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

Frontiers in Veterinary Science

Estelle C. C. Ågren¹  Ann Lindberg¹  Maria Garza² 

[1] Department of Disease Control and Epidemiology, National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden;Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health Group, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, United Kingdom;

关键词: animal health;    disease control program;    surveillance;    decision making;    behavioral economics;    nudge theory;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fvets.2020.00383

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

Unknown