Behavior Change Overview
Turning the Tide
Behavior change is the adoption of a singular action or repetitive action over time. The field of behavior change is based on principles of behavioral psychology, economics, and social science theory. True behavior change initiatives go well beyond awareness-raising strategies, which are not enough to change behavior. Most people need a little help, an incentive, or a nudge to adopt the desired behavior. This guide will help you design an effective behavior change effort, based on sound social science.
Why is it important? Environmental problems are often caused by human behavior and are therefore at their root social problems. Natural resources will not be protected or restored unless a critical mass of people are motivated to change their behavior. In order to do this, the environmental community must shift to adopt social science as central to environmental stewardship efforts. Authentic behavior change initiatives are rooted in social science theory, informed by insights into the attitudes and priorities of key audiences, and are focused not on raising awareness, but on measurably increasing the adoption of environmentally responsible behavior.
How do you plan and implement a behavior change campaign?
This guide is designed to give you a step-by-step method for designing an effective behavior change campaign. We have included links, and planning templates, and other resources to help you along the way. As you enter this process, be aware that designing a sound campaign is an investment, both in time and resources. If your intent is to throw up a billboard on a busy highway, then this approach is not for you. This method is built on these best practices:
Learn more about influencing behavior change:
A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning and Implementing a Behavior Change Campaign
Step 1: Identify a Single, End-State Behavior You Want to Change
The first step is to choose the right behavior to influence. The behavior you choose should be both a single and end-state behavior:
Single Behavior
A single behavior is one that cannot be divided into further behaviors. For example, you might want to minimize waste by changing your coworker’s waste disposal behaviors. This is a broad behavior that is divisible, meaning it can be divided into smaller, more specific behaviors, such as “properly recycling”, “properly disposing of landfill trash”, or “properly composting”.
End-state Behavior
An end-state behavior is one that results in the desired environmental outcome. For example, picking up pet waste is not an end-state behavior. A volunteer who was asking her community to pick up their pets’ waste was happy to observe a neighbor who had not picked up before do so – only to see him toss the dog’s waste in the woods by his property! Picking up pet waste and disposing of it properly in the trash is an end-state behavior.
Once you identify several single, end-state behaviors that you would like to influence, evaluate the behaviors to determine which one is the most effective. Your campaign will have more impact if you choose just one behavior to influence, as offering the public a menu of possibilities can be immobilizing. If you have a suite of behaviors you want to influence, you can roll them out individually, over time, for the greatest impact.
Consider the following factors when choosing the highest-priority behavior for your campaign:
Opportunity
What is the current rate of adoption of the behavior? A higher-priority behavior is one that is not widely adopted. That means there is a large opportunity group that you can influence. Conversely, if a large percentage of people have already adopted the behavior, your opportunity to effect change is small.
Likelihood
Among those who have not yet adopted the behavior, how likely are they to adopt the behavior? The larger the percentage who are likely to adopt this behavior, the greater the chance you will be successful in changing the behavior.
Impact
How would scientists or technical experts evaluate this behavior’s impact on water quality? The characteristics of your community such as land use, proximity to a water body, or housing patterns may also influence the impact. Modelers in the Chesapeake Bay Program are working to development guidance on the value of behaviors from a pollutant reduction perspective and will be shared that data when it is available.
Step 2: Identify your Priority Audience and Measure the Behavior Baseline
To create a successful behavior change campaign, it is important to identify the audience segments within the general population that are most prone to respond to your campaign. To do this, you will need to identify your priority audience and measure the behavior baseline.
A. Identify Your Priority Audience
You can have the most influence by focusing your resources on the segments of the general population that are most likely to change. Within your geographic area, there may be many audiences who engage in and influence your selected behavior. Begin by identifying all the major groups of people who could engage in the behavior. Potential audiences may be grouped based on one or more variables including demographics, geography, values and lifestyles, affinity groups and/or current related behaviors or characteristics (e.g., homeowners with large lawns).
Make a List
Start by making a list of all the groups of people who have influence on the behavior. These people directly influence, or create the conditions for, your priority audience to take the action you want them to take. For example, if you want homeowners to plant native plants, but local nurseries do not stock native plants, the local nursery owners are an audience that affects the ability of your priority audience (homeowners) to adopt the behavior. You may have to address the behavior of the nursery owners before you can implement your behavior change campaign with homeowners. If you want landscaping companies to stop planting invasive plants, it may be prudent to pursue a new regulation limiting the sale and or planting of particularly noxious invasive plants; this would require working with policymakers.
