Ten years ago, behavioral scientists developed a simple way to explain how to effectively change behavior using just four letters: EAST. Standing for Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely, the EAST framework sums up key insights from years of research and remains one of the most practical tools for encouraging positive behavior change today.
According to inc, whether you want to change your own behavior or your customers’, or encourage a loved one or employee toward change, the internet is not short of suggestions. There are a million and one articles and videos out there offering tips on how to nudge people to change their behavior.
This wealth of ideas can be useful. It can also be overwhelming. Which interventions should you try first? In what order? And which are science backed and which are just the random pronouncements of self-appointed influencers?
What you really want is a simple guide from genuine experts that boils down the latest behavioral science into simple steps you can easily put into practice. I am happy to inform you that just such a plan exists.
Experts in psychology and persuasion developed the EAST framework back in 2014. It has since withstood 10 years of in-the-field testing and been supported by multiple scientific studies. It is also easy to both remember and use whether you’re trying to get yourself to choose salad over sweets or your employees to follow safety protocols.
The origins of the EAST framework
The EAST framework wasn’t born in a design school or the mind of a self-help guru. Instead, the idea for a simple acronym that could guide anyone looking to change people’s behavior grew out of a U.K. government project. The idea was to use the latest psychological insights to increase the impact of various government programs and initiatives.
Could a change in how the government offered advice or services lead more people to make smarter choices, like cutting down on energy usage or signing up for benefits they’re entitled to?
Initially, the government team tasked with this project developed a complex system for figuring out how to get citizens to change their behavior. But in 2014, the team spun out a private consultancy, BIT, and began offering a stripped-down distillation of their insights. They gave it the acronym EAST.
Since then the framework has been used many hundreds of times in both the public and private sector and been bolstered by additional research. It doesn’t include every nuance of the science of persuasion, of course. But, as the revised free guide to the framework declares,
“If you want to encourage a behavior, make it easy, attractive, social, and timely.”
Easy
It’s probably no surprise that people tend to like to take the lowest-effort option. But often we forget to use this tendency to our advantage when trying to change the behavior of ourselves or others.
Simply putting the healthy snacks where they are easy to reach and the chips and cookies on the highest shelf will probably do more to change your diet than you imagine. In business, consider making whatever you want people to do the default option or setting.
The EAST guide offers compelling examples. In two large studies, when Swiss energy providers presented a green energy option as the default rather than an opt-in, “take-up of the renewable energy package increased to around 83 percent for households and 75 percent for businesses.”
Also make sure you eliminate as much friction from doing the desired behavior as possible. That could look like laying out your workout clothes next to your bed the night before. Maybe it means streamlining your forms or instructions. It could even look like putting the vegetarian meat alternatives right next to the genuine article. In one study, when Belgian stores did just that, sales of meat alternatives soared 171 percent.
Attractive
Humans might be lazy but we also love shiny objects. Use that to your advantage by making whatever behavior you’re trying to encourage as attention-grabbing and attractive as possible.
My favorite example of this from the report comes from a Chinese factory that was trying to get workers to pick up more rubbish off the floor. What worked? Not hectoring or bonuses, but bright stickers.
“Adding gold coin stickers to the floor of a Chinese factory reduced the amount of waste left on the floor by more than 20 percent,” BIT reports.
Using a person’s name and otherwise personalizing communications can make them more attractive as well. “Putting a handwritten Post-it note request on envelopes increased response rates to a survey by the Irish revenue department from 19.2 percent to 36 percent,” notes the report.
Social
Another basic truth about people: We’re incredibly social creatures. That means we’re much more likely to do something if we think lots of other people are doing it too.
You can use this truth as an individual to help change your own behavior. You’re more likely to stick with your running habit if you join a running club. Or you can apply the principle to your work. Often telling people (or otherwise indicating) that the behavior you want to encourage is popular is enough to make them significantly more likely to choose it.
One study, for instance, shared survey results showing that a high percentage of staff at a bank approved of fathers taking parental leave. The number of new dads actually using their leave subsequently shot up. In another, electricity company customers who were shown how little power their neighbors were using decreased their own energy consumption.
Ask yourself: How can I make this action or behavior seem common, popular, or well-regarded in the community?
Timely
The right messaging and framing can change how persuasive your message is. But so can the timing of when it is delivered. Nudges designed to get people to change their behavior tend to be more effective when they are delivered as close as possible to the moment of decision.
“One study found that giving drivers a prompt to wear their seatbelts was effective if it came immediately before driving — but had no impact if it came five minutes beforehand,” BIT offers as an example.
Remember that people generally find it easy to ignore future costs. If you want people to consider them more, remind them when they’re making a decision what the effect on their future selves will be. One company sold more energy efficient appliances, for example, when they offered customers an estimate of the lifetime energy costs of the various alternatives while shopping.
“Finally, we should consider the moments of change in our lives that disrupt our existing patterns. We might see these changes as a ‘fresh start’ and be more likely to change our habits and behaviors as a result,” BIT adds.
Portland, Oregon, for instance had great success getting residents to sign up for a new bike-sharing platform by targeting folks who had recently moved to the city.
The simplest way to change behavior
Is the EAST framework dead simple? Absolutely. But as BIT writes, “Its simplicity is its strength.”
There are plenty of caveats and complications to consider when putting these insights into practice, and the free guide details many of them. But this four-word acronym packs an incredible amount of actionable behavioral science into one memorable package.
Next time you’re looking to nudge yourself or others to change behavior, start by ticking your way through EAST. You just may find small changes to how you approach the situation can lead to big changes in how people choose to behave.
