i

Levers
of Behavior
Change
A Guide to the Science and Applications
Authors
Katie Williamson and Philipe Bujold
Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment

Citation
Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment. (2024). Levers of Behavior Change: A Guide to the
Science and Applications. https://behavior.rare.org/resources/levers-guide/

Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the Rare staff who reviewed this document and shared feedback.

Editing and Design

Kaila Ferrari and Kyla Timberlake
Introduction

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 3

Introduction
Designing an effective behavior change strategy is no easy task. People are complicated, and researchers
have conducted thousands of studies to understand and explain human behavior. As a result, there are
many possible ways of characterizing the motivations and barriers to behavior change. Rare’s Center for
Behavior & the Environment has developed a simple framework for behavior change insights comprising
six behavioral levers.

SOCIAL What is a lever?

IN LUENCES
F
A lever is typically something that you pullI to cause
I
a change in something else. For example, if you
NF

NF
NT L

NT L
S

S
OR

OR
INCE TERIA

INCE TERIA
IVE

IVE
think of a machine, a lever might be something you
MA

MA
pull or switch to turn on the lights, cause an arm
TION

TION
MA

MA
i

i
to move, or lift a weight. Using this metaphor, we
define behavioral levers as types of strategies that
we can apply to change behavior.
ARCH

ARCH
ALS AL

Each lever represents a category of evidence-based

CH O ECT

CH O ECT
AP TION
IT

IT
strategies from behavioral and social science. The
ICE UR

ICE UR
PE
MO

E levers are discrete and can be pulled in different

E E
combinations for different effects. Behavioral and
RULES & RULES &
R E G U L AT I O N S social science principles
R E Ghelp
U L Adesigners
TIONS understand
and analyze their core actors’ motivations and
barriers to behavior change. These principles also
help to design effective interventions because we
can link those motivations and barriers to ways to address them. There is no “right” framework for this,
but we have found it helps to have some common language for the internal and external, personal and
social, and conscious and unconscious reasons for change.

Why these levers?

For decades, the traditional environmental toolkit has consisted of strategies categorized into three
common levers to change behavior: information, rules and regulations, and material incentives.
i

These levers can be effective in specific situations, but they are often insufficient on their own. Information
does not necessarily lead to action, incentives can backfire or send the wrong message, and rules can be
difficult to enforce. Research from behavioral science tells us about other powerful insights that could drive
behavior change and enhance these commonly used tools. For example, people may make decisions based
on their emotions, other people’s expectations, and cues in their environments. By expanding the toolkit
with additional levers — emotional appeals, social influences, and choice architecture — we can design
solutions that reflect people’s full range of behavioral motivations and barriers.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 4

How is this framework different than other frameworks?
Many frameworks exist to capture behavior change insights. Some frameworks describe their behavioral
principles and strategies as broad categories (e.g., automatic thinking, social, choice environment), while
others list many specific behavioral, cognitive, or social principles (e.g., messenger effect, salience, loss
aversion). Some frameworks distinguish between rational and irrational forms of thinking in the way they
describe behavioral insights, and some also distinguish between ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ or System I and System II
thinking.1 These categories may help people understand the important difference between thought
processes that are more deliberate and effortful (rational) compared to those that are more automatic
and subconscious (irrational). However, such categories may lead people to develop rigid boundaries or
oversimplified reasoning when selecting specific strategies for behavior change.2 For example, emotional
framings can appeal to our ‘automatic’ processing system given how we respond to emotional events,
but they can also be intensely rational in pursuing individual needs (e.g., seeking safety from a threat).3
A final category of frameworks is models or diagrams for behavior change; these can help us see patterns
and lead us to look for connections that do not exist in our data.

Recent frameworks focus on behavioral principles that

represent newer insights from behavioral science, such as
choice architecture, that depart from the more traditional
rational actor models. These frameworks tend to exclude
strategies such as providing material incentives and
information or enacting regulations. Our framework includes
these levers to highlight their value and role in changing
behavior. While behavior change can be as simple as using
one lever, it’s more likely to require a combination of them.
The levers are designed to work together to overcome
a variety of motivations and barriers. These behavioral Choice i
interventions are designed broad enough to encompass a Architecture
set of related tactics (e.g., social influences) and contexts,
yet narrow enough to distinguish them from other levers.

Where do cognitive biases fit in?

The levers are not designed to correspond to cognitive biases per se, but we encourage practitioners
to evaluate the root barriers and motivations that may be enabling the bias to select the right lever.
Cognitive biases are patterns of thinking reliably found in human decision-making. While these are
interesting to identify in your data, knowing about a bias does not guide you on how to address it. The
levers are designed as categories of intervention strategies for behavior change that intentionally align
with principles of behavioral science. While there is some alignment between the levers and biases,
they do not match for every scenario. For example, take the bias of risk aversion, where people tend to
stick to doing what they know versus what they do not know, especially if risk is involved. In the case of
farmers, there is evidence that social influences and information are helpful levers to help them overcome
the fear of adopting new technologies.4 Yet for others, material incentives and emotional appeals could
be important through how the message and perceived benefits are framed.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 5

Can the levers be universally applied across contexts
and cultures?
This issue is often known as the generalizability puzzle: if something works in one context, will it apply
to another? Thankfully, recent advancement in this space helps us begin to answer that question. Too
often, those considering the scaling of a program focus exclusively on geography, asking whether a
particular intervention was tested in the same country or region. However, asking why the intervention
worked is critical as a starting point.5 If you have a behaviorally-informed theory of change that includes
psychological and social variables (such as the beliefs, knowledge, or attitudes that you expect to change
for behavior to change), then that can give you clues about whether those variables apply in other
contexts to use the same levers. In other words, if there are similar psychological reasons, motivations,
and barriers for change, you can focus your behavior change strategy on localizing to the context rather
than designing an entirely new intervention with different levers.6

Of course, we should be mindful of the context

Social in which we are working. We all have uniquely
science lived experiences and make our decisions within
Behavioral a particular environmental, social, political, and
science
cultural context. Lessons from social science help
us see how social structure defines an individual’s
identities and roles within a community, as well
as how an individual’s actions can shape the
social structure for themselves and the network in
Psychological which they are embedded. From this perspective,
state the feedback system of socially defined identities
and roles creates the foundation for individuals to
make choices.7 Common identities addressed in
the social sciences include gender, race, ethnicity,
Socio-cultural context
religion, socioeconomic status, and various
Environmental context
culturally specific positions of power through
prestige and authority. Both formal rules, such as
laws, and informal rules, such as social norms,
A diagram of how a person’s psychological state and decisions occur
at the intersection of socio-cultural and environmental contexts that can dictate directly and indirectly how individuals
can be observed using a behavioral and social science lens. of certain identities can or must behave, with their
behavior then feeding back into socially defining
those same rules.8

An understanding of the socio-cultural context in which a behavior occurs is essential information for any
behavior change intervention’s design. Before working with the levers, behavior change designers should
dedicate adequate time to mapping out the systems surrounding a behavior. These systems will likely
significantly impact the behavior levers and strategies available, whether behavior change is feasible,
and, if so, for whom. In understanding this broader context, designers learn about the options that are
available to different actors, who carries decision-making power, and the behaviors that could reinforce or
challenge existing power structures. The Frame and Empathize steps in Rare’s Behavior-Centered Design
approach can help uncover these key dimensions.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 6

 Behavior-Centered Design Journey
1. FRAME

3. MAP
2. EMPATHIZE

4. IDEATE

5. PROTOTYPE

7. LAUNCH 8. ASSESS
6. TEST

Behavior change designers bring information gaps and assumptions into their work when they are not
embedded in the context in which they wish to effect change. Self-aware designers benefit from noting
any personal assumptions or biases upfront before they take the time to understand the behavior and
context. Designers should also consider co-designing with the stakeholders of the behavioral problem to
ensure they have an informed perspective at each step of the process and gain a deep understanding of
the behavioral problem before generating any solutions.

