Appeals to Change Behavior Work Better When They Are Tied to People’s Values

Peer pressure and the desire to seem socially conscious prompt people to do things like wearing a pink ribbon and dumping ice water on their heads, or perhaps to give money. But campaigns designed to call attention to a cause rarely persuade people to act in ways that charities might desire.

Numerous research studies have shown that people don’t always stop drinking and driving or seek out cancer screenings even when they’re made aware of their risky behavior.

“Simple awareness campaigns don’t really change behavior,” says Victor Strecher, a professor of health behavior and education at the University of Michigan.

The smartest way to promote change, Mr. Strecher says, is for charities to tap into a person’s core values.

For instance, Mr. Strecher’s research has found that people who were encouraged to perform regular physical activity to improve their health were much more likely to do so if they first answered a series of questions about exercise in relation to their roles as good parents or spouses, or of being in control of their lives. Tests showed much more brain activity in people who were asked questions that dealt with their core values than was seen in other people in a control group.

Three months later, those people who were more responsive to values questions were much more likely to exercise than those in the control group.

“The message there is that people have to be engaged on a deep, personal level for them to change behavior,” Mr. Strecher says. “For awareness campaigns to be effective, they need to get people to transcend their own defenses and see how their values intersect with the goals of the campaign.”

Otherwise, people “can become inoculated” to nonprofits’ messages, says Mr. Strecher.

The result can be an arms race of sorts for charities, he says: “You have to up the ante all the time” to get people’s attention.