Theme 3. Human behaviour
Motivating people to behave differently lies at the heart of much of what the COI does. Historically, solutions tended to lie in information and messaging – getting people to think something first so that they behave differently as a consequence
Behavioural economics and behavioural psychology are hot academic topics that challenge these old assumptions and show empirically that much behaviour change is not due to active thinking but other influences.
Take just two examples:-
Herding: we do things because fundamentally we are herding animals.
Simply put people copy other people. The essence of herd thinking is that when people do things the mind follows. This undermines the old AIDA (Awareness,Interest,Decision,Action) model.
Nudging: Choice Architecture and user-friendly environments can “nudge” us to change by, for example, making things easy/putting them close to hand/offer encouragement.
