Can behavioural science improve your impact?

PRs know all about the art of persuasion. Whether it’s timing a TikTok video to drop at the right juncture in the news cycle, or amping up a client’s ‘exclusivity’ by informing press they’ll be doing just one interview – for 15 minutes only – good comms pros nudge and sway journalists into covering whatever campaign they might be working on. 

Many PRs won’t know it, but these skills could also be making them natural behavioural scientists too. Behavioural science – broadly defined as the study of the drivers and barriers that influence human behaviour – is used by many PR firms, such as Edelman (whose behavioural science unit “counsels” clients to create human behaviour changes to reposition brands and restore damaged reputations) or the governments/charities, in reminding the public to recycle, eat five-veg-a-day or the importance of washing hands during a pandemic. Indeed, in 2021, the Government Communications Service (GCS) identified behavioural science as being fundamental to effective comms’ campaigns. 

Behavioural science is now being used internally within organisations too, to stamp out toxic cultures, boost productivity or get staff involved with corporate transformations. Earlier this year fintech firm Revolut created an in-house team behavioural science team to track whether staff were living by “value-based behaviours” such as being “approachable” and “respectful”. 

It could also be deployed, for say, tempting WFH-loving staff back to the office in hybrid organisations. The ‘social norms’ technique of behavourial science could be useful here, by playing on our social fears and desire to keep up with our peers.

“Stressing the social norm that your colleagues are returning to the office, and you’re missing out by not being there, can be an effective tool,” says Dr Jon White, chair of the CIPR’s Behavioural Insights Interest Group. “Social norms are also used in campaigns to encourage people to complete tax returns on time by emphasising, ‘Look, everybody else has completed their returns, why don’t you join them?’”
 

NUDGE, NUDGE 

Perhaps the most famous strand of behavioural science is ‘nudge theory’: the idea changing the way choices are presented to people is the key to changing their behaviours, as popularised by Cass Sunstein/Richard Thaler in their 2008 book, Nudge. David Cameron took the idea on two years later, creating a behavioural insights team in the Cabinet Office to design environments which gently coax (or ‘nudge’) people to make positive choices. Cameron’s ‘nudge unit’ is credited with creating the auto-enrolment workplace pensions scheme, which made saving for retirement a default option for workers.

“If the process of saving into pensions or donating organs is cumbersome and bureaucratic, then automatically opting people in removes that burden,” says Shayoni Lynn CIPR, CEO/founder of Cardiff-based comms consultancy Lynn Group, which proudly states it is “powered by behavioural science”. “By creating the path of least resistance (making opting-out more inconvenient than signing up), people will go with the status quo. After all, most human beings don’t really like making decisions.”

Managers can also employ ‘nudge’ thinking’s evil twin: ‘sludge theory’. Lynn gives the example of Amazon Prime, which notoriously makes quitting membership a confusing, multi-click process (Amazon is currently being sued by the US Federal Trade Commission for enrolling millions of customers into Prime without their consent). 

“Amazon Prime [embodies] ‘intentional sludge’ theory – where companies covertly make it complex for consumers to cancel or opt-out, so they can keep revenues within the business.”

Another (more friendly) behavioural science method is ‘temptation bundling’ aka coupling an unpleasant task with something more pleasurable. As Lynn points out, most of us conduct some form of temptation bundling, whether it’s a protein shake after a gym workout, listening to a podcast to enliven a dull commute or treating themselves to a blow-out meal following a long diet.

According to social psychologist Robert Cialdini – whose principles of persuasion have made him a behavioural science guru – making people commit publicly to a task (think: somebody verbally pledging in front of colleagues that they’ll take on a client account or making a promise on social media) – is “considerably more likely to direct someone’s future conduct than the same choice left unspoken.” 
 

A MATTER OF TRUST 

Threats can also work as behavioural science. Revisiting the example of coaxing workers back into the office, White says, “Another method is looking at the consequences of coming in. During the pandemic, Jacob Rees-Mogg left notes saying ‘Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon’ on civil servants’ empty desks. It’s an implied threat: if you don’t come in, your career might suffer.”

A much nicer approach is harnessing the knack of razor-sharp timing, such as the boss who knows exactly when and where when to deliver staff feedback. This should come easy to many PRs, says Lynn.

“As PR practitioners, we know all about reaching audiences at the right time with the right message,” she says. “We have a lot of [behavioural science] instinctively built into our systems. We’re constantly persuading and influencing in the roles that we do, such as bolding the fonts of certain words [on press releases].”

Yet, behavioural science may also leave employees feel as if they are being manipulated. However, it could be argued this has always been a cornerstone of managerial culture (White: “Most management manipulates people into doing things they otherwise not be inclined to do”).

Meanwhile, the 2010s’ Cambridge Analytica scandal – where an app harvested the data of 87m Facebook profiles and combined it with behavioural science to help clients such as Donald Trump and the UK’s Leave.EU win election votes – has tarnished the science’s trustworthiness.
 

GOOD EFFECT 

To use behavioural science effectively, managers will need to do their research first, says White. “You’ve got to know your audience and what their interests are. You may have to reconcile their interests too, deciding which interests to pursue and which to set aside.”

This research is crucial for any organisation facing resistant staff during a corporate transformation. “If staff are reluctant about change, behavioural science will help you understand their unwillingness and develop interventions that get into the heart of their reluctance,” says Lynn. “What are their barriers? Are you asking them to do something they can’t? Do they have any fears about the change? By breaking down these component pieces, you’ll have a much better chance to move the needle.”

The pandemic may have since redeemed its reputation, thanks to Covid. During the pandemic, national governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO) hired behavioural scientists to work with epidemiologists to assess how psychology could help people comply with social distancing rules, wearing masks or being vaccinated. 

“Covid showed how important behavioural science is,” says Lynn. “I don’t think we’d be where we are now had behavioural scientists not advised governments on getting people to use behaviours that protect us all.”

With artificial intelligence (AI) currently being used by PR firms to create media lists and craft press releases, White predicts behavioural science will “become even more important … AI will enable businesses to monitor and gather insights from [employees/clients’] behaviours at a much more advanced level than today, [meaning] we’ve got to be careful about what we’re being subjected to.”

Until then, Lynn says “behavioural science will help managers understand their teams on a much more intuitive level and why they behave the way they do. Public relations is about the business of <understanding> human beings, engaging with them, getting them to change behaviours. But if you don’t understand the science behind it all, it’s like using good tools in the dark.”
 

Learn more about behavioural science on the CIPR’s Organisational Leadership Skills course.
https://cipr.co.uk/CIPR/Learn_Develop/Training/Leadership_and_management/Organisational_Leadership_Skills.aspx