Social Engineering Blogs

With exams fast approaching, it is not uncommon for students to start to feel the pressure associated with performing well through pulling unrealistic all-nighters or being glued to their library desk 15 hours a day. When we conducted an initial survey to explore stress in students, only 14.3% reported taking regular breaks and, unsurprisingly, over 75% reported feeling very or extremely stressed as a result. As well as fatigue, a lack of breaks and remaining at the same desk for hours can cause physical symptoms in students such as, back, neck and shoulder pain. All of these symptoms could be easily reduced by taking short breaks every hour (Galinsky et al., 2000). This project aimed to encourage students at university to take regular breaks from studying with the #PressPause social media campaign. Before starting the campaign, we conducted a short qualtrix survey. This included two very short questions: 1) How often do you take study breaks? And 2) How stressed are you feeling with your workload currently? This was used to gage a general understanding of break-taking and stress in the student population. The first way we implemented the #PressPause campaign was through putting posters around campus: The first persuasive technique used was source credibility, but including the phrase “Psychologists have found that taking short study breaks results in greater concentration.” Secondly, we used social proof by including photos of students graduating. The claim here is to make students who see these posters believe students become successful through taking breaks. Alongside our poster, we gave out free tea bags to use the technique of reciprocity. Evidence suggests that due to the norm of reciprocity, people are more likely to comply with our request to take breaks and post photos onto the Facebook page if they have first received something from us (Regan, 1971). The second stage of our campaign was to set up a Facebook page, where students could post photos/ videos of themselves taking a break. This was also a platform where students could engage with each other and share taking a break ideas. So far the page has 52 likes and 22 students have posted on the page. Importantly, the Facebook page makes taking a break salient between students, by providing evidence from like-minded people on different ways to take a break. Again, social proof is used as seeing others posting photos of themselves taking a break makes it more likely that you will also go on to take breaks yourself (Cialdini et al., 1990).Although it was not possible to re-survey those who had seen our campaign, the PressPause page has been viewed by over 100 Facebook users. We feel that our Facebook page having 52 likes and 22 posts from different students means that we were successful in encouraging more students at Warwick to take study breaks. References:Cialdini, R. B., Reno, R. R., & Kallgren, C. A. (1990). A focus theory of normative conduct: Recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 1015-1026.Galinsky, T. L., Swanson, N. G., Sauter, S. L., Hurrell, J. J., & Schlleifer, L. M. (2000). A field study of supplementary rest breaks for data-entry operators. Ergonomics, 43, 622-638.Regan, D. T. (1971). Effects of a favour and liking on compliance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 627-639.Siobhan JonesSashvinder MandairMegan Reay

The aim of our behaviour change project was to encourage students at the University of Warwick to drink more water. An infographic was produced detailing the benefits of drinking more water with advice on how much you should drink and student relevant benefits to drinking more water. At the bottom of the infographic students were asked to pledge to drink more water.These leaflets were handed out to students outside the library on the University of Warwick campus to more than 50 students. The researchers dispensed these leaflets during peak times (just before each hour when students were moving from lecture to lecture). When we approached the students we asked them a few questions about their water intake, and then asked them if they knew the benefits of drinking more water before providing them with the leaflet. Then participants were asked again to pledge to drink more water.By using a combination of credible sources and just asking the researchers encouraged people to drink more water. Whilst we didn’t measure if water consumption increased, it would be possible to do so by asking students to fill out a water diary for a week and comparing this to baseline levels. Overall responses to the leaflet were very positive with a large amount of students that were approached agreeing to drink more water. Emma PhillipsVictoria Pattinson

The aim of our project was to reduce the number of missed appointments at the Health Centre due to an increasing number of students missing appointments. We created 2 posters (image 1 and 2), which featured a variety of persuasive techniques. These posters were shared on university facebook groups (image 3), as well as around the university in week 9, where most Warwick students could see them. The number of missed appointments was slightly lower from week 9 to week 10, meaning our project made a slight difference.Image 1: Have you missed a Health Centre appointment?Image 2: What could you do with £160?On social media the posters were displayed with the following captions:HAVE YOU MISSED A HEALTH CENTRE APPOINTMENT? To cancel, simply call or text in advance! Missing appointments costs lives.WHAT COULD YOU DO WITH £160? Every missed health centre apponitment costs the NHS £160. To cancel, simply call or text in advance! Missing appointments costs lives.Image 3: Screenshots from University of Warwick Freshers Facebook groupOur posters also used data on the NHS medicine costs (data from Regional Drug & Therapeutics Centre Newcastle, 2015), in order to make non-attenders feel guilty about the impact of missed appointments (e.g. stating the £160 could pay for “7 years of inhalers for one person”).Using missed appointment data provided by the University of Warwick Health Centre, we found that missed appointments decreased by a small amount (1 hour) in the week after our posters were displayed. Therefore, our poster campaign may have had a slight effect on total missed appointment time.ReferencesHallsworth, M., Berry, D., Sanders, M., Sallis, A., King, D., Vlaev, I., & Darzi, A. (2015). Stating appointment costs in SMS reminders reduces missed hospital appointments: Findings from two randomised controlled trials. PLoS One, 10 (9): e0137306. doi:10.137/journal.pone.0137306 Regional Drug and Therapeutics Centre (Newcastle). (2015). Cost comparison charts, Retrieved from http://gmmmg.nhs.uk/docs/cost_comparison_charts.pdf.Bryony FooteNatasha DoughtyLuca VillaOwain Ritchie