Embedded Files
Introduction to Sway Me
Introduction to Sway Me
Emotions, such as pride, fear, and anger, are ever-present in human decisions. Emotional reactions to messaging, ideas, others’ behavior, and options presented influence actions. This influence occurs through:
Discrete emotions experienced,
Values and sense of self,
Social groups and community.
In all cases, how something makes a person feel gives important information about how they are likely to act.
Growing research shows that emotions can motivate actions. Sometimes, people talk about emotions as irrational or separate from reason, but humans can be both emotional and deliberate. In fact, thinking of humans as only or primarily rational beings means behavioral solutions may miss out on the power of employing emotional appeals. Many emotions have evolved to guide individuals to make decisions that help achieve goals or become better equipped to deal with life events, including ones that may not manifest at that specific time. For a person to care about something, to feel something, it probably has meaning to them — that feeling is worth paying attention to. As a result, leveraging emotions & tailoring messages to what matters most to people can be useful behavior change strategies.
Different emotions can trigger very different psycho-social states and ultimately very different responses. So, if you decide to use this lever, you should carefully design your emotion-triggering intervention to match your ultimate desired behavior changes.
Guidance for Theory of Change Development
Guidance for Theory of Change Development
Make sure you start developing the theory of change with the desired behavior change in mind. Then, when writing a psycho-social state intermediate result using Sway Me you might use words like:
How actors feel about doing or not doing the behavior
How actors feel about others doing or not doing the behavior
Generic Pathways for Sway Me
Generic Pathways for Sway Me
Type A. Evoking the power of specific emotions to drive behavior change
Generic Examples of Type A - Illustrating different emotions
Generic Examples of Type A - Illustrating different emotions
Example(s) of Type A. Evoking the power of specific emotions to drive behavior change
Example(s) of Type A. Evoking the power of specific emotions to drive behavior change
The Mexican non-profit Centro de Investigación y Servicios Profesionales A.C. (CISERP) developed a range of community engagement materials promoting pride in ancestral agricultural practices and in the native Tsotsil language to increase adoption of the more sustainable milpa crop-growing system. As a result, 90% of the 324 milpa farmers adopted the agroecological practices promoted by the campaign and 80% of the targeted farmers began using and exchanging native seeds. Read more here.
A US university research team wanted to see if they could reduce household energy consumption through different messaging strategies. Their most effective message was appealing to households’ existing values of health that linked energy use and pollution to childhood asthma and cancer. The program reduced energy consumption by 8-10% consistently over 100 days and nearly 20% among households with children.
Type B. Using emotions to activate self identity
Example(s) of Type B. Using emotions to activate self identity
Example(s) of Type B. Using emotions to activate self identity
The World Resources Institute and Behavioral Insights team found a key insight when promoting sustainable food: replacing labels like ‘vegetarian’ or ‘meat-free’ with language like ‘field-grown’ or more indulgent descriptions made non-vegetarians more likely to order vegetarian dishes.
Provita led a behavior change campaign called Cielo Verde to encourage people in Isla Margarita, Venezuela to shift social norms and feel pride in protecting the endangered Yellow-Shouldered Amazon Parrot rather than keeping them as pets. Post-campaign, control groups showed a 28% demand rate for the parrots, while the experimental groups showed only a statistically significant 15% in demand.
This lever is useful when target actors…
This lever is useful when target actors…
➡️ are readily or obviously influenced by their feelings and emotional states
➡️ behavior is not readily inspired by factual information alone
➡️ understand that there is urgency to change their behavior to avoid imminent threats
➡️ are likely to feel good about their actions when inspired to change their behavior
➡️ are likely to feel motivated to act by personal connections and stories
➡️ behaviors are linked to embedded cultural values
➡️ are likely to be motivated to take risks to achieve a result in line with their values
This lever pairs well with...
This lever pairs well with...
Show Me (Information) by combining details about what something is and why someone should care about it, can help your message resonate
Norm Me (Social Influence) by considering emotions like shame and pride that have social consequences or shared identities and values among groups
Tempt Me (Material Incentives) by tying in emotions that correlate with real and perceived gains and losses
Common traps to avoid
Common traps to avoid
Emotions are powerful forces that can interact with other psycho-social states and are highly culturally dependent.
The responses they trigger are not always easy to predict or control.
As a result, even more than usual, it is important to test and refine your messages with your target audiences to increase the probability of the desired behavior pathway.
Emotional responses may trigger overly enthusiastic support for the featured story (the individual dog trapped in a well) at the expense of the larger population (the population of wild dogs)
Carefully select the emotions that align with the target actor’s context, motivations, and barriers.
Misusing emotions such as overemphasizing fear without offering actionable solutions can backfire and lead to disengagement.
Pair the emotional appeal with clear actions individuals can take to make the encouraged difference.
As “rational” conservation planners, we may feel that it is not appropriate to be tapping into rawer emotions as opposed to facts and logic. But by doing so, we are missing out on a potentially really powerful lever.
Additional Resources for Sway Me
Additional Resources for Sway Me
Cover Image by Rare.
Guidance for Theory of Change Image by Rare.
Page updated
Report abuse