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Learn how to change behavior.

The world's largest collection of resources and data on behavioral science.

Tactics that change behavior

Coaching or Counselling

TACTICS

Coaching or Counselling

Coaching or counselling here refers to having a trained person provide guidance to someone attempting a behavior. Many mental health and lifestyle programs utilize coaching in various forms, including phone calls, video chat, text messaging, or in-person sessions. Some programs have replaced some or all of these traditionally human-delivered touchpoints with AI or rules-based interactions.

Covert Learning

TACTICS

Covert Learning

Covert learning refers to imparting educational information into non-traditional methods of delivery. For example, a film where someone learns cognitive behavioral therapy techniques or receives training on body-weight fitness exercises may teach someone how to do these (or at least generally what they are). People may also learn the consequences of a behavior through watching someone else experience them, and this concept (viarious experience) is a key component of Bandura's social cognitive theory.

Behavior Substitution

TACTICS

Behavior Substitution

Behavior substitution refers to attempting to eliminate a problematic behavior by replacing it with another one. Often, the substituted behaviors are intended to have similar sensory qualities (e.g. drink flavored sparkling water instead of soda). The goal is typically to disassociate the original behavior from its cue, enabling the more positive behavior to be triggered automatically.‍

Education or Information

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.‍

Change Effort

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.

Automation

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.‍

Depression rating

TACTICS

Depression rating

Depression rating simply refers to having someone rate their mood. Often, this may be an informal method like a smiley-face based Lickert scale or choosing a word from a list, rather than using a standardized instrument like the Beck Depression Inventory.‍

Commitment Devices

TACTICS

Commitment Devices

Commitment devices are tools that attempt to bridge the gap between a person's initial motivation to perfrom the behavior and the typical pattern of noncompliance as time goes on.One prominent example is the "Ulysses Pact," where Filipino banking customers were offered the option to enroll in an account where their ability to make withdrawals would be limited. In a study by Ashraf and Karlan (2005), participants with the commitment account saved 81% more than those with typical accounts. There are many other examples of commitment devices. Temptation bundling is a form of commitment device where people only engage in an enjoyable activity when it's simultaneous with an activity they intend to do more (for example, only listening to a certain podcast or audiobook while walking on a treadmill). Pre-paying for a service is a basic form of commitment device, and one used by Dan Ariely when he intended to increase his fruit and vegetable consumption. He paid for a year of biweekly deliveries from a local CSA program up-front.

Products that change behavior

Aaptiv

PRODUCTS

Aaptiv

PRODUCTS

2Morrow Smoking Cessation Program

Behaviors

Smoking Cessation

Tactics

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Behavioral Activation (BA)

Models

ACT

2Morrow Stress (and Anxiety) Program

PRODUCTS

2Morrow Stress (and Anxiety) Program

Behaviors

Mental Health & Self-Care

Tactics

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Behavioral Activation (BA)

Models

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

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

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

Aduri

PRODUCTS

Aduri

Behaviors

Mental Health & Self-Care

AbleTo

PRODUCTS

AbleTo

Behaviors

Mental Health & Self-Care

Tactics

Personalization, Skill Coaching, Coaching or Counselling

10% Happier

PRODUCTS

10% Happier

Behaviors

Mental Health & Self-Care

Tactics

Reminders, Cues, & Triggers +5 more

Research on behavior change

PAPERS

Enhancing the effectiveness of community stroke risk screening: a randomized controlled trial.

BEHAVIOR

Other

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

The program for rheumatic independent self-management: a pilot evaluation.

BEHAVIOR

Physical Activity

PAPERS

A Digital Diabetes Prevention Program (Transform) for Adults With Prediabetes: Secondary Analysis

PRODUCT

Transform

BEHAVIOR

Physical Activity, Diet & Nutrition

PAPERS

Interrupting pathways to sepsis: Effectiveness of an intervention to reduce delays in timely care for sick children in rural Bangladesh.

BEHAVIOR

Other

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

Increasing screening mammography in asymptomatic women: evaluation of a second-generation, theory-based program.

BEHAVIOR

Other

PAPERS

Pathway to health: cluster-randomized trial to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among smokers in public housing.

BEHAVIOR

Diet & Nutrition

TACTICS

Motivational Interviewing

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