Tag

human behaviour

How to make habits LAST

By All, Personal Behaviour

How do you stick to your New Year’s resolutions? That was the behavioural design challenge 65 SUE Fundamentals Course alumni tackled at the beginning of the year. 

For two months, we coached them to reach their goals and build new habits. Because we know that breaking a habit is hard. But with our new LAST framework, we made it work! 

New LAST Framework

Resolutions have everything to do with creating new habits or beating old ones. But changing habits can be a difficult task. That is why we have created a brand new framework.

“How to make habits LAST”.

Every letter stands for a principle you should apply in practice: Loss aversion – Accountability – Social – Tiny steps.

You will be amazed at how four easy questions can effectively change your habits. We’ve done the ultimate behavioural design challenge to prove that it works! You can download the cheatsheet here.

But first, let’s start with defining the desired behaviour.

The Behavioural Statement

Everybody first needed to formulate a New Year’s resolution to start the challenge. We saw all kinds of goals coming through:

  • Plan more dates
  • Read more books
  • Paint more
  • Sleep better. 

But what is more? And what does better sleep mean? When you want to change your habits, it is important to break down the desired behaviour into very concrete actions and goals. Thinking about your specific behavioural statement can help with that!

“How might we specific target group at a specific moment help to achieve their job-to-be-done by having them engage in this specific behaviour by taking away comforts or anxieties”.

The target group was evident because they wanted to change their own behaviour. But picking a specific moment or a specific behaviour was very important to think about. When focused on this statement, the resolutions already became more concrete.

  • Organize 5 dates this year with my wife.
  • Go outside for at least 45 min a day.
  • 3 times a week work 1.5 hours on my physical health in the gym.

It’s also essential to think about your job-to-be-done. Why do you want to read/paint/walk/date more? The overall theme we saw was that everybody wanted to become happier in 2023 and that those behaviours would help them achieve that goal

Not sure yet what your specific goals will be to become happier this year? You can also read our blog about our 5 behavioural design interventions to achieve happiness this year.

As you will see, the LAST framework will also focus on removing comforts from your current behaviour by adding loss aversion to the process. Moreover, it will help them engage in their specific behaviours by implementing tiny steps or help them make their goals social. Now let’s look at every step of the framework in more detail.

Download the LAST framework cheatsheet

Do you struggle with building new habits? We all know creating new routines can be difficult. That is where Behavioural Design can help you out. We’ve created a new tool with four easy questions to answer to help you build new habits. This cheat card will help make your habits LAST!

Download the cheatsheet

Go ahead, there are no strings attached!

1. LAST: Making it Social

One of the steps the LAST framework provides is making it Social. It can be a good starting point when creating a new habit. When you have thought about your desired behaviour and made it very specific in your head, it is time to make it social. Write down your new desired behaviour on paper or announce it publicly. It is a mind trick that works wonders. That is because our mind loves consistency. If we say we will do something, we want to stick to this behaviour to appear consistent (even if we write it down for ourselves).

Another way to add a social aspect is by setting yourself up for positive feedback. Engage your social network for them to give you compliments and cheers. This will trigger positive emotions that help stick to the new behaviour. If something feels good, you are inclined to keep on doing it.

2. LAST: Tiny steps

When are you going to perform the behaviour?

It is a crucial step to think about when you want to change your behaviour. You have to ‘spark’ the behaviour at the right time. Therefore, the next section we dive into from the LAST framework is Tiny steps.

The key to creating new habits is by starting small. Little steps will build up exponentially. Creating a new habit is difficult, so don’t design for disappointment by making the change too big.

You can make it easier by connecting the new behaviour to the existing behaviour. Our brain will reprogram more quickly if we build upon our current routine. For example, say you’ll drink a glass of water every time you have washed your hands after a toilet visit.

Try it for yourself: Every time I … I will … 

This is what we call tiny steps in behavioural design. It is a powerful method to get you started with behaviour change without getting overwhelmed by the task that you are facing.

3. LAST: Loss aversion

When you look at the behavioural statement, finding a way to take comforts or anxieties away is vital. Why would you go to the gym if you feel comfortable on your couch and there are no direct consequences if you don’t go? You can make up an excuse for yourself not to go when no strings are attached. The LAST framework will help you set some consequences when you don’t perform the behaviour. We are going to implement loss aversion to help you achieve your goals.

Because if you put something at stake that you don’t want to lose, it will drive your willingness to change. We humans simply don’t like losing something; therefore, it will activate our loss aversion.

For example, commit to donating money to a charity you don’t like. Or promise your partner you will cook for a month if you don’t keep up with your new habit. As long as it is something you dislike to do or lose, you design a context in which you want to sustain the desired behaviour and lose your current bad habits.

One important thing to add: Make sure it is something you actually can do in case you fail to stick to your new habit. If you are unable to do your ‘punishment’, it won’t motivate you to stick to your goals.

Do you want to be part of the next behavioural design challenge?

We offer multiple FREE opportunities for all SUE alumni who followed the Fundamentals Course. Attend a hackathon, join a behavioural design challenge like this one or ask your personal questions about social psychology in our alumni group. Read our brochure and sign up now for the course.

Download the brochure

No worries, no strings attached!

4. LAST: Accountability 

To finish the entire framework, we are now looking at the final step of the LAST framework: Accountability. 

Changing a habit on your own can be difficult. Therefore, finding someone who can keep you accountable for your behaviour can be helpful. Tell them to check on you once a week. What counts is the thought of social pressure. It makes us want to stick to a behaviour.

