Decision Framing and the Role of Commitment in Social Choice: Implications for Social Marketing and Communications
Author(s)
Lafreniere, K.
Deshpande, Sameer
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
An important issue that non-profit and public policy managers face is how to change the behaviour of a target audience to benefit society as well as the target audience. Extensive research has been conducted to identify the factors underlying successful and failed behavioural change attempts (e.g. Forbus & Snyder, 2013). A central theory is that many campaigns promoting a desired behaviour fail because they rely heavily on education and law but neglect social marketing (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011; Rothschild, 1999; Weinreich, 2010). Thus, for managers to be successful in promoting a desired behaviour, it is important that they ...
View more >An important issue that non-profit and public policy managers face is how to change the behaviour of a target audience to benefit society as well as the target audience. Extensive research has been conducted to identify the factors underlying successful and failed behavioural change attempts (e.g. Forbus & Snyder, 2013). A central theory is that many campaigns promoting a desired behaviour fail because they rely heavily on education and law but neglect social marketing (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011; Rothschild, 1999; Weinreich, 2010). Thus, for managers to be successful in promoting a desired behaviour, it is important that they understand the appropriate application of marketing, education and law. Rothschild’s (1999) conceptual framework for the management of public health and social issue behaviours offers significant contributions to that understanding. Rothschild’s (1999) framework determines the circumstances in which education, marketing and law are appropriately applied, based on the target audience’s degree of motivation, opportunity and ability (hereafter referred to as MOA). The central focus of this chapter is to incorporate these meta factors of social change into the formation of the reference point in order to provide an enhanced understanding of the decision-framing process for public health and social issue behaviours. Empirical research over the last 25 years has shown that reference points in Kahneman and Tversky’s (1979) prospect theory are reliable predictors of choice in a variety of contexts, even in situations involving risk (Baucells et al., 2011). Reference points have also been empirically tested as predictors of particular social choices (e.g. McFerran et al., 2010). We present a social behaviour influence (SBI) model that incorporates factors from traditional social choice models into the formation of the reference point in order to provide an enhanced understanding of the appropriateness of behavioural change strategies. In formulating the model and its applications, we have integrated Puto’s (1987) discussion of how reference points are formed with Rothschild’s (1999) MOA framework for the management of public health and social issue behaviours. Therefore, this chapter contributes to the decision-making literature by offering an alternative model for social behaviours at the individual level that moves beyond current cost-versus-benefits models (e.g. the theory of planned behaviour). This knowledge of how an individual decides whether or not to enact desired social issue behaviours will help social marketers achieve elusive behavioural change objectives. This chapter is organized as follows. In the next section, to provide a background, we review the literature on the formation of reference points and integrate it with social issue behaviours. Next, building on this integrated framework, we argue that a successful behavioural strategy depends not only on MOA but also on commitment to the initial reference point and the power of the social network. Managers can ensure that the behaviour strategy correctly modifies or matches the reference point of the decision maker either directly or indirectly through upstream, midstream or downstream behaviour strategies or a combination thereof. The chapter concludes by considering the implications for future research in the social marketing and communications fields.
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View more >An important issue that non-profit and public policy managers face is how to change the behaviour of a target audience to benefit society as well as the target audience. Extensive research has been conducted to identify the factors underlying successful and failed behavioural change attempts (e.g. Forbus & Snyder, 2013). A central theory is that many campaigns promoting a desired behaviour fail because they rely heavily on education and law but neglect social marketing (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011; Rothschild, 1999; Weinreich, 2010). Thus, for managers to be successful in promoting a desired behaviour, it is important that they understand the appropriate application of marketing, education and law. Rothschild’s (1999) conceptual framework for the management of public health and social issue behaviours offers significant contributions to that understanding. Rothschild’s (1999) framework determines the circumstances in which education, marketing and law are appropriately applied, based on the target audience’s degree of motivation, opportunity and ability (hereafter referred to as MOA). The central focus of this chapter is to incorporate these meta factors of social change into the formation of the reference point in order to provide an enhanced understanding of the decision-framing process for public health and social issue behaviours. Empirical research over the last 25 years has shown that reference points in Kahneman and Tversky’s (1979) prospect theory are reliable predictors of choice in a variety of contexts, even in situations involving risk (Baucells et al., 2011). Reference points have also been empirically tested as predictors of particular social choices (e.g. McFerran et al., 2010). We present a social behaviour influence (SBI) model that incorporates factors from traditional social choice models into the formation of the reference point in order to provide an enhanced understanding of the appropriateness of behavioural change strategies. In formulating the model and its applications, we have integrated Puto’s (1987) discussion of how reference points are formed with Rothschild’s (1999) MOA framework for the management of public health and social issue behaviours. Therefore, this chapter contributes to the decision-making literature by offering an alternative model for social behaviours at the individual level that moves beyond current cost-versus-benefits models (e.g. the theory of planned behaviour). This knowledge of how an individual decides whether or not to enact desired social issue behaviours will help social marketers achieve elusive behavioural change objectives. This chapter is organized as follows. In the next section, to provide a background, we review the literature on the formation of reference points and integrate it with social issue behaviours. Next, building on this integrated framework, we argue that a successful behavioural strategy depends not only on MOA but also on commitment to the initial reference point and the power of the social network. Managers can ensure that the behaviour strategy correctly modifies or matches the reference point of the decision maker either directly or indirectly through upstream, midstream or downstream behaviour strategies or a combination thereof. The chapter concludes by considering the implications for future research in the social marketing and communications fields.
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Book Title
Contemporary Issues in Social Marketing
Subject
Marketing not elsewhere classified