Nudging in Animal Disease Control and Surveillance: A Qualitative Approach to Identify Strategies Used to Improve Compliance With Animal Health Policies.

Maria Garza,Ann Lindberg,Estelle C C Ågren

doi:10.3389/fvets.2020.00383

Abstract

Professionals from seven European countries were interviewed to identify strategies used in the surveillance and control of animal infections to influence behaviors such as program enrollment, adoption of biosecurity measures, and engagement in surveillance. To find strategies that were well-designed from a theoretical perspective, three frameworks from nudge theory were applied to the strategies: the Nuffield ladder to determine the strength of the interventions, EAST to identify attributes of the strategies, and MINDSPACE to identify the psychological mechanisms involved. We found that almost two thirds (91/120) of the strategies were designed in a manner likely to trigger multiple psychological mechanisms, which is in line with the existing recommendations for successful effect, i.e., achieving a desired behavior. This was despite that the design of the strategies was based on professionals' empirical understanding of the requirements to achieve anticipated outcomes rather than the systematic use of methods from the behavioral sciences and psychology. The most commonly used strategy was provision of information, and the least used mechanism was making a desired behavior easy to perform. The findings in this study, with all the examples of strategies used, can serve as inspiration for others. The theoretical frameworks may also be beneficial to apply as a complement in future design of new strategies. This study did not include evaluation of how efficient different strategies have been, which would be an interesting area for future studies.

Highlights

Nudge theory is a concept in behavioral science, political theory, and economics which argues that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions to achieve non-forced compliance can influence the motives, incentives, and decision making of groups and individuals as effectively as direct instruction, legislation, or enforcement (1)
Thereafter, we present the results of the application of the three study frameworks following a stepwise approach: firstly, the strength of the intervention by means of the Nuffield ladder; secondly, the attributes of the strategies based on the EAST framework including strategies in steps 1–5 in the Nuffield ladder; and, the potential psychological mechanisms involved using the MINDSPACE framework, including strategies with design compatible with three or four of the EAST attributes
There was an association between the type of activity and the implementer; authorities were mostly responsible for engagement or compliance with surveillance for notifiable diseases as compared to animal health services that mostly were responsible for enrollment and engagement into control programs

Summary

Introduction

Nudge theory is a concept in behavioral science, political theory, and economics which argues that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions to achieve non-forced compliance can influence the motives, incentives, and decision making of groups and individuals as effectively as direct instruction, legislation, or enforcement (1). It has previously been used in other fields, for example to promote environmentally sustainable behavior (2) and to help implement public policies (3), but its usefulness in supporting animal health policies is still to be explored (4). To our understanding, such operational features often form part of professionals’ individual experience with implementation of disease control and tend not be reported in the scientific literature and official documents, making it difficult to identify them by systematic literature reviews

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