GreenPath Behaviors Preview
An overview of GreenPath behaviors and techniques for achieving them.
GreenPath Behavior Overview
If you want someone to commit to a new behavior for the long term, you are seeking a Green Path Behavior.
Examples include:
- Health: Agree to consume flax seed oil each morning, from now on.
- Environment: Resolve to always use fluorescent light bulbs.
- Commerce: Decide to buy a new brand of toothpaste from now on.
- Relationships: Get married.
Green Path Behaviors imply a life change. The change can be big, like marriage. Or it can be small, like deciding to bring your own bags to grocery store. Either way, Green Path Behaviors have two challenges: commitment (agreeing to the change) and fulfillment (behaving in new ways).
In our view, the fulfillment part is much like a Blue Path Behavior (because the behavior will soon become familiar). So here we focus on the unique aspect of Green Path Behaviors: Getting people to commit to a lifelong change.
As with the 14 other behavior change types. Green Path Behaviors are the result of three elements: Motivation, Ability, and Triggers. As the Fogg Behavior Model describes, you must Trigger the behavior when the person is both Motivated and Able to perform it. The specific steps
1. Boost motivation (if needed)
2. Enhance ability by making the commitment act simple
3. Issue the trigger when #1 and #2 are in optimal states.
For example,
- Couple the trigger with an existing habit
- Increase the perceived ability (self-efficacy) by making the behavior easier to do
- Reduce demotivation by making the behavior more familiar
- Write down “buy flax seed” on a shopping list
- Buy flax seed at grocery
- Store oil in fridge at home
- Put 1 tsp oil on next serving of cooked vegetables
Other areas of intervention might include a wider range of how to use flax seed oil, either in video recipes or simple suggestions that come via SMS.
Beyond making the behavior simple to do, the key to Green Path Behaviors is triggering the behavior. Note that at least in this case, the key is not increasing motivation.
To review: The challenge to achieving most Green Path Behaviors is making the behavior simple to do and finding a way to trigger it.
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About Resource Guides
Our Stanford team created these Resources Guides to help people working on behavior change projects. We can make it easier for you to:
1. Learn about a specific type of behavior change
2. Create solutions for achieving that behavior
In the past, most designers and researchers guessed at solutions for changing behavior. And frankly most attempts failed. Today, rather than guessing at solutions, people who use our Resource Guides will have clear guidance.
Our Stanford team will continue to improve each of the 15 Resource Guides. We welcome your input.
BJ Fogg, Ph.D. (bjfogg@stanford.edu)
Director, Persuasive Tech Lab @ Stanford University
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2015 UPDATE
The Behavior Guides were created in 2010 and we are no longer updating or selling them.
There is still lots of useful information in these guides. If you’re interested in obtaining a specific guide, please email us (behaviorwizard@gmail.com) and let us know in which guide you’re interested and why. We may be able to share a copy with you.
We hope you’ll also benefit from our more recent behavior design projects at: http://captology.stanford.edu.
–BJ Fogg, Ph.D. (bjfogg@stanford.edu)
Director, Persuasive Tech Lab @ Stanford University
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