Introduction
Chapter
6
'You are not normal!' Understanding the influences on behaviour
In Chapter 5 of The Method book, we explained how to identify and prioritise behaviour/s. Now in Chapter 6, we introduce you to the Deep Dive phase of The Method, where we try to understand WHY our audience/s do the things they do, what really matters to them and what's likely to change their behaviour.
You're not normal!
Having prioritised the behaviours we want to change, we may be tempted to jump straight to interventions, only to discover they haven’t worked as well as we would have hoped. In the end, our interventions might have targeted the wrong influences on behaviour, based on misplaced assumptions.
In Chapter 6, which marks the beginning of the Deep Dive phase, we introduce you to a practical synthesis of these influences to remove the guesswork and misplaced assumptions around your behaviour change endeavours.
Further resources
Influences, further reading and blog posts related to this chapter.
Practical Guide: An overview of behaviour change models and their uses
The founder of Research and Analysis, Andrew Darnton, guides you through the social and psychological factors underpinning individual and group behaviour and how to influence these behaviours to achieve change.
Reference Report: An overview of behaviour change models and their uses
This report accompanies the Practical Guide to Behaviour Change models. It provides a descriptive account of over 60 social-psychological models and theories of behaviour and issues to consider when using such models.
Open access: Theoretical Domains Framework (Development)
Validation of the theoretical domains framework for use in behaviour change and implementation research.
Open access: Theoretical Domains Framework (Application)
A guide to using the Theoretical Domains Framework of behaviour change to investigate implementation problems.
Social norms and energy
In this TED talk, Alex Laskey presents 'How behavioral science can lower your energy bill'. What's a proven way to lower your energy costs? Would you believe: learning what your neighbour pays. Alex Laskey shows how a quirk of human behaviour can make us all better, wiser energy users, with lower bills to prove it.
Principles of Persuasion (influenced by social norms)
This animated video describes the six universal Principles of Persuasion that have been scientifically proven to make you most effective as reported in Dr Cialdini’s groundbreaking book, Influence.
Breaking Habits
Empowering interventions to promote sustainable lifestyles: Testing the habit discontinuity hypothesis in a field experiment
The power of Emotion
Watch the use of emotion in The Shannon Company's "homecoming" campaign for WorkSafe Victoria.
The power of Emotion 2
Watch the use of emotion in The Shannon Company's "who's there?" campaign for WorkSafe Victoria.
How Biases impact our decision-making
Are we in control of our decisions? Presented by Dan Ariely at TED.
Changing the Context to change behaviour
The Fun Theory Piano Staircase Initiative by Volkswagen – a humorous (but unsustainable) example of how changes to the environment lead to a change in behaviour.
Education & training
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Research
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