The New York Times ran an interesting article about anthropologist Val Curtis, who wanted to find a way to encourage Africans to wash their hands with soap. When education campaigns failed, she turned to consumer market researchers. Market researchers study the psychology of habits, how habits are developed, and how habits can be manipulated to get consumers to exhibit a certain behavior. The method appears to be working for the hand-washing campaign. Reported hand-washing with soap is up dramatically.
Some people worry about the campaign's manipulative approach and would like to continue to focus on education effort. But where education efforts have failed, working to develop new habits is ultimately saving lives.
You can find the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/business/13habit.html?ex=1373601600&en=e3072a7b2bc8ebf4&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink.
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