How to use this guide

Each of the following chapters is dedicated to a lever. These chapters will capture the definition of the
lever, a background of the behavioral science that supports its core principles and strategies, lever
applications, and other tips such as lever combinations. When designing your behavior change solution,
we recommend reviewing your research on target actors and behaviors to select which levers and
strategies are most appropriate and effective for your given context. Each lever contains many different
and related strategies, so selecting the right ones is both an art and a science, involving testing and
feedback. Reviewing the steps of Behavior-Centered Design provides additional guidance about when to
apply the levers to your work. We hope that the stories of application will also provide examples of what
they look like in the real world to help you be more successful.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 7

Emotional Appeals
Using emotional messages to drive behavior

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About Emotional Appeals
Emotions, such as pride, fear, and anger, are ever-present in our decisions. Our emotional reactions to
messaging, ideas, others’ behavior, and options presented to us influence our actions. This influence
occurs through the discrete emotions we experience, as well as how certain ideas align with our values
and sense of self, social groups, and community. In all cases, how something makes us feel gives us
important information about how we are likely to act.

Growing research shows that emotions motivate our actions. Sometimes we talk about emotions as
irrational or separate from reason, but we can be emotional and deliberate.9 Many emotions have evolved
to guide us to make decisions that help us achieve our goals or become better equipped to deal with life
events, including ones that may not manifest at that specific time. For us to care about something, to
feel something, it probably has meaning to us — that’s worth paying attention to.10 As a result, leveraging
emotions and tailoring messages to what matters most to people can be useful behavior change strategies.

Principles & Strategies

Leverage emotions in specific contexts
Six emotions are particularly relevant for environmental
work: pride, hope, fear, anger, the prospect of shame, and
interest.11 Each of these emotions has associated behaviors
Tips for success
• Be mindful of display rules —
based on ways that emotion evolved to help our species the local norms around which
over time. For example, pride functions by getting people emotions are acceptable to
to engage in and demonstrate to others that they have show and how — and gender
performed a socially-valued or prestigious act. Therefore,
12 dynamics for emotions in
different cultures, as this may
pride could be useful for spreading a new norm of desirable, influence which emotions are
pro-environmentally behavior in a community. On the appropriate to feature.
other hand, anger functions as a motivation for negative
• Make information feel relevant
sanctioning of norm-violating behavior, which could be useful and personal.
for stopping a behavior or stabilizing current behaviors.13
Furthermore, interest causes people to approach what
they find novel, whether they are people, places, things, or
experiences, and it helps to increase current knowledge.14 Incorporating interest-generating materials into
our behavioral solutions can support community engagement with new behaviors. Knowing this, we can
think about how we might apply emotions strategically as a part of behavior change interventions.

The strategies:
• Pride: Use to motivate people to show others what they have done when they have achieved a goal
or done the right thing.

• Hope: Use to motivate people to start a behavior when they can achieve a desired outcome while
facing a challenge.

• Fear: Use to motivate people to avoid risks when they experience uncertainty or an immediate threat
to their wellbeing.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 9

 • Anger: Use to motivate people to confront others when they witness injustice or experience threats
to personal autonomy.

• Interest: Use to motivate people to seek information when something is novel and complex.

• Prospect of shame: Use to motivate people to avoid an action when others might find out about
socially undesirable actions.

See it in action
€ An experiment on the effects of different emotions on support for climate policies found
that hope and fear increase support for climate policies across ideologies.15

€ Interviews with climate activists in Denmark and Sweden revealed the power of using
anger and hope to create collective action movements. Anger can motivate people to
confront others about things they find unacceptable, and hope helps motivate people to
start a behavior when they envision a better future outcome. The sequence of collective
anger transitioning to action through hope has been effective — hope propels action
while collective action generates hope and manages fear.16

€ A study asked individuals to imagine feeling proud or guilty about pro-environmental

decisions prior to choosing between green and less green options and found that those
who felt proud were more likely to choose the green options.17

Personalize the message

Emotional responses show up in our values and attitudes as well. We all have different experiences
and belief systems that can shape what messages we find compelling. For example, messages of
sustainability tend to be effective only among those already onboard; we tend to discard, ignore, or
downplay information that goes against our existing worldviews and beliefs, and bias us towards
information that validates us (also known as confirmation bias).18 We are also more likely to respond to
messages and consider information that is personalized to us, our context, and what we care about.19
Similarly, we are more likely to pay attention to something that comes from an individual human rather
than a faceless organization. Evolution has helped us to empathize with people we know to form group
bonds; abstract statistics do little to stir our emotions or compassion.20 When we are thoughtful about
our messaging and tailor it to our core actors, we can be successful in getting through to them.

The strategies:
• Put a human face on campaigns and focus on a single story over abstract statistics.
• Tailor messages to make them personally relevant, relatable, and appealing.

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Tips for success
• Be intentional when selecting which emotions to evoke based on the context and desired behavior.
• Don’t assume ‘negative’ or ‘positive’ emotions as less effective — let the data and context guide you.

See it in action
€ A US university research team wanted to see if they could reduce household energy
consumption through different messaging strategies. Their most effective message
was appealing to households’ existing values of health that linked energy use and
pollution to childhood asthma and cancer. The program reduced energy consumption by
8-10% consistently over 100 days and nearly 20% among households with children.21

€ The World Resources Institute and Behavioral Insights team found a key insight
when promoting sustainable food: replacing labels like ‘vegetarian’ or ‘meat-free’ with
language like ‘field-grown’ or more indulgent descriptions made non-vegetarians more
likely to order vegetarian dishes.22

€ Mexican non-profit Centro de Investigación y Servicios Profesionales A.C. (CISERP)

developed a range of community engagement materials promoting pride in ancestral
agricultural practices and in the native Tsotsil language to increase adoption of the
milpa crop-growing system. As a result, 90% of the 324 milpa farmers adopted the
agroecological practices promoted by the campaign and 80% of the targeted farmers
began using and exchanging native seeds.23

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 11

SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: Project Cane Changer

How positive emotions boosted sustainable

sugar cane farming
The problem
Excess runoff from sugarcane farms into the Great Barrier Reef impacts reef health. In recent decades,
the Australian government has tried to encourage farmers to modify their practices to be more
sustainable through enacting laws and offering economic incentives. Despite these efforts, change has
been slow and insufficient.

The solution
Through their research, the Evidn team learned that sugar cane farmers felt the public saw them as part
of the problem by polluting the reef, not part of the solution. Project Cane Changer emerged with a few
strategies to increase the uptake of farmers’ sustainable behaviors and change the poor reputation of
farmers. Cane Changer’s slogan, “Setting the Record Straight,” was a messaging strategy to change the
public’s perceptions of farmers. The Cane Changer team also identified that being a sugarcane farmer
and residing near the Great Barrier Reef was central to their identity. Feeling part of the community of
sugarcane growers was positively correlated with a desire to improve farming practices. This further
boosted farmers’ sense of pride in being stewards of the reef. Finally, the program offered trainings on
sustainable practices to increase farmers’ feelings of self-efficacy and belief that they were part of the
solution. After three years of the program, sustainable agricultural accreditation increased by over 300%,
leading to practices that sent cleaner water into the Great Barrier Reef.24

OTHER LEVERS APPLIED: Social Influences i Information

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Social Influences
Leveraging the behavior, beliefs, and expectations of others

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 13

About Social Influences
Humans are deeply social creatures. We have evolved to be highly sensitive to the actions of those around
us and to use people’s expectations and beliefs as guidance about how to act. Social norms shape how an
individual’s actions are influenced by others’ beliefs and actions as well as what others think an individual
should be doing. One type of social influence is “descriptive norms,” where we perceive what people are
doing and thinking as ‘normal.’ Another type is reputational, which researchers call “injunctive norms,”
where we consider how people think about us, which shapes our reputation in a group.

