Types of pledge
An ‘open’ pledge allows an individual to develop
their own pledge that is personally relevant, and
contrasts with the alternative where that wording
is provided. Rather than simply being told how to
behave, individuals who develop their own pledges
are empowered to make decisions regarding their own
behavioural choices and may therefore be more likely
to adopt the action as a result of their involvement in
that decision making process¹.
However, left to their own devices, individuals are
unlikely to develop focused, achievable targets for
behaviour that are easy to ‘stick to’, and may be more
likely to simply state pledges such as ‘I pledge not to
use a mobile phone while driving’. Whilst this could
be useful for those who feel able to achieve that
promise, it is rather non-specific (for example about
what constitutes ‘use’) and potentially requires many
behaviours to be identified and tackled simultaneously.
A pledge to “always put my phone in the glove
compartment when driving” is less complex, clearer,
easier to evaluate and arguably will be more effective.
In contrast, a pre-defined pledge potentially takes away
the personal connection associated with developing
your own pledge - and the wording of it may not
be relevant to some of the intended audience. A
compromise might be to supply a choice of pledges
that are specific and relevant and allow individuals
to choose between them, as well as allowing them
to choose who they make a pledge to. This may offer
an effective compromise between specificity and
personalisation, so that we do not take away the
element of empowerment that behaviour change
research tells us is important for creating behaviour
change².
The idea of making a pledge ‘from scratch’ may put
some people off if they have to do all the thinking. We
need to nudge them into it by giving as much of a steer
as we can, without taking away the personal relevance.
¹ Thomas, K.W. and Velthouse, B.A., 1990. Cognitive elements of empowerment: An “interpretive” model of intrinsic task motivation. Academy of management
review, 15(4), pp.666-681.
² RoSPA (2017). Designing evidence based road safety interventions. Available from: https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/
practitioners/evidence-based-intervention-guide.pdf
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