Implementation Intentions

BEHAVIOR CHANGE TACTIC

Implementation Intentions

Implementation intentions are specific details for when and how a behavior should or will be performed. These are often formulated as ""if-then"" rules, such as:- "if I crave something sweet, I'll have fruit instead of candy"- "if I am in the mood for a cigarette, I'll wait 5 minutes—then, if I still want it, I can have one"Other examples include studies where flu vaccination uptake was higher in groups of people nudged to make more specific plans (i.e. picking a specific time and date, along with a mode of transport to a specific clinic). The same general effect was observed with voting behaviors. These are a generally low-cost tool to slightly improve the gap between intention and performance of a behavior.

Studies involving Implementation Intentions

PAPERS

South Africa Project: Safety Pilot

BEHAVIOR

Public Safety

TACTICS

Implementation Intentions, Active Choice

PAPERS

Potential follow-up increases private contributions to public goods

AUTHORS

E Yoeli, J Ternovski, Todd Rogers

BEHAVIOR

Voting

TACTICS

Implementation Intentions, Identity Priming, Reminders, Cues, & Triggers

PAPERS

Do You Have a Voting Plan? Implementation Intentions, Voter Turnout, and Organic Plan Making

AUTHORS

DW Nickerson, Todd Rogers

BEHAVIOR

Voting

TACTICS

Implementation Intentions

PAPERS

Account Opening Process to Increase Intentional Savings

AUTHORS

Alexandra Fiorillo, Louis Potok, Josh Wright

BEHAVIOR

Savings

TACTICS

Implementation Intentions, Goal Setting, Reminders, Cues, & Triggers, Reduce Cognitive Load

PAPERS

Boost Flood Preparedness with a Redesigned Letter

BEHAVIOR

Public Safety

TACTICS

Checklists, Reminders, Cues, & Triggers

PAPERS

Keeping College Students in School: "You Belong"

TACTICS

Social Norms, Identity Priming, Reminders, Cues, & Triggers

PAPERS

Improving Collaborative Behaviour Planning in Adult Auditory Rehabilitation: Development of the I-PLAN Intervention Using the Behaviour Change Wheel.

BEHAVIOR

Care Plan Compliance

TACTICS

Education or Information, Implementation Intentions, Reminders, Cues, & Triggers

PAPERS

Evaluation of a theory of planned behaviour-based breastfeeding intervention in Northern Irish schools using a randomized cluster design.

BEHAVIOR

Other

TACTICS

Education or Information, Implementation Intentions

PAPERS

Facilitating Sunscreen Use Among Chinese Young Adults: Less-Motivated Persons Benefit from a Planning Intervention.

BEHAVIOR

Sunscreen Use & Sun Avoidance

TACTICS

Education or Information, Implementation Intentions

Related behavior change tactics

AI or Chatbot

TACTICS

AI or Chatbot

Using a chatbot or simulated conversational interaction.‍

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

TACTICS

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT is a therapeutic approach originalled developed by Steven Hayes. It borrows from previous concepts like cognitive behavioral therapy and Morita therapy. The principles of ACT are fairly systematic and lend themselves well to program design, finding empirical support in adaptations like 2morrow's smoking cessation and pain management interventions.‍

Active Choice

TACTICS

Active Choice

Active choice, sometimes referred to as enhanced active choice or forced choice, refers to removing default options and often increasing the salience of potential decisions through emphasizing the consequences of one or more of the options. Coined by Punam Anand Keller and colleagues in 2011, it was originally intended to address concerns around paternalistic nudging for use in situations where forcing the default option may be considered unethical. In one of the original studies, CVS customers were given the choice to enroll in automatic refills of medications via delivery. The choices they were presented were ""Enroll in refills at home"" vs “I Prefer to Order my Own Refills.”‍

Automation

TACTICS

Automation

Automation refers to having another person, group, or technology system perform part or all of the intended behavior. A prominent example is Thaler & Bernartzi's Save More Tomorrow intervention, which invested a portion of employees' earnings into retirement funds automatically and even increased the contribution level to scale with pay raises. Other examples include automatically scheduling medical appointments so the patient needn't do it themselves and mailing healthy recipe ingredients to the person's home to reduce the burden of shopping.‍

Behavior Substitution

TACTICS

Behavior Substitution

Behavior substitution refers to attempting to eliminate a problematic behavior by replacing it with another one. Often, the substituted behaviors are intended to have similar sensory qualities (e.g. drink flavored sparkling water instead of soda). The goal is typically to disassociate the original behavior from its cue, enabling the more positive behavior to be triggered automatically.‍

Behavioral Activation (BA)

TACTICS

Behavioral Activation (BA)

Behavioral activation is a therapeutic approach that typically pairs activity scheduling with either monitoring tools or goal-setting. For example, someone might aim to balance activities they "should" do but underperform, like self-care behaviors, with activities they enjoy. Users of this technique may also track which activities cause certain cognitions or affective states, like those associated with depression.‍