Behavior change is not only about the individual..
"applied behaviour science’s focus on individual-level behaviours has led to overestimation of and reliance on biases and heuristics in understanding behaviour and behaviour change" - from Gantayat N and colleagues 2024 called "Taking the Big Leap.
Going beyond the individual was also recently talked about in the report from the EU Policy Lab by Marion Dupoux - Unlocking the full potential of behavioural insights for policy.
In my work leading Aim For Behavior's consulting projects we have already moved to this way of working and I think it is important to get more more people talking about this and proposing new ways to go beyond the individual view that has popularized the last wave of behavior change.
For many this may mean learning new things and adapting what they had learn - which is the fun part of this work - to always be trying to find new ways to solve challenges and mix methods.
If we go back to the paper by Gantayat N and colleagues - they propose a few very important things that need to change:
1. Individuals over interactions ----> behavioural insights are too focused on the individual, not considering the interactions
2. Assumption of static context ----> behavioural insights ignore the dynamic nature of the world in which people live
3. One size fits all ----> behavioural insights frequently ignore the heterogeneity in the population
4. Ignoring second-order effects ----> behavioural interventions frequently ignore the long-term and indirect effects of interventions
5. Focused on the observables ----> behavioural insights frequently miss out on the unarticulated needs of users
6. Issue with irrationality ----> assumption that all users are irrational leads to poor empathy
So how should we approach these challenges?
1. Develop a system of interventions
2. Promote end-user agency
3. Build choice infrastructure
4. Embrace heterogeneity
5. Recognise social and temporal dynamics
6. Champion sustainability
Here is a checklist from the paper for you to think about:
-Does the intervention involve and influence multiple actors and interactions between actors?
-Does the intervention go beyond simplistic assumptions about “irrationality,” biases, and heuristics?
-Does the intervention acknowledge the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of user goals, contexts, and needs?
The main takeaway for me is always the same, behavioral science can be a great tool, but it has to evolve and be combined with other ways of working to be effective.