Design for Social Influence
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Define social influence.
- Explain why social influence is a powerful behavioral lever.
- Apply social influence to behavior change design.
Recognize Social Influence
Humans are social beings and our decisions are highly dependent on those around us. This includes our willingness to cooperate, conform, and change as a result of social pressure or through following the lead of those we admire.
We’ve evolved with a variety of these social instincts via two mechanisms.
Social proof. This is the tendency to treat our social environment as a source of information. If other people are running away looking panicked, it’s probably wise to join them without stopping to think. Beliefs and behaviors, therefore, tend to be socially contagious.
Conformity to norms. Expectations, or peer pressure, is a driver for group cohesion and cooperation. We feel awkward about deviating from acceptable behavior because we want to be accepted by those around us.
Social influence uses the behavior, beliefs, and expectations of others to bring about desired behavior change.
Make a Change of Social Perception
A challenge to changing behaviors affecting the climate is that social norms can strongly reinforce the status quo. For example, it can be harder to not order meat for lunch if everyone in your lunch group is ordering meat.
However, even a subtle shift in social perception can have a big impact on behavior, as discovered by psychologist Gregg Sparkman. Sparkman conducted an experiment at a cafe, testing the likelihood of patrons to order a meatless lunch.
When standing in line for lunch, patrons read either:
- "Some people limit how much meat they eat”
- "People are starting to limit how much meat they eat”
The first statement describes a fixed social norm that some people adhere to and others don’t. The second statement describes a shift in social norms. Patrons who read the second statement about the norm changing were twice as likely to order a meatless lunch.
Design for Social Influence
The design goal is to connect the desired behavior to the behaviors, beliefs, and expectations of others. It’s a matter of connecting the dots between the behavior, the social influences of norms, and social proof.
Three tactics for connecting these dots include:
| Social Influence Design Tactic | Best Practice |
|---|---|
| Make engaging or not engaging in the desired behavior observable. |
Provide a way for people to show they are doing the desired behavior so that others see the behavior happening, and see that the social norm is shifting. |
| Make the desired behavior the perceived norm. | Share that people are currently doing the desired behavior. Incorporate credible and trusted messengers who are considered to be “like” the audience doing the desired behavior. Promote cases of success with the desired behavior. |
| Eliminate excuses for not engaging in the behavior. |
Encourage public commitments or pledges to drive the desired behavior. Provide visible indicators that signal support for the desired behavior like clothing, badges, or digital badging. |
In the next unit, you learn how to design with choice architecture.
