Study On Successful Behavioral Change
This study of 129 past successful behavior changing experiments spanning a range of social issues shows that the most effective strategies in encouraging behavioral changes among people are motivational and informative strategies, as opposed to negative strategies that induce fear, guilt, or regret.
The study confirms that there are three factors which must be addressed in order to induce behavior change including:
- Attitude – An individual’s belief about what will happen if he acts a particular way
- Social norm – What an individual believes others think he should do, or what an individual believes others should do, and
- Self-efficacy – The confidence in one’s own ability to achieve something
An individual’s intentions and behavior can be changed about 60% of the time by addressing these three factors, according to this research.
The least effective strategies identified were the incitement of fear, guilt and regret which are not as effective as providing them with the motivational tools and knowledge necessary to encourage alternative behavior.