the changelog
Volume 1, Issue 4 | November 2022
BUILDING BETTER BEHAVIOURS
As the year draws to a close, we’re thinking about our personal and professional goals for 2023. There’s a lot behaviour science has to say about the subject — be sure to check out the borrowed wisdom section at the end of this newsletter for valuable insights from behaviour science on goal-setting and following through.
To learn more about how behaviour scientists set their own goals, we spoke to some researchers at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change about goals they want to accomplish in 2023 and how they’re using behaviour science to do it. This is what we learnt:
Simran Saraf, Research Associate: “My goal is to practice more mindfulness through meditation, and while I’m motivated, I find myself complaining about not having enough time to do it. To counteract this, we can use implementation intentions, which are plans one can make beforehand about when and where to act. For example, mine would be that after I brush my teeth in the morning, I will meditate for 5 minutes. And after I brush at night before sleeping, I will do a guided meditation for 10 minutes. Making a plan and tying it to an existing habit can help stick to goals.”
Pratyusha Govindaraju, Research Specialist: “In 2023, my goal is to wake up in time for yoga at least 3 days a week. Bangalore mornings are typically cool and cloudy, making it very difficult to get out of bed. I hypothesise that if I am reminded of how much I enjoy my yoga session, I will be motivated to step out of bed. I’m going to use choice architecture to help me take the better decision. What this means is that I will design the context in which I have to decide whether to do yoga or not in such a way that I follow through. I will place the yoga mat right next to my bed, so it’s the first thing I see when I try to turn my alarm off.”
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about our work this past year — scroll through to see what we’ve been working on in the last few months. We’ll see you in 2023!
PROJECTS
STRENGTHENING ADHERENCE TO EARLY INITIATION OF BREASTFEEDING AND EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING
Through diagnostic research, we identified behavioural barriers and the underlying decision-making norms, biases, and cultural and emotional influences around breastfeeding decisions. We found that improving adherence to the early initiation of breastfeeding requires making it a supported, normative, and planned behaviour. In order to initiate greater compliance to exclusive breastfeeding, we have to increase the salience of negative consequences of deviations to this behaviour and actively recognise the points of deviations. Since breastfeeding is influenced by household norms, there is also a need to shift current household norms. We will now design interventions to help families navigate these barriers and sustain their commitment to the practices. Read more.
COACHING THE ULTRA-POOR, BIHAR
In 2018, JEEViKA launched a Bihar-wide scale-up of the evidence-informed “Graduation Approach”, called Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY), to identify ultra-poor households and uplift them out of extreme poverty. A challenging component of the programme to standardise and scale is the in-person coaching support the frontline workers provide in weekly visits to the programme participants. CSBC is collaborating with JEEViKA to strengthen the coaching segment of the programme so that more of the programme participants gain essential skills by the end of the programme to sustain and earn well from their livelihoods. We are supporting JEEViKA by designing and evaluating behaviourally-informed solutions that strengthen their coaching skills. Read more.
If you’re interested in participating in our research studies, click here!
PAST EVENTS
LAUNCH OF MISSION LiFE
Mission LiFE, the India-led, global Jan Andolan to trigger simple actions that everyone across the world can take to protect the environment, was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Gujarat. Cheistha Kochhar, Associate Director at CSBC, led efforts across multiple ministries and the PMO to develop the Mission LiFE scheme and plan and execute the global launch.
PRESENTATION AT FINANCIAL INCLUSION WEEK 2022
Pooja Haldea, Senior Advisor at CSBC, and Vartika Shukla, Consultant at CSBC, presented the Centre’s work on improving agent motivation and transactions at India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) at Financial Inclusion Week 2022. Read more here and watch it here.
PUBLICATIONS
Why gearing towards net zero with low carbon lifestyles is crucial
BY Dr Vikrom Mathur
Article
Scoping user-led water behaviours under the Jal Jeevan Mission in Gujarat, India
BY Nymphea Maria Noronha, Jocelyn Joseph, Nilanjana Bargotra, & Ananya Sridhar Iyer
Working paper
BORROWED WISDOM
Recommended reading/listening/watching/learning
Let’s start simple: use the SMART framework for goal-setting. Focus on mastering one thing at a time — you don’t want to just “look productive”. Behaviour science tells us that willpower isn’t the only way to change behaviour: take advantage of the fresh start effect, use a commitment device, or change your default choice. Bonus: Ayelet Fishbach, Professor of Behavioural Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, gave a talk at CSBC earlier this year on the science of motivation. Watch it here.
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