Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effects of Regulatory Scope on Persistent Behavior Change

This project explores a new concept, regulatory scope, in order to inform actions that result in persistent behavior change. The traditional focus on one-off decisions may have limited impact. The idea of regulatory scope is to reduce the psychological distance of future behavioral consequences and current behavior choices by expanding an individual's range of concern or the scope of outcomes an individual considers.

This is hypothesized to be achieved by exercises that help an individual recognize behavioral patterns in order to make choices guided by longer term consequences versus shorter term needs. The project tests this theory of regulatory scope on choices made. Expanding regulatory scope has the potential to be applicable to several domains of behavior change, including resilience and personal health.

Specifically, this research focuses on expanding regulatory scope: the range of considerations that people account for in their decisions and behaviors to include further off outcomes and possibilities. Through the framework of regulatory scope, the researchers provide a comprehensive account of resilience-related behavior and behavior change, explaining past phenomena and predicting future ones.

The primary aims of this proposed project are to (1) assess the relationship between regulatory scope and existing resilience behaviors; (2) determine how regulatory scope manipulations influence resilience behavior intentions; and (3) evaluate the effect of a practical real-world change in regulatory scope on persistent resilience behavior change. These three aims are met through a combination of cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal experiments to test and evaluate regulatory scope and provide guidance for a new class of interventions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.