Public Relations - Research Helps PR Professionals Determine What Drives People's Behavior

One of the most hard challenges for public dealings political campaigns is identifying the factors that volition really do people to change their behaviors.

Much praseodymium and advertisement is focused on consciousness -- making people aware of the dangers of a behavior, and/or aware of the benefits of changing.

But consciousness falls far short of affecting people's behavior. Otherwise, no 1 would smoke, overeat, drink and drive, or thrust while talking on a cell phone. We all cognize the dangers of these behaviors, yet they persist. The reply to changing behaviour lies in apprehension the "drivers" of behavior.

For example, when my praseodymium house first started working with the local teen safe-driving campaign, we researched teens and asked them, "When you drive safely, what motivates you to make so?" Teens could state that they feared decease in a crash; or feared hurting others. But overwhelmingly teens said "fear of a ticket" motivated them to drive safely. That's great information to have; rather than trying to frighten adolescent drivers with doomsday and death, focusing on the more than contiguous effects of getting a ticket. Older grownups might be more than motivated out of safety concerns, but for teens, who see themselves as immortal, safety messages autumn on deaf ears. But many teens have got gotten a ticket, or cognize person who has, and that effect is a more than effectual motivational driver. A small further research showed that the fiscal effects for one ticket can add up to $3,000 in mulcts and, more than importantly, increased coverage premiums.

So the cardinal to influencing people's behaviour with praseodymium lies not so much in the originative executing of a campaign, but in the front-end research to place the true drivers of behavioural change. Better research, better outcomes.