How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

by Katy Milkman

I worked with a team of economists* to convince Evive to make a small addition to a standard reminder letter. Recipients would be encouraged to write down the date and time when they planned to get their flu shot at their free workplace clinic.* It’s worth noting here that these letters weren’t inviting people to schedule flu shot appointments. That often confuses audiences when I present this study. The letters provided no mail-back address and no way for the recipients to convey their flu shot plan to Evive or their employer. We simply hoped that a prompt to think through a concrete plan with a time trigger could help them follow through on getting an important vaccination by combatting forgetting. Prashant was hopeful, too. If simple changes like this to the company’s reminder forms could make a difference without costing Evive a dime, it would be a huge boon. So when we tested our letters experimentally at a large midwestern company with dozens of offices and saw substantive changes in vaccination rates, everyone celebrated. Much to our delight, merely prompting people to write down a plan in the privacy of their home led to a 13 percent increase in vaccinations, though no one from Evive ever heard or saw these plans.* Many more people than usual in our study followed through to get an immunization they wanted, lowering their risk of a nasty illness. Interestingly though, like Todd, we found that the prompts were much more helpful in some contexts than others. Offices ...