Also, by adding accountability, you design a context in which you can lose face by not living up to your intentions.

Asking someone to help you achieve your goals is already taking some sort of action. That is why it is important to answer these questions for yourself:

  • Who are you going to ask?
  • When are you going to ask?
  • When should they check on you?

When you are determined to reach your goal, involving someone to keep you accountable can be a great tool to keep you motivated!

How to make habits LAST: example

Now that you understand the LAST framework, it is time to put it into practice. Nothing can convince us more than social proof. We have just that from our group that tackled this challenge themselves.

We highlighted one resolution of a member of this group that might be useful for many people:

” I want to put my desk up in a standing position during every online meeting”.

You might have heard of a convertible desk. You can easily lift up the desktop to sit less during the day. But the habit of actually converting it is challenging to create. It is the perfect example to apply the LAST framework on. 

  1. Tiny Steps: Connect the new behaviour to existing behaviour. Whenever you plan a virtual meeting (current behaviour), you will schedule an additional reminder before the start of the meeting to convert your desk into a standing position (desired behaviour). 
  2. Accountability: Let the person you are meeting with know in advance that you have the resolution to stand up. For example, when you send an invite, put it in the description of the meeting. The social pressure of them asking you about it will motivate you to stand up. 
  3. Loss aversion: What is something you absolutely don’t want to do if you fail to achieve your goal? For example, turn your desk away from the window, no more coffee allowed that day, or your entire salary of that day goes to an organisation you don’t like. Pick something you don’t want to do and promise to stick to it. 
  4. Social: Announce your resolution. For example, tell everybody in your office, your partner at home or write it down for yourself. Our mind loves consistency. If we say we will do something, we want to stick to this behaviour to appear consistent. 

What do you think? Would these steps help you to stand up more during the workday?

In conclusion

We are very happy to see so many enthusiastic people who put our new framework into action. Now it is your turn to tackle your goals or resolutions this year. Changing behaviour is complex. But with these four easy steps, you can start making a difference this year and reach your goals!

Astrid Groenewegen – Behavioural Design Academy

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
02/03/2023

Selfishness is going to save the world

By All, Behavioural Science Insights, Employee behaviour

We see selfishness as a bad character trait. We should think of each other, the climate and be more sustainable for the greater good right? Wrong! Selfishness can be a good thing to promote difficult to change behaviour. Read more about it below. 

I once had a discussion with the marketing boss of a Dutch NGO. We had provided him with a framing strategy to convince the Netherlands that development aid is actually good for the country. The strategy was to provide insight into how the absence of war, famine and dictatorships in the world around us is incredibly good for a trading country like the Netherlands. It was a perfect and strong counterpoint to the popular right-wing frame that development aid is a “leftist hobby”.

However, he shrugged off this. His words were literally,

“If I have to convince people to donate to us in this way, I don’t need them as donors.“

I remember very well how shocked I was by so much offensive leftist moral exaltation.

I believe in the reverse approach. If you want to convince people of difficult behaviour change, then the last thing you should do is ask them if they will do it to make the world a better place. Nor by selling them fear and damnation. That is the great tragedy of why do-gooders just can’t get the majority right on their side.
Their recipes suck.

What you have to sell is nothing less than selfishness and gratification.

Would you like to leverage behavioural science to crack your transformation challenges?

You can do this in our fast-paced and evidence-based Behavioural Design Sprint. We have created a brochure telling you all about the details of this approach. Such as the added value, the deliverables, the set up, and more. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to help!

Download the brochure

Go ahead, there are no strings attached!

Sell selfishness and gratification.

What do you care if a multimillionaire will finance your hospital if it’s named after him? What do you care if that arrogant colleague rides up Alpe D’Huez five times for to raise money for the Cancer Fund KWF purely for his own ego? What do you care if electric Porsche drivers are primarily driven by signalling their social status. Are you annoyed by all those rich tourists who flood South African parks and act like colonials? It is precisely because there is super lucrative tourism business model that those parks exist and are not converted into farmland.

We need to stop giving selfishness a bad name.

And leftists also need to embrace it much more blatantly. Do we want a more just society with more consideration for the weakest of the weak? Then ask how multinational corporations and the super-rich can get much more appreciation and social status for their contributions.

Do you want us entrepreneurs to start accelerating the sustainable transition? Gladly! But then, in return for our effort, give us other levers to make our lives easier. If you are a trading union that wants to stand up for workers, then for God’s sake, make heroes out of the employers instead of dragging them through the mud. Even when you are right, you make it incredibly difficult for employers to give in.

In conclusion

We need to stop asking people to do something for the world outside them. Look at how much the sustainable transition is accelerating under the impetus of nicer electric cars, cheap energy bills from solar panels, incredibly delicious plant-based food, or the increased quality of life from hybrid work.

Long live selfishness.

One day it will save the world.

Tom De Bruyne 

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
26/10/2022

5 problems with traditional user research and how Behavioural Design solves them

By All, Behavioural Science Insights, Customer Behaviour

Product, Service and Experience Designers often complain that they lack killer insights into their users. They often feel flooded with insights to the extent that they have no idea where to start. They complain that the insights often don’t inspire strategy and creativity. 

I regularly get the question about what really differentiates the Behavioural Design Method from other ways of gathering user insights. The Behavioural Design Method integrates user research, strategizing, creative exploration, and prototyping and testing in a single sprint process. We deliberately designed this process to solve some of the problems with traditional user research.

