Behavioural Science

The COM-B Behaviour Change Model suggests that Capability, Opportunity and Motivation all need to be present to change behaviour.

We use the COM-B model in projects that are focused on how to encourage or discourage an individual’s behaviour, such as how to quit smoking or increase environmentally-friendly behaviour.

Source: Michie et al (2011).

The TTM suggests that there are six stages of behaviour change:

1. Precontemplation
2. Contemplation
3. Preparation
4. Action
5. Maintenance
6. Termination.

It’s particularly useful in projects where we need to understand what stage consumers are currently at and how to move them onto the next stage.

Source: Prochaska and DiClemente (1983)

The ISM model suggests that the Individual, Social and Material contexts all influence behaviour and that any behaviour change interventions should target all these factors.

We use this model for policy level changes or macro level behaviour change, such as encouraging small to medium size businesses to adopt more sustainable behaviours.

Source: Darnton et al. (2013)

Habit loops provide a framework for understanding what causes people to engage in certain behaviours. The process of a habit loop consists of three elements:

• A cue
• A routine
• A reward.

Understanding these elements can help in understanding how to change bad habits or form better ones

In simple terms, the Intention-Action Gap is the difference between what people say they would like to or plan to do and what they actually do. For example, people often say they want to do more for the environment but don’t actually do anything further; or people make a New Year’s resolution to exercise more but don’t follow through with their intention.

Social identity is am individual’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s). The central hypothesis of social identity theory is that affiliation with a group confers self-esteem and that members of an in-group may seek to find negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing their self-image.

Nudge theory says that the choices available to us influence the decisions we make, and therefore our behaviour. Nudges are indirect suggestions through deliberately designed choices which encourage positive helpful decisions, both for the people choosing and ideally for the wider interests of society too.

One of the most famous examples of nudge theory in practice was increasing the number of people in the UK with active pension schemes by introducing automatic enrolment so that workers avoided having to make the complicated decisions which had been putting them off. Since this scheme was introduced in 2012, active membership of private sector pension schemes jumped from 2.7 million to 7.7 million in 2016.

A Language and Behaviour (LAB) Profile is a powerful tool for understanding and influencing the behaviour of others. It was created by Roger Bailey and originates from the Meta-programmes of NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming).

By studying a person’s language patterns the profiler can identify how people trigger and maintain their interest level, how people deal with information and how they become convinced about something. These insights can show you what language would ‘click’ with them and motivate the behaviour you desire

Naturalistic observation is a technique with roots in anthropology. It involves observing the spontaneous behaviour of participants in their normal surroundings. The researcher simply records what they see in whatever way they can and this contributes greatly to understandings of how the participants environment shapes their behaviour. This is particularly helpful in shopper research, or medication adherence research.