Behaviour Change

Last autumn, Leeds City Council came to us with an important and timely challenge: how can we change the behaviour of landlords to make private rented homes better for tenants? A year of workshops, research, strategy development, intervention design and activation later: three pilots have been launched into the world. All informed by audience insight and behavioural science. I'm so proud to have led this project. It's been a labour of love for us at Behaviour Change, made possible by brilliant clients and collaborators. Find out more about the work in Tasha Richardson's blog, link in comments...

#GreenNudge: How Adorable Kittens Kept Streets Gum-Free Today's nudge has come from Tasha Richardson, Senior Behavioural Intervention Designer at Behaviour Change. Behaviour Change is a not-for-profit behavioural science consultancy, working with charities, businesses and government to design creative and innovative on-the-ground interventions to encourage pro-social and pro-environmental behaviours. 👉 What unsustainable behaviour needs to change:   Gum litter remains a persistent issue—sticking to pavements, clinging to shoes, and proving notoriously difficult to clean. Its non-biodegradable composition, usually a blend of synthetic rubber and plastic-like polymers, takes 20–25 years to break down, leaving microplastics that pollute soil and waterways. Additionally, cleaning gum off streets requires intensive methods that consume water, energy, and often involve chemicals. This litter also negatively impacts wildlife, as animals may ingest gum or get it stuck on their paws or fur, leading to health issues and harm to urban and natural ecosystems. In collaboration with Mars Wrigley and the gum industry, targeted interventions were developed to encourage proper disposal and reduce environmental impacts.    👉 The Green Nudge:  Many people believe gum littering is caused by a small group of antisocial individuals. However, ethnographic research by Behaviour Change showed that context, rather than character, often determines littering. Most people don’t drop gum habitually, but certain situations increase the likelihood of littering. Researchers identified six of these high-risk circumstances and designed behavioural interventions accordingly. In one workshop, participants expressed concern about animals getting stuck in gum, leading to the development of the “cute kitten” intervention. Using the ‘affect heuristic,’ the design featured a kitten on signs and stickers placed strategically on bins and lampposts to leverage emotions and humour, effectively reminding people to dispose of gum properly. ➡ The result: A 9-week evaluation measured gum littering rates before and after the intervention, using highly accurate gum counts adjusted for footfall using mobile phone data. The “kitten” signage reduced gum litter by up to 61%. When paired with a preliminary gum cleanse, the combination achieved an 80% reduction in gum littering. Do you know of any other nudges that prevent gum littering? Feel free to comment or get in touch: hello@green-nudges.com

📦 Our latest blog is all about Workshop in a Box: an innovative intervention designed to empower children to speak up at home about recyclable items that wrongly end up in the bin for #RecycleWeek2024 💚 Developing this intervention was a real labour of love, with the star of the show being our brand-new recycling board game. It was great to see this intervention turn from a concept to a real life box of activities that we packed and shipped out to 100 schools and community groups across the UK. 💚 I’ve loved working with the team on this (shoutout to David Hall, Rob Moore and Craig Stephens) and our brilliant partners who helped bring this intervention to life (our designer Duncan MILLS, copywriter Nicola West and printer WHITEBOXES LTD). Have a read here: https://lnkd.in/e4Bp9gbR

Today our five heros headed off in the pouring rain to Downing Street with JJ Chalmers to mark #RecycleWeek. Every year we all put 1 billion items in the rubbish which could be recycled with yoghurt pots, deodorants, cleaning aerosols, scent or after shave bottles & inside of toilet rolls top of the list. These characters are calling on us all to rescue them from the bin. #RescueMeRecycle. We are a nation of recyclers with 88% of UK households regularly recycling. But 8 out of 10 of us put one or more items in the bin which could be recycled. Often people separate items carefully downstairs but just have the one bin in the bathroom and so muddle items up together. If all of us did put even just one more item in the right bin, it would help turn around our stagnant recycling rates. Of course in the end, we WRAP are on a mission to reduce & to embed #circularliving in every Board room and every home. What will you rescue this week? Thanks to Boots UK & Tesco for supporting the campaign with actions also by local authorities & schools.

Delighted to report that Halo by Design's behaviour change strategy was 🥇 successful 🥇 in shifting #Ohme EV charger owners’ 🔌 charging 🔌 behaviour over a three month period as part of the #NationalGrid #CrowdFlex trial. To see the full case study and some 🌟 juicy results 🌟 visit our website in the link below. 🙏 Thank you 🙏 to #ohme for the opportunity and Claire Andrews, Doug Cook, Rosie Knight, Lily Christoforou. Lisa Evans, and Sarah Garces for all the hard work they put into making the strategy come to life as part of their integrated campaign. And also Behaviour Change, specifically Honica Sharma and David Hall, for their support. #greengap #digitalnudge #nudge https://lnkd.in/e_z3iNx9

My latest blog...about getting nearly run over