Persuasion vs. Attribution: Which Changes Behavior?
Often teachers complain to me about student behaviors that interfere with learning or with having a productive, safe learning environment.
“These kids don’t listen to me,” or “These kids are lazy.”
These teachers are probably using strategies that were used on them by their own parents or teachers, but they’re not necessarily the most effective.
One place to start is by considering the kind of feedback they give students to help shape appropriate behavior. Last year I was lucky enough to hear Joshua Aronson’s keynote at the Innovative Schools Conference.
He’s a social scientist who has published research findings relevant to education. He described one experiment comparing the impact of persuasion versus attribution that surprised me.
Persuasion includes giving students logical reasons to behave in a certain way. For example, a teacher can influence her students’ actions by saying, “It’s important to throw away your trash as a way to care for our environment.” Note the unspoken communication – you are not likely to do the right thing; you need to be persuaded.
In contrast, a teacher who uses attribution will acknowledge someone for positive attributes they already have as a way to reinforce that behavior. For example, a teacher might say, “I’m pleased that this class does such a good job of picking up after yourselves. You are good stewards of our environment” or “I’m surprised you dropped that paper. We pride ourselves on being caretakers of our classroom.”
In a study cited by Aronson, data was collected on two groups – one with teachers using persuasion and one with teachers using attribution. Researchers noted that, compared with a control group whose teacher never mentioned littering, both groups decreased their littering, with the attribution group making a more significant improvement. The findings two weeks after the experiment ended were remarkable: the attribution group had continued to improve, but the persuasion group had returned to their original level before the experiment.
Whether you intend to change the behavior of your students, your colleagues, or your family members, what if you used attribution rather than persuasion to encourage improvements in behavior?
