Squash’d!Keith McDaniel | Reed MathenyJune 3rd, 2010

habits.stanford.edu

How do you get an omnivore to

eat 12 vegetables in 1 meal?

Squash’d!

Make him compete against other omnivores!

Our Users:Stanford students

(both undergraduates and graduates) who eat meat but have the ability and the desire to eat more veggies

Squash’d!

Squash’d: The Competition

Squash’d!

Users tweeted when they ate a vegetarian meal, including how many veggies were in it, with the hashtag #squashd

Every day, they were sent a leader board, where their points were calculated:

+2 Points each day that they ate a vegetarian meal +1 Point for each vegetarian meal +1 Point for each vegetable in a vegetarian meal

Results: We asked…

Squash’d!

Series1

70% 72% 74% 76% 78% 80% 82% 84%

82%74%

BeforeAfter

How likely were you to eat at least 5 veggies a day?

What was your strategy during the competition?

“Find foods rich in vegetables…” “Every meal I would try to eat as many vegetables as could get a hold of…”

How many MORE vegetables did you eat each day (on average) during the competition?

“Diverse infrequent vegetarian meals…”

Users ate 2.8 more vegetables each day during the competition.

Successes

With Squash’d, we helped introduce people to new vegetables they had never tried before

We increased our users’ likelihood of eating 5 veggies per day by 8%

…And we made it fun!

Squash’d!

A Proof of Concept

Our Squash’d trial proved that social and mobile technologies can be utilized to create positive behavior change – we just have to design lightweight, appealing programs

But on that note, we have more work to do…

Squash’d!

Improvements for Squash’d 2.0

Targeting Tighter Friend Groups:Our users were not all close friends – to maximize the behavior-changing power of competition we need strong friend groups

Weekly Competitions:Wagers arranged within friend groups and prizes in the larger Squash’d network given to outstanding veggie-eaters

Allow Challenges Between Individuals:Challenges from peers and exemplary eaters can be extremely powerful motivators in the realm of behavior change – and would allow us to track and reward the goals of individual users

Squash’d!