As a result, observability of our and others’ behaviors, promotion of ‘normal’ behavior and beliefs, and
accountability measures among our social networks are all important. Social norms can become self-
enforcing once a community expects a given set of behaviors, making this lever especially powerful for
lasting behavior change.

Principles & Strategies

Make the target behavior observable
How observable our behavior is, such as whether people can see
us making decisions, impacts our choices as we are often more
willing to break social rules in private. Peer pressure and the need to Tip for success
maintain our reputation help us to comply when our self-interest may Be sure to highlight
norms that are trending
lead us astray from socially acceptable behavior. Observability is not
in the direction you want,
just about curbing undesired behaviors, but also about promoting rather than in the direction
good behaviors. Conspicuous green behavior allows us to signal our you do not. Sharing that
virtues and gain social recognition, which we can amplify by making a small proportion of
people are doing the
the behavior more noticeable to others or increasing the level of
target behavior may not
social reward. This principle works in conjunction with the next one motivate people since it
of highlighting good behaviors to reinforce the perception that they sends the signal that the
are normal. Social proof of what behaviors are common and ‘right’ behavior is uncommon.
encourages others to do them as well.25

Additionally, we are much less likely to fall back on a promise we have made publicly or to a friend or
peer than we are to give up on our private intentions. We often make a great effort to avoid appearing
hypocritical or dishonest in front of our social group. We also seek to act consistently with our past
selves. By making a commitment more visible, it becomes more significant to break this promise in
the future, and we invite people to hold us accountable for that behavior. Group incentives can also
be effective as we a) monitor each other’s actions to ensure we don’t miss out and b) feel a sense of
responsibility not to let others down since our behavior links to a shared outcome.

The strategies:

• Publicly broadcast who has and has not engaged in the target behavior.

• Provide a way for people to show they are doing the target behavior.

• Encourage public commitments or pledges to drive the target behavior.

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 See it in action
€ Program designers identified that reducing energy consumption during peak periods
was a public goods problem: everyone was better off reducing their air conditioning
usage to stabilize the electric grid, but each individual did better free-riding on the
reduction of others. In creating an energy reduction program, designers found that
increasing observability increased participation because others would know whether
each actor participated. They designed an intervention that made sign-ups to the
program public rather than private, which led to a threefold increase in participation.26

€ The organization TRAFFIC recruited traditional medicine practitioners to publicly pledge

to refrain from using rhino horn. By socially binding these practitioners to their
commitments and making the new norm more visible in the practitioner community, the
program has already led to a measurable reduction in the use of illegal wildlife products.27

Tips for success

• Consider the socio-cultural context for desired behaviors and whether there are any risks to people
showing publicly that they have adopted them.

• Trusted messengers must also be credible in the target behavior of interest. Ideally, a good
messenger is popular and trusted to do the behavior correctly. Be wary of using celebrities as
messengers unless they are experts or experienced on the behavior change topic.

Highlight others who are doing the target behavior

The behavior of our peers influences us for multiple reasons: we infer from their actions that it’s a
sensible or appropriate thing to do (e.g., if many other farmers are using a new technology, it’s probably
a good technology); we feel peer-pressure to comply; and we like to mimic those we aspire to or
identify with. 28 However, we often have skewed perceptions of what’s normal, so correcting these
misconceptions by showing what the majority is doing can shift behavior. Providing social proof of what
others are doing is particularly helpful when people are uncertain about what to do.29 Where behavior is
not widespread, it helps to share clear examples and personal stories that are relatable, memorable, and
highlight individual successes. These stories can show others how they won’t be acting alone. Beyond
describing people’s current behavior, recent studies have demonstrated the power of dynamic norms as
well. Dynamic norms go beyond describing what people are doing now by describing what behaviors
people are starting to do or doing more. These messages send a signal to others to join the growing
movement and not be left behind.30

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Social identity theory highlights that we care about who is taking
action. We adopt the norms and practices of our perceived ‘in-group’
but often refute those of our ‘out-group’.31 This means that our peers,
Tip for success
or individuals who changed their behavior and used to be ‘just like Some behaviors
require cooperation and
us,’ are both relatable and credible. Beyond peers, we trust the advice are collective action
of those who are credible experts and have perceived legitimate problems where people
authority. 32 Used effectively, these people can therefore have a must act together to
make an impact. Explore
stronger effect on our actions than generic or psychologically ‘distant’
our tools on cooperative
messengers (such as a national government or a foreign organization). behavior to learn more
about developing a
The strategies: specific strategy for
these behaviors.
• Share that people are currently doing the target behavior.

• Promote cases of success with the target behavior.

• Leverage credible and trusted messengers doing the target behavior.

• Facilitate peer or community exchanges where others can observe

and gain support for the target behavior.

See it in action
€ A United States state forest designed an experiment to see whether posted signage,
personal communication from a uniformed forest naturalist, or a combination of
both had an impact on ‘leave no trace’ behaviors such as littering, tree damage, and
improper disposal of human waste. The most impactful strategy was a forest naturalist
demonstrating proper behaviors as a key and trusted messenger.33

€ An intervention in Belén, Costa Rica successfully reduced water consumption by high-

consumption households by 4-5% by sharing descriptive norm information about their
neighbors’ water use.34

€ Across several countries, farmers were more likely to adopt new techniques or to sign
up for agri-environmental schemes if the recommendation comes from other farmers35
or if they know that other farmers have signed up. 36 Compared to a control group, a
set of French farmers who were told that 80% of their peers intended to renew their
payments for ecosystem services (PES) contract (or that 20% of their peers did not
intend to renew) were 18% more likely to report that they were willing to sustain their
current sustainable practices.

€ In Namibia, the ‘Rhino Rangers’ program supports local communities in choosing rhino
custodians from within their communities and then pays, trains, and equips these
rangers to carry out rhino monitoring. The positions increased rangers’ social status
and made them advocates for rhino conservation within their communities. During this
time rhino sightings were at a record high of 918 separate events, and in just five years,
poaching had declined by 83%.37

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Share social expectations about the target behavior
Norms are only effective if there is enforcement or accountability.
The belief that others will know if we do the problem behavior
or that they believe we should be doing the target behavior Tip for success
are powerful motivators.38 We are not willing to risk the social People often need to see
multiple people in their
repercussions of breaking from the group’s norms and therefore network adopt a behavior
are more likely to comply. Creating opportunities to show support before they are willing to do
or situations to learn about the social expectations for a behavior so themselves. This means
can reinforce accountability.39 A final motivator is reciprocity: we that it can often be most
efficient to initially target
have the innate tendency to return favors and feel guilty when we tightly connected subgroups
do not. This psychological drive pushes groups towards harmony at the periphery of a
and cooperation and supports existing social norms.40 For example, network for early adoption,
rather than target those
when someone does something nice for you or gives you a gift,
most central.44
you will likely feel more inclined to do something nice for them in
the future.

The strategies:

• Provide visible indicators that signal support for the target behavior (e.g., hats, badges.)

• Communicate that people think others should be doing the target behavior.

• Highlight the possibility of social sanctions for doing the problem behavior.

• Create situations in which people feel like they should reciprocate.

• Create conversation around shared beliefs and expectations.

See it in action
€ In Perú, a local campaign promoted the importance of natural resources, as well as the
individual and collective benefits that reciprocal water agreements could have on the
community for upstream and downstream users.41 Downstream users compensated
upstream farmers in exchange for their environmental management upstream. This
campaign resulted in water users signing 25 reciprocal water agreements, collectively
protecting 362 hectares of threatened habitat in the Quanda micro-watershed.