I think there are five problems with more traditional research approaches:

1. The quality and depth of the insights

The problem with traditional market research is that people have no idea what they want; they have a profoundly biased understanding of the drivers of their behaviour. Furthermore, their intentions are highly unpredictable. And yet, our surveys and focus groups rely heavily on what they tell us about themselves and what they think they will do in the future.

Behavioural Design experts take a radically different approach. Instead of asking them what people think or feel, we ask them to explore with us their past behaviour. Because past behaviour never lies. We ask them to share successful journeys and failed journeys. We often do in-depth interviews of more than 1,5 hours. During these interviews, we’re not looking for customer journeys but ‘human journeys’. In a human journey, we look for the struggles, obstacles, beliefs, prejudices, anxieties, hot triggers, habits, social pressure, seductions, and many other psychological forces that shape or sabotage the desired behaviour.

2. The switching cost between research, strategy, and design

The problem with separating research from strategy, and strategy from design, is that a great deal of value gets wasted in the handover between each stage. Every stage produces a summary, and the next team uses that summary as the new point of departure. After the insights turned into strategy and strategy turned into the design, the original insights into the users have often been watered down or were carefully selected to post-rationalize the creative idea that everyone loved.

The Behavioural Design Method is an integrated process for strategizing through prototyping. A single team of two Behavioural Design experts interview the users, analyze their behaviour, explore solutions, design and prototype interventions and test these interventions with the users. This highly structured process eliminates switching costs and puts deep human understanding at the heart of the design process.

Would you like to power up your team or project with behavioural intelligence?

Feel free to contact us. We are happy to tell you more about our consultancy or academy. Helping you innovate, transform or grow levering insights from behavioural science in practice.

Send us an email

No worries, no strings attached!

3. The disconnect of the strategy and design team from the user

The most powerful benefit of running a Behavioural Design Sprint is that we bring the psychology of the user into the design process. We always insist that our clients attend at least two in-depth interviews and a full day of prototype testing. This active engagement allows them to experience the humans they designed for: What words do they use to describe their behaviours? What are their frustrations and problems? Which barriers stand in the way of success? Which prejudices do they have about themselves or the product, service or solution? How do they describe success? Etcetera. Going through this empathy phase is an enormous source of inspiration for the team, and it gives them a deep understanding of the psychological forces they need to take into account.

The key is to make them fall in love with the user’s problems. They need to appreciate their irrationality, their difficulty sticking to habits, and their deep desire for help or intelligent support to help them to overcome temptation and laziness. Teams with a deeply human understanding of their users find it much easier to design solutions to solve these problems or help them overcome these obstacles.

4. Expert biases, groupthink and cherry-picking the insights that match our beliefs 

When user insights are summarized in a report or abstract user personas, experts often cherry-pick or bend the meaning of the insights to match their beliefs and prejudices. We tend to project our own beliefs, values and experiences onto the user, or we are overly confident that something that worked in one context will transfer to a new context.

Bringing the human into the design process and prototyping and testing our interventions eliminates expert bias. Prototyping and testing take experts out of their judgement mode by treating every idea as a hypothesis. This way of working generates a context of psychological safety for exploring fresh and unconventional ideas.

Would you like to leverage behavioural science to crack your thorny strategic challenges?

You can do this in our fast-paced and evidence-based Behavioural Design Sprint. We have created a brochure telling you all about the details of this approach. Such as the added value, the deliverables, the set up, and more. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to help!

Download the brochure

Go ahead, there are no strings attached!

5. User personas that don’t inspire strategy and creativity

The power of the Behavioural Design Method is that we think of influence as a set of Behavioural forces. In between current and desired behaviours stand:

  • Pains we can solve
  • Gains we can generate
  • Anxieties we need to take away
  • Comforts we need to replace
  • Jobs-to-be-Done we need to fulfill

In conclusion

By plotting our understanding of the user onto the two-dimensional Influence Framework, you’ll get a much deeper understanding of the psychological forces that shape the users’ beliefs, perceptions, and behaviours.

This two-dimensional model generates a much clearer shared problem experience than traditional user personas. Personas tend to become simple narratives of people’s personalities deprived of deeper meaning. Personas become useless as a source of inspiration when everyone can project their own beliefs and preferences onto them.

 

Tom De Bruyne 

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
31/05/2022

We’re addicted to hope

By All, Behavioural Science Insights


A gambler’s addiction to hope

There’s a brilliant line by the comedian Norm Macdonald. He talked about the gambling addiction he had suffered from all his life. His psychiatrist told him he was gambling to escape life. But he argued that this is a lame explanation. Because everything is an escape from life. He also declined that he was addicted to winning. Most of the time, gambling is incredibly frustrating. What he really was addicted to was hope:

“As long as the red dice are in the air, the gambler has hope. And hope is a wonderful thing to be addicted to”.

The Chief Marketing Officer responsible for Dove allegedly once said that he’s not in the business of selling soap, but selling hope. Hope that people recognize real beauty beyond the superficial idea of beauty that is promoted in ads and women’s magazines.

Hope is a powerful tool in elections

Donald Trump was a brilliant merchant of hope. Trump is a great salesman. He perfectly understood that there was a gigantic untapped reservoir of frustration and humiliation in rural America. Trump sold hope to these people. He promised them revenge, respect, jobs and excitement. He sold them the hope that someone would finally look after them again.

The poor person who buys a lottery ticket buys the hope for a simple shortcut to escape the grim prospect of becoming wealthy through hard work.

Are you hoping for new business interventions that work?

