Wearing a bike helmet

Yin Yin Wu

Meet Yin Yin…

She is very clumsy

Yin Yin has

Yin Yin has gotten into 4 bike accidents…even though she claims that they are not her fault, she still gets hit

What’s wrong with this picture?

No one is wearing a helmet

Yin Yin needs to change her before this occurs

Behavior Grid Model

Missing Piece

What’s the missing piece?

• Motivation exists• Simplicity Factors– NO: Time– NO: Money– NO: Physical Effort– NO: Brain Cycles– NO: Social Deviance – YES: Non-Routine

• No trigger

Mapping the behavior

Helmet Wearing Habit

Question: How can she effectively form a blue, span behavior?

• Start Small: Wear helmet to first class of the day

• Social Commitment: Ask a friend to wear a helmet

• Trigger: leave the helmet by the bike. Everytime she gets on the bike she sees the helmet. (No one steals helmets.)

Outcomes

• What worked– Leaving the helmet by the bike insured that she

could always find the helmet– Establishing a habit with a friend reinforced habit

creation– Starting small. In committing to wearing the

helmet only once a day, she allowed herself lapses in helmet wearing.

Next steps

• Buy a cooler helmet- Social deviance did play a small role in the motivation to wear a helmet

• Bike less- the helmet was uncomfortable and poor fitting, and thus required a physical effort to secure