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What we do
Behaviour change
How can you nudge people to do things differently?
Many common behaviours are harmful to the people who engage in them, the environment, and society as a whole. But they aren’t necessarily driven by ill intent, and purely sharing facts or appealing to people’s rational mind doesn’t always help change these behaviours.
In order to understand how people can be encouraged to (for example) recycle more, drive more safely, or use health services differently, we need to understand what is underlying their current behaviours, and what interventions can effectively influence them.
To see a case study looking at how to nudge people to eat plant based alternatives to meat, click here
To see a case study looking at how to encourage people to get back on to public transport in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.
How we approach behaviour change
The first step in understanding how a behaviour can be influenced is to look into what is driving the current behaviour.
What are the motivators and rewards people get out of how they act at the moment, and what barriers exist to making a change? Whether it be systemic / societal or individual / psychological factors, we can map out what is currently holding people back from making the best choices. For this, we go beyond self-report, and also look into people’s underlying associations and biases, using our implicit testing capabilities.
Once we have a good understanding of what presumptions and patterns are underlying the behaviour, we can then suggest influences and nudges that can help change it. We help you design nudges and interventions, and use implicit tests to understand their likelihood of success.
This includes, but is not limited to measuring the following:
- How does a campaign influence people’s feelings about their behaviour? For example, which campaigns make recycling appear important, or make smoking appear unappealing?
- How does an intervention affect people’s motivators and barriers? For example, does an intervention make a 30-minute bus ride appear like an opportunity for a break and a good book, rather than a chore?
- What tone of voice and style works best in delivering the message? For example, how can an organisation appear trustworthy and serious, but still make the desired behaviour appear enjoyable and easy?
Answering these questions and more will help you design and run campaigns and interventions that are effective from the start, rather than relying on trial and error (or often mis-leading self report).
Comparing messages
We identify the implicit exchange underlying successful behaviour change.
We measure how strongly people associate different concepts with your message, and people’s implicit attitudes towards the target behaviour.
For example, we can check whether alternative messages are considered to be more or less friendly, trustworthy or authoritative compared to your current strategy. We tell you how the different wordings change the way people react to your communications.
Nudge effectiveness
Our tools measure how well the imagery and ideas associated with your messaging fits with your objective.
For example, how strongly is your messaging associated with expertise?
How does this compare to the messaging of successful campaigns? We can help you learn from best practice.
Seen what we do, but wonder who we do it for?
Here are some of the clients we work with...
