Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

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

Garza, Maria; Ågren, Estelle C. C.; Lindberg, Ann

Authors

Maria Garza

Estelle C. C. Ågren

Ann Lindberg



Abstract

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.

Citation

Garza, M., Ågren, E. C. C., & Lindberg, A. (2020). 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, 7, https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00383

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 29, 2020
Publication Date Aug 5, 2020
Deposit Date Aug 10, 2020
Publicly Available Date Nov 20, 2020
Journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 7
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00383
Public URL https://rvc-repository.worktribe.com/output/1376393
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00383

Files










You might also like



Downloadable Citations