[MUSIC] Sometimes the challenge a persuader faces isn't that of getting people to have positive attitudes or getting the social normative factors to be positive, or convincing people that they can do the behavior. Sometimes, all those things are lined up positively so people, in some sense, intend to do the desired behavior but then they don't follow through. And in that situation, the challenge that the persuader faces is the challenge of getting people to convert their intentions into behavior. And what the other three challenges, this one is also reasonably common. We all know what raw material Satan's Paving Company uses. People might form a sincere intention to exercise, or eat a healthier diet or whatever, but then fail to follow through, even though they know they can. That is, even though their perceived behavior ability is high. The question is, faced with that sort of challenge, what can an influence agent do to encourage people to act on their good intentions, how can you help people convert their intentions into behavior? I want to talk about three general strategies that can be useful in this sort of circumstance, one in this segment, two others to follow. Here's the first one. Using prompts, a prompt is a simple cue that makes performance of the behavior salient, brings it into conscious awareness. It's a reminder, a trigger, a cue, something simple that call's the behavior to mind and so can lead to behavioral performance. In fact there have been quite a large number of experimental demonstrations of the potential of prompts to influence behavior. Here are some examples. Using the stairs rather than an escalator or an elevator. Imagine a circumstance, and you can often see this in shopping malls, or transportation centers like train stations or bus stations or airports. A circumstance where there's an escalator or elevator next to a set of stairs. A number of different studies have found that putting up a simple sign mentioning the benefits of stair use will significantly increase how many people take the stairs. Or immunizing newborn children, parents with newborns who got reminders, in the form of computerized telephone calls at home, about getting on time immunizations for their child, turned out to be significantly more likely to have their child immunized and immunized on time. Or, hand washing in public restrooms, which prompts can encourage. You just put up little reminder signs and people are more likely to wash their hands. Or, getting doctors to recommend preventive care measures to patients. When a patient is in a doctor's office that's an opportunity for the physician to recommend things. Such as flu shots or cancer screenings, but doctors don't always think to do that. But the medical information system in the workplace, in the hospital or clinic, can be set up so that during the visit the doctor gets an onscreen reminder, a prompt about making such recommendations, and that does work. Physicians are more likely to make those recommendations, when they get that sort of prompt. Now as these examples illustrate, prompts can take a lot of different forms. Signs, posters, automated telephone calls, automated text messages, answering pop ups, screensavers, even refrigerator magnets but it's always something simple. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated or expensive. And so it can be really tempting to think that this is almost like a magic influence strategy, one that's really simple but always produces these big effects on behavior. The thing is, prompts won't always work. Yes, it a right kinds of situations they can be very useful, but it has to be the right sort of situation. And what sort of situation is that? Well, broadly speaking, there are at least two necessary conditions for a prompt to be successful. First, the person must already be willing to do the behavior. They have to in some vague sense, already have the intention, already be in favor of doing the behavior. For example, they must already have the appropriate positive attitudes. If you remind someone to do something they don't want to do, well the reminder probably isn't going to work and it might even just be irritating to the person. Second necessary condition. The person must already believe themselves capable of performing the behavior, that is, perceived behavioral ability must be sufficiently high. If you prompt someone to do something that they think they can't do, the prompt probably isn't going to work. So, where people are willing to do the behavior and they think themselves able to do the behavior, but they're just not doing it, not closing that gap between intention and action, maybe all they need is a simple prompt, a little prod, a little reminder. So in the right circumstances, prompts can be very powerful, but it has to be the right circumstance. [MUSIC]
