes.
Park, Japuntich, Rigotti, Traeger, He, Wallace, Malin,
Zallen & Keating, (2012).

10. After coronary surgery 90%
of people advised to
change their lifestyle fail to
do so.
Dr. Edward Miller, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, 2004

11. And despite millions spent
on raising
health awareness we have
an obesity and a diabetes
crisis.
National Obesity Forum, 2014

12. After training courses
only 20% of people go
back to work and do
anything differently.
National Obesity Forum, 2014

13. People forget 80% of
what they’ve learned
after one day. And 98%
after a month.
Thalheimer, W. (2010).

14. Believing that it’s enough
to ‘raise awareness’ by
telling, informing or
educating
A fundamental flaw ?
‘Knowing’ does not equal ‘doing’
Thalheimer, W. (2010).

15. Try this
1. On a keyboard type the phrase:
“The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog”

16. Try this
2. That sentence contains all the letters of the
alphabet, you probably typed it in under 7 seconds.
3. Now you have 80 seconds to fill in the missing
letters on the keyboard below:

17. Snyder, Ashitaka, Shimada,
Ulrich & Logan (2014)
“What skilled typists don’t know
about the QWERTY keyboard”.
Attention, Perception and Psychophysics,
76, 1, pp. 162-171.
“This demonstrates that we’re
capable of doing extremely
complicated things without knowing
explicitly what we are doing.”
(Snyder, 2014)

18. Pine, K. & Fletcher, B. (C). (2014)
“Shifting brain channels to change
health behaviour”.
Perspectives in Public Health, 134, 1, 16-17
“Knowing and doing are frequently
disconnected – yet health educators
continue to expect understanding to
lead to implementation.”
(Pine, 2014)

19. Jenner, E., Fletcher, B. et al (2006)
“Discrepancy between
self-reported and observed hand
hygiene behaviour in healthcare
professionals”.
Journal of Hospital Infection, 63, 418-422.
No correlation found between
reported and observed behaviour
Pearson
correlation with
self-report hand
washing
Observed to wash hands BEFORE
care activity
-0.040 (p=.742)
Observed to wash hands AFTER
care activity
+0.047 (p=.698)
Observed to wash hands BEFORE &
AFTER care activity
+0.028 (p=.814)

20. Humans are habit machines
• We are hard-wired to stick to
routines and repeat actions.
• Habits are stronger
than willpower.
• Behaviour change
is difficult.
• Many people do what’s easy
for them rather than what’s
good for them.
FLETCHER, B. (C) & PINE, K. J. Flex: Do Something Different,
University of Hertfordshire Press: Hatfield, 2012

21. The power of habits (even if they’re
wrong)

22. Do Something Different
bridges the gap between
knowing
and doing

23. • We help people to take action.
• Help them in small steps.
• Knowing and doing come
together.
• Use digital technologies to reach
them where they are.
• Increase behavioural flexibility.
Change what people do,
not what they think

24. Behavioural Flexibility
Which of the following describes you best?
Circle the behaviours below that best describe you. Select as
many or as few as you like, so long as they describe how you
generally are. There are no right or wrong answers.

25. Increased behavioural flexibility
leads to weight loss & lower stress
• In this study we increased people’s
behavioural flexibility, by getting
them to Do Something Different.
• All participants lost weight, with a
dose relationship between increase
in flexibility and weight lost.
• The weight loss was sustained
after 6 months.
• Anxiety and depression also
reduced significantly.
WeightlossT1-T4
Change in B-Flex T1-T4
Fletcher, B. (C), Hanson, J., Page, N. C., & Pine, K.J. (2011)
“Increasing behavioural flexibility leads to sustained weight loss.”
Swiss Journal of Psychology, 70 (1), 2011, 25–34.

26. B FLEX
Higher
behavioural
flexibility
=
Lower BMI
Hanson, J. PhD thesis, (2007).
* r = -0.362 p < 0.01
BMI

27. When knowing is not enough
From an independent evaluation of an in-company Do Something Different programme,
called Open Mind, aimed at increasing inclusive behaviour and tackling unconscious bias.
The table shows sustained behaviour change in those who did/did not sign up for the Do
Something Different tasks (DSD):

28. Books authored by Fletcher
and / or Pine

29. Thank You
Professor Karen Pine
Do Something Different
www.dsd.me