Design for Behavior Change

Julie Dirksen, Usable Learning

Think about:

What behaviors would you like to see changed?

There’s a question I’ve been thinking about 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?

*By wrong, I don’t mean morally wrong…

lots of sIt’s a simple question, but it has a complicated answer .

Answer 1: They don’t know any better

I can’t buy printer paper from my brother-in-law?

It has to go through

purchasing? 1800 Calories?Seriously???

How do you figure sales tax, again?

Answer 1: They don’t know any better

People don’t still smoke because nobody happened to mention it was a bad idea, so why does it still happen?

but what about…

Texting while driving

Fast Food Smoking

I know, but…“I know it’s a bad idea, and I never do it (except when I do, and then I feel guilty).”

“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.

Texting while driving

So, why?

Answer 2: Logical decision-making isn’t logical

From Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis

The Rider

The Elephant

So, when there’s a conflict…

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 mean when we say “We learn from experience?”

Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine…

Here’s the thing..

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

So let’s go back to our texting example…

What are each of these drivers learning from their experiences?

Answer 4: Urgency matters

We 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…

Visceral MattersRemember 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.

But, Visceral Matters Too…

http://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2011/VHIL-technical-report.pdf

We have trouble with this…

We make decisions differently for our future selves

Current self

Future self

Pronin et al 2008

Answer 5: Change is slow

We develop unconscious competence

• Familiarization• Comprehension • Conscious Effort• Conscious Action• Proficiency• Unconscious Competence

Gloria Gery, Electronic Performance Support Systems

We develop unconscious competence

Glucose Metabolic Rate after several weeks of Tetris Practice

Haier et al, 1992

Change is hardIf 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 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

Answer 7: We lack self-efficacy

How do your learners feel?Things just happen to me

I do

No controlIn control

Fixed mindsetGrowth mindset

Mindset, by Carol Dweck

Answer 8: Social Matters

We pay more attention when people are involved

Okita 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 9: Environment Matters

Design changes behavior

Johnson and Goldstein, 2003

Make it easy for people to succeed

Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

Create an environment that supports 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

Have people learn from experience

• Role plays• Simulations• Trials• Observations

Avoid cycles of failure

Design for the elephant

Opinion Leaders, Testimonials, Success Stories

Use good models - TAM

Perceived Usefulness

Perceived Ease of

Use

Technology

Acceptance

Technology Acceptance Model

Use good models – Diffusion of Innovation

• Relative Advantage • Compatibility• Complexity• Trialability• Observability

Everett 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: usablelearning

Design 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.