If you’ve ever been around a toddler, you know that changing behavior is challenging. Perhaps you haven’t been around many moments of, “No, little Timmy, please don’t put those keys in your eyes/mouth/unmentionables,” but as a human being who (and failed fantastically), you know that the best-laid plans can fail and fall through. The concept of behavioral design tries to nudge us in the direction of goals. These goals can be ones we seek out personally or ones set out by businesses and societies. Let’s take a close look at what precisely behavioral design is, how it can help us in edTech and whether it is quite as sinister as much of Hollywood would lead us to believe.
What is Behavioral Design?
Behavioral design aims to persuade an audience. Importantly, it is about persuasion and not coercion, meaning the designer must respect people’s rights to freedom of choice, autonomy, and dignity. Every living person has a habit system. These habits are learned unconscious behaviors. Since a habit is nothing but a learned behavior, behavioral designers can use the CAR model to influence behavior.