In our Behavioural Ideation Sprint we search for new interventions to create behavioural change. With our method, you don't have to rely on hope because you use real insights to tackle the desired behaviour in the right way.

Download the brochure

Go ahead, there are no strings attached!

Companies are selling hope

Every time someone buys a subscription to the gym, they’re buying hope. They hope for more self-confidence, more sexual admiration, or more success. And they buy into the hope that they’ll build a workout habit and stick to it this time.

Every boardroom that hires a top-level consultancy is buying hope. They hope McKinsey can solve their problems and get them unstuck. They hope that the external forces might persuade them to get stakeholders finally aligned and that success will follow. They also buy into the hope that their peers will look at them as intelligent, responsible leaders for bringing in the best of the best.

In conclusion

Every company is selling hope or a dream. And of all the things we’re selling, hope might actually be the strongest emotion – the thing we are addicted to.

Tom De Bruyne

PS: Want to learn more about the power of behavioural science to create better products, services and policies? Join our two-day certification course Behavioural Design Fundamentals, or contact us for an in-company training. 

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
31/03/2022

Experience the Hackathon with your own eyes

By All, Behavioural Science Insights

Five teams of Behavioural Design Academy alumni spend an afternoon trying to change behaviour to make the world a better place. That is the SUE Hackathon. The challenge for the first edition came from the City of Rotterdam: Get Rotterdammers to replace garden tiles with pieces of greenery. 


The issue

The question of the City of Rotterdam sounds simple but turns out to be very difficult. There are a lot of human peculiarities involved in the design of a garden. Everyone’s garden is different. What is common is that gardens are seen as an essential addition to the interior of your home. It has to be beautiful for most people, but above all, it has to be easy on the eye. When it comes to the greenery in the garden, people often think: the more green, the more hassle. And that isn’t good for the quality of life and biodiversity.

How did we proceed?

The teams received a kick-off from Vincent Karremans, alderman of the City of Rotterdam. During the kick-off, the City of Rotterdam shared the insights they had already gained in the past. The teams were extremely enthusiastic. With the insights from the kick-off, the teams could get to work. They pulled out all the stops by carrying out a rapid behavioural analysis on their own initiative. They phoned various people who have a garden to ask them about their motivations for garden design.

Insights

A great deal of resistance was discovered. For example, there is a lack of knowledge about maintaining greenery and what kind of greenery can replace tiles. People are also afraid that it will result in dirty shoes. And if people have to choose, they would rather have a slightly more boring garden with tiles than a poorly maintained green garden. Many teams came to the sobering realisation that tremendous help is needed for a large-scale change. Tossing a few tiles seems easy, but the deeper you delve into the issue, the more complex the solutions prove to be. For Alderman Karremans, was this a clear realisation as well: on a large scale, a lot of money, time and effort will have to be put into this issue.

Get more detailed information.

Download our Behavioural design Sprint brochure telling you all about the ins and outs of the sprint in detail. Please feel free to contact us suppose you would like some more information. We gladly tell you all about the possibilities.

Download the brochure

Go ahead, it’s completely free of charge!

Great ideas

In six hours, the teams managed to present interesting ideas at various levels. One of the ideas was to stimulate façade gardens by indicating with lines where façade gardens are allowed. And… the houses with visible lines do not yet contribute to a greener climate – a good form of social pressure. Interesting ideas also emerged for market parties, such as designing pieces of greenery in the dimensions of garden tiles. In that way, you can easily remove your tile and replace it with something green. Or adapt your garden to who you are, such as incorporating a typical cultural symbol in your garden. The winning team came up with a very original idea, with which you can place what you like to identify within your garden. What this is exactly, remains a surprise. The City of Rotterdam is in the process of actually implementing this idea. So keep a close eye on the news from the City of Rotterdam.

Yes, it works!

The participants had fun, but they also sweated. At one point, we even heard the team that had emerged as the winner say: “Are we even going to make it?” The lesson? Behavioural Design is never easy, but something special always comes out of it if you follow the steps carefully. The stress balls, stress-control deodorant and energy bars also helped, of course!

Challenge yourself in Behavioural Design

Would you like to challenge yourself more in Behavioural Design? Then take a look at the Behavioural Design Academy. Here you will learn the basics of Behavioural Design within two days so that next time you will be able to participate in the Hackathon.
Have you already followed the Behavioural Design Academy, and are you ready for a further step? In the Advanced Course, we will train you to become an accredited Behavioural Designer. You learn from A to Z how to set up and lead a Behavioural Design project while working on your own case. This enables you to work as a Behavioural Designer in your own organisation on complex issues concerning behavioural change. Reserve your spot here.

In conclusion

We could not be happier with the results of our first Hackathon. We will repeat this event every year to give our alumni’s the chance to keep their knowledge up-to-date and work on a solution to a real-life problem!

Vice mayor Vincent Karremans was also very impressed by the results the candidates made in such a short time.

“Although many of the ideas need further work in order to be successfully guided through the decision-making process of the city government, the breadth and cleverness of the yield of these mere five hours were fantastic.”

See you next year!

Tim Versnel

 

Impression of the Hackathon

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How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
02/12/2021
How To Convince More People To Get Vaccinated

How to debunk false claims about climate change?

By All, Citizen Behaviour

This is a talk I gave at the EuropCom Conference, organized by the European Institutions. I was asked to talk about how to debunk misinformation and false claims about climate change. My take on this subject is that we shouln’t fight facts with facts. Instead we should make climate action more desireable. Here’s the transcript of my talk.


