A 3-moments tale in behavioral change.
By Gastón Gertner
Co-founder & Chief Partnerships Officer
gaston@talk2u.org
This is a personal account based on true facts. It is the story of a 3-moments journey experience working in behavioral change for over 10 years. It supports a simple claim: “stories are an effective and powerful driver for positive deviations in desired and actual behaviors”. This journey connects the dots, starting with the importance of small details down the road to the power of one on one conversations framed as participatory storytelling.
Moment #1: A debut in nudge theory.
[2010] I’m sitting in the last row in my 502 Psychology for Policy Analysis class, still wondering “Why do I need a psychology class to work in international development?” I’m 3 classes in and I’m still procrastinating on buying Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge book that goes as part of the curriculum. Until this slide pops in. Why is the professor showing a photo of a urinal?
In effect, the photo comes from the men’s room at Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam. The little fly reflects the idea of a nudge, aiming to make men aim for the mosquito in public toilets. It is the ultimate self-explanatory definition of a nudge. A designed little non-binding stimuli that can still do the trick: guiding men into target reducing hygiene and cleaning costs at public toilets. The power of small details comes from making people focus their attention into a particular direction to generate impact. The fly-in-urinals’ effectiveness was tested to find that it reduced spillage by 80 percent. That’s quick, simple and cost-less! Back in the dorm, on that date I bought the Nudge book inaugurating my trip into behavioral change interventions. To this date, the kindle version keeps me company worldwide 24/7.
Moment #2: A puppet show intervention to improve 2-years-old nutrition
[2014] After I graduated from Policy School, I did a whole bunch of international work travel, mainly running fieldwork operations for governments and NGOs policy projects providing technical support in the design, implementation and impact evaluation. The City of El Alto is located 4,100 meters above sea level in the Bolivian highlands. In 2014, I took part in the design and evaluation of an intervention to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices to address stunting and malnutrition among low-income households.
The first 1,000 days of the life of a newly born baby represent a unique window of opportunity for any person’s growth development. Early stimulation, good nutrition and a safe environment are catalyst forces to overcome poverty traps. Most mothers know this, but our research then showed that knowledge was not sufficient to sustain good practices. Mothers were finding difficulties in sticking to recommended practices in exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding and handwashing. How could our program promote the adoption of feeding and hygiene practices in a convincing and endurable fashion?
Enter storytelling techniques. The nutrition intervention incorporated a portable stage as a scenario in each home as trained facilitators visited mothers for growth monitoring and key messages reinforcement. Facilitators, in essence, displayed a puppet show with culturally adapted characters in 1,000 households highlighting nutrition and hygiene concepts in a fun way for the family and, particularly, caregivers. In terms of results, this participatory theatre-based behavioral change strategy significantly improved caregivers knowledge and practices. Why did it work? Our brains are wired to understand stories. As we listen to characters facing situations that are relatable to our own, we automatically create a feeling of empathy with her situation. It is this connection and proximity that function as a driver to convert memorable stories into actions, ending in behavioral change.
Moment #3: Interactive storytelling goes viral
[2018] Careta’s project is the first chat story we produced at Talk2U and for the last 2 years, 2 million adolescents have been part of this innovative, interactive storytelling on facebook messenger. It tells the story of Fabi Grossi, a 19 years-old girl in Brazil who finds out on social media that her ex-boyfriend has disseminated intimate video of her. Now imagine her sharing this story with her friends in chat conversations, sending messages, photos, as she cries her heart out and still finds a space of redemption to move on, having her virtual-friends cheering up for her!
The trick in the project is that Fabi is not real. By using chatbots technology and AI-platforms we created interactive 1:1 massive, simultaneous conversations that we still private and provided key messages for youth to avoid risks while they sext. The second trick and a highlight of this journey is how we found in chatbot technology and messaging apps an opportunity to test and scale the storytelling and behavioral change nexus into the millions of messages delivered for social impact.
[2020] As it usually happens, endings make good opportunities for new beginnings. And this is exactly what it’s happening to my team at Talk2U right now. We are leveraging the power of stories, using science-based behavioral frameworks and chatbot technology to ignite positive change among youth worldwide. Visit our website, follow our instagram channels and join the stories for social impact. This boat is sailing off and we need your support in every port!
Gastón Gertner is a Life-long learner, a strong advocate for behavioral science and an expert in promoting evidence-based solutions for social impact. GG’s nerdy-self and down to earth perspective helps him design policy-based interventions as well as connect with collective genius to scale positive behavioral change. Occasionally he may unintentionally drop a line or 2 from any random song.
