#4: Bridging the Gap

Adding an extra dose of behavioral science to your week with our series In a Nutshell— a collection of behavioral science principles, explained in 150 words or less, written weekly by CUBIC director Allison Zelkowitz.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever:

- Planned to exercise, but ended up on the couch
- Started a diet, then found yourself eating cake
- Vowed to save money, then splurged on a new purchase

These examples demonstrate a key focus of the behavioral sciences called the intention-action gap: basically, people often know what we should do, and we have good intentions, but we have trouble following through on these intentions. There’s a gap between what we want, and what we do.

There are countless reasons for this, including that people usually care more about the present than the future. We are hugely influenced by our surroundings and other people, and starting (or breaking) habits is difficult.

While there’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution to bridging the intention-action gap, it’s important to recognize it and design interventions to address it, such as by making the desired behavior easier to do – or harder to forget!