Promoting Behavior Change

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Why do parents sometimes resist immunization and other public health campaigns? Why do people in Chile pay their taxes more than those in Argentina? Why did some people obey the mandatory evacuation order to leave New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit while others did not? What all of these questions have in common is that they concern why individuals and businesses fail to comply with requests or demands made by government for specific behaviors. This course will draw upon social psychology, behavioral economics, law and political science to understand barriers to compliance and investigate strategies that policy designers and implementers can use to change behavior and increase compliance. We will consider a variety of strategies to change behavior, including social marketing campaigns, incentive approaches, manipulation of choice architecture, and efforts to address resource barriers to compliance. Political constraints on the choice of strategies will also be addressed.