€ After a successful social marketing campaign in Laos shifted community norms around
the illegal hunting of tigers, state officials introduced a wildlife crime reporting hotline.
This hotline enabled citizens to report any suspected tiger hunting and reinforce local
norms and expectations for hunting behavior. In the six months when the hotline was
operational, state officials received 250 citizen calls that led to 22 arrests.42

€ A study in Colombia showed that they could align farmers’ expectations and behaviors
to conserve their forests by providing collective payments only when all farmers achieved
a forest conservation goal.43

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 17

SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: Jason Houston for Rare

How peer support and observability increased

solar adoption
The problem
Historically, a variety of barriers — including cost, access, and lack of implementation knowledge —
have prevented the widespread adoption of solar energy. Despite a recent increase in accessibility and
decrease in cost, many communities, especially those of low and middle income, do not have the same
rate of solar energy adoption.

The solution
Over the last decade, researchers have been exploring whether solar energy adoption is “contagious”.45
Their study found that the mere presence of a solar roof project increased the average number of
installations within a half-mile radius by nearly 50 percent. The Solarize program organizes events to
make solar installations even more visible and works with people called “solar ambassadors.” Solar
Ambassadors are local, trusted people who select solar installers, educate their neighbors, and connect
them with resources about solar energy that would most resonate. Solarize also worked with local
and state officials to promote solar energy alongside volunteers. The solar installer followed up with
interested residents to offer a discounted price for solar panel installation, which decreased with each
resident sign-up. The installations were completed in a public and easily observable setting. Given their
rooftop placement, these panels remained an observable reminder of renewable energy to neighbors
and other community members. Campaigns running for 20 weeks reduced the cost of solar by 20% and
increased solar installation by three times in participating communities. In three years, the campaigns
helped create a change from 800 to 12,500 low- and middle-income homes with solar. Moreover, 90%
of residents reported high satisfaction with their installations, with more than 80% stating they would
recommend solar energy to their neighbors.46

OTHER LEVERS APPLIED: i Information Material Incentives

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 18

Choice Architecture
Changing the context in which choices are made

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 19

About Choice Architecture
Subtle cues in our environments about what to do and how to act are everywhere. While we may
not realize it, the digital and physical spaces surrounding us are often designed with particular goals
in mind. Employing the choice architecture lever means deliberately designing a choice environment
that influences people’s decisions — some call these “nudges.” For example, we can direct people’s
attention or leverage cognitive biases to shift choices towards or away from certain options implicitly.
We can also provide support and shortcuts to help people reach their behavior change goals. One way
to think about choice architecture is like a GPS — it’s a guide that gives you a recommended route on
where to go, but you can always turn it off if you prefer.47 These strategies help us quickly identify what
to do, often subconsciously, in the moment.

Principles & Strategies

Direct attention
Given humans’ limited cognitive bandwidth and attention, we can
support people by reducing informational clutter and bringing options
to the forefront. For example, we can make options more salient to Tip for success
direct our attention to the most novel or relevant ones. Alternatively, Use choice architecture
and nudges to support
we may re-order options or make the good options more available, people’s goals as much as
both of which have been shown to influence our choices.48 More possible. People are very
powerful still, we may be able to default our target audience sensitive to manipulation
into certain outcomes (with the freedom to opt out), since we and may respond poorly
to feeling that someone
overwhelmingly ‘go with the flow’ and stick with default options.49 is trying to control their
actions. Being transparent
There is also a wealth of evidence that our decisions are predictably about your intentions has
been shown to not hurt a
skewed by our reliance on heuristics (mental shortcuts) and
solution’s impact.51
our susceptibility to biases, especially when a set of choices is
presented to us.50 As a result, designers can frame information
and choices in a way that harnesses or addresses these biases for
pro-environmental goals. For instance, highlighting the avoidance of losses rather than gains can tap into
our loss aversion (tendency to be more motivated to avoid losses than to achieve equivalent gains). Our
inaction is often compounded by our tendency to discount the future over the present — in other words,
we prioritize the immediate convenience of doing nothing over the long-term benefits of acting now. We
can also help people make different decisions by making the long-term consequences of their decisions
more salient and being mindful of the order of options presented.

The strategies:

• Make the target behavior the default option.

• Prompt a decision between options.
• Draw attention to the target behavior by making it salient.
• Emphasize long-term benefits of behaviors over immediate ones.
• Emphasize variables that frame your target behavior as the correct choice.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 20

 See it in action
€ An intervention seeking to increase green energy consumption for 40,000 German
consumers swapped the typical ‘opting-in’ policy on green energy contracts to one
where consumers were automatically enrolled unless they ‘opted out’, which created
ten times more subscriptions.52

€ A research team in the western United States found that adding and relocating recycling
bins to increase their prominence increased recycling efficiency by 23% on a university
campus (and decrease the number of recyclables in the trash by 13.38%).53

€ A study in Nordic countries found that they could nudge potential phone buyers into
making greener choices, like used phones, by simply altering how their options were
presented. Where only 4% of customers typically chose to buy a used phone, 29%
made that choice when the ‘green’ alternative of purchasing a used phone was actively
offered. For screen repairs, the corresponding percentages were 87% when actively
offered, and 67% when not.54

€ In India, researchers conducted a field-based choice experiment with farmers to select

between current seeds and newer, drought-tolerant seeds. Farmers who were more
risk-averse and loss-averse were more willing to adopt the new seeds that had a greater
chance of increasing yields. A similar experiment in Ghana found that more risk-averse
aquafarmers were more likely to adopt new technologies.55

€ A lab experiment looked at the effect on sales of high-emissions foods (e.g., beef soup)
by adding food labels that described the energy used to make the product in lightbulb
minutes. Those who saw the label purchased 50% fewer high-emissions products.56

Simplify messages and decisions

Sometimes behavior change is as simple as removing small hassle factors, or friction, in bureaucratic
or technical processes.57 Some researchers refer to these inconveniences as “sludge” (the opposite
of “nudge”) and show where small things like having to fill out tedious paperwork, decipher confusing
language, or take extra steps can make pro-environmental behaviors less likely.58 Humans are further
presented with an overload of information and complex decisions every day. We need support to filter
out the noise, focus on that which seems most relevant and salient, and adopt fast decision-making
rules to navigate this complex world.59 Decision aids like rules of thumb, checklists, and mnemonics are
various strategies that help us deal with this complexity, making it easier to make good decisions or ones
that align with our goals.

The strategies:

• Streamline complex decisions to focus on key information or action.

• Provide shortcuts for a target behavior with many steps or options.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 21

 See it in action
€ The ‘Eetmaatje’ Measuring Cup, developed in partnership with the Dutch Creative
Brands Group, aims to reduce food waste in Dutch households by making it simple
to measure the exact quantities of rice or pasta needed to feed different numbers of
people. The cup simplified choice for consumers through a nudge that helped make
healthy and environmentally-friendly portion sizes salient and easy to achieve. Of those
provided with the cup, 77–87% reported that it helped them waste less pasta, with 50-
80% stating that they used the cup most times that they prepared meals.60

€ A field study found that specialized lids deterred non-recyclable items from being placed
in the wrong bins and clarified which items should be recycled. The presence of these
lids increased recycling rates by 34% compared to those bins without specialized lids,
and the number of bins that contained non-recyclable items was reduced by 95%.61

€ Across six European countries, the addition of ‘lifespan’ labels to various products such
as suitcases, printers, trousers, sports shoes, coffee makers, washing machines, vacuum
cleaners, and smartphones increased the purchase of longer-life products by 13.8%.62

Tip for success

Choice architecture tends to be most effective when the behavioral intervention scope is small to medium
in size. For example, this includes situations with a small target audience, small effect sizes are acceptable
outcomes, and the target behavior is malleable (i.e., does not require a major norm change).

Use timely moments and prompts

We are much more likely to change our behavior during moments of disruption, transition, or natural
decision points. This is partly because old habits have been paused and partly because the hassle is
temporarily removed (for example, we are more likely to upgrade our appliances when we have just
moved homes, while the house is empty and we’re doing renovations anyway). Periods of transition are
also powerful for psychological reasons; the ‘fresh start effect’ is one example where people are more
motivated to set goals at a temporal landmark, such as the New Year, starting a new job, or a birthday.63
They help us leave prior failed attempts at change in the past and create a new image of our present and
future selves. Therefore, prompts to act help provide information at the right time and place.64 For example,
a reminder to enroll in a conservation program might be most effective right before the renewal deadline.65

The strategies:

• Target moments of transition and habit formation.

