Brief Summary

Social incentives can influence behavior. People care about what others are doing and want to conform.  There is a signal in the emotional center of the brain that can predict how likely someone is to conform based on the opinion of others.

The British government used this principle to enco...

Warnings and threats are commonly used to scare people into changing behavior. When you induce fear in an animal, the most common response you will see is freezing or fleeing; fighting, not as much. And so, humans are the same. Research shows that warnings have limited impact on behavior because ...

Three ideas to motivate people to change their behavior  with less fear-inducing message:

1. Social Incentives
2. Immediate Rewards
3. Progress Monitoring

People tend to avoid worrying about negative events that might happen in the future. People tend to change their beliefs towards a more desirable opinion when given positive information, even if it contradicts their initial beliefs.

People of all ages take in information they want to hear m...

Rationalizations and avoidance are some common reactions to fear-inducing messages. People tend to seek positive information and avoid negative information. 

Rationalizations can make people feel more resilient, while avoidance can lead to a boomerang effect. This behavior is evident in pe...

Fear is not an effective motivator for behavior change. Positive strategies that focus on gains and progress are more effective than threats.

The human tendency to seek progress can be capitalized on to motivate behavior change. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and that communicating ...

The second principle is immediate rewards, which we value more than rewards in the future. People tend to choose tangible and certain rewards in the present over uncertain rewards in the future.

However, studies show that giving immediate rewards for actions that are good for us in the futu...