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

MODELS
Operant Conditioning
TYPE
Behavior model
PEOPLE
BF Skinner, Edward Thorndike

MODELS
Intervention Design Process
TYPE
Behavior design process / heuristics
PEOPLE
Matt Wallaert

MODELS
Social Cognitive Theory
TYPE
Behavior model
PEOPLE
Albert Bandura

MODELS
Behavioral Design Process
TYPE
Behavior design process / heuristics
PEOPLE
Anthony Barrows, Natalie Dabney, Jon Hayes, Rachel Rosenberg
ORGANIZATION
ideas42

MODELS
EAST | Easy Attractive Social Timely
TYPE
Behavior design process / heuristics
PEOPLE
Owain Service, Michael Hallsworth, David Halpern
ORGANIZATION
UK Behavioural Insights Team (BIT)

MODELS
Fogg Behavior Model
TYPE
Behavior model
PEOPLE
BJ Fogg
Tactics that change behavior

TACTICS
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is a therapeutic approach originalled developed by Steven Hayes. It borrows from previous concepts like cognitive behavioral therapy and Morita therapy. The principles of ACT are fairly systematic and lend themselves well to program design, finding empirical support in adaptations like 2morrow's smoking cessation and pain management interventions.

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
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.

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 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
Active Choice
Active choice, sometimes referred to as enhanced active choice or forced choice, refers to removing default options and often increasing the salience of potential decisions through emphasizing the consequences of one or more of the options. Coined by Punam Anand Keller and colleagues in 2011, it was originally intended to address concerns around paternalistic nudging for use in situations where forcing the default option may be considered unethical. In one of the original studies, CVS customers were given the choice to enroll in automatic refills of medications via delivery. The choices they were presented were ""Enroll in refills at home"" vs “I Prefer to Order my Own Refills.”

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.

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.
Products that change behavior

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 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
Accupedo
Behaviors
Physical Activity
Tactics
Education or Information, Reminders, Cues +3 more
PRODUCTS
ActiveLifestyle

PRODUCTS
Acorns
Behaviors
Savings
Tactics
Framing Effects, Reduce Friction or Barriers, Automation +2 more

PRODUCTS
10% Happier
Behaviors
Mental Health & Self-Care
Tactics
Reminders, Cues, & Triggers +5 more

PRODUCTS
Aaptiv

PRODUCTS
APDS
Behaviors
Crime
Tactics
Social Support, Reminders, Cues +5 more
Research on behavior change
PAPERS
Physical activity with spiritual strategies intervention: a cluster randomized trial with older African American women.
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity
TACTICS
Spirituality
PAPERS
The PULSE (Prevention Using LifeStyle Education) trial protocol: a randomised controlled trial of a Type 2 Diabetes Prevention programme for men.
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
The Effectiveness of Prompts to Promote Engagement With Digital Interventions: A Systematic Review.
BEHAVIOR
Other
PAPERS
The effects of a multimodal intervention trial to promote lifestyle factors associated with the prevention of cardiovascular disease in menopausal and postmenopausal Australian women.
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity
PAPERS
Designing prenatal care messages for low-income Mexican women.
BEHAVIOR
Other
TACTICS
Education or Information
PAPERS
Enhancing the effectiveness of community stroke risk screening: a randomized controlled trial.
BEHAVIOR
Other
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
A Digital Diabetes Prevention Program (Transform) for Adults With Prediabetes: Secondary Analysis
PRODUCT
Transform
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity, Diet & Nutrition