• Provide prompts and reminders about the target behavior.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 22

 See it in action
€ Development researchers have underlined the importance of precise timeliness in
the provision of incentives. They found that offering discounts for fertilizer right after
harvest, rather than right before planting, can significantly increase adoption by helping
farmers plan to set themselves up for success for the coming year, and farmers have
more money to spend after harvest.66

€ A study on university employees in the UK found that those who relocated and received
information about pro-environmental behaviors were more likely to adopt those
behaviors after eight weeks than those who had not relocated over the same period.67

€ At Indian informational technology firms, an intervention to limit unnecessary printing

involved posting signs near printers and around the office as reminders. These also
invoked an injunctive norm with a sad face to provide a social signal supporting behavior
change. The intervention reduced per person daily paper wastage in the firms who
received the reminders by 4–6 sheets compared to firms in the control condition.68

€ On a California University campus, researchers found that putting prompts in a

visible place to use less water (and conserve energy) while showering tripled water
conservation behavior from the baseline data. Asking students to model this behavior
boosted conservation behavior further.69

Facilitate planning and goal-setting

Many people struggle to act on their intentions and achieve
subsequent goals. There are several reasons for this ‘intention-
action gap,’ including daily distractions, conflicting intentions, or Tip for success
small hassle factors (e.g., having to rinse a yogurt cup before being When using nudges,
check that they will occur
able to recycle it).70 We also consistently overestimate our future in contexts that facilitate
performance or the likelihood that good things will happen to their success (e.g., a nudge
us, and in turn, underestimate adverse events.71 Implementation initiative to increase bike
riders in a city will only
intentions ask people to note down, or at least consider, when,
work if the city’s roads are
where, and how they will follow up on their intention and thereby biker-friendly).
create a concrete association between a feeling or intention
in the present and the consequential behavior in the future.72
Commitment devices can further be helpful by binding people to
future actions based on choices made in the present.73

The strategies:

• Provide support in making a plan to achieve the target behavior.

• Leverage personal commitments in the present to limit future decisions.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 23

 See it in action
€ A study found that public commitments combined with prompts to create lists
in advance about what they plan to buy at the grocery store could lead German
households to reduce food waste.74

€ Highlighting transport information and encouraging people to deliberately plan their car
trips has been demonstrated to be quite effective in reducing car usage.75

€ A corporation found they could increase employees’ energy conservation behavior by asking
them to set clear goals around using less energy with their computers over a few weeks.76

Tip for success

Keep in mind the ways choice architecture is separate from other levers such as material incentives, rules
and regulations, and information: a) it does not eliminate choices, b) it does not change the incentives or
disincentives of doing a behavior, and c) it goes beyond giving factual information. Choice architecture
works because of the reliance on cognitive biases or habits in more automatic decision-making moments,
where material incentives, rules and regulations, and information connect to our deliberate and rational
patterns of thinking.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 24

SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: Rare

How a decision aid reduced lobster overfishing

The problem
Local Bahamian communities identified that fishers were catching too many immature lobsters, which
was affecting the long-term success of the fishery.

The solution
The program designer conducted surveys, interviews, and observations of community
members in local fishing villages. The research revealed that fishers were already
motivated to reduce their catch of immature lobsters but lacked the support to do
so. The campaign “Size Matters” provided a simple, easy-to-use measurement tool
so fishers could quickly assess whether a lobster was large enough to keep. This
campaign resulted in the Bahamas’ spiny lobster fishery being the first in the Caribbean
to receive the Marine Council Stewardship certification.

OTHER LEVERS APPLIED: Emotional Appeals

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 25

i

Information
Providing information on the target behavior is,
why it matters, and how to do it

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 26

About Information
Humans are intrinsically motivated to learn, so information is important to us. However, not all information
is the same, and it’s typically not sufficient for changing behavior on its own.77 There are a few different
types of information that are useful to identify:

• Declarative knowledge is knowing what a behavior is,

• Procedural knowledge is the ability to know how to do a behavior, and

• Effectiveness knowledge is the ability to describe the behavior’s impact on an environmental

challenge and why it matters.78

Additionally, building self-efficacy, the belief that someone has the ability and skills to achieve a certain
outcome, and sharing feedback can help people feel more confident in themselves to start and keep
doing a behavior.79 Providing the right type of information, and in a form that resonates with your
audience, supports behavior change.

Principles & Strategies

Build awareness and understanding
When a behavior is new, abstract, or complex, helping people
understand the behavior can support greater adoption. Beyond
providing spaces and materials for people to learn about Tips for success
behaviors, communicating clearly about target behaviors is • Identifying the specific type
also important.80 Information is useful before, during, or after of information needed (e.g.,
procedural, declarative) to
a behavior is performed, and feedback supports people in
support behavior change is
knowing how to do the behavior correctly.81 Information can more valuable than general
further correct or update existing beliefs about a behavior or information-based strategies.
environmental topic, especially when people have received
• Information is not always a
misinformation in the past. 82 For many, providing relevant prerequisite for people to
information about a behavior helps people make more informed engage in certain behaviors.
decisions and feel their behavior is more meaningful. While it may seem like
a necessary part of any
solution, there are behavioral
The strategies: interventions that work
without people knowing
• Provide informational forums, meetings, or materials what a behavior is or why it
that describe the target behavior and its importance. is important.

• Communicate about the target behavior in a clear,

concrete, and unambiguous way.

• Give feedback on performing the target behavior.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 27

 See it in action
€ A United States study on flood prevention found that people who knew climate risks led
them to be more proactive in acting on climate risks, separate from their exposure to
those hazards.83

€ An experiment with grocery shoppers showed that those who received informational
pamphlets in the mail with tips for waste reduction reported shopping more efficiently.84

€ A study on recycling behavior found that people were less likely to ‘wishcycle’ —
recycling something because one hopes it can be recycled, often leading to recycling
contamination — when they were given clear, visual information and feedback about
what is and what is not recyclable.85

Provide step-by-step instructions and build self-efficacy

Building skills and confidence in a behavior is an important informational strategy for behavior change.
This how-to knowledge goes beyond awareness-raising so that people can practice the behaviors on
their own.86 Environmentalists struggle to feel self-efficacy, especially in the face of large, systemic
challenges.87 Therefore, focusing on specific behaviors and providing clear instructions and training can
make a difference. Boosting people’s efficacy and skills to talk to others about a conservation behavior
can further have a multiplier effect.88

The strategies:

• Offer training on the target behavior.

• Provide materials that give instructions on how to do the target behavior.

• Build confidence in being able to do the target behavior.

See it in action
€ A group of researchers aimed to reduce wild meat consumption among households in
the Brazilian Amazon town of Tapauá. Among a series of interventions that combined
economic incentives with community outreach strategies, cooking courses and recipes
with instructions helped to reduce wild meat consumption by 62%.89

€ A study of students in Australia and the United States found that providing a definition
of self-efficacy and asking participants to reflect on their skills for doing green behaviors
led to higher intentions of buying green products.90

€ The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in partnership with the CGIAR
Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) launched
a series of information and communication (ICT) tools to help farmers in Colombia and
Honduras make more climate-responsive farming decisions.91

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 28

SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: Liz Bennett

How information revealed the dangers of

buying exotic pets
The problem
Illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade remains a huge global challenge, with consumer demand as a
main contributor.

