Three Myths of Behavior Change With Jenny Cross

What leads people to change? Ir's not what you think. And it isn't commonsense or education.

Learn how to influence change to get outcomes that are beneficial.

Social interaction helps with changing attitudes. 

How you present the information triples the effectiveness. 

Human beings are loss averse. We hate to lose anything. If you tell them what they are losing they will pay attention, over telling them what they will gain. Framing loss can make a difference. 

Different audiences have different social norms they care about. It must resonate with the audience and apply to their cohort.  Key to your message being credible to that group. 

We think generally if you want to change behaviour, you need to change attitude. Nope. 

Forget changing the attitude, attitudes follow behaviour they do not predict it. Before that - set expectations first. Set behavioural expectations.

Look for underlying values that people really care about. 

Group 1   Save money, save the planet, save the children   

Group 2   Frugality a value in and of itself. 

Both groups share this value. Both groups will buy in to the change. 

Social scientists know - we do not know what influences us. And what we think it is isn't. 

Social norms are powerful and invisible to us but they work. 

A person acting as an example is more effective than a sign saying to do something.