Evaluate your priority audiences against the following criteria:
Note: Both opportunity and likelihood are the same measures you considered in Step 1 to choose your behavior. Now you are looking at your community more deeply to examine opportunity and likelihood within population segments.
Opportunity
How likely are they to engage in your behavior? It is important to remember that you should not conduct a behavior change campaign with a priority audience that does not want to change their behavior. Instead, focus on the portion of your priority population that is interested in changing their behavior, but just needs some help.
Likelihood
Among those who have not yet adopted the behavior, how likely are they to adopt the behavior? The larger the percentage who are likely to adopt this behavior, the greater the chance you will be successful in changing the behavior.
Size
How large is this audience segment as a portion of the entire population? The larger the size, the greater effect your behavior change may have. Likewise, if your priority audience is very small, consider if it is more efficient to reach out to them through individual relationships or one-on-one interactions, rather than investing in a full-scale behavior change campaign.
B. Measure the Behavior Baseline Within Your Priority Audience
Once you have identified a behavior and priority audience, you need to measure how much your particular audience is currently engaging in the behavior, also known as a baseline measurement. This is very important because will measure again at the end of the campaign to track the degree of behavior change.
It is possible to field one survey that both measures the behavior baseline and helps you prioritize an audience. To do this as stated above, you would measure the general population, and include demographic and sociographic questions so that you can segment your results by several different audience groups. Be sure to include “likelihood” questions so that you can compare your audience groups by both their opportunity and likelihood.
Conducting Your Own Survey
The Chesapeake Bay Program has collected survey data measuring 19 specific residential stewardship behaviors. If you want more up to date data, are working in more localized geography, need to explore the attitudes of a midstream or influencer audience or need to measure a behavior that was not measured by the Chesapeake Bay Program, you will need to conduct your own baseline survey. You can replicate the Chesapeake Bay Program’s survey on a local basis by accessing BaySurvey.org and conducting the survey in your local area. Contact susan@opinionworks.com prior to beginning for assistance and to gain access to any data you collect through BaySurvey.org. If you have questions or hesitation about your ability to design this research, please consult a professional to help you. Your colleagues who have conducted behavior change campaigns may know of professionals they can recommend or your funder may have a list of technical assistance providers. As you read case studies, when you come across an effective campaign or approach, take note of any professionals who were involved.
The baseline data is quantitative (numeric) and usually measured through a survey or through observation. Whatever technique you use, it should be duplicated to get a comparable measurement at the end of your campaign. For example, the weight of pet waste in a pet waste bin or the number of plastic water bottles on the side of a road are quantitative observations that can be collected at the beginning and end of campaigns to measure change over time. You can also measure your priority audience’s self-reporting of a particular behavior through a survey.
Here are some ways you could measure your behavior baseline:
Survey
Conduct a survey on a random sample of your priority audience about their engagement in the behavior. This survey will evaluate what they do, not why they do it. Write the survey using closed-ended questions and aim for the survey to be as brief as possible. Survey questions should be short, conversational, and no jargon! The survey may be conducted online through an emailed link, by telephone, in-person using tablets, or even on paper – or a combination of those methods. Don’t hesitate to reach out for a little help from survey software or a survey professional.
Care should be taken to create a sense of objectivity so that you collect accurate data. The wording of questions should be balanced and neutral. Interviewers should not react to what people say if interviewing in-person (often a hard thing to do!) and survey participants should be assured that every answer they give is acceptable. These are some ways to avoid people giving you the answers they think you want to hear, often referred to as “social desirability bias”.
For additional help in creating and conducting a survey, visit Harvard University’s Questionnaire Design Tip Sheet. Consider having your survey and methodology reviewed by a survey professional.
Observation
Observe behaviors in real time. Discreetly observe people engaging in the behavior you wish to influence. For example, one group identified a littering hot spot and observed from a park bench the instance of littering at that hot spot. The same measurement was repeated in the same spot at the end of the campaign. In another example, practitioners counted the number of yard flags indicating application of toxic pesticides to determine a baseline of pesticide application by a lawn company in a given area. Care must be given to design the behavior observations to control for externalities and to compare exactly the same people engaging in the behavior. In the example of the pesticide flags, the same properties should be observed during the same time period at the same time of the year. As with survey design, consider consulting a data collection expert when designing your observation measurements.
