How do you get people to change their behaviors? 1) You can EDUCATE them. 2) You can ENFORCE consequences. 3) You can change their ENVIRONMENT. These are the "3Es" of behavior change, a simple and powerful model for influence.

The current "cell phone in cars" debate offers a prime illustration of the 3Es. As a starting point, we all know it's a bad problem getting worse, as CDC's Injury Center makes very clear.

What to do? Take EDUCATION. The cell phone and auto industries, together with injury prevention folks, can create campaigns to teach us that driving while texting, talking or surfing the web is dangerous and even deadly. Check out, for example, the Department of Transportation's (DOT) "Distracted Driving" efforts here. These campaigns can make a difference, though research shows that most health campaigns generate only a modest impact. That's in part because most campaigns are based on the misguided premise that if people just know better, they will change. Decades of research, and even a bit of life experience, make clear the often-exercised human ability to not act in accordance with what we "know" is best.

So let's add some teeth with ENFORCEMENT! We're trying that now with police levying heavy fines on people driving while holding and using a cell phone. But it's tough to catch people in the act. And we need to deal with the resource allocation argument of diverting police from "serious" crimes. In a sense, enforcement is a fear tactic, which means that the perceived risk of getting caught coupled with the perceived seriousness of the consequences (fines, loss of license, shame, etc.) needs to be sufficient to motivate behavior change, but without being so scary that it makes people tune out.

Will changing the ENVIRONMENT help? Some call this approach social engineering (a powerful and traditionally unpopular phrase in some political camps). An example would be creating technology in cell phones and cars that make it impossible to use the phones while driving. Note that in the extreme, this approach eliminates choice. Knowledge and motivation no longer matter. That's the power of engineering an environment that makes the desired behavior change happen. 

Engineering the environment is what I think it will take to really impact such prevalent and highly addictive behaviors like cell phone use in cars. Complement it with education so we object less, and with enforcement for those who create workarounds. 

There you have it. The 3Es in action.

Photo source: plg-pllc.com