Behavior change

Focusing on awareness is the typical educational approach used in safety to change behavior and attitudes. It’s also common to combine awareness and commitment. New evidence suggests a third method, combining commitment and “the hypocrisy effect,” is the most influential in bringing about the desired changes:

Awareness – employees receive a clear rationale about the need to change

Awareness + Commitment – employees receive the rational and sign a pledge card to practice the desired behavior

Commitment + Hypocrisy – employees sign the pledge card and develop a list of situations in which they should practice the desired behavior, but don’t (when workers overcome their hypocrisy, it leads to more desired behavior change than the first two methods)