Observe the prevalence of the pollutant. For example, one could observe and count the quantity, volume or weight of the pollutant (pet waste or plastic water bottles) in a given area before and after a campaign. Care should be taken to control for external variables. For example, do not do a litter count on a windy day or just after a rainstorm when the litter could have been moved to a new location by the wind or rain.
Use the baseline data to set specific, measurable and realistic campaign goals. For example, if 20% of your priority audience regularly uses reusable shopping bags at the grocery store, your campaign goal may be to increase that number to 50%. Be as specific as you can about your goal and be sure you consider how you will collect the data to evaluate your goal at the end of the campaign.
Step 3: Identify Barriers and Benefits
Now that you have chosen a behavior, priority audience, and measured the baseline level of behavior adoption, the third step is to identify the barriers and benefits affecting behavior adoption. Barriers inhibit people from engaging in your desired behavior, while benefits are motivating factors that overcome those barriers. In order to implement effective behavior-change campaigns, you will need to identify the barriers and benefits that influence your priority audience.
As a key formative step for this phase of the process, you should search other work that has been done with your behavior and use it to help design your barriers and benefits research. Through a literature review, determine whether anyone has attempted to change this behavior before, whether here in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, or elsewhere. This literature review will allow you to identify barriers and benefits or interventions for testing in your own focus group(s) or other qualitative research methods.
Measure the Behavior Baseline Within Your Priority Audience
Once you have completed a literature review, choose one or a combination of the methods below that meet your time, budget and expertise:
Conduct Focus Groups
Conduct focus group(s) by gathering a small group of people from your priority audience for a 60- to 120-minute discussion of the behavior and other issues you have identified. This discussion is led by an objective facilitator, or moderator, whose job it is to hear from all members of the group and ensure that everyone’s point of view is heard and thoroughly understood. Focus groups are most productive when participants are grouped with others who have a similar viewpoint and life experience, so participants speak openly and deeply. This is not a time for education or debate. The goal is to listen. The time for education is later. Therefore, you should probably not choose yourself as the moderator of this discussion, but rather seek a professional who can help you design and conduct these groups.
The goal of the focus group is to learn from participants why they do or do not practice the desired behavior, and what interventions would make them more likely to adopt it. Ideally, you will focus most of your barriers and benefits research on people who are in a “getable” category: not yet performing the behavior but willing to do so. Your baseline research and literature review should help you identify the best audience segments to include in focus groups, as well as the concepts to test in the discussion. As a practical matter, offering an incentive may encourage people to participate in the focus group.
Focus Groups
How can important decisions be made based on a handful of discussions with small groups of people? Focus groups rely on consensus and listening for the shared point of view and experience around the table. When discussion becomes animated, people are leaning forward in their chairs, and are adding on to each other’s thoughts, that’s when you know you have hit on a concept that moves a large number of people in your priority audience. Remember, humans are subjective animals, and we make many decisions based on our emotions and perceptions. The focus group process helps you identify those areas of motivation and consensus.
In-Depth Interviews
If resources are limited or it is not practical to gather your priority audience in a group, consider individual in-depth interviews. In-depth interviews are typically one-on-one, with an interviewer and a research subject. Sometimes in-depth interviews are conducted in small groups of two or three people. This can be done informally over coffee, in someone’s home, or in a more formal setting. The format is shorter than a focus group because the number of participants is small, but all the other principles apply: deep, affirmative conversation, listening, not education, and a probing discussion that arrives at the inner thoughts of the research participant so that you understand what is motivating them. You will start to notice after you have asked a few dozen people that there is consistency to what you are hearing.
Support
How can important decisions be made based on a handful of discussions with small groups of people? Focus groups rely on consensus and listening for the shared point of view and experience around the table. When discussion becomes animated, people are leaning forward in their chairs, and are adding on to each other’s thoughts, that’s when you know you have hit on a concept that moves a large number of people in your priority audience. Remember, humans are subjective animals, and we make many decisions based on our emotions and perceptions. The focus group process helps you identify those areas of motivation and consensus.
Use your barriers and benefits research to:
Confirm that you have chosen the correct priority audience and have the right approach.