Confirmation bias

In this brief talk I want to make the argument that facts don’t matter when it comes to influencing minds and changing behaviour. Our brain is hardwired to actively search the facts that match with our beliefs about ourselves and the world, as much as it’s hardwired to reject the facts that don’t match with our beliefs, our identity, or our tribe. In the behavioural science this phenomenon is called confirmation bias. We have written about Confirmation Bias before.

I want to argue instead that the challenge is not to fight biased facts, but to re-frame climate action and turn it into something people feel they are part of.

The problem with the current climate narrative 

The climate narrative, as being told by environmentalists and people on the green-left political spectrum is full of ingredients that people love to reject:

  1. It’s a story of guilt: according to activists, it is all our fault, and we are doing everything wrong. Consumerism has doomed us, and we should be ashamed we don’t take action to preserve the earth.
  2. It’s a story of fear: We are being bombared with climate panic, through a never ending stream of stories about melting ice caps, rising sea levels, high temperatures, natural disasters, and so on. Fear freezes action.
  3. It’s a story of sacrifice: the message is quite clear. If we want to reverse the effects of climate change, we all need to sacrifice some of our comforts: Leaving the car at home, taking the bike more often, separating our waste,…

 

(more below the banner)

Would you like to leverage behavioural science to crack your thorny strategic challenges?

You can do this in our fast-paced and evidence-based Behavioural Design Sprint. We have created a brochure telling you all about the details of this approach. Such as the added value, the deliverables, the set up, and more. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to help!

Download the brochure

Go ahead, there are no strings attached!

How our brain works

Everything about this climate narrative is  threatening. Our brain has a simple and brilliant strategy to deal with facts that don’t match with how we think about ourselves and the world: it rejects them. We have many techniques at our disposal to do just that:

  • We vilify the bringers of the facts we don’t like: Most people think Greta Thunberg is a child that needs psychological treatment. Same thing with Green Parties. They have become the favorite object of far-right bullying.
  • We eagerly shop for narratives that provide us with arguments to keep living our lives the way we do. The right and far-right frame climate action as bonkers, leftist-eco fundamentalism by people who are rich enough to by a Tesla. They claim that the costs for ‘climate panic’ be imposed on the poor hardworking class, who’s already working day and night to be able to make ends meet.

The solution: Stop persuading, start seducing

We should stop persuading people into climate action and start seducing them instead. Once people have the feeling that climate action is something that will improve their lives and their communities, they will start to embrace the facts that match with these believes.

Here are a couple of ideas:

  1. We should stop selling dystopias, and start selling green utopias instead. The images of climate apocalypse don’t motivate action at all. Why can’t we use our imagination to dream up green cities, vibrant communities, delicious food, spectacular landscapes, etc.
  2. Make the sustainable option the most desirable. People don’t buy Tesla’s because of the environment, but because they’re the coolest cars around. People don’t buy a Beyond Burger because it’s plant based, but because it’s the most delicious and juiciest burger out there. People don’t take the night train to Vienna because of flight shaming, but because it’s a magical experience. What if we sell new houses with solar panels on the roof and tell people they will drive their electric cars for free forever with the electricity that they produced themselves from their own roof?

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Summary

What I have tried to argue is that all information is biased. We only embrace the information that matches with our identity and our tribe and reject the truths that are associated with the beliefs of other tribes.

So instead of worrying about the biased information, let’s instead make the ideas, beliefs, missions, and visions about the outcomes of climate action more desirable.

Just like you can’t (and shouldn’t) persuade someone into having sex with you, you shouldn’t try to persuade someone into changing their beliefs about climate.

One more thing:

If Covid has thaught us one thing, it’s that in the face of existential threat, humanity can join forces at unprecedented scale and create breakthrough after breakthrough. Despite everything that went wrong, it was optimism and ingenuity that got us out of this crisis.

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

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sue behavioural design
12/11/2021
The

Our first Behavioural Design Hackathon

By All, Behavioural Science Insights

If we put five teams of Behavioural Design Academy alumni in a room together for five hours, could they create a solution for a problem that governments have been struggling with for years? That was the question on our mind when we kicked off our very first Behavioural Design Hackathon, last Friday. We’ll have to wait for the real results, but we’re convinced they got remarkably far.


Flip those tiles

Here is the problem, which was provided to us by the great City of Rotterdam.

“how do we get people to replace concrete tiles in their garden with grass or plants, to support climate adaptation and biodiversity in the city?”

Sounds straightforward, but the solution, the city has learned, is not. But it’s not for lack of trying. The City of Rotterdam has been really active. They’re providing one-off subsidies, there’s a ‘Tile-taxi’ to help people get rid of their discarded tiles, and there’s even a Dutch tile lifting championship, pitting the cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam against each other. Not bad at all! Although there certainly has been a lot of progress, the city needs more acceleration to meet critical policy goals.

 

Solve it efficiently while you can

Big organisations such as governments can let problems like these float around for years. They are stuck in limbo between doing some good actions to tackle the problem but not going all-in and deliberately designing and executing a strategy to solve it.

It’s basically waiting for either a lucky eureka-moment by an involved professional or a sudden boost of urgency caused by some external event. To make matters worse, this usually results in an inefficient solution because it is only put into action to signal to angry voters (or customers) that it is being taken seriously. This results in spending an amount of money on an issue proportionate to the inflated problem perception.

So why wait till this external event shakes up the public and causes a rushed and inefficient solution? It is way smarter to deliberately design effective and efficient strategies while you can. We want to stay ahead of everybody else and tackle this problem right now.

