Three Examples of Changing Behavior by Changing ContextNancy Otero notero@stanford.edu

Content

According to behavioral Guru and Stanford Professor B.J.Fogg’s only three things can change behavior:

Have an epiphany

Change your context

Take baby steps

This presentation illustrates three experiments of trying to change behavior by changing the context

Goal: Buy three different kinds of vegetables per week

Started: 10/11/2012

Context change: Trigger the behavior by being at a place where vegetables that I like are

being sold once per week

How to make it easy? Arrange a meeting with a friend to go to the Farmer’s Market every Sunday

at 12:30 p.m. Ask her to pick me up Duration: Event that repeats every week

Rewarding System: Buy something that I like that I usually won’t buy

Process

Bought broccolis, tomatoes, carrots, and

avocado

Vegetables in easy to

see place… and reward system ->

Farmer’s Market! So many vegetables! :O

Surprises

Bought fruit also

Farmers gave me tips for preparing those vegetables

Good for socializing with my friend

My friend was so surprise I was buying vegetables at the Farmer’s Market that she got interested in behavioral change

Goal: Eat the vegetables I bought

Started: 10/11/2012

Context change: In order to have a constant trigger that reminds me to eat the

vegetables I have in the fridge, I installed a video camera at my place

How to make it easy? I can see myself in video camera so it’s very hard to ignore that the

video camera is there Duration: Constant

Rewarding System: Eat the rewarding system from the previous experiment

Process

First thing a I see when enter my

place: The video camera leg!!

When I’m in the kitchen I see the video camera all the time, and I see myself in the video camera

Very hard not to remember that I need to eat

vegetables and that something is watching my

behavior

Surprises

Finding a good trigger was very hard Didn’t work with the “eat them” note on the fridge Didn’t work with “vegetables are good” note the

entrance of the kitchen Only worked with the video camera

Washed the dishes because I felt observed

Goal: Stop thinking about what needs to be done before going to sleep

Started: 10/11/2012

Context change: Removing any distraction from my bed space

How to make it easy? Cover the bed and create a protected space that occupies

the bed only Duration: Single event

Rewarding System: Bought a hat

Process

My bed before

The view from my bed:Before: Oh no! So much to do still!!!

After: So nice colors :)

My bed after

Surprises

Slept better because it protected me from morning light

Create a “room” in my studio

Feel better about having visits in my studio because they can’t see my bed

Discover several ways how to NOT attach textiles to the celling

Decorated more my place after experiencing how much context affects behavior