Changing behaviour: A public policy perspective

9. Conclusions

Governments regularly use a range of traditional policy tools to influence citizens’ behaviour, including legislation, sanctions, regulations, taxes and subsidies, the provision of public services and information and guidance material. In many areas this range of traditional tools works well. For some social policy problems such as so-called wicked problems, however, influencing human behaviour is very complex and the effectiveness of traditional approaches may be limited without some additional tools and understanding of how to engage citizens in cooperative behavioural change. It has become increasingly clear that government cannot simply deliver key policy outcomes to a disengaged and passive public. In the areas of welfare, health, crime, employment, education and the environment, achieving significant progress requires changing behaviour.

Detailed cost-benefit analyses in a number of key areas of public policy such as health and crime have shown that more sophisticated behaviour-based interventions can be very much more cost-effective than traditional approaches to policy and service delivery. This is particularly the case if a longer-term time frame is taken to evaluate the constraints, costs and benefits. Agencies may have more impact on key policy outcomes by using their limited resources to more effectively engage, involve and change the behaviour of users and other parties, than by concentrating only on traditional policy tools and service delivery.

Accordingly, policy makers in the APS need to have a better understanding of how the rational choice model of behavioural change can be supplemented by insights from behavioural change theory and evidence at the individual, interpersonal and community levels. A social marketing approach is one practical tool that tries to integrate these three levels of theories.

Adopting a comprehensive approach to behavioural change recognises that all the policy levers used by government that potentially influence a certain public behaviour should be internally consistent and mutually supportive. Ad hoc, piecemeal action can have some impact but it is significantly more limited than a carefully planned, comprehensive, long-term approach. Experience with tobacco control illustrates that the effectiveness of a comprehensive package is generally significantly greater than the sum of its parts.

The tobacco control strategy adopted by Australia has clear strengths and insights for other policy makers tasked with achieving sustained and widespread behavioural change. These include:

the importance of having an explicit behavioural change approach informed by behavioural theory and evidence and the alignment of all policy tools to reinforce behavioural change.
the power of a comprehensive approach that achieves an effective balance between the various components (education, information, mass media, legislation, restrictive measures or in other policy contexts encouraging measures such as grants and assistance services)— within government policy parameters and funding constraints. While tobacco control evolved into a comprehensive approach over a 30-year period of ad hoc measures, a comprehensive approach, if implemented earlier, would have maximised the effectiveness of tobacco control at an earlier stage.
the benefits of working effectively with other jurisdictions and stakeholders with an agreed framework which clearly outlines areas of responsibility and facilitates cooperation. This highlights the importance of effective governance structures and generating a shared understanding of the policy issues among jurisdictions and stakeholders.
the need for a planned, long-term approach and investment. Ongoing investment in tobacco control, including improving the effectiveness of measures, maintaining funding for mass media promotion, and a progressive toughening of regulations are required to keep tobacco use on a downward trend.
the importance of an evidence-based approach, including investment in research and evaluation to assist in planning the evolution of the comprehensive policy, where resources are best directed, and in demonstrating that behavioural change is being achieved.

Tobacco control also highlights some difficulties in achieving behavioural change, including:

overcoming the more resistant barrier to behavioural change facing particular groups. In the case of tobacco control, these groups include Indigenous people and people with a mental illness.
the difficulties in keeping communication channels open among the various jurisdictions and stakeholders, not only during policy formulation but particularly in the implementation phase of the current National Tobacco Strategy.

The need to formulate a comprehensive approach to behavioural change, to understand how components interact, to work cooperatively across jurisdictions and organisations and to engage stakeholders, highlights the need for a range of core skills in addition to the more traditional analytical, conceptual and project management skills. These include communication and influencing skills, the ability to work cooperatively, and big-picture thinking skills. There is also a need for policy makers to be aware of and apply behavioural change theory, and to understand the importance of investing in evaluation and research.

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Changing behaviour: A public policy perspective

9. Conclusions