IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobhdp/v161y2020isp39-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Behavior change

Author

Listed:
  • Duckworth, Angela L.
  • Gross, James J.

Abstract

Despite rapid growth in the empirical research on behavior change, modern science has yet to produce a coherent set of recommendations for individuals and organizations eager to align everyday actions with enduringly valued goals. We propose the process model of behavior change as a parsimonious framework for organizing strategies according to where they have their primary impact in the generation of behavioral impulses. To begin, individuals exist in objective situations, only certain features of which attract attention, which in turn lead to subjective appraisals, then finally give rise to response tendencies. Unhealthy habits develop when conflicting impulses are consistently resolved in favor of momentary temptations instead of valued goals. To change behavior for the better, we can strategically modify objective situations, where we pay attention, how we construct appraisals, and how we enact responses. Crucially, behavior change strategies can be initiated either by the individual (i.e., self-control) or by others (e.g., a benevolent employer).

Suggested Citation

  • Duckworth, Angela L. & Gross, James J., 2020. "Behavior change," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(S), pages 39-49.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:161:y:2020:i:s:p:39-49
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.09.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597820303848
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.09.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heather Royer & Mark Stehr & Justin Sydnor, 2015. "Incentives, Commitments, and Habit Formation in Exercise: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Workers at a Fortune-500 Company," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 51-84, July.
    2. Hengchen Dai & Katherine L. Milkman & Jason Riis, 2014. "The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2563-2582, October.
    3. Smith, Ken G. & Locke, Edwin A. & Barry, David, 1990. "Goal setting, planning, and organizational performance: An experimental simulation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 118-134, June.
    4. Thaler, Richard H & Shefrin, H M, 1981. "An Economic Theory of Self-Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(2), pages 392-406, April.
    5. Xavier Giné & Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2010. "Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is: A Commitment Contract for Smoking Cessation," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 213-235, October.
    6. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    7. Roland Benabou & Jean Tirole, 2004. "Willpower and Personal Rules," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(4), pages 848-886, August.
    8. Daniel M. Bartels & Oleg Urminsky, 2011. "On Intertemporal Selfishness: How the Perceived Instability of Identity Underlies Impatient Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(1), pages 182-198.
    9. Emir Kamenica, 2012. "Behavioral Economics and Psychology of Incentives," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 427-452, July.
    10. Gareth J. Hollands & Giacomo Bignardi & Marie Johnston & Michael P. Kelly & David Ogilvie & Mark Petticrew & Andrew Prestwich & Ian Shemilt & Stephen Sutton & Theresa M. Marteau, 2017. "The TIPPME intervention typology for changing environments to change behaviour," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(8), pages 1-9, August.
    11. Edward L. Glaeser, 2005. "Paternalism and Psychology," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2097, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    12. Jonathan D. Cohen, 2005. "The Vulcanization of the Human Brain: A Neural Perspective on Interactions Between Cognition and Emotion," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 3-24, Fall.
    13. Dean Karlan & Margaret McConnell & Sendhil Mullainathan & Jonathan Zinman, 2016. "Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(12), pages 3393-3411, December.
    14. Edward L. Glaeser, 2005. "Paternalism and Psychology," NBER Working Papers 11789, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Ziebland, Sue & Thorogood, Margaret & Yudkin, Pat & Jones, Lesley & Coulter, Angela, 0. "Lack of willpower or lack of wherewithal? "Internal" and "external" barriers to changing diet and exercise in a three year follow-up of participants in a health check," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(4-5), pages 461-465, February.
    16. van der Swaluw, K. & Lambooij, M.S. & Mathijssen, J.J.P. & Schipper, M. & Zeelenberg, M. & Berkhout, S. & Polder, J.J. & Prast, H.M., 2018. "Commitment lotteries promote physical activity among overweight adults : A cluster randomized trial," Other publications TiSEM e54dcec9-3065-4cc5-813d-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Yanping Tu & Dilip Soman, 2014. "The Categorization of Time and Its Impact on Task Initiation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 810-822.
    18. Katherine L. Milkman & Julia A. Minson & Kevin G. M. Volpp, 2014. "Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(2), pages 283-299, February.
    19. George Loewenstein & Drazen Prelec, 1992. "Anomalies in Intertemporal Choice: Evidence and an Interpretation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 573-597.
