What is the behavior change wheel method?

The Behaviour Change Wheel is a synthesis of 19 behaviour change frameworks that draw on a wide range of disciplines and approaches. It is based on a systematic, theory-based method, key concepts and practical tasks. The guide introduces the Behaviour Change Wheel for policy makers, practitioners, intervention designers and researchers to designing and evaluating behaviour change interventions and policies. The Behaviour Change Wheel is the basis of a practical guide to designing and evaluating behaviour change interventions and policies.

The Behaviour Change Wheel is the sweetheart framework of the behavioural science sphere. This is because it is widely relevant to transforming behavioural research and findings into practical interventions and behaviour change strategies across a range of sectors and applications, including policy, health, environmentalism, and education, as well as many others. The Behaviour Change Wheel itself was developed by compiling the knowledge of 19 established frameworks within behaviour change through a systematic literature review by leading behavioural scientists and researchers Susan Michie, Maartje van Stralen, and Robert West. The Behaviour Change Wheel consists of three layers that guide researchers, designers, and policy makers towards a practical and effective way of delivering real social change, starting from behavioural insights all the way through to the development and delivery of effective interventions. As you can see on the diagram of the Wheel, it does this by laying out the main components of the COM-B model at its centre, which connect to nine different intervention functions in the second layer. These consequently inform the third and final layer of the wheel that looks at how these intervention functions can be practically delivered. By systematically following the three levels of the Behaviour Change Wheel in order, you can ensure that each step of your intervention is building on a solid foundation, with each layer reinforcing the previous. The Behaviour Change Wheel is particularly adept at helping you identify the most effective path forward as it offers a selection of policy categories that traverse the ‘Stealth to Force’ continuum, enabling designers towards identifying strategies that can actually achieve long-term target behaviour maintenance, target audience buy-in and engagement, without overstepping boundaries.

The behaviour change wheel method is a framework that includes a 'behaviour system' involving three essential conditions: capability, opportunity, and motivation. This forms the hub of a 'behaviour change wheel' around which are positioned the nine intervention functions aimed at addressing deficits in one or more of these conditions. Around this are placed seven categories of policy that could enable those interventions to occur. Interventions and policies to change behaviour can be usefully characterised by means of a BCW comprising: a 'behaviour system' at the hub, encircled by intervention functions and then by policy categories. The BCW was used reliably to characterise interventions within the English Department of Health's 2010 tobacco control strategy and the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence's guidance on reducing obesity. At the centre of the proposed new framework is a 'behaviour system' involving three essential conditions: capability, opportunity, and motivation.