Video

Making Behavior Change Stick

Angela Duckworth,Katy Milkman
Solving the problem of enduring behavior change is our single greatest opportunity to improve lives. Why? Countless daily acts—whether we show up for class, how we spend our money, and even what we eat for breakfast—cumulatively shape our destinies. Recently, scientists have isolated the situational and psychological factors that hold sway over what we repeatedly do, leading to successful and scalable interventions to change short-term behavior. Unfortunately, behavior change rarely endures, and when it doesn’t, the least advantaged pay the greatest price. Our project unites an interdisciplinary team of scientists with leading practitioners in education, healthcare, and consumer financial services to address the question: How can we make behavior change stick? Among the millions of people we will reach through this project, we aim to reduce high school and college dropouts, financial insecurity, and premature deaths by 10%. Ultimately, our solution will benefit far larger populations.
Watch video