    20. Stephen S. Holden & Natalina Zlatevska & Chris Dubelaar, 2016. "Whether Smaller Plates Reduce Consumption Depends on Who's Serving and Who's Looking: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 134-146.
    21. Schelling, Thomas C, 1978. "Egonomics, or the Art of Self-Management," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 290-294, May.
    22. Cass Sunstein, 2014. "Nudging: A Very Short Guide," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 583-588, December.
    23. Lieberman, Alicea & Duke, Kristen E. & Amir, On, 2019. "How incentive framing can harness the power of social norms," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 118-131.
    24. Kaitlin Woolley & Ayelet Fishbach, 2016. "For the Fun of It: Harnessing Immediate Rewards to Increase Persistence in Long-Term Goals," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(6), pages 952-966.
    25. Thorndike, A.N. & Sonnenberg, L. & Riis, J. & Barraclough, S. & Levy, D.E., 2012. "A 2-phase labeling and choice architecture intervention to improve healthy food and beverage choices," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(3), pages 527-533.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul Bettega & Paolo Crosetto & Dimitri Dubois & Rustam Romaniuc, 2023. "Hard vs. soft commitments: Experimental evidence from a sample of French gamblers," Working Papers 2023-05, Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory (GAEL).
    2. Manthri Savani, Manu, 2019. "Can commitment contracts boost participation in public health programmes?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Derksen, Laura & Kerwin, Jason Theodore & Reynoso, Natalia Ordaz & Sterck, Olivier, 2021. "Appointments: A More Effective Commitment Device for Health Behaviors," SocArXiv y8gh7, Center for Open Science.
    4. Eduard Marinov, 2017. "The 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 117-159.
    5. Sebastian Vollmer & Juditha Wójcik, 2017. "The long-term consequences of the global 1918 influenza pandemic: A systematic analysis of 117 IPUMS international census data sets," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 242, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    6. van der Swaluw, Koen & Lambooij, M. & Mathijssen, Jolanda & Schipper, M. & Zeelenberg, Marcel & Berkhout, S. & Polder, Johan & Prast, Henriette, 2018. "Physical Activity after Commitment Lotteries : Examining Long-Term Results in a Cluster Randomized Trial," Other publications TiSEM eab06f73-166d-442e-9dda-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. van der Swaluw, Koen & Lambooij, M. & Mathijssen, Jolanda & Schipper, M. & Zeelenberg, Marcel & Berkhout, S. & Polder, Johan & Prast, Henriette, 2018. "Physical Activity after Commitment Lotteries : Examining Long-Term Results in a Cluster Randomized Trial," Discussion Paper 2018-006, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    8. Kirgios, Erika L. & Mandel, Graelin H. & Park, Yeji & Milkman, Katherine L. & Gromet, Dena M. & Kay, Joseph S. & Duckworth, Angela L., 2020. "Teaching temptation bundling to boost exercise: A field experiment," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(S), pages 20-35.
    9. Houser, Daniel & Schunk, Daniel & Winter, Joachim & Xiao, Erte, 2018. "Temptation and commitment in the laboratory," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 329-344.
    10. J. M. Bauer & L. A. Reisch, 2019. "Behavioural Insights and (Un)healthy Dietary Choices: a Review of Current Evidence," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 3-45, March.
    11. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2017. "Richard H. Thaler: Integrating Economics with Psychology," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2017-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    12. Derksen, Laura & Kerwin, Jason & Reynoso, Natalia Ordaz & Sterck, Olivier, 2024. "Healthcare Appointments as Commitment Devices," IZA Discussion Papers 17070, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2009. "Should National Happiness be Maximized?," Chapters, in: Amitava Krishna Dutt & Benjamin Radcliff (ed.), Happiness, Economics and Politics, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Simone Schaner, 2018. "The Persistent Power of Behavioral Change: Long-Run Impacts of Temporary Savings Subsidies for the Poor," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 67-100, July.
    15. John Beshears & James J. Choi & Christopher Harris & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian & Jung Sakong, 2015. "Self Control and Commitment: Can Decreasing the Liquidity of a Savings Account Increase Deposits?," NBER Working Papers 21474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Fischer, Carolyn, 1999. "Read This Paper Even Later: Procrastination with Time-Inconsistent Preferences," Discussion Papers 10725, Resources for the Future.
    17. Jean-Pierre Dubé & Xueming Luo & Zheng Fang, 2017. "Self-Signaling and Prosocial Behavior: A Cause Marketing Experiment," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(2), pages 140-156, March.
    18. S. Nageeb Ali, 2011. "Learning Self-Control," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(2), pages 857-893.
    19. Hengchen Dai & Katherine L. Milkman & Jason Riis, 2014. "The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2563-2582, October.
    20. Jung Hun Cho, 2007. "Self-Reputation and Perception of Reputation," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp343, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:161:y:2020:i:s:p:39-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/obhdp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.