A behavior change is gonna come

Will Myddelton, user experience consultant with Blue Latitude, on the human side of behavior change



It’s an exciting time. Mobile computing, networked devices and an ageing-but-digitally-literate population are creating huge demand for services to help you lead a healthier lifestyle.

Supply is exploding. The Eatery wants to change your diet by people rating photos of your food. The Jawbone Up uses a wristband to help you exercise moreand sleep longer. The Fitbit pedometer graphs your physical activity, just like the Withings scale graphs your weight. My personal favorite is Crunch Fu, an iPhone app thatteaches you stomach crunches, counts your reps and graphs your progress.

But it’s easy to be distracted by the technology and the gadgets. The real challenges are about understanding humans. So here’s my quick guide to thinking about the human side of behaviorchange.

Ability, motivation and triggers

BJ Fogg of Stanford University has been writing about using computers to change behavior for over a decade. Two of his ideas are fundamental to understanding the design challenge.

The Behaviour Model stipulates the elements required for behavior change. You need the Ability to do what is required in the first place, the Motivation to want to do it , and Triggers to remind you to keep doing it. The more motivated you are, the more ambitious you can be about the change.

His Behaviour Grid classifies different behaviors and tells you how to combine Ability, Motivation and Triggers for each. Stopping smoking is a Black Path behaviour and can be tackled by reducing triggers (avoiding coffee), dampening motivation (dwelling on health consequences) or removing the ability (by never buying cigarettes). BJ Fogg’s work is a fantastic introduction to thinking about behavior change. But there’s a problem.

Everything you know about motivation is wrong

Most people think about motivation in terms of carrots and sticks. Incentivise the behaviors you want, punish those you don’t. It’s why companies pay bonuses for good performance, schools offer iPods for exam results, and parents withhold allowances from kids not doing chores.

But incentivising behavior with rewards can fatally damage motivation. In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink shows that although incentives can lead to short-term gains, these are often outweighed by long-term losses.

A personal example. My school friend didn’t read much so his dad paid him a cash bonus for each book he read. The result? My friend only read when he was on the clock and realized he could game the system. The incentive removed his enjoyment of reading and encouraged him to cheat!

So how do you motivate people without incentives? Hand them control, help them master the task at hand, and give them purpose. My friend’s dad would have been better to let him choose his own reading material (hand him control), read books with him (help master the task), and openly discuss the impact reading made on his own life (give purpose).

Understanding how motivation really works is the key to lastingbehavior change. If you do one thing as a result of this post, watch this incredible animation of Dan Pink talking about motivation.

Persuasion tactics work, too

No matter how well your service understands motivation and behavior change, you’ll need tactics to get people to try it and stick with it over the first few weeks. My favorite place to start is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

Four tactics are invaluable:

Social proof: People do things they see other people doing. Show stories from people who have changed their behavior to get users to try your service.

Authority: People do what they’re told by authority figures. Provide instructions by doctors to persuade users to take the actions necessary.

Commitment and consistency: People try to live up to their stated self-image. Get users to record their commitments, even privately, to bolster their motivation.

Reciprocity: People are disproportionately generous to givers of gifts. Reward sign up with a gift (not large enough to demotivate!) to encourage initial participation.

But be careful. This is dangerous ground. You only need to read about infamous Milgram experiments from the 1950s to understand the potential for harm in these tactics. Use them wisely.

Designing services to change behaviors is difficult. But one thing is certain. If you want success, you need to focus on what makes humans tick. Not the technology.

Will Myddelton is a user experience consultant with digital business and marketing consultancy Blue Latitude.

For more on behavior change, check out Patient Summit Europe on May 29-30 in London.

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Jun 25, 2015 - Jun 26, 2015, London

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