Influencing Behaviours – Moving Beyond the Individual is a new user guide to the Individual, Social and Material (ISM) approach to behaviour change, commissioned by the Scottish Government and designed for policy makers and practitioners whose work aims at engaging people and influencing their behaviours.
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Unsustainable behaviours are often entrenched or growing features of everyday life. The Individual, Social And Material (ISM) approach draws on the latest behavioural science thinking across three disciplines (behavioural economics, social psychology and sociology) to develop a single practical tool to help design and improve behavioural interventions.
ISM is designed to help collaborative work to define a problem, identify solutions, and deliver and evaluate interventions. It aims to avoid the problem of which of the many behavioural models a practitioner should choose, by bringing together the main insights from across them all.
ISM is based on theory and evidence which shows that three different contexts – the Individual, Social and Material – influence people’s behaviours. In order to achieve substantive and long lasting change through more effective policies and interventions, the approach aims to move “beyond the individual” to consider the different contexts and the multiple factors within them that influence the way people act every day.
Introducing the ISM approach
The ISM user guide introduces and explains the Individual, Social and Material contexts and the different factors that influence behaviours.
Case studies on a strategic approach to tackling alcohol abuse in Scotland and how kerbside recycling became the norm illustrate how the ISM approach can successfully influence behaviours. A further example considers how an ISM approach could potentially help reduce the use of mobile phones by drivers.
The guide also outlines how the tool can be used in a workshop setting to develop new strategies and ideas, using an example developed in a workshop at the Scottish Government to look at encouraging individuals’ uptake of purchasing electric vehicles..
A technical guide to ISM
An accompanying technical guide provides all the background on the development of the tool, and the theory underlying the contextual factors and influences.
The technical guide is a short introduction to the field of behaviour change, seen through the Individual, Social and Material contexts. It also outlines in greater detail the three main behavioural disciplines that have been brought together within ISM, and provides recommendations for further reading.
The language of ISM was first conceived by Dale Southerton and colleagues at the University of Manchester. The user guide was written by Andrew Darnton and Jackie Horne, and the technical guide was written by Andrew Darnton and David Evans.
Further reading
- Influencing Behaviours – Moving Beyond the Individual – A User Guide to the ISM Tool: available online and to download
- Influencing Behaviours – A Technical Guide to the ISM Tool: available online and to download
