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

2. There’s a question I’ve been thinking
about most of my professional life…

3. 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…

4. 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…

5. 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???

6. 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?

7. 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.

8. So, why?

9. Answer 2: Logical decision-making isn’t
logical
From Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis

10. The Rider

11. The Elephant

12. So, when there’s a
conflict…
Who do you think wins?

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

14. 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?

15. What do we really mean
when we say “We learn from
experience?”
A friend of mine got two free personal training
session with her YMCA membership.
She thought she was getting oriented, but the
trainer put her through a monster workout.
She was so sore the next day she could barely
move.
So, what did she learn from that experience?

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

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

18. Answer 4: Urgency matters
We are creatures of urgency:
Maybe I should
consider
retirement
planning…

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

20. And the future is sooooo far away…

21. Oooo, shiny!

22. 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.

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

24. We make decisions differently for our
future selves
Future self
Current self
Pronin et al 2008

25. Answer 5: Change is slow

26. We develop unconscious competence
• Familiarization
• Comprehension
• Conscious Effort
• Conscious Action
• Proficiency
• Unconscious Competence
Gloria Gery, Electronic Performance Support Systems

27. We develop unconscious competence
Glucose Metabolic Rate after several weeks of Tetris Practice
Haier et al, 1992

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

29. The elephant is a creature of habit

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

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

32. 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 mindset
Mindset, by Carol Dweck

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

34. Willpower is not created equally
Greene and Paxton, 2009

35. Willpower is like a muscle:

36. Removing temptation helps

37. Distraction helps

38. What’s even more important than willpower…
Resiliency

39. Answer 9: Social Matters

40. We pay more attention when people
are involved
Okita et al 2009

41. We use other people as cues for how to act

42. 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

43. Answer 10: Environment Matters

44. Design changes behavior
Johnson and Goldstein, 2003

45. Make it easy for people to succeed
Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

46. Create an
environment that
supports them
The Freedom Trail, Boston

47. So what do we do about it?

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

49. Create opportunities to practice

50. Meet people where they are
Pre-contemplation
Contemplation
Planning
Action
Maintenance
Prochaska & DiClemente

51. Have people learn
from experience
• Role plays
• Simulations
• Trials
• Observations

52. Avoid cycles of failure

53. Design for the elephant

54. Opinion Leaders, Testimonials, Success
Stories

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

56. Use good models – Diffusion of
Innovation
• Relative Advantage
• Compatibility
• Complexity
• Trialability
• Observability
Everett Rogers , Diffusion of Innovations

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

58. Fix the environment

59. 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?

60. Questions?
Julie Dirksen
julie@usablelearning.com
Twitter: usablelearning
Design For How People Learn

61. 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.