
BEHAVIOR CHANGE TACTIC
Social Benchmarking
Social benchmarking refers to comparing a person's behavior, trends, or status to others. Often, merely providing data on others can change behavior by leveraging social norms. For example, letters comparing homeowners' use of electricity with peers were found to significantly reduce the amount of energy used by high-consumption households compared to non-comparison messages.
Studies involving Social Benchmarking
PAPERS
Nudging Guideline-Concordant Antibiotic Prescribing
AUTHORS
Daniella Meeker, Tara Knight, Mark Friedberg, Jeffrey Linder, Noah Goldstein, Craig Fox, Alan Rothfeld, Guillermo Diaz, Jason Doctor
BEHAVIOR
Prescribing Medications, Healthcare Delivery
TACTICS
Public Commitments, Commitment Devices
PAPERS
Reducing Household Water Consumption
AUTHORS
Saugato Datta, Matthew Darling, Karina Lorenzana, Oscar Calvo Gonzalez, Juan Jose Miranda, Laura de Castro Zoratto
TACTICS
Social Benchmarking, Rules of Thumb
PAPERS
The Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Behavioral Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Energy Conservation
AUTHORS
H Allcott, Todd Rogers
BEHAVIOR
Conservation Behaviors
TACTICS
Social Benchmarking, Rules of Thumb, Feedback
PAPERS
Public Praise vs. Private Pay: Effects of Rewards on Energy Conservation in the Workplace.
AUTHORS
Kirstin Appelt, Margriet van Lidth de Jeude, MJJ Handgraaf
BEHAVIOR
Conservation Behaviors
TACTICS
Social Benchmarking, Micro-Incentives, Feedback, Non-Financial Incentives
PAPERS
Goals and Social Comparisons Promote Walking Behavior
AUTHORS
Elliot Coups, Kimberly Convery, Helen Colby, Gretchen Chapman
BEHAVIOR
Physical Activity
TACTICS
Goal Setting, Social Benchmarking, Feedback
PAPERS
Conditional Cooperation in the Field.
BEHAVIOR
Charitable Giving
TACTICS
Social Benchmarking
PAPERS
Evidence from Two Large Field Experiments that Peer Comparison Feedback Can Reduce Residential Energy Usage.
BEHAVIOR
Conservation Behaviors
TACTICS
Feedback, Social Benchmarking
PAPERS
The Impact of Downward Social Information on Contribution Decisions.
BEHAVIOR
Charitable Giving
TACTICS
Framing Effects, Social Benchmarking
Products leveraging Social Benchmarking

PRODUCTS
Welltok
Behaviors
Disease Management, Physical Activity, Diet & Nutrition +2 more
Tactics
Education or Information, Reminders, Cues +10 more

PRODUCTS
Opower
Behaviors
Other, Civic Participation
Tactics
Reduce Friction or Barriers

PRODUCTS
Welltory
Behaviors
Mental Health & Self-Care, Physical Activity
Tactics
Reminders, Cues, & Triggers +6 more

PRODUCTS
Betterment
Behaviors
Savings, Financial Behaviors
Tactics
Education or Information, Reminders, Cues +9 more

PRODUCTS
Strava
Behaviors
Mental Health & Self-Care
Tactics
Self-Monitoring or Tracking, Reminders, Cues +1 more
Models
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

PRODUCTS
Dreams
Behaviors
Savings, Financial Behaviors
Tactics
Education or Information, Reminders, Cues +9 more
Related behavior change tactics

TACTICS
AI or Chatbot
Using a chatbot or simulated conversational interaction.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.