In my last post, I introduced a model that helps us think through why we resist changing our behavior even when we want to act differently. Using the example of my goal to send my book proposal to literary agents, I described the individual factors that are getting in my way. Here, I want to move on to the next two levels of the model – social and environmental – using a different goal: encouraging my dad to eat more vegetables and less meat.
To review, at the individual level of the model, we would consider my dad’s individual characteristics. Two particularly relevant factors are his goals and his intent. He wants to get healthy, but he does not intend to eat less meat or more vegetables. This contradiction is keeping him from making an important change to his diet. To help him overcome that, I’ll look for clues at other levels of his environment that are influencing his food choices.
First is the Social level, which is heavily influenced by social norms (a group’s expectations of behavior) and community values. In this diagram, you’ll see that the Social level is divided between interpersonal relationships, informal groups, and formal organizations. Each of these will have different norms and values with a variety of mechanisms to apply them. For example, a friend may get angry with you for not meeting their expectations, but a school may expel you.
Returning to the example, my dad’s main social influence is his family. Being able to put meat on the table was a sign of success in my grandparents’ eyes and feeding people the food they enjoyed was an expression of love. My father (and I) continue to carry those traditions forward. A community group with a social influence is his church friends, who often bond over good food. They grew up with the same traditions as my dad and, as a result, they reinforce his existing habits.
Understanding these influences helps me see the barriers that I’ll need to overcome to convince my dad to eat more vegetables and less meat. Loyalty to his family traditions, his desire to express love through food, and the camaraderie he experiences with his friends are all values that compete with his desire to be more healthy. So, now, there are a few interventions to consider:
- Shift Norms: Host more family meals where I can gradually introduce healthier foods and try to change behavior within our existing traditions.
- Appeal to Values: Point out the importance of healthier meals for my mom’s health and give him recipes that I think she’ll enjoy. Here, he can maintain his “love via food” value.
- Engage His Community: I can cook simple, healthy snacks that he and his friends can enjoy together and, perhaps, collude with their children to do the same!
Overcoming social level barriers often bring the most change, but they can take the most time because they require shifts in values and norms build over lifetimes. Patience is key.
And, finally, the last level is structural, which includes governments and institutions that society-wide norms and regulations.
For example, the climate impact of meat consumption and the immediate consequences of climate change are only now breaking through to him in the media. As a result, he’s more likely to change his behavior because he sees the impact it will have on his grandchildren (activating his value of love).
At a government level, his choices (like the rest of ours) are influenced by legislative actions, like tax credits and subsidies, that affect the prices of food. The cost of vegetables is incredibly high where he lives, and meat is relatively affordable so he’s incentivized to maintain his current diet. Many of us are familiar with interventions for structural level barriers so I won’t go into it much. Awareness campaigns, lobbying, and activism are your options for change at this level.
Even a “simple” behavior change, like changing your diet, is complicated by the environment around us. Forcing change rarely works and doesn’t last if we don’t work to understand the factors influencing us. By methodically identifying the barriers, we can begin to intervene and make change easier for ourselves and our communities.
Read more about the Socio-Ecological Model & UNICEF’s Behavioural Drivers Model here.