How We Might Achieve
Behaviour Change
Lessons from theory and practice
Paul White
“I will if you will”
Start from a “people” perspective
Make it easier
Be part of something bigger
Influencing Behaviour Framework
People need help to make responsible choices
Enable
(Make it easier)
Consider the benefits
and incentives
Consider carefully the
role of taxes and
enforcement
Catalyse
Encourage
(Give the right
Signals)
Is the
package
enough to
break a habit
and kick start
change?
Engage
(Get people
involved)
People need to be
involved early on for
them to take personal
responsibility
Exemplify
(Lead by example)
What can you do to exemplify and reinforce commitment from others?
Pro-environmental context
(EXTERNAL FACTORS)
Systems & Capacity
Strong
Weak
Strong
Readiness & Willingness to Adopt
(INTERNAL FACTORS)
Waste prevention is the realm
of the minority…..
• Invisible – Unseen and private.
Performed mainly in the privacy of our own
home.
• Personal – Misunderstood and driven by
deeply held beliefs and attitudes rather
than social norms.
Visibility
Typical waste prevention behaviours
Community reuse
Swap it, repaint, furniture and electrical re-use,
charity shops
Community composting
Using a centralised composting site
SMART Shopping
Avoiding over packaged products, bulk buying,
buying long life products, buying locally
Buying services
Buying experience gifts, using refillables,
hiring instead of buying
Reduce food waste
Planning shopping trips, buying and cook what
you need, not tempted by BOGOF, storage
Reuse in the home
Reusing jars, bottles, paper etc, repairing goods
Home composting
Using home composting bins
Reduce unwanted mail
Joining the Mail Preference Service
Defra Waste & Resources
Evidence Programme
Social Dimension Theme
• Understanding perceptions, attitudes and
responsibilities towards waste & resources
management.
• Investigating ways to facilitate proenvironmental behaviours.
• Extending understanding recycling
behaviour to waste prevention.
Examples of research approaches
• Social learning, action networks
– Lifestyle-centred, ‘moments of change’
– Working with communities
– Shared learning, responsibility and
commitment
– Peer to peer support
Action networks to change habits
Objective
Approach
• To involve up to 800
households to measure and
reduce waste
• Uses social learning theory
and a network-based approach
to changing behaviour
Enable
Engage
Providing training, support and
guidance through mentors.
Designing and agreeing priorities
Working though volunteers,
community groups, businesses,
utilities and communities of interest
Encourage
Exemplify
Publicity, materials
Shared responsibility
Peer to peer support
Learnings for practitioners
•
•
•
•
•
•
Build evaluation in at the beginning
Understand and apply social theories
Invest in long term partnerships
Segment your target audience
Provide feedback
Ensure adequate resources – admin,
delivery, evaluation
• Take small incremental steps
Learnings for policy & strategy
• Strengthen the evidence to determine:
– Wider social and economic benefits.
– Cost effectiveness.
– Long term impacts.
• Design “fit for purpose” evaluations.
• Coordinate funding approaches.
• Improve support, e.g. measurement toolkits,
good practice guidance.
Potential evidence gaps
• How can we look from the inside out – rather
than from the outside in?
• How do you make waste prevention more
visible and mainstream?
• Are there potential opportunities for spill-over
from other behaviours?
• How do we know if long term change is really
happening?
SCP Behaviour Change Research
“Empowerment
Goals”
“Behavioural
Goals”
DOING
BEING
EVIDENCE
Strategy for success
Fostering
Empowered
Stakeholders
Durability
CONCEPTUAL
RESEARCH &
PLANNING
Fostering
Empowered
Participants
Resource &
Skills
Scaling Up
Capturing
Added Value
Intervention Techniques
Social marketing
‘Whole community’ focus
Corporate social
marketing
Integrating social goals
Brand building
Developing infrastructure
Participative design
Viral marketing
techniques
Social ethnography
Self-prophesy techniques
Tremor
•
•
•
•
P&G Connectors
Word of mouth marketing
Teen and Young mums panels
Made drinking milk cool !
Fresh On Demand
• Multi business partner
• Supply chain food waste
• Consumer food waste
• New technologies
Shared
Responsibility
Social science of water efficiency
• Whole town approach
• Community-based social marketing
Underpinned by
• Partnership engagement plus exemplify
• Participative co-design
Water Efficient Durham
• Behaviour challenge – reduce peak summer
demand through reduced lawn watering
• Community based social marketing
• Outcome – 30% reduction in first year
• Cost - $19 per household, one fifth of cost of
expanding water supply infrastructure
Zaragosa – The Water Saving City
• Behaviour goal – save 1M Litres from homes in one year
through retrofits
• Over 150 partners
• City-wide community approach
• Shared responsibility
• Outcome – exceeded target by 18%
• Cost – 70 pesetas/1000 L saved, or 40% of cost of water
supply
“Tell me and I’ll forget
Show me and I’ll remember
Involve me and I’ll understand”
Chinese proverb