Learn how to change behavior.
The world's largest collection of resources and data on behavioral science.
Behavior change and behavior design models

MODELS
Integrated Behavior Model
TYPE
Behavior model
PEOPLE
Martin Fishbein, Icek Ajzen

MODELS
Social Cognitive Theory
TYPE
Behavior model
PEOPLE
Albert Bandura

MODELS
Attention, Belief, Choice, Determination
TYPE
Behavior design process / heuristics
ORGANIZATION
OECD

MODELS
Behavioural Drivers Model
TYPE
Behavior model
PEOPLE
Vincent Petit
ORGANIZATION
UNICEF

MODELS
BASIC | Behavior, Analysis, Strategy, Intervention, Change
TYPE
Behavior design process / heuristics
ORGANIZATION
OECD

MODELS
Health Belief Model
TYPE
Behavior model
PEOPLE
Irwin Rosenstock, Godfrey Hochbaum, S. Stephen Kegeles
Tactics that change behavior

TACTICS
AI or Chatbot
Using a chatbot or simulated conversational interaction.

TACTICS
Behavioral Economics
Behavioral economics is the exploration of how people make consequential decisions where psychological and sociological factors may influence the outcome or process. It is often considered the fusion of economics and psychology (which itself was an interdisciplinary field entailing medicine and philosophy). The exploration of psychological factors in economic decision-making, including deviation from rationality, traces well back to classical and neoclassical economics (i.e. Gabriel Tarde, Wilfredo Pareto, and John Maynard Keynes) and prior to psychology becoming a formal discipline. Behavioral economics is often associated with behavior change tactics like smart defaults, reducing friction or barriers, increasing salience, incentives, active choice, and commitment devices.

TACTICS
Clawback Incentives
Clawback incentives refer to a framing effect applied to rewards where participants are intended to experience losing the reward via noncompliance rather than accruing it for successful performance of the behavior.For example, a hypertension management program may credit its participants $200 at the beginning of the month, and reduce or "claw back" the amount by $3 each time the patient does not take their medication. The alternative would be starting the month at zero or the previous ballance and adding $3 each time the patient takes the medication.

TACTICS
Automation
Automation refers to having another person, group, or technology system perform part or all of the intended behavior. A prominent example is Thaler & Bernartzi's Save More Tomorrow intervention, which invested a portion of employees' earnings into retirement funds automatically and even increased the contribution level to scale with pay raises. Other examples include automatically scheduling medical appointments so the patient needn't do it themselves and mailing healthy recipe ingredients to the person's home to reduce the burden of shopping.

TACTICS
Behavioral Activation (BA)
Behavioral activation is a therapeutic approach that typically pairs activity scheduling with either monitoring tools or goal-setting. For example, someone might aim to balance activities they "should" do but underperform, like self-care behaviors, with activities they enjoy. Users of this technique may also track which activities cause certain cognitions or affective states, like those associated with depression.

TACTICS
Education or Information
Education refers to empowering a person with more knowledge or training than they had previously. While providing information alone is often a suboptimal way to drive meaningful behavior change or long-term interventions, the right message at the right time can be a powerful part of a behavior change strategy.

TACTICS
Change Effort
Changing effort refers to modifying the difficulty, or sometimes perceived difficulty, of a behavior in order to change its likelihood of occurrence. This often entails making a behavior easier by reducing its intensity or frequency. This is a tactic advocated by BJ Fogg’s model of behavior change.

TACTICS
Checklists
Checklists are an age-old tactic for remembering to do certain tasks. Checklists are sometimes used to measure behaviors that should take place with a certain frequency, e.g. every day or X times per week, and other times, to ensure certain steps are followed every time a person does a complex behavior.For behavior designers, the challenges of checklists often entail choosing the right behaviors, breaking them down to the correct level of granularity for a given population, and serving them up in the proper context or sometimes with personalization. They are likely underutilized and consistently improve the performance of even experts, like pilots and surgeons.
Products that change behavior

PRODUCTS
APDS
Behaviors
Crime
Tactics
Social Support, Reminders, Cues +5 more

PRODUCTS
Accion

PRODUCTS
Aduri
Behaviors
Mental Health & Self-Care
PRODUCTS
2Morrow Weight Management Program
Behaviors
Diet & Nutrition, Physical Activity
Tactics
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Behavioral Activation (BA)
Models
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
PRODUCTS
Accupedo
Behaviors
Physical Activity
Tactics
Education or Information, Reminders, Cues +3 more
PRODUCTS
2Morrow Chronic Pain Program
Behaviors
Mental Health & Self-Care, Other, Disease Management
Tactics
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Behavioral Activation (BA)
Models
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
PRODUCTS
2Morrow Smoking Cessation Program
Behaviors
Smoking Cessation
Tactics
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Behavioral Activation (BA)
Models
ACT

PRODUCTS
10% Happier
Behaviors
Mental Health & Self-Care
Tactics
Reminders, Cues, & Triggers +5 more
Research on behavior change
PAPERS
Continuous glucose monitoring counseling improves physical activity behaviors of individuals with type 2 diabetes: A randomized clinical trial.
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity, Disease Management
PAPERS
A comparison of two delivery modalities of a mobile phone based assessment for serious mental illness: native smartphone application vs text-messaging only implementations.
BEHAVIOR
Mental Health & Self-Care
PAPERS
Physical activity with spiritual strategies intervention: a cluster randomized trial with older African American women.
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity
TACTICS
Spirituality
PAPERS
Interrupting pathways to sepsis: Effectiveness of an intervention to reduce delays in timely care for sick children in rural Bangladesh.
BEHAVIOR
Other
PAPERS
Value-Based Insurance Design Improves Medication Adherence Without An Increase In Total Health Care Spending
PAPERS
A Digital Diabetes Prevention Program (Transform) for Adults With Prediabetes: Secondary Analysis
PRODUCT
Transform
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity, Diet & Nutrition
PAPERS
Randomized Controlled Pilot Study Testing Use of Smartphone Technology for Obesity Treatment
PRODUCT
Lose It!
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity, Diet & Nutrition
TACTICS
Education or Information, Reminders, Cues, & Triggers, Self-Monitoring or Tracking, Social Support, Feedback
PAPERS
Nutrition education worksite intervention for university staff: application of the health belief model.
BEHAVIOR
Diet & Nutrition
PAPERS
Enhancing the effectiveness of community stroke risk screening: a randomized controlled trial.
BEHAVIOR
Other