The
New Formats

At SUE, we’re constantly experimenting with new ways to use our SUE | Behavioural Design Method© for the best way to effectively and efficiently solve wicked behavioural challenges. In many cases, that’s one of our Sprint propositions. Still, we’re increasingly discovering the potential of smaller formats such as a hackathon to serve as an accelerator of ongoing innovation processes. We’re getting great feedback on it from alumni of the Behavioural Design Academy who are experimenting with it in their organisations as well. 

Getting it done

We firmly believe that being a behavioural designer is about a lot more than understanding the scientific theory and models that describe human behaviour – although that is an essential part of it. It is about developing the practical know-how to be able to navigate the reality of your organisation or business and design real-world interventions to real-world problems. It is about not just knowing what should be done, but about being able to actually get it done. Designing and leading the right process is a key part of that. 

Get more detailed information.

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Little time, big yield

During the hackathon, the five teams were each able to very positively surprise the vice-mayor of Rotterdam Vincent Karremans. He took part as a jury member to judge how well the solutions could be applied in practice. With their solid analysis of the human perspective of the desired behaviour and the truly human-centered solutions they were able to come up with, each group did a great job presenting their behavioural design solution.

In conclusion

We could not be happier with the results of our first Hackathon. We will repeat this event every year to give our alumni’s the chance to keep their knowledge up-to-date and work on a solution to a real-life problem!

Vice mayor Vincent Karremans was also very impressed by the results the candidates made in such a short time.

“Although many of the ideas need further work in order to be successfully guided through the decision-making process of the city government, the breadth and cleverness of the yield of these mere five hours were fantastic.”

See you next year!

 

Tim Versnel

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
10/11/2021

How to double hand washing in the office and stay friends

By All, Behavioural Science Insights

If there would be an easy and friendly way to significantly improve how well people in your office wash their hands between touching all of the common surfaces such as doorknobs, the coffee machine, and the fridge, would you want to have it? Then right on and get it. With compliments of the Dutch government.

The rules are back

You’ve heard it: the basic hygiene rules have been reintroduced by the government to suppress the spread of the virus. Two years ago people would’ve laughed uncomfortably at such a sentence. Right now, we all know what it means. Get tested and stay at home if you have symptoms, work from home if you can, wear a face mask in public places, keep your distance, cough in your elbow, and wash your hands. We can dream it, and the vast majority of us support and will conform to these norms – mostly.

Saying isn’t doing

Throughout the pandemic, the Dutch public health institute RIVM has kept track of public support of and compliance with the various norms. Its insightful dashboard shows that for most norms, support and compliance have differed significantly. For instance, 84 percent supports staying at home when having symptoms, but only 55 percent reports actually doing it. That’s a noteworthy difference, yet for behavioural designers, such a gap between intention and action would have been expected.

There’s one such disparity on the dashboard, however, that will take even the most experienced old fox among you by surprise.

“83 percent support washing hands in accordance with the guidelines, and a mere 32 percent actually do it.”

They just don’t

What makes this even more remarkable, is that none of the explanations which typically help us understand intent-action gaps are applicable. There are no obvious conflicting motivations, like when social jobs-to-be-done supersede the intention to stay at home with symptoms. There are no overwhelming practical problems: hands can be washed in every bathroom, toilet or pantry at no cost to the individual involved. And it doesn’t really involve resisting any kind of conflicting temptation.

People support it. They want to do it. They can do it. But they just don’t.

So – how do we change that?

The challenge

This is the challenge we were approached with by Majka van Doorn (who by the way happens to be an alumnus of our Behavioural Design Academy) and her team at DGSC-19, a Rijksoverheid-directorate focused on medium-term measures to suppress the spread of the virus, together with the RIVM. Hand washing is incredibly effective in reducing the spread of pathogens and is particularly important in office environments, where people touch many of the same surfaces. Whether elevator buttons, doorknobs, phones, coffee machines, fridges, food in the cafeteria, or copy machines; they’re all great for the spread of viruses when hand washing discipline is low. It’s obvious why the government would want to come up with an effective intervention, especially now more and more people have begun working at the office again. And boy, did we deliver.

In a custom Sprint that was set up to start creating and testing and get practical as quick as possible, we first rapidly worked our way through a truckload of reports on attempts in other countries to tackle the same behavioural challenge, dived in the available data on the Dutch situation, and filled up the Behavioural Design Canvas. In two creative sessions we then designed five intervention strategies that we thought should work, and with our partners from the Rijksoverheid we selected three of them to prototype with the target group. With some adjustments, the combination of the three appeared to be a comprehensive intervention strategy, and merited a full-scale field test to measure real effect on behaviour.   

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Behavioural interventions

1. Reframing. The first element is to reframe hand washing. The framing that occurs naturally through the current public discourse is that hand washing is something you do to prevent becoming ill or spreading illness. If you’re not fearful of that, you might still consciously support the measure in general, but you won’t subconsciously be triggered to wash hands enough throughout a day yourself. And as most behaviour occurs automatic, this then simply won’t.

Using a tool that’s great to instantly test framing effects, we designed a set of thirteen posters that in a friendly way reframe hand washing and connect it with food and other peoples’ hands, and the simple message: nicer with clean hands. Each poster visualises a specific situation and should be placed contextually relevant.

2. Visual cues. The second element is to provide simple and clear visual cues, in the form of colourful stickers, that toilets are not just a place where you relieve yourself, but where you can also wash hands. If motivation and ability are high enough, then sometimes all that’s needed is a well designed and placed spark.

