Changing behaviour of under-35s during COVID-19
- Aisling Blackmore
- Apr 30, 2020
- 3 min read
In April 2020, I designed and facilitated a 2 hour workshop using Zoom, with a range of young people in Perth, WA. The workshop aim was to better understand what information and strategies would be most likely to create sustainable behaviour change for younger adults during COVID-19. The workshop included a game component, to test the experience of social network incentives. The game was inspired by experiments described in Chapter 4 of Social Physics by Alex Pentland. This workshop was co-hosted by the Australian Red Cross WA Youth Advisory Committee.
Insights arising from the workshop
When we don’t know what to do, we look to those around us and follow their lead. We are inherently social creatures, and need to see someone in some way – asking people to go without social contact is unsustainable.
Four key lessons for influencing behaviour of under 35s:
Give people tools to have challenging conversations with peers early.
Frame changing behaviour as a way to take control and responsibility – no one likes to feel vulnerable to the thoughtlessness of strangers.
Encourage people to share their changed behaviour actively to inspire and support others.
Provide a tangible incentive to change behaviour – this could be a social reward, it doesn’t have to be financial.
What did we hear and what did we learn
Impacts on individuals
Emotional
Disconnection from communities, eg: church, uni, friends, volunteering
“scary, freaky”
“keep hoping something will change”
Uncertainty has been frustrating
Feeling paranoid about the risk of transmitting to family due to work role.
Anxious
Financial
Significant work insecurity leading to financial insecurity
Work experience cancelled.
Lots of opportunities vanished – jobs, volunteering.
Professional
"Work has been tough” – not much coaching/connection and everyone is struggling. A sense that every individual has to ‘prove their worth’.
Social
“Don’t know what to do with my time”
Usually spend lots of time going out
Grateful for friends online
Long distance relationships affected by uncertainty of when people can reunite.
Unexpected benefits
Created a new opportunity to focus on other things
“Never seen so many people exercising”
“forced break”
What created barriers to changing behaviour?
Competing and misleading information, including conspiracy videos. fake news, and scapegoats such as 5G.
Official sources giving inconsistent information which contributed to a false sense of security.
Feeling strange about adhering to social distancing or other recommendations – a feeling of “not wanting to be first” in a social group – the impact of peer pressure and risk of social exclusion or penalties.
The way information was shared made people panic.
Even though this was an unexpected situation and people were unprepared, participants felt that they were somehow expected to ‘know what to do’.
The incentives/rewards for changing behaviour were abstract, not real or meaningful to many people.
Reactions to social network incentives game
Noted that relying on other’s to behave ‘well’ felt uncomfortable and made people feel vulnerable, as they were not in control of what would happen to them. People also felt frustrated when they lost the game because of others, sharing that they were annoyed because they “did their part”.
Even though everyone could have won if everyone had abided by the rules, people who broke the rules reflected a mix of emotions and reactions: - Feeling guilty because they “played a dirty game” or because they “didn’t try hard enough” - Feeling justified as a result of the behaviour of others: “he did it, so so can I”
Lessons from the social network incentives game in the real world
Leading by example is challenging in a situation where the rules change regularly. It undermines confidence in being able to challenge people on their behaviour. All participants shared experiences of feeling opposition, social and peer pressure which were at odd with what they felt was the right thing to do in response to COVID-19.
Attitudes such as “the only person impacted is me” are difficult to deal with as are people who adhere to the technicalities of the rules but not the spirit by finding work around. Participants noted they didn’t feel they had the language or the skill to challenge this, but they also felt frustrated and disempowered when they observed this behaviour: “how do you start the conversation with others?” and “it didn’t feel right, but how do you explain?”.
Participants shared that opportunities to see through social media example of people doing the right thing created different and positive social pressures and incentives.