The solution
A research team wanted to test what kinds of information may be effective in preventing people from
purchasing exotic pets. They created a survey that tested different types of informational messages
about species’ diets, possible zoonotic disease, animal welfare, legal consequences, or species
conservation consequences. Information on zoonotic disease and legal consequences led to a 39%
decrease in their likelihood of buying an exotic pet.92

OTHER LEVERS APPLIED: Material Incentives

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 29

Rules & Regulations
Enacting rules that promote or restrict a behavior

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 30

About Rules and Regulations
The knowledge of rules and laws can encourage or prevent people from doing a behavior. While not
everyone follows the rules, regulatory frameworks support behavior change because they can effectively
communicate order in a system, causing most people to associate a certain behavior as “right” or
“wrong.” Some rules also work through perceptions of fairness based on what people think is appropriate
or justified. In general, rules guide us about our environment and what will benefit us and/or others to do
or not do.93

Principles & Strategies

Mandate or prohibit behavior
There are two main options for regulating a behavior — mandating certain actions and restricting or
forbidding certain actions. These laws act as a formalized norm of allowed behaviors in a particular setting.

The strategies:

• Enact mandates that require or encourage the target behavior.

• Enact prohibitions that limit or forbid the problem behavior.

Tip for success

People have different responses to rules across contexts. Be sure to learn about how your target audience
views different rules. Bans on behavior can also be very difficult to monitor or enforce, especially for
behaviors done in private.

See it in action
€ As of 2017, at least 127 countries had some sort of plastic bag regulations of varying
restriction levels, with Rwanda being a global leader in its enforcement and seeing
measurable changes in plastic bag use and littering.94

€ The Endangered Species Act in the United States has been estimated to protect 99%
of threatened or endangered species to date.95

€ In 2023, the European Commission enacted a regulation with an eighteen-month

compliance timeline that requires companies selling to the European Union market to
ensure their products are not contributing to forest degradation or deforestation.96

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 31

SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: Donald Tong for Pexels

How the Montreal Protocol saved the ozone layer

The problem
In the 1970s and 1980s, scientists discovered that chlorofluorocarbons and other substances were
depleting the ozone layer. The ozone layer absorbs harmful radiation and prevents it from reaching the
Earth’s surface, where it negatively impacts ecosystems.

The solution
In 1987, a global agreement called the Montreal Protocol was introduced and universally adopted. Today,
almost 200 parties have signed the treaty. The impact of this protocol led to a 90% reduction in these
substances by 2010 based on projections and what could have been without this policy.97 As of 2022,
NASA scientists report that the ozone hole continues to shrink and attribute this to eliminating ozone-
depleting substances in the last few decades.98

OTHER LEVERS APPLIED: Social Influences

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 32

Material Incentives
Increasing or decreasing real or perceived costs, time,
or effort for doing a behavior

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 33

About Material Incentives
This lever is about costs and benefits in the broadest sense — money, time, convenience, or effort.
In more theoretical terms, the use of material or financial incentives comes from early economic and
rational actor theories such as utility maximization about how people make choices and develop
preferences to further their interests. 99 These models explore how we can increase the value or
attractiveness of a decision if it has fewer costs (such as time, money, and effort) and greater benefits.100
As a result, material incentives were some of the first strategies recommended for behavior change and
continue to be relevant in certain contexts.

Principles & Strategies

Make the behavior easy or the alternative hard
We can influence the amount of effort needed for a behavior by making the desired behavior easier.
This strategy is particularly helpful when people perceive a behavior as challenging. Conversely, instead
of removing barriers, we can add friction points or ways that make certain behaviors more difficult for
behaviors we don’t want people to do .

The strategies:

• Make the target behavior more convenient and accessible to do (e.g., remove barriers, provide substitutes.)
• Make the undesired behavior more difficult to do (e.g., create friction points and barriers.)

Tip for success

Material incentives can “crowd out” or “crowd in” internal or social motivations for doing a behavior,
depending on the context. It’s more likely they will crowd out when the cost or effort are not significant
barriers to change, the payments are very short term, or the payments are disrupted. Crowding-in effects
are more likely when benefits are non-monetary and/or collective, boost decision-making capacity, or
promote social connection and trust.103

See it in action
€ Policymakers have found that providing benefits to electric vehicle (EV) drivers could
encourage adoption: incentives like bus or transit lane access, toll-free parking or road
access, as well as improving EV-relevant infrastructure all contribute to higher EV
adoption rates.101

€ An experiment in dining halls at a United States university showed that removing trays
led to less food waste, as it took more effort to carry multiple plates and glasses.102

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 34

Give rewards or penalties
Other than changing the time and effort for the behavior, Tips for success
providing incentives that affect someone’s costs, time, or
• Rewarding good behavior can
effort is another strategy for behavior change. While some also build expectations that
incentives can crowd out internal motivations, there are times these rewards will be ongoing
when behaviorally-informed incentives can support sustainable and may need to increase
over time for the same effect.
behavior or even crowd in other motivations.104 The timing, type, Some people might see fines
amount of the incentive, and type of behavior all are important. as the price for the behavior.
For example, variable timing is often better than fixed timing
• Consider using behaviorally-
because it reduces dependence.105 Alternatively, fines are an informed incentives by
option to discourage future behavior particularly when that fine combining material incentives
makes the behavior either financially or materially prohibitive. with one of the other levers
to boost its effects.

The strategies: • Incentives can drain

limited resources, so
• Incentivize or reinforce the target behavior. explore different payment
schedules or program budget
• Penalize or fine for cases of the problem behavior.
accommodations over the
length of the intervention.

See it in action
€ Researchers conducted an experiment in Uganda to see the impact of providing cash
incentives for not cutting down trees. The loss of forest over the lifetime of the project in
the treated Ugandan villages was smaller (4.2% forest loss) than in the control villages
that did not receive the payments (9.1% forest loss).106

€ Impounding or seizing vehicles is one of the most effective ways to stop illegal solid
waste dumping.107

€ A growing number of European cities are introducing policies that allow citizens to
access payment vouchers if they repair their items for up to 50% of the repair cost.
Results from Austria estimate 260 tons of e-waste avoided the landfills in one year.108

€ In partnership with local hotels, the NGO ARCAS introduced a community engagement
scheme that sought to encourage the sustainable harvesting of turtle eggs in
Guatemala.109 Though the scheme bans egg collection for most turtle species, it
explicitly allows for the harvest of Olive Ridley turtles, if egg collectors donate at least
20% of the harvested eggs to hatcheries. The number of eggs rescued nationally
increased from 60,000 in 2003 to 270,000 in 2015, doubling the number of turtles
nesting on Hawai’i beaches.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 35

SPOTLIGHT

Photo Credit: PRISMA

How providing materials made recycling

easier in Perú
The problem
Waste management and disposal is a challenge in Perú, where over 20,000 tons of waste are generated
daily. A local NGO, PRISMA, supported local informal recyclers to develop recycling microenterprises in
an attempt to address the problem. PRISMA staff and recyclers visited households to enroll them in a
recycling program that included providing information on waste separation and free recycling bags. The
baseline data revealed few recycling households and high trash contamination among recycled materials.

The solution
PRISMA worked with a team of researchers to analyze the problem through a few thousand households
in two different districts of Perú. Through a randomized experimental design, they tried nine different
messages including social benefits, environmental impact, and local rules, but none had an effect. The
research team learned that residents did not want to keep recyclables in their houses because they did
not have space for them and for fear that they would attract insects, both of which could be alleviated
with proper bin storage. As a result, they found that providing residents with plastic recycling bins was
the only significant strategy to encourage recycling compared to different messaging. The households
with a bin were six percentage points more likely to recycle, had less recycling contamination, and had a
higher number of recycled materials than those who did not receive a bin.110

OTHER LEVERS APPLIED: Emotional Appeals

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 36

Common Lever
Combinations

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 37

 E

UR
RULES &
R E G U L AT I O N S

Exploring lever combinations

Designing successful behavior change interventions often requires a combination of levers to address
people’s motivations and barriers. The following pages explore some common lever combinations.

i
i

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 38

SOCIAL INFLUENCES

+ Material Incentives
Group incentives can be an effective way to motivate
i behavior, where a person’s success is tied to others
also succeeding. For example, if a person only
receives an incentive if another person or their whole
group reaches a shared goal, then they are more likely
to work together. Reciprocity can also pair well with
incentives; free samples or products can encourage
people to participate in related programs.