Morover, with another set of visual interventions we attempted to insert hand washing into the arriving-at-the-office sequence that for most people is very habitual. When you’re in the pantry to get coffee, first wash your hands. You’re there anyway.

Schermafbeelding 2021-11-04 om 10.10.29
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Schermafbeelding 2021-11-04 om 10.10.05
Schermafbeelding 2021-11-04 om 10.09.48

Astoundingly effective

The field-test, which we set up in partnership with our partners from DGSC-19 and RIVM, in a government office building in Rotterdam consisted of a weeklong measurement before interventions were placed, and then a weeklong measurement within four testing conditions. Soap usage was used as a proxy for hand washing. And the results were astounding: hand washing increased with up to 165 percent, going from an average of 2,8 times hand washing per day to 7,4 times a day. And what’s more: test persons did not experience the interventions as annoying. In fact they found them very useful for other people. Great!

Get more detailed information.

Download our Behavioural design Sprint brochure telling you all about the ins and outs of the sprint in detail. Please feel free to contact us suppose you would like some more information. We gladly tell you all about the possibilities.

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Go ahead, it’s completely free of charge!

In conclusion

These interventions clearly make a huge difference, and that just goes to show that don’t always need a big flashy campaign to change behaviour. You just need to find and hit the right nerve as simple as you can. And here’s the best thing: you’ll have to print ‘m yourself, but the posters and stickers are free for you to use.

One last thing: do make sure that there’s enough soap available. Your colleagues are gonna want it.

Tim Versnel

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
03/11/2021

Conspiracy theories and the human psyche

By All, Behavioural Science Insights

Conspiracy theories are a puzzling testimony to several peculiarities of our brain and the inner workings of the human psyche. However, they are omnipresent and have accompanied us throughout history. Whether it is 9/11, moon landings, the murder of Kennedy, or Covid-19, key societal events have rarely escaped a certain ‘conspiracy appeal’. Although they have been around for centuries, the ease with which we can share them today has given conspiracy theories incredible traction. So, what makes conspiracy theories so appealing to some, why do people believe them, and is there a way to protect us from their potentially detrimental effects?

Misinformation or conspiracy? 

Let’s clarify first, conspiracy theories might easily -but wrongly- be equated with misinformation. This however is not the same thing. Believing a Covid vaccine doesn’t work isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s just being misinformed. For something to be a conspiracy there need to be two things. First, there need to be two or more people involved (conspirators) and second, they need to have a secret or hidden plot (the conspiracy). For instance, stating the Chinese government launched the covid-19 virus to be able to inject bio trackers in the population or claiming that the CIA was directly involved in the murder of Kennedy ‘is’ a conspiracy theory.

Such theories trigger numerous questions. Where do they come from, who benefits, which people are prone to fall for them and why do they do so? And even more importantly, how should we deal with these theories and their followers.

Evolution made us skeptical

Before we go into the psychology of conspiracy theories let’s look at this phenomenon through the lens of evolution theory. Evolution hardwired us to be at least a bit skeptic and doubtful. There is a very logical explanation for this: it is called natural selection. During our evolution as a species, we were confronted with many dangers. Now consider the effects of a false negative versus a false positive assessment. Imagine I wrongfully think there is a predator (false positive): in that case, my prudence wasn’t really needed but it didn’t do any harm either. Now consider the reverse situation. A false negative, thinking there wasn’t any danger, while there was a predator: this imprudent assessment got you killed. It therefore seems fair to presume that an overly naïve community that always gave it the benefit of the doubt would be rapidly decimated.

“As a species it seems, a certain level of distrust and skepticism pays off.”

It translates into an ongoing inclination to be on the lookout for hidden dangers or plots.  It seems, at least biologically, sound. In addition, there HAVE been many exposed conspiracies. The abundant proof throughout history of conspiracy ploys adds support to the notion that the ‘idea’ IS plausible. After all, didn’t we learn afterwards that America had a weapon deal with Iran, that the Belgian government did impose false testimony on its journalists during the Chernobyl disaster or that Nixon did commit the Watergate fraud? History shows some skepticism is merited.

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Three forces that drive conspiracy theories

1. Cognitive bias

To complicate matters further our human psyche adds three additional forces that trigger us to take conspiracies seriously. The first component has to do with our desire -but limited ability– to understand the world we live in. We have developed several psychological short cuts to help us makes some sense of the world around us, but these mechanisms can bias our reasoning too. Some of our shortcuts lead us to fall far conspiracy ploys.

For instance, our proportionality bias makes us believe that big events need to have big causes. And our intentionality bias leads us to look for cause, meaning, and intent, also when it isn’t there.

To make things worse, our species is particularly tuned to look for patterns: it’s all connected, man! This desire to understand, pushes us towards narratives that provide meaning. An interesting narrative that satisfies our inner need to grasp the complexity of our lives is too attractive to ignore.

2. Group psychology

Group psychology adds another layer of appeal. Having something interesting to share within the in-group makes a person more valued and prominent. This attention-seeking behavior has been linked with an inclination towards narcissism (both on the individual as on collective levels). Clearly, social motives play a big part in the distribution of conspiracy ploys: remember for instance the appeal of the (false) proposition that there weren’t any Jews killed in the 9/11 attacks, a conspiracy rationale that was particularly prominent in Muslim communities.

3. The need to belong

And finally, several existential anxieties drive people to believe conspiracy ploys. We have a strong need to belong and feel at home. We define the world in terms of similarities and differences, in-crowds, and foreigners. Low-status groups tend to believe their position is a direct consequence of conspiracies of other groups. They regularly attribute their lesser position to a master plan of the outgroup to keep them oppressed.

