When we start out to create social change, the first step seems to be to create awareness about our cause. Or educate people about our cause, which is really the same thing. Whether our cause is to do with health or nutrition or the environment or against social evils or better farming practices, the first step always seems to be that we need to create awareness about the cause. We believe that once people know the facts, they will automatically behave in the right way.
Let us think about our own lives. Many of us make new year resolutions to exercise more, read more books, spend less time on social media or quit smoking. In each case we are aware of the issue and we can lecture ourselves about the reasons why we should do what we have resolved to do. Does anyone need to educate you about the benefits of exercise or make smokers aware of the ill effects of smoking?
And yet our new year resolutions remain unfulfilled and merely get rolled over into the next year. Why is that?
It turns out that we are attacking the wrong problem. We think the problem is that people need to be made aware of something, whereas the barrier is usually much deeper and more complex than that.
Let’s look at the problem of exercising more. Everyone knows the benefits of exercise. Many people want to lose weight and think that exercise will help them do that. Telling them of the benefits of exercise does not help. The problem is that the pain of exercise is felt by you today, while the benefits will accrue sometime in the future. Your today’s self usually wins over your future self and so people tend to promise themselves that they will “start exercising from tomorrow”.
Here the problem is not of knowledge. We then start to blame the individual. We blame ourselves for being lazy or bemoan our lack of will power. Well, that is not too helpful because even if we are correct, saying so does not help us overcome our laziness or build our will power.
So what might work? Well, there is a science of creating behaviour change that is called Nudge Theory, which has been studying the problem. Many “nudges” have been created. Some work with one segment of society, while others work with another segment. There is no one-size-fits- all solution. But many of these nudges work better than just creating awareness.
One creative solution to the problem of exercise, was introduced by a group of behavioural scientists in the USA. It is an app called Gympact. It requires you to make a pact with yourself and bet small amounts of money. You could pledge to go to the gym three times a week, and bet $5 a week if you don’t. The app has your credit card details and so if you don’t go to the gym and check in, then the money gets deducted. It is amazing how a small amount of money can improve will power.
Another example of a successful nudge has to do with paying taxes. Governments around the world have run advertisements to get people to pay their taxes and pay them on time. Again some of these have worked to a limited extent.
The UK government found that threats don’t work as well as little nudges. They found that telling people that most of their neighbours have paid their taxes works better than threats. Similarly utility companies have found that telling people that their power consumption is more than that of their neighbours, is more likely to get people to use less electricity than simply exhorting them to do so.
Let’s go back to smoking. For decades, governments around the world have been trying to educate people on the ill effects of smoking. Warnings have been printed on packs. Taxes have been increased to discourage smoking. Advertisements have been released showing the ill effects of smoking. These have worked to some extent. But the real decrease in smoking happened when it became inconvenient to smoke. When smokers had to step out of their offices and restaurants and other public spaces, go out into the cold, rain or heat and then smoke. Faced with such barriers, more and more people have stopped smoking.
The science of behaviour change, or Nudge Theory, is a new field that is crucial for social sector practitioners to study. Nudge Theory works best when there are deep rooted barriers that resist change. The kind we face everyday as we try to get our communities to get over their biases and inertia and step into, what we think, is a new better world. The kind of barriers that frustrate us when change doesn’t happen as fast as we would like.
Come, let us work smartly to create nudges that will result in a equitable, sustainable society.
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