The audience may say they will adopt the behavior, but do you sense they will really do it when you get into the deeper, qualitative research? Have you chosen the right interventions to encourage them to act, or do your ideas fall flat – causing you to have to rethink them? Does another audience need to act before your original audience can take action? For example, if you are trying to get homeowners to plant native plants, but local nurseries do not carry a large selection of native plants, you may need to expand your audience to include decision makers at the local nursery. Now is the time to confront issues like this, before you try to roll out your campaign.
Prioritize barriers/benefits and identify the THRESHOLD barrier.
A threshold barrier is the one barrier (or two barriers) that, if overcome, would cause the priority audience to move forward and adopt the behavior. You may identify a long list of barriers, but if the threshold barrier is not removed, your behavior change campaign will not be successful. For example, if a homeowner does not have bags with them when their dog poops, reminding them to pick up their dog’s poop will not be a successful strategy. Use your audience research to prioritize which barriers and benefits will be most influential in your behavior change campaign.
Step 4: Develop Your Campaign (Strategies and Tools)
Now you have your research in hand, you are ready for step 4: to develop your campaign. If a behavior change program is to be effective, careful consideration needs to be given to strategy development. Too often behavior change programs are based on hunches rather than solid information regarding the barriers and benefits to a behavior. Develop a strategy to remove the most important, threshold barriers, one (or a short list of barriers) that, if overcome, would free the priority audience to adopt the behavior and to highlight the most motivational benefits.
Here are some questions to answer before starting:
- What behavior are you addressing (what is the specific action you want your audience to take?)
- What is preventing your audience from adopting that behavior (threshold barrier)?
- What help does your audience need to adopt the behavior? Will the tools you choose provide the help your audience needs?
A. Design your Strategy
As you design your strategy, you must address these priorities:
What
What help does your priority audience need? What incentive, prompt, or nudge does your priority audience need in order to adopt the behavior? What motivation do they need to overcome their threshold barrier?
If your audience does not have what they need in order to adopt the behavior, no amount of information will effect change.
Example: Someone may remember and be better equipped to pick up their dog’s waste if they have a bag holder that fits on the dog’s leash, or if pet waste stations with bags and a waste can are located at hot spots such as dog parks or popular walking routes. As another example, many people acquire a rain barrel but never install it – about one-third of rain barrel owners – due to lack of comfort with cutting downspouts or properly siting the rain barrel. In this case, providing an installation service would help reduce the barrier of installation.
Where/When
Where will your campaign help them access the help they need?
Ideally, that would happen at the place that is most conveniently for them, or at the moment they are making the decision whether to adopt the behavior. If the audience needs help remembering to do something, they may need a prompt, but this prompt must be placed close in place and time to where the behavior happens.
Example: If you want people to stop idling their car engines while picking up kids from elementary school, you may need a prompt that is posted in the pickup lane so the audience can see it when and where they need to take the action.
How
How will you reach your priority audience? What will you say? How will you say it? Who is your messenger or what is the distribution method? When and how frequently will your tool be distributed to the priority audience? How can you ensure that your priority audience receives the tool? Most importantly, will your tools remove the threshold barrier? How long will your tools be in circulation before you measure behavior change?
Example: Places that sell rain barrels or programs which promote rain barrels could distribute a list of rain barrel installation services or even arrange installation at the point of sale. If the cost of installation is a barrier, a reduced cost may be negotiated for a number of sales in the same community, or a volunteer group could be trained to install rain barrels and connected with those who purchase rain barrels.
B. Select and Design Tools to Implement Your Strategy
As you design your strategy, you must address these priorities:
Commitment
A public affirmation of a specific action that others can view. Getting people to commit to one particular action can often lead to larger behavioral changes. Research has shown that when people commit to an action either personally or publicly, they are more likely to follow through on that behavior into the future. This ties into people’s innate desire to appear trustworthy to their peers and consistent with their own internal commitments. To help utilize commitment strategies as a way to foster sustainable behavior, use tactics including verbal, group, or public pledges.
Feedback
Providing information about the level of success or need for improvement in response to a particular behavior. Typically, feedback provides an individual with measures of a physical characteristic, such as consumption of electricity, gallons of water consumed, or miles/gallon.
How to Skills
Information and/or training on how to carry out environmentally responsible behaviors.
Prompts
A short, simple reminder to the audience to engage in the behavior.
Social Norms
Demonstrating the importance of a behavior to people, either by describing the behavior as socially acceptable and common or socially unacceptable and uncommon.
