EAST - Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights
From a paper by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT)
First introduced in 2014, the EAST framework - distilling behavioural science into four intuitive principles: Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely - has been revised, updated to incorporate a decade of new insights, case studies and lessons learned from around the world and published.
If you want to encourage a behaviour, make it easy, attractive, social and timely (EAST). These four principles, drawn from behavioural science research and real-world applications, offer a practical framework for creating effective interventions. While they don’t capture all the complexities of human behaviour, a decade of experience has shown that this simple, memorable approach helps practitioners apply key behavioural insights successfully.
The EAST principles are:
1. Easy
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Make it easy. Harness the power of defaults. People tend to stick with pre-set options, so choose defaults carefully. For example, presenting renewable energy options as the default increased uptake from 3% to 80% among households in Switzerland, an effect that persisted years later. Not providing plastic cutlery by default led to less plastic waste in China.
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Reduce the effort required. Even small barriers can have outsized effects on behaviour. Every extra step or moment of effort required may reduce the likelihood that people will act, so focus on reducing both practical and cognitive obstacles. Simply completing university application forms on behalf of US students increased attendance rates from 28% to 36%. Visiting a medical professional physically to ensure TB medication adherence in Moldova was a real barrier. This was replaced by an observed session over video, saving travel, time and increasing adherence.
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Simplify messages. Making a message clearer and easier to understand can increase response rates. Break a complex goal down into simpler, easier actions. For example, simplifying the court summons forms in New York City reduced failure-to-appear rates by 13%, preventing thousands of arrest warrants annually.
2. Attractive
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Make it attractive. Attract attention and frame the behaviour. We are more likely to do something that our attention is drawn towards. Information that is novel and personalised is more likely to be salient; the same idea can produce different effects based on how it is ‘framed’. The built environment also directs our attention towards certain actions. For example, adding gold coin stickers to the floor of a Chinese factory reduced the amount of waste left on the floor by more than 20%.
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Design incentives for maximum effect. Behavioural science can be used to enhance the structure and presentation of incentives. Options include deposit contracts, self-image or social image concerns, prosocial incentives, and gamification. For example, savers in the Philippines increased their savings by 82% when they voluntarily restricted their right to withdraw money until a specific month.
3. Social
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Make it social. Show that most people perform the desired behaviour. Observing or being told what most people do in a situation can encourage others to do the same. Saying what most people think should be done can also be effective. However, these ‘social norms’ approaches can backfire if the people doing the behaviour are seen as belonging to a different group, or if someone learns that fewer people than they expected are performing the behaviour.
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Recognise the power of social networks. Behaviours spread between people or organisations who are embedded in networks of relationships. Strategic ‘seeding’ of behaviours with well-connected individuals or friend groups can create widespread change. In Honduras, asking villagers to nominate friends to promote vitamin use led to higher adoption than random selection. Networks also make it possible for completely new behaviours to emerge and become dominant.
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Create feelings of reciprocity. We are more likely to help someone who has done something for us in the past, a tendency called direct reciprocity. But reciprocity can be indirect as well – we are more likely to aid people who have helped others, even if we didn’t benefit, or to help others in general if we’ve been helped. Both kinds of reciprocity can be nurtured to improve outcomes. For example, using reciprocity in organ donation messaging (‘If you needed an organ transplant, would you have one? If so, please help others’) generated more than 500,000 new registrations in the UK. Employment advisors sending supportive messages increased engagement.
4. Timely
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Make it timely. Choose the right moment. Behaviours vary according to the time of day, the time of week, and the time of someone’s life. That means that the same offer made at different times can have varying effects. For example, many more people were screened for diabetes in Qatar when the offer was made during Ramadan, when many people were fasting anyway, as the test required. Behaviour may be easier to change when habits or routines are already disrupted, like moving residence or becoming a parent – or simply when people perceive they are making a ‘fresh start’.
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Consider the immediate costs and benefits. We are more motivated by costs and benefits that have an impact now rather than later. Where possible, bring forward rewards and push back costs for desired behaviours, and create small immediate costs for undesirable ones. For example, the ‘Save More Tomorrow’ programme increased retirement savings by letting people commit to future payment increases rather than immediate ones.
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Help people plan their response to events. There is often a gap between our intentions and our behaviour. A proven solution is to prompt people to identify future barriers to action and develop a specific plan to address them. For example, jobseekers in the UK were more successful when they made a plan for the week ahead that included specific actions and times. Providing feedback on case progress reduced dropout rates in intimate partner violence cases in Santiago.
EAST does not offer a standalone solution for applying behavioural science. That requires a careful understanding of the context and the sensitive application of concepts, usually coupled with robust evaluation. There are many guides to carrying out this process. BIT itself has published a framework for applying behavioural science to relatively simple challenges, called TESTS (target, explore, solution, test, scale).
Find the EAST report here.
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​From a paper by the Behavioural Insights Team (BI, 06/05/2025