Case Study: My Red Thumb
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Developing pledge approaches
Whilst the My Red Thumb pledge is aimed at preventing mobile phone use generally, we discussed the
possibility of introducing a specific behavioural element, rather than a general attitude statement. This could
include a pledge to adopt particular behaviours or to refrain from particular actions such as handheld and
hands-free mobile phone use, texting, or having a phone within sight whilst driving. This also encourages drivers
to think broadly about the idea of ‘use’ of a phone and what that means (see page 15).
The website features examples of people writing their own, personalised, pledges on whiteboards and is a
great example of this approach. Encouraging individuals to share their personalised pledges to your social
media account would provide you with great content as well as help to build a social norm (see p63) around the
behaviour.
Many of the examples of pledging on the website feature professionals, including ‘999’ personnel. We would
recommend showing ‘ordinary’ people doing this too (particularly individuals in your target demographics). Your
audience might expect professionals to be committed to avoiding mobile phone use, so their pledge might be
less persuasive than a similar commitment from people like them.
One-to-one and small group engagement
The My Red Thumb website refers to opportunities for one-to-one and small group engagement, with service
station stands and in-school education specifically mentioned. During the KEC, we discussed how it can be
particularly useful to identify a ‘stage of change’ that an individual currently exists within, and provide them with
the information, support or tools necessary to progress to the next stage of change (see p96).
BCTs
There are plenty of opportunities to deploy Behaviour Change Techniques within the My Red Thumb approach,
and the team explained that this was an area that they had begun to work towards. The following are some
ideas for ways this could be taken forward:
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Adding more information to the website and social media platforms regarding the research evidence showing
lack of social approval for using a phone while driving would reinforce the technique of ‘providing information
about others’ approval’ (or disapproval). A ‘pledge totaliser’ would be another way to do this.
Instructions about how to avoid using your phone (gadgets, behaviours etc) would be beneficial as this means
that the site is ‘providing instruction’ that is relevant and useful. If visitors are motivated by the tragic stories
featured, the next step is to promptly provide them with the tools to act on that motivation.
‘Specific goal setting’ could be prompted by encouraging individuals to consider a number of goals that they
wish to achieve (things they want to do, see or have in future) and consider how the pledge they make will
help them to achieve those goals.
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