“People that feel disconnected from society or experience a lack of agency and power, therefore, tend to be particularly sensitive for conspiracy thinking.”

In that respect, it is likely that the Qanon followers and the ‘deplorables’ that voted on Trump all shared a sense of loss of control over their lives and prosperity. Conspiracy theories have therefore also been called ‘the theories of the losers’ and it is indeed the case that many conspiracy theories focus on the ‘adversaries’ that happen to be in power.

How to debunk conspiracies?

Having now established that we have existential, social, complex, historical, and biological reasons to at least consider conspiracies it is no wonder they are so difficult to deal with. In fact, we still haven’t figured out how to counter them successfully. For now, we must satisfice with understanding what doesn’t work.

A route that has been often tried and failed, is the route of confrontational counter-argumentation. This route can even be counterproductive. For the believers, it only strengthens their belief in cover-ups. They only see the conspiracy at work. To make things worse their doubt and skepticism gets widened public coverage and exposure which more likely fuels the appeal of the group even more as well as that it serves as an ego-booster for (narcissistic) members that smelled a stage and fifteen seconds of fame. The public domain is the perfect yeast for a conspiracy theory and counter-argumentation in the public debate will prove of little avail.

It, therefore, seems better to tackle the problem from within. To debate and question the proof and facts within the believers’ community, to join their platforms, and to debate on their ground. That isn’t so easy. It requires at least a minimal amount of empathy for the conspiracy believers and a genuine interest in their facts, data, and rationale.

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In conclusion

Clearly, it will not be a route with fast results. But in my opinion, it is one of a few feasible routes that have some chance of success. Meet them on their ground, empathize with their case and gradually probe and question their facts. You might even be surprised! Sometimes, as history has proven, … they could be right…!

Yves Plees

As managing director of Sue Behavioural Design, it is my firm belief that solutions for the world’s challenges can’t solely come from technological innovation but need to take human psychology and social behaviors into account. With my work and writings, I hope to contribute to this view.

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
29/10/2021
How To Convince More People To Get Vaccinated

How to convince more people to get vaccinated

By All, Citizen Behaviour

Suppose that the national government comes to you and asks you to devise a campaign to encourage unvaccinated people to get their jab: How would you go about it? For many agencies, this would be a dream job. I think the current “I’m doing it for” campaign is fine: “I’m doing it so we can party again”, “I’m doing it so I can visit my grandmother again”. The campaign tries to provide people with arguments to overcome their doubts about the jab by replacing the abstract long-term effect of vaccination with a practical and relevant short-term benefit. Textbook behavioural economics.

Persuading someone is not rational

But what do you do with the last group that we cannot persuade to cross the finish line? I have interviewed several people over the past few weeks. A first striking observation is that most of these people have perfectly reasonable arguments not to do it. They have made a choice not to trust the vaccine for now. They do not deny the danger of COVID-19, but they are quite confident that the chances of them getting very ill themselves are small. Each of them has their concerns about the possible adverse effects of the vaccine.

What they are not interested in are people who try to convince them with counter-arguments. Attacking their arguments feels like a personal attack against them. And since so many people have already tried, they have had plenty of practice setting up a line of defence to explain and defend their choices. The harder you push them, the more they become defensive. This, by the way, is the most important lesson in the psychology of behavioural change.

You cannot convince someone with rational arguments if they have not yet decided to be convinced.

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Context can justify decision making

Another golden rule in behavioural change is that motivation follows convenience. I eat vegetarian, but I make exceptions very easily at restaurants because the vegetarian options sometimes require too much sacrifice in terms of culinary enjoyment. Put me in this choice context, and I can justify my behavioural change without blinking an eye.

We see the same thing happening everywhere concerning vaccination. More and more people who were very sceptical about the jab have ended up taking it because they no longer want to deal with the hassle involving travelling, going out and everything else that makes life fun. Did that change their minds? Not at all. They still have grave doubts. But all the hassle has altered the question they unconsciously answer: Are my objections worth that much that I am willing to make my life that difficult? For some people, the answer is a resounding yes. They are prepared to bear the consequences of their choices, and we must respect that. But for many others, this change of context is reason enough to gamble with their objections and have the jab.

To conclude, there are different reasons why certain people will not get vaccinated. However, the way we approach these individuals should not be with rational arguments to change their minds. Those who are sceptical should not be motivated to change their point of view. But perhaps the hassle of upcoming restrictions for those who are not vaccinated can be motivation enough for people to get their jab.

Tom De Bruyne

How do you do. Our name is SUE.

Do you want to learn more?

Suppose you want to learn more about how influence works. In that case, you might want to consider joining our Behavioural Design Academy, our officially accredited educational institution that already trained 2500+ people from 45+ countries in applied Behavioural Design. Or book an in-company training or one-day workshop for your team. In our top-notch training, we teach the Behavioural Design Method© and the Influence Framework©. Two powerful tools to make behavioural change happen in practice.

You can also hire SUE to help you to bring an innovative perspective on your product, service, policy or marketing. In a Behavioural Design Sprint, we help you shape choice and desired behaviours using a mix of behavioural psychology and creativity.

You can download the Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course brochure, contact us here or subscribe to our Behavioural Design Digest. This is our weekly newsletter in which we deconstruct how influence works in work, life and society.

Or maybe, you’re just curious about SUE | Behavioural Design. Here’s where you can read our backstory.

sue behavioural design
23/09/2021