Giving Compass' Take:

• Kevin Kruger and Catherine Parkay examine how behavioral science can help drive large-scale social change if applied correctly. 

• How can funders help organizations leverage this information? 

• Learn how behavioral science can maximize charitable giving. 

In 2001, more than a quarter of American teenagers smoked. Smoking-related illness was the leading cause of preventable death in America, yet the public health community remained unable to achieve a large-scale reduction in teen smoking. Even explicit warnings about the deadly consequences of lighting up seemed to have only a negligible impact.

It wasn’t until a team of social marketers, working with the American Legacy Foundation, tried an unorthodox approach that real progress was made to combat this seemingly intractable challenge. Instead of threatening teens, they used a social call to action, encouraging youth to reject manipulation by tobacco corporations. Teens, research found, craved a feeling of social acceptance mixed with rebellion -- and the anticorporate message fulfilled that desire. Thanks in part to efforts like the truth campaign and the application of behavioral science, public health leaders have been able to significantly reduce teen smoking.

Behavioral science has gone mainstream across all sectors and represents a powerful underlying force in consumer life, from browsing music to planning travel online. Improving social outcomes sometimes requires counterintuitive tactics. Higher education professionals, too, have an opportunity to deploy behavior science principles and techniques to help solve the seminal challenges in postsecondary education: increasing completion and closing achievement gaps.

Read the full article by Kevin Kruger and Catherine Parkay about social change and student success from Inside Higher Ed.