+ Rules & Regulations

In many contexts, rules are more formalized versions
of social norms, communicating what is considered
right or wrong in a given place. You can use this to your
advantage by enacting a law and supporting it with
shared beliefs and messengers who follow the rules.

+ Information
For messaging campaigns, consider including
quotes from influential or relatable figures, messages
that create social comparison, or behavior adoption
positive trends.

INFORMATION

+ Emotional Appeals
Customizing and tailoring information including key
places, language, images, and references can help
a group connect to the target behavior.

+ Social Influences
Messaging about others’ actions or building tools
and skills for people to converse with others about
i

a behavior can be effective.

+ Choice Architecture
Providing feedback in timely moments can be an
effective pairing of these two levers where people learn
information at times when they can also act on it.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 39

EMOTIONAL APPEALS

+ Information
Designing informational messaging that incorporates
an emotional appeal can be an effective way to
motivate behavior change. Combining details about

i
what something is, why someone should care, or how
to do something with familiar and personal references,
context, and metaphors can help your message resonate.

+ Social Influences
While some emotions are individual experiences,
others have social causes or consequences (e.g.,
shame, pride) that you must consider when developing
strategies. Similarly, identities and values shared
among groups often determine how people act.

+ Material Incentives
Emotions often correlate with real and perceived gains
and losses. When sharing potential material rewards
or consequences associated with doing or not doing
a behavior, consider connecting those outcomes with
how someone might feel.

RULES & REGULATIONS

+ Social Influences
Regulations are most powerful when supportive social
norms act as informal rules about a behavior.

+ Material Incentives
Rules benefit from enforcement, such as incentives
or penalties.

+ Choice Architecture
Visible and memorable rule prompts can help people
remember and follow rules.

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 40

CHOICE ARCHITECTURE

+ Information
Providing feedback in timely moments can be an
effective pairing of these two levers where people
learn information at times when they can also act on it.

+ Emotional Appeals
Making behavior change opportunities more salient,
easy to understand, interesting, and visually-appealing
can draw on principles from both choice architecture and
insights about people’s values, interests, and life goals.
i

+ Material Incentives
In some cases, making a behavior easier involves
significantly reducing the effort, time, or resources
required in addition to changing smaller hassle factors
and attention.

MATERIAL INCENTIVES

+ Social Influences
Offer financial or symbolic incentives where rewards
are based on group performance, Additionally, the
person or group providing the incentive may have an
impact on how it is received.

+ Choice Architecture
Harness loss aversion by taking away or discontinuing
payments with non-compliance. Offering incentives at
a timely moment close to doing the behavior can also
boost adoption.

+ Emotional Appeals
Use tailored language by key messengers and consider
how you frame the incentive (e.g., “compensation”
vs. “payments”.)

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 41

Endnotes
1 Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow.

2 Osman, “An Evaluation of Dual-Process Theories of Reasoning.”

3 Lerner et al., “Emotion and Decision Making.”

4 Bujold and Karak, “To Scale Behavior Change.”

5 Bates and Glennerster, “The Generalizability Puzzle.”

6 Williamson, Bujold, and Thulin, “Behavior Change Interventions in Practice: A Synthesis of Criteria,
Approaches, Case Studies & Indicators.”

7 Popitz, “The Concept of Social Role as an Element of Sociological Theory.”

8 Hechter et al., Social Institutions.

9 Adolphs and Andler, “Investigating Emotions as Functional States Distinct From Feelings”; Lerner et al.,
“Emotion and Decision Making”; Peters et al., “Affect and Decision Making”; Williams and DeSteno, “Origins
and Functions of Positive Affect.”

10 Carver, Scheier, and Johnson, “Origins and Functions of Positive Affect”; Frijda, “Emotions and Action”;
Lazarus, “Relational Meaning and Discrete Emotions”; Tooby and Cosmides, “The Past Explains the Present.”

11 Williamson and Thulin, “Leveraging Emotion-Behavior Pathways to Support Environmental Behavior Change.”

12 Fessler and Haley, “The Strategy of Affect: Emotions in Human Cooperation”; Tracy, Shariff, and Cheng,
“DOI”; Weidman, Tracy, and Elliot, “The Benefits of Following Your Pride”; Williams and DeSteno, “Pride and
Perseverance.”

13 Barclay, “Reputational Benefits for Altruistic Punishment”; Cushman, “The Role of Learning in Punishment,
Prosociality, and Human Uniqueness”; Jordan et al., “Third-Party Punishment as a Costly Signal of
Trustworthiness”; Kurzban, DeScioli, and O’Brien, “Audience Effects on Moralistic Punishment”; van Doorn,
Zeelenberg, and Breugelmans, “Anger and Prosocial Behavior.”

14 Fredrickson, “What Good Are Positive Emotions?”; Silvia, “Interest—The Curious Emotion.”

15 Feldman and Hart, “Is There Any Hope?”

16 Kleres and Wettergren, “Fear, Hope, Anger, and Guilt in Climate Activism.”

17 Schneider et al., “The Influence of Anticipated Pride and Guilt on Pro-Environmental Decision Making.”

18 Nickerson, “Confirmation Bias.”

19 Howell, “It’s Not (Just) ‘the Environment, Stupid!’ Values, Motivations, and Routes to Engagement of People
Adopting Lower-Carbon Lifestyles”; Wang et al., “Emotions Predict Policy Support.”

20 Loewenstein, Small, and Strnad, “Statistical, Identifiable and Iconic Victims and Perpetrators”; Thomas-
Walters and Raihani, “Supporting Conservation.”

21 Asensio and Delmas, “Nonprice Incentives and Energy Conservation.”

22 Vennard, Park, and Attwood, “Encouraging Sustainable Food Consumption by Using More-Appetizing Language.”

23 Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment, “Reviving Ancestral Farming Practices through Behavioral Science.”

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 42

24 Pickering et al., “Applying Behavioural Science to the Queensland Sugar Cane Industry and Its Relationship to
the Great Barrier Reef.”

25 Cialdini et al., “Managing Social Norms for Persuasive Impact”; Cialdini and Goldstein, “Social Influence.”

26 Yoeli et al., “Powering up with Indirect Reciprocity in a Large-Scale Field Experiment.”

27 Offord-Woolley, “The Chi Initiative: A Behaviour Change Initiative to Reduce the Demand for Rhino Horn in
Viet Nam”; TRAFFIC, “Traditional Medicine Practitioners in Viet Nam Pledge to Protect Threatened Wildlife.”

28 Bicchieri, Norms in the Wild; Hawkins, Goodman, and Goldstone, “The Emergence of Social Norms and
Conventions.”

29 Venema, Kroese, and Ridder, “I’m Still Standing.”

30 Sparkman and Walton, “Dynamic Norms Promote Sustainable Behavior, Even If It Is Counternormative.”

31 Turner, Social Categorization and the Self-Concept.

32 Cialdini and Goldstein, “Social Influence.”

33 Settina, Marion, and Schwartz, “Leave No Trace Communication.”

34 Datta et al., A Behavioral Approach to Water Conservation.

35 Fafchamps et al., “Can Referral Improve Targeting?”; Villamayor-Tomas, Sagebiel, and Olschewski, “Bringing
the Neighbors In.”

36 Cole and Fernando, “‘Mobile’Izing Agricultural Advice”; Genius et al., “Information Transmission in Irrigation
Technology Adoption and Diffusion”; Kuhfuss et al., “Nudging Farmers to Enrol Land into Agri-Environmental
Schemes”; Vu et al., “Does Experience Sharing Affect Farmers’ pro-Environmental Behavior?”

