Grand Final Behavior Change

Behavior Change 1

INFLUENCES ON BEHAVIOR CHANGE

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Behavior Change 2

Influences of Behavior Change

In recent years, behavioral change has been a tool that businesses, governments, and

organizations use to enact policies or change the course of action. For instance, the rapidly

developing technology has fueled fast marketing and companies have to be flexible in accepting

changes otherwise it easily lose its competitive edge and thus faced out due to its inability to

meet clients' needs. Additionally, the healthcare industry campaign for behavioral change in the

aspect that will lead to quality of life such as the campaign against cigarette smoking or

excessive drinking. As a result, numerous philosophical theories try to explain how behavioral

change come by and the main ingredients to motivate such changes. An example of such

arguments is the Social Cognitive Theory that proposes that external factors but not inner drive

influence people and therefore triadic interaction composed of environmental factors, personal

and behavior can best describe human functioning (Vlaev and Dolan, 2015, P.69). From all the

theories, the essential elements that define behavior change are like a threat, fear, response

efficacy, self-efficacy, barriers, and attitude. The agents of impacting behavioral change in

society are the government, non-governmental agencies, churches, leaders, and other agencies

(Lyons et al., 2014). The media is the most influential of all in the campaign for behavioral

change. The big questions that remain are who define what is good or bad and where is a change

required. Therefore, this paper seeks to find out if behavior change occur through publicity and

media campaigns.

The environment surrounding an individual is the most influencing factor in behavioral

change. For instance, the government plays a pivotal role in bringing behavioral change to its

citizens through a range of policies, namely regulations, taxes, sanctions, subsidies, and public

services provisions. The reason behind government engagement in behavior change is due to

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associated benefits concerning economic and social. Examples are like regulations to prevent

collusive behavior in businesses or to curb undesirable practices such as crime (Scollo et al.,

2015). The government of Australia, for instance, have enacted legislation to reduce the impact

that smoking and other tobacco products has had on the citizens. On May 31, 2007, South

Australia passed a law that bans smoking in a vehicle in the presence of children under 16 years.

Also, all tobacco products either imported or manufactured for retail had to have warning labels

since March 2016. As a result, 30% of the front and 90% on the back of the cigarette pack

contains health warnings (Roeseler et al., 2016). Another approach is increasing the tax on

tobacco products. The increase in price in 2011 saw an 11% fall in the tobacco consumption.

Another example is the enactment of the smoke-free workplace in California, and from

1990 to 2005, the rate dropped from 29% to 14%. Californians reported 95% having smoke-free

workplaces. It also saw a decline of 20% for daily smokers from 17.3 to 13.8 sticks per day and a

higher number considering and attempting to quit smoking (Roeseler et al., 2016).

Furthermore, the issue of same-sex marriage has been a contentious issue in most parts of

the world. People's behavior was majorly defined by their religious stands which for the staunch,

it was intolerable and abhorred. However, with the relentless campaigns of gay and lesbian

community people have started to accept the inevitable (Thibaut, 2017). In Australia, the law that

restricted same-sex marriage in 2004 was amended in December 2017 after a rigorous yes-and-

no campaign that lasted for three months. Since that date equality in marriages, regardless of sex

is active, and Australia became the 25

country to recognize same-sex marriage. In the United

States, public opinion regarding gay marriages changed since presentation on the issue in 1980's

on an occasional basis and hastening in the 1990's. The "people power" supporting gay marriages

rose above 50% in 2011 (Sherkat, 2017: 390). Between 1988 and 2009, the rate of supporters of

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same-sex marriages was rising at 1 to 1.5%, and henceforth the pace accelerated. By 2016, 83%

of Americans between the age bracket of 18 and 29 support gay marriages (Sherkat, 2017: 390).

These statistics expatriate culture shift in gay marriages as a result of publicity and media

campaigns.

Behavior change in the society is entrenched in identity groups and role models. For

instance, the celebrities influence our dressing codes, hairstyle, walking, and body alterations,

especially on the youth (Taylor, 2017). It is through this knowledge that marketers focus on

identifying their products with famous people in the advertisements. Additionally, celebrities can

influence attitude, decision making, and understanding that people retain. The society is

conditioned to react positively to the standpoint of personalities. This influence accelerated

through social networks, and people emulate in the attempt to acquire such social capital.

Celebrity advocacy also has a behavioral change in the adoption of specific healthcare

prevention as in the case of Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy announcement (Evans et al.,

2014: 442). Following that announcement, there was an increase in the number of patients

screening for the impugned gene. Therefore, role models can serve as agents of positive behavior

change. However, the power of celebrities can be misused to impact an adverse behavior change.

For example, Jenny McCarthy led an anti-vaccine movement, and that action roused public

concern about the safety of the vaccines (Capurro, 2018:27). The popularity of media outlets has

made it easy for celebrities to communicate directly with the public to influence their knowledge,

desires, and attitude. Therefore, role models play a big part in shaping what people think is good

or bad.

As already stated, the social media plays a significant influence on behavior change. The

social outlets form the primary platform for people to present themselves and to communicate

Behavior Change 5

their thoughts. Social networking platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter together

with social media has changed the means of information creation and transmission (Vlaev and

Dolan, 2015, P.69). Consumers are subjected to social media influence with daily generated

content. Besides, human behavior change as we delve more into technology, especially the

internet use in daily life. Today, relationships, habits, shopping choices and good humor are a

subject of social media. According to the study conducted on social networking, it shows that

people adapt distinct personas in social networking which are due to the need to fit in the society

with a different culture (Lyons et al., 2014). It is worth noting, behavioral in social interaction

whereby the old-fashioned meet and talk is diminishing. Now, people are always with their

smartphones or tablets checking on their social status that is tied to virtual identity. Apart from

social networking, social media such as television and radios are more common. Previously,

owning a TV set was a big deal but now missing one is a big dent (Lyons et al., 2014).

