Here’s this week’s 200 word idea from Give and Take by Adam Grant.
3 different messages/appeals were displayed in various hospital bathrooms to encourage people to use soap and hand sanitizers –
1. Hand hygiene saves you (appeal to self-interest)
2. Hand hygiene is good for the patient (appeal to purpose)
3. Gel in, wash out (catchy messaging)
The research team then weighed the amount of sanitizer used and found that the purpose message worked the best by far.
A similar study with university office workers, who worked on collecting alumni donations, showed that a 5 minute session every morning that shared stories about students who benefited from alumni donation scholarship doubled the number of weekly pledges they collected.
So, if we’re looking to appeal to people to change behavior, perhaps we could consider an appeal to purpose of the change.
Source and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com
‘Great minds have purpose, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.’ | Washington Irving
A Learning a Day 