Social Diffusion
Spreading behavior adoption through communication within an existing network of trusted relationships.
Convenience
Providing structures, systems or services that make engaging in the behavior less difficult or easier. Convenience strategies will reduce the time, trouble or effort needed to adopt the behavior. Convenience can come in the form of improved products, services and environments in which people are making decisions.
Incentives (Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards)
Incentives can work wonders in boosting individuals’ motivation to adopt new behaviors. Incentives can encourage people to perform current actions more effectively, or to begin an activity in which they otherwise would not engage. Incentives are most effective when presented at the time the behavior should occur; for example, charging for the use of plastic shopping bags at checkout brings attention to the cost of using disposable bags and increases motivation to bring reusable bags.
Determining the Right Tools to Overcome Barriers
Barrier: Lack of Motivation
Tools: Commitment, Social Norms, Incentives
Barrier: Structural Barriers
Tool: Convenience
Barrier: Lack of Social Pressure
Tool: Social Norms
Barrier: Forget to Act
Tool: Prompts
Barrier: Lack of Knowledge
Tool: Communication, Social Diffusion
Remember, building awareness is not a tool or strategy for behavior change. Often your tools need to carry a message. To achieve behavior change through communication, first understand the behaviors and attitudes of your intended audience. Next, ensure your message is vivid, personal, concrete, specific and easy to remember. The messenger needs to be credible to the priority audience and the message should be delivered in person whenever possible. Consider promoting the positive feelings people will experience as a result of engaging in this behavior (this behavior is fun, exciting or rewarding). Pilot testing messages and images can also be helpful. The Journal of Environmental Communication can be a resource for messaging.
C. Test Your Tools and Pilot Your Program
As you design your strategy, you must address these priorities:
Test your tools and strategies with your priority audience.
This step is crucial and can be done through a formal focus group or an informal conversation with members of your priority audience. Through this step, be sure to evaluate if it is possible for the priority audience to make the behavior change. If the strategy receives positive reviews, you are ready to pilot. If not, you will want to make further refinements. Once you have refined your strategies and tools, you may be ready to pilot your campaign.
Pilot your campaign.
In the pilot, test the effectiveness of the strategy with a limited number of people. Essentially, you want to know, before committing to using the strategy throughout a community, that it will work effectively. If the pilot is successful, you can be much more confident of success when you broadly implement the strategy. If the pilot is unsuccessful, then you need to make further revisions, and pilot again before broad-scale implementation and evaluation.
Think of piloting as a “test run” or opportunity to work out the bugs before committing to carrying out a strategy broadly. Although piloting is important, it takes a lot of time and resources. Here are some abbreviated tips for any piloting you do:
- Try to use a minimum of two groups to conduct your pilot when possible and make sure the changes you observe are a result of your intervention, not coincidental.Make sure to accurately measure the behavior change outcomes when evaluating the success of a pilot.
- Carefully examine numbers and records that denote a change in behavior.
- Confirm that you are actually able to change a behavior before you implement it across your community.
- Revise the campaign as necessary.
Step 5: Implement Your Behavior Change Campaign
After completing a successful pilot or “test run” of your campaign with a limited number of people, your campaign is ready to be broadly implemented. It’s important to implement your campaign exactly as you implemented your successful pilot test. Once you have implemented your campaign, you have more step: measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign. This step is usually required by funding agencies and will reveal if you need to make adjustments. Proceed to Step 6 to learn how to measure and evaluate behavior change.
Step 6: Measure and Evaluate Behavior Change
There are a variety of different types of evaluation strategies to consider when seeking to change behavior; however, it is most important to note that effective behavior change evaluation goes well beyond measuring outputs (for example, the number of people contacted) and should be considered an ongoing dynamic process focused on behavioral outcomes (actual behavior changed). The objective of evaluation efforts is not to track everything, just the issues that mark progress in achieving behavioral objectives. Ensuring that data collection focuses on behavioral outcomes rather than relying on ‘soft’ endpoints such as increased awareness or website visits is key.
Focusing on your priority audience’s experience is paramount when designing your evaluation strategy. Ask yourself:
- if your priority audience’s needs are being met with campaign strategies
- if it is easier for your priority audience to engage in the behavior using products or services you are offering
- if the necessary products and services needed for your audience to adopt the behavior are now more readily available.
