When conference organizers provide dinner for attendees, they usually plan a regular meal and a vegetarian option. Most people choose the former, but not because they prefer meat. Instead, it’s how the options are presented that makes guests into omnivores or vegetarians.

According to Mark Gunther, the framing makes all the difference:

When a meat-based entrée is being served, and people are offered a vegetarian alternative, about 5 to 10 percent will request it.

But what if the choices were reversed? Organizers…tried an experiment: They made a vegetarian lunch the default option, and gave meat eaters the choice of opting out.

Some 80 percent went for the veggies, not because there were lots of vegetarians in the crowd of about 700 people but because the choice was framed differently. We know that because, at a prior conference, when meat was the default option, attendees chose the meat by an 83 percent to 17 percent margin.

Whether you love hamburgers or eat nothing but vegetables, it’s easy to see the difference between these two outcomes. But for organizers, one type of meal could be preferable to another. What if vegetarian meals were less expensive, or the topic of the conference was to highlight new cooking techniques for poultry? In these scenarios there’s more at stake than just the menu. Subtly nudging one choice over another can have a significant impact on final results.

At Slaughter Development, we love to analyze the interplay of incentive and outcome. The Methodology Blog first covered this topic back in 2006 with a discussion of mileage minimums for state-owned vehicles.  We analyzed a proposed ban on texting while driving. We highlighted the efforts of a car company to make boring tasks more fun. And just last month, The Methodology Blog discussed graffiti and good behavior.

So much of what we do in business and government is to change behavior. We must recognize, however, that the least effective way to change behavior is through edict and enforcement. Instead of telling stakeholders how we want them to act, adjust the incentives. If you want change at your organization, don’t try to force it. Draw on the ideas and passions of stakeholders and the power of human behavior. Reach out to Slaughter Development to learn more.

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