Physical distancing behavioural science toolkit published

The freely available guide, Behavioural Science Toolkit to Aid Physical Distancing and People Movement in a Covid-19 World, has been produced as a resource for organisations and businesses dealing with physical distancing.

It draws on concepts such as saliency, priming, cognitive ease, defaults, building behavioural feedback, reframing and social norms.

Behavioural challenges addressed by the toolkit include preventing people from travelling or visiting at the same time, causing congestion, and preventing loitering in high-footfall areas, e.g. the bottom of stairs or escalators.

Crawford Hollingworth, founder, The Behavioural Architects, said: "The Behavioural Architects had been doing some client work around keeping people moving and physically distanced in railway stations and realised that many of the behavioural insights and subsequent interventions could help anyone struggling with this issue in schools, restaurants, offices, shops and hotels, to name a few. So, we decided to create a behavioural science guide and toolkit to aid physical distancing."