What’s missing in compliance initiatives?

Recently I’ve been working on a real world issue in which endless information campaigns and training initiatives have proved ineffective for changing behaviour. Here’s the presentation I gave to persuade the stakeholders that a drama-based campaign will do the job.

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Homeostasis

Neuroscience confirms what we already know – that people don’t like change.

The phenomenon is known as homeostasis. When an organism finds itself safe and comfortable it’s wired to stay put. In humans there’s also something called “sociocultural homeostasis” whereby new ideas are perceived as threats. In fact, research shows that threats to our belief systems, which includes “the way we usually do things”, has the same chemical effect in our bodies as a physical threat.

This is why, to change behaviour, it is not enough to tell people what to do. We must engage them emotionally.

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The Gossip Engine

Humans became the dominant primate because we evolved ways of communicating which allowed us to live in larger groups. One of these is speech. Speech works to bind a group together and, surprisingly, the way it works is through gossip.

Gossip, often seen as negative, is in fact a powerful network of moral communication. Gossip is an evolved system of checks and balances to ensure people conform and work together for the common good.

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Storytelling

Gossip can also be described as a form of group storytelling. It consists of swapping notes about a person, behaviour or issue with approval or disapproval. The group work together to attribute values. Because gossip is an evolved system that benefits group cohesion it very pleasurable. Gossip stimulates the production of pleasure hormones.

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Hacking the Gossip System

Gossip in action can be most easily examined in social media. Take a look at social media and it’s plain to see a “gossip system” buzzing away, continually generating stories and creating meaning. To hack into this system, we need to create stories of our own.

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How Drama Works

The TV show Gogglebox showcases how we react to drama. When a character is faced with a tough decision, (decision-making is at the core of any drama), the Gogglebox viewers are quick to share their opinion. “Why didn’t she marry him?” “Don’t go in there!” “Why doesn’t he just tell her?” Drama instantly engages an audience in the decision-making of the characters. And if they are watching in a social setting it can stimulate discussion of the rights and wrongs of the action.

The more playful and fun and controversial we can make the videos, the more they will generate discussion.

Of course, the reason we want to generate discussion is because it’s key to changing behaviour. We are hacking into the gossip engine.

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Changing Behaviour

The way to change behaviour is not to tell people what to do. Your audience have probably already been bombarded with all the information they’ll ever need, but you still don’t have full compliance. The job then, is not to teach so much as to persuade. To make people see value in the recommended behaviour.

The gossip engine can work for us by exploiting its ability to attribute values to the actions and potential actions that we share in video drama.

Interestingly, the opinions that people form about the content you share with them aren’t so very important. More important is that the issue you wish to focus on seems more significant in their universe. The buzz of discussion is social proof of the importance of the issue and people buy into it. ?

Given social currency, an issue moves to the forefront of people’s minds. Now they will actively think about the issue. And they will be far more receptive to any information that is presented to them on the subject.

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Does it make sense to you? Can drama work to change behaviour?

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