Just tell me what to do — the principle of opting-out

You can help people change during the implementation of a program, but you can also help them already proactively by properly designing the intended behavioral change using some principles from the behavioral sciences.

For example, “I don’t have time for this, when do I have to do this?” is a common response to change. Learning to hold meetings differently, learning to use new software tools, learning new skills, working in a more customer-oriented way… are all things that initially require additional time. It’s true that most people have little time to spare, but it’s primarily the lack of attention that is the obstacle to change.

Therefore, in the design of change, let us look for ways to make it easy for people, to save time, and above all to compensate for their lack of attention. One way to do that is to change the default option from opt-in to opt-out.

Opt-out or presumed consent

Consider the challenge of organ donation. There is a shortage of organs to save sick people in many countries. A large majority of people do want to be organ donors, but when the default option is “opt-in” (consciously choosing to participate in something), only a minority actually turn out to sign up for it.

The cause? Attention.

A growing number of countries now have an opt-out system for organ donation. Opt-out means that a person is automatically signed up for a service and always has the option of easily opting out. It is an example of a ‘nudge’, a nudge in the right direction, which I wrote about in Changing organizations, one nudge at a time.

From 2020, every resident of England over the age of 18 will be legally expected to consent to the donation of their organs after death. If they do not want to be a donor, they will have to “opt out.” Countries like Belgium and the Netherlands did this before. There is a clear link between countries with an opt-out system and a high percentage of organ donors.

When the default is on opt-out, the majority of people will keep that choice. This is due to the ‘status quo effect’. The video below shows an interesting experiment around this effect.