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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

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.‍

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

TACTICS

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a therapuetic approach to improving mental and behavioral health. The core philosophy is that behavior can be modified by noticing and correcting patterns in thought that influence the behavior. Modern CBT is typically associated with Albert Ellis and Alan Beck.The structured and rules-based nature of CBT have made it a popular candidate for digital interventions and application by lightly-trained or even untrained practitioners.

Active Choice

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.”‍

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.‍

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.

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.‍

Clawback Incentives

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.

Behavioral Economics

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.‍

Research on behavior change

PAPERS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continuous glucose monitoring counseling improves physical activity behaviors of individuals with type 2 diabetes: A randomized clinical trial.

BEHAVIOR

Physical Activity, Disease Management

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