Across the social sector, the purpose of interventions is not only to remediate immediate problems but to ignite long-lasting behavioural change. Often interventions fail because change-makers make incorrect assumptions about the way people make decisions and process information. To be able to facilitate change in behaviour one must understand the fundamental aspects that drive behaviour.
Decisions and consequently behaviours are influenced by internal and external forces. Internally, cognitive biases and emotions; externally, social, cultural and environmental factors influence decision making. Before implementing new behaviours one should explore the barriers that prohibit the behaviours from being followed. These can range from a lack of knowledge to a lack of cultural belief or even a lack of funds.
When envisioning change practitioners tend to believe that is a dearth of knowledge and once an individual is informed of a best practice they will follow it. However, an emotional appeal is far more effective than just presenting the facts. Additionally, identifying and helping people shape factors in their environment that are hindering this change can promote lasting behaviours. Communicating or a change of attitudes also serve as temporary measures, therefore focussing solely on removing obstacles and instilling habits around the behavioural change are is the best to implement desired behaviours.
Measuring changes in behaviour requires defining metrics that can help us aggregate data around the intervention. We measure the quality of the activity implemented, the number of times the desired behaviour is performed, the change in resources and environment to allow for sustained behaviour adoption and finally a measure of the change in attitudes and emotions towards said behaviour.
Measurement strategies include both quantitative and qualitative techniques. In order to understand the change, we first conduct a baseline survey to identify the mechanics behind the existing behaviour and what prevents desired behaviour. For example, if parents don’t vaccinate a child, the main reasons could be the inability to access the clinic or a belief that vaccination would harm the child. In this case, at the end of the intervention, one would measure both whether the clinic is more accessible and whether the information given about the vaccine has resonated with parents and altered their belief. It is not enough to measure whether the knowledge disseminated was understood.
Behavioural change interventions make a difference when they evoke change organically rather than enforced. Understanding the context, barriers and environment of the problem at hand is the only way to develop interventions that are effective and have an enduring impact.
