Online community changes in science behind behavior

Editor's note: Shawn Yang (Sean Young) is professor of family medicine and director of innovation at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction medicine. He wrote articles on psychology, technology and public health/medicine on the seanyoungphd.com of his personal website.

Is it impossible to talk to tech entrepreneurs about the topic of user behavior and participation? or is it just my personal reason? I am a behavioral psychologist, so I have been talking about user participation, but I think there are other reasons. I think entrepreneurs are also aware of the importance of behavioural change and user involvement for technology development (and all aspects of our lives). Whether it's a way to get users to download and play our sports Fant West apps, whether to force yourself to stop eating a spoonful of ice cream or to keep your neighbors from pressing the snooze button at 5:00, 5:10, and 5:20 in the morning, we all know how hard it is to get people involved and change their behavior.

Before discussing how to change, you need to declare a premise that you and I should agree that the ability to change behavior is a powerful skill, whether in good or bad terms. While entrepreneurs seek ways to change the world, we must first ensure that: 1 The products we create are good for society (not harmful), and 2 of the actions we try to change can help us achieve those goals. Once you've finished with the prerequisites, let's discuss how to change behavior.

Fortunately, there is a science that specifically describes how to change behavior, and the change in participation and behavior depends on the understanding of people's psychology. By coping with the psychological needs and causes of people not wanting to change their behavior (also taking into account the social environment, cultural values and emotional factors), we can change behavior more effectively. Once you understand people's psychology, technology--especially the online community--can become a truly useful platform for fast-changing behavior.

Changing behavior on a social network

Although social media and online community development are designed to connect people and share information, recent findings suggest that these technologies are also effective in changing behaviour. For example, my colleagues and I have established an online community in medical school to involve people in activities that improve health, such as HIV testing, stopping the use of meth, relaxing stress, and so on. We have not specifically chosen the participants, and we believe they will like this technology, which is different from science. We invite them because the technology is relevant to them-the drugs, sex and other behaviors that make them addicted can put themselves and others at risk. It is our responsibility to create communities, to attract them to stay and to participate. Yes, we'll give them 30 dollars after an hour-long investigation, but then they can take the money and leave and never come back. But for some reason they remain in the group and interact actively with strangers.

So how do we build an online community that keeps users involved and changes their behavior? Our starting point is to understand and satisfy their psychological needs.

In most studies, we first need to answer questions about personal questions (that is, what to do with user data), and then build a community of trust. Unlike other communities where the usual users are interested in joining, our communities need to guide their interests, keep them active, and finally be willing to stay and participate. In order to accomplish our goals, we need to slow down our education to change our behavior, to make them feel comfortable, and not to be pressured to change. Through some small things like the commentary, "Are you all well today?" To make them feel safe and let them know that they can go back to their own and enjoy interacting with others without discussing health topics. By satisfying their psychological needs, we can educate them and provide concrete, simple steps to change behavior.

You may think that most people are unwilling to actively participate in online community activities unless they are willing to stay there and think the community is a big part of their relationship. Our three-month study, published in the September issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine (Annals of Internal Dentistry), showed that more than 80% of our group's participants were active, and that those who participated in the intervention Study group were more willing to change their behavior than others. It is worth inspiring that we have also found that these groups have become real online communities; In our earliest studies, real intervention studies ended more than two years ago, but participants were still active in the community, interacting and helping each other.

Core elements

Through research, we find that the newest online community can change people's behavior as long as the following psychological needs are met:

The need for trust. Sharing ideas, experiences and difficulties with them will make us more intimate and more trusting. When we trust others, we are more open minded, more willing to learn, and more willing to change behavior. In the study we found that sharing personal information (even the trivial things that describe what we did today) can also help increase trust and change behavior.

Adaptation needs. Most people have been trying to adapt to the environment. Social norms or other people's attitudes and behaviors have a great impact on our own attitudes and behaviors. Each new online community or discussion group will create its own set of social norms and expectations that people need to follow. Most people are willing to change their attitude and/or behavior to fit the group norms and integrate into the community.

The need for self-worth. When people feel good about themselves, they are more willing to change and feel the power to change behavior. In a community that is designed to help and care for people, people can also add confidence to each other.

The need for good behavior to be rewarded. Anyone who has trained a puppy knows that as long as you reward it, it can even sit there, but if you want it to get rid of rewards and be really well-trained, you need to start with a reward and give the reward no more regularity. In fact, people and animals in this respect is not very different, can also be enhanced training. For example, when people join a social network and immediately get their activities praised, then gradually pull the post to receive the time interval of praise (which psychologists call variable hardening), which encourages them to publish more content. In the end, these behaviors become habits.

Feel the need for self-improvement. The increase in self-confidence will make people feel good, and self-improvement will let them know that they can change. Creating a sense of self-reliance will make them more determined to make changes. In a social network, people are changing their behavior, satisfying your psychological needs, and being confident in your changes so that you can feel empowered to change your behavior.

In my research career, I have found that understanding psychological needs is the core of participation and behavioral change in all areas. People are complex animals, so these are certainly not very comprehensive, but meeting these needs should give you a big step forward in using technology to change and maintain your behavior. (translation: Gutiushi)