During the lockdown in March 2020, we had the opportunity to collaborate with our sister company BVA Doxa, along with clients Reckitt Benckiser and Napisan on the success of the Hygiene Together initiative (https://www.igieneinsieme.it/). Napisan wanted to distribute its sanitizing products for hands and surfaces to help the reopening of schools in Italy but questioned two aspects: Would sending the products alone be enough to guarantee their use and to make sure the hygiene regulations wound be applied? How to enforce the rules in school?
To facilitate teachers and classrooms to maintain proper hygiene at school, a series of “Nudge” didactic proposals have been studied to help Italian schools promote more responsible behaviors among their students. This process was completed by a team of Behavioral Science experts from the BVA Nudge Consulting, researchers from the BVA Doxa KIDS unit, hygiene brand ambassadors of Napisan and La Fabbrica education experts.
When we talk about Nudging we are referring to how the behavior of individuals can be influenced without coercive intervention, but rather by providing a free choice where the desired result is perceived as easier, more evident or advantageous. Nudges could be interventions with which to capture attention, or with which to make an option more evident, visible and useful. The theory of Nudging has its roots in the teachings of behavioral science and is applied by BVA, all over the world, following a proprietary framework, to help companies and organizations to achieve behavioral changes in line with strategies – in order to always bring a benefit for the ultimate user: this is Nudging for Good (http://www.nudgingforgood.com/).
The BVA Nudge Unit team, together with the support of the BVA Doxa team, first observed the current context in schools through digital ethnographies, interviewing 12 teachers throughout the country. The levers and barriers to hand and surface hygiene were then identified during the school day and in the spaces within the school, with attention to the classroom.
More than 200 potential interventions (the “Nudges”) were therefore carried out and, after an accurate selection process, 25 of them were chosen, and 5 were identified to be implemented in the Toolkit that Napisan sent to about 5,000 schools
Below is an example of Nudge developed through the NudgeLab process:
“Scrub the Stamp!”
A stamp that has been given the shape of a germ that is erased after 4-5 hand washes. On which drivers of human behavior does it act?
Salience: The stamp works on Salience, i.e. it acts as a reminder for students to remind them to wash their hands, and is a reminder for teachers to check whether their students’ hands are clean.
Easiness: The stamp reduces the cognitive effort required to remember to wash your hands, making the desired behavior easier to apply.
This is an example of how we can use Behavioral Sciences to make an intention into action or behavior by applying the influence driver framework of the BVA Nudge team.
There are several areas in which BVA Nudge Consulting and BVA Doxa can help companies and organizations, using their knowledge on how to influence behavior in a non-coercive way, and applying behavioral science to:
To learn more about how Behavioral Science can help you overcome the challenges of your business, contact us.
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