Therefore, social media outreach is limitless and so is its influence on the behavior change. The

social media are the primary platform for advertising products, and services, and as a result

dictate the mode of change in behavior. The hip-hop culture, for instance, changed the behavior

of many youths through social media influence. The songs and visual performance express a lot

of violence and drug use and from which the young adult emulate (Taylor, 2016). Smoking of

weed or illegal drug usage is portrayed as being cool and have seen many young people

destroying their lives. Another aspect of social media influence is through the constant

advertisement of products. As the primary source of revenue, social media regularly expose their

viewers to ads and campaigns to lure them to change their behavior on specific brands.

The social media campaign that has been very successful are HIV awareness, against

women violation, and the need for gender equality. The onset of HIV saw people exposing

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negative perception to the victims. Having the virus, stigmatization at the doorstep whether

acquired from an unfaithful partner or born with was troubling. People had a varied

misconception on the mode of transmission of the virus and their first reaction was the isolation

of the victims (Lyons et al., 2014). The media in conjunction with healthcare practitioners helped

to educate the mass. Today, victims leaving with AIDs co-exist with others in a typical situation.

Another campaign is that of women to have equal rights as men in the workplaces. In the past

years, women were not considered equivalent to the men and were looked-down-upon. As a

result, girls were never sent to school or even considered for the leadership position. However,

through the constant campaign such as “Let Girls Learn” in the US, women have gained an equal

right to men, and any holding higher position in executive positions evidence this (Vlaev and

Dolan, 2015, P.69). The drives had a significant impact in that the pay rate gap is narrowing,

women elected in executive positions, and girls are getting equal opportunity in education.

Currently, the campaigns that are going on are majorly focused on cancer, gender

equality and fight against HIV and AIDs. Non-governmental agencies like the UN also focus on

eradicating hunger and poverty, especially in third world continents. Also, the same-sex

campaigns are still ongoing since some parts, especially in Africa, are yet to absorb the idea.

Retrospectively, influences on behavior change are numerous, and the publicity and

media campaign are the primary agents. Governments, organizations, and other groups influence

behavior change to impact the shift in perception or values. For instance, the government of

Australia uses legislation to reduce the tobacco products used to improve the quality of life.

Additionally, campaigns have allowed people to change their perceptions of people living with

HIV and cancer on top of promoting gender equality. However, the media as the primary agent

of behavioral change has impetus the spread of the hip-hop culture that has resulted in the

Behavior Change 7

adverse outcome to the younger generations. Therefore, as much as media assist in promoting

positive behavior change, it has also played a part in bringing negative influence and moderation

in the use of the same is recommended.

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References

Capurro, G., Greenberg, J., Dubé, E., and Driedger, M., 2018. Measles, Moral Regulation and

the Social Construction of Risk: Media Narratives of "Anti-Vaxxers" and the 2015

Disneyland Outbreak. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 43(1), pp.25-48.

Evans, D.G.R., Barwell, J., Eccles, D.M., Collins, A., Izatt, L., Jacobs, C., Donaldson, A., Brady,

A.F., Cuthbert, A., Harrison, R. and Thomas, S., 2014. The Angelina Jolie effect: how

high celebrity profile can have a major impact on the provision of cancer-related services.

Breast Cancer Research, 16(5), p.442.

Lyons, E.J., Lewis, Z.H., Mayrsohn, B.G., and Rowland, J.L., 2014. Behavior change techniques

implemented in electronic lifestyle activity monitors: A systematic content analysis.

Journal of medical Internet research, 16(8).

Maher, C.A., Lewis, L.K., Ferrar, K., Marshall, S., De Bourdeaudhuij, I. and Vandelanotte, C.,

2014. Are health behavior change interventions that use online social networks

effectively? A systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research, 16(2).

Roeseler, A., Solomon, M., Beatty, C. and Sipler, A.M., 2016. The tobacco control network's

policy readiness and stage of change assessment: what the results suggest for moving

tobacco control efforts forward at the state and territorial levels. Journal of Public Health

Management and Practice, 22(1), pp.9-19.

Scollo, Michelle, Kylie Lindorff, Kerri Coomber, Megan Bayly, and Melanie Wakefield.

"Standardised packaging and new enlarged graphic health warnings for tobacco products

in Australia—legislative requirements and implementation of the Tobacco Plain

Packaging Act 2011 and the Competition and Consumer (Tobacco) Information

Standard, 2011." Tobacco control 24, no. Supple 2 (2015): ii9-ii16.

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Sherkat, D.E., 2017. Intersecting Identities and Support for Same-sex Marriage in the United

States. Social Currents, 4(4), pp.380-400.

Taylor, K.D., 2016. Pop, Hip Hop, and Empire, Study of a New Pedagogical Approach in a

Developmental Reading and English Class.

Thibaut, J.W., 2017. The social psychology of groups. Routledge.

Vlaev, I., and Dolan, P., 2015. Action change theory: A reinforcement learning perspective on

behavior change. Review of General Psychology, 19(1), p.69.

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