Implications of Behavioral Decision Theory and Social Marketing for Designing Social Action Programs

Abstract

In recent years, there has been increased interest in applied research by social psychologists. Attempts have been made to identify significant social problems and then to address these problems by means of social interventions or social action programs. Psychological research and methodology has been used to guide the formulation of such programs. This chapter describes issues that we have confronted in the context of our own research programs on the prevention of unintended pregnancies and the prevention of drunk driving. Although we discuss many of these issues in general terms, we do not believe that they are applicable to all social action programs. Nor are they exhaustive of all the issues that must be addressed. Rather, they represent a cross section of some of the perspectives we have adopted when designing interventions to address two specific problems of social significance.KeywordsPrediction EquationUnintended PregnancyMarket SegmentationBirth Control MethodExperimental Social PsychologyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.