37 Muntifering and Rhino Pride Campaign, “Large-Scale Black Rhino Conservation in North-West Namibia: A
Review of the Conservancy Rhino Ranger Incentive Programme.”

38 Bicchieri, Norms in the Wild.

39 Green et al., “Behavior Change for Nature: A Behavioral Science Toolkit for Practitioners”; Moros, Vélez, and
Corbera, “Payments for Ecosystem Services and Motivational Crowding in Colombia’s Amazon Piedmont”;
Prentice and Paluck, “Engineering Social Change Using Social Norms.”

40 Goldstein, Griskevicius, and Cialdini, “Reciprocity by Proxy.”

41 Martinez, Green, and DeWan, “Establishing Reciprocal Agreements for Water and Biodiversity Conservation
through a Social Marketing Campaign in Quanda Watershed, Peru.”

42 Saypanya et al., “Effectiveness of a Social Marketing Strategy, Coupled with Law Enforcement, to Conserve
Tigers and Their Prey in Nam Et Phou Louey National Protected Area, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.”

43 Moros, Vélez, and Corbera, “Payments for Ecosystem Services and Motivational Crowding in Colombia’s
Amazon Piedmont.”

44 Centola et al., “Experimental Evidence for Tipping Points in Social Convention.”

45 Bollinger and Gillingham, “Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Panels.”

46 Gillingham and Bollinger, “Social Learning and Solar Photovoltaic Adoption: Evidence from a Field Experiment.”

47 Sunstein, “Nudges Do Not Undermine Human Agency.”

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 43

48 Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge.

49 Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler, “Anomalies”; Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge.

50 Thaler and Sunstein, Nudge.

51 Bang, Shu, and Weber, “The Role of Perceived Effectiveness on the Acceptability of Choice Architecture.”

52 Ebeling and Lotz, “Domestic Uptake of Green Energy Promoted by Opt-out Tariffs.”

53 McCoy et al., “Nudging Waste Diversion at Western State Colorado University.”

54 Stefansdotter et al., Nudging for Sustainable Consumption of Electronics.

55 Crentsil, Gschwandtner, and Wahhaj, “The Effects of Risk and Ambiguity Aversion on Technology Adoption”;
Ward and Singh, “Using Field Experiments to Elicit Risk and Ambiguity Preferences.”

56 Camilleri et al., “Consumers Underestimate the Emissions Associated with Food but Are Aided by Labels.”

57 Wood and Neal, “Healthy through Habit: Interventions for Initiating & Maintaining Health Behavior Change.”

58 Shreedhar, Moran, and Mills, “Sticky Brown Sludge Everywhere.”

59 Gigerenzer, “Why Heuristics Work.”

60 van Dooren et al., “Development and Evaluation of the Eetmaatje Measuring Cup for Rice and Pasta as an
Intervention to Reduce Food Waste.”

61 Duffy and Verges, “It Matters a Hole Lot.”

62 SIRCOME, Université de Bohème du Sud, and Université de Bretagne Sud, “The Influence of Lifespan
Labelling on Consumers.”

63 Dai, Milkman, and Riis, “The Fresh Start Effect.”

64 Shearer et al., “A Problem Unstuck?”

65 Wallander, Ferraro, and Higgins, “Addressing Participant Inattention in Federal Programs.”

66 Duflo, Kremer, and Robinson, “Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer.”

67 Verplanken and Roy, “Empowering Interventions to Promote Sustainable Lifestyles.”

68 Chakravarty and Mishra, “Using Social Norms to Reduce Paper Waste.”

69 Aronson and O’Leary, “The Relative Effectiveness of Models and Prompts on Energy Conservation.”

70 Webb and Sheeran, “Does Changing Behavioral Intentions Engender Behavior Change?”

71 Sharot, “The Optimism Bias.”

72 Gollwitzer and Sheeran, “Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement.”

73 Bryan, Karlan, and Nelson, “Commitment Devices.”

74 Schmidt, “Explaining and Promoting Household Food Waste-Prevention by an Environmental Psychological

Based Intervention Study.”

75 Bamberg, “Effects of Implementation Intentions on the Actual Performance of New Environmentally Friendly
Behaviours — Results of Two Field Experiments.”

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 44

76 Staples, Webster, and Lv, “Comparing Goal Setting Approaches to Boosting Pro-Environmental Behaviors.”

77 Cinner, “How Behavioral Science Can Help Conservation.”

78 Kaiser and Fuhrer, “Ecological Behavior’s Dependency on Different Forms of Knowledge.”

79 Bandura, “On the Functional Properties of Perceived Self-Efficacy Revisited.”

80 Porter et al., “Using the Clear Communication Index to Improve Materials for a Behavioral Intervention.”

81 Darby, “Making It Obvious.”

82 Spampatti et al., “Psychological Inoculation Strategies to Fight Climate Disinformation across 12 Countries”;
van Stekelenburg et al., “Scientific-Consensus Communication About Contested Science.”

83 Park and Vedlitz, “Climate Hazards and Risk Status.”

84 de Young et al., “Promoting Source Reduction Behavior.”

85 Kramer, Yoeli, and Rand, “Counterproductive Norms Can Be Addressed via Informational Interventions.”

86 Arlinghaus and Johnston, “Advocating for Behavior Change With Education.”

87 Hunter and Jordan, “‘I Have a Little, Little, Little Footprint on the World’ and ‘I’m Not Political.’”

88 Niemiec et al., “Efficacy-Based and Normative Interventions for Facilitating the Diffusion of Conservation
Behavior through Social Networks.”

89 Chaves et al., “Changing Wild Meat Consumption.”

90 Schutte and Bhullar, “Approaching Environmental Sustainability.”

91 “ICTs For Small-Scale Farmers: A Game Changing Approach to Climate Smart Agriculture in Latin America |
Colombia and Honduras | UNFCCC.”

92 Moorhouse et al., “Information Could Reduce Consumer Demand for Exotic Pets.”

93 Jolls, Sunstein, and Thaler, “A Behavioral Approach to Law and Economics.”

94 Nielsen, Holmberg, and Stripple, “Need a Bag?”; UNEP, “Legal Limits on Single-Use Plastics and
Microplastics: A Global Review of National Laws and Regulations.”

95 Greenwald et al., “Extinction and the U.S. Endangered Species Act”; Taylor, Suckling, and Rachlinski, “The
Effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act.”

96 Directorate-General for Environment, “Green Deal.”

97 Velders et al., “The Importance of the Montreal Protocol in Protecting Climate.”

98 Cawdrey, “Ozone Hole Continues Shrinking in 2022, NASA and NOAA Scientists Say - NASA.”

99 Simon, “Rationality in Society.”

100 Becker, The Economic Approach to Human Behavior.

101 Hardman, “Understanding the Impact of Reoccurring and Non-Financial Incentives on Plug-in Electric Vehicle
Adoption – A Review.”

102 Rajbhandari-Thapa, Ingerson, and Lewis, “Impact of Trayless Dining Intervention on Food Choices of
University Students.”

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 45

103 Moros, Vélez, and Corbera, “Payments for Ecosystem Services and Motivational Crowding in Colombia’s
Amazon Piedmont.”

104 Rode, Gómez-Baggethun, and Krause, “Motivation Crowding by Economic Incentives in Conservation Policy.”

105 Maki et al., “Paying People to Protect the Environment.”

106 Cárdenas, “Cash Incentives Avert Deforestation.”

107 Du, Xu, and Zuo, “Status Quo of Illegal Dumping Research.”

108 Ganapini, “There Is Life on Mars! Success Stories of Financial Incentives to Make Repair Affordable.”

109 Muccio, “Conservation, Crime and Communities: The Hawaii Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project,
Guatemala.”

110 Chong et al., “(Ineffective) Messages to Encourage Recycling.”

THE LEVERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE | 46

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