公共政策情境中行为习惯的形成机制与培养策略

引导社会成员重塑日常良好行为习惯是增强公共政策有效性的重要路径和切入点, 洞悉并把握行为习惯的形成机制对具体培养策略的制定和实施大有裨益。行为习惯是指通过高频重复的奖励习得, 在记忆中形成的情境与反应之间的内隐联结。作为一种特殊的内隐记忆系统, 行为习惯具有自动化、情境线索依赖性、对当前奖励低敏感性等特征。行为习惯的形成机制包含两个独立且共发的习得机制, 即联结习得机制和奖励习得机制。在日常良好行为习惯的形成初期, 目标引导着个体对行为价值的习得。在培养社会成员日常良好行为习惯的过程中, 应将情境线索的稳定性、高频行为的低认知重复以及奖励的合理设置, 作为公共政策助推社会成员养成日常良好行为习惯的三大核心策略。未来的研究方向应着力于加强习惯研究的学科视阈融合, 更新行为习惯领域的研究范式, 重置公共设施以提升有益行为的易达性, 以及引入商业模式以共促社会成员日常良好行为习惯的重塑。

Mechanisms and strategies for cultivating behavioral habits within the field of public policy

Restructuring daily habits is one of the most effective ways to solve social problems in the field of public policy. Understanding how to build behavioral habits is valuable for policy makers to develop and implement policies that support public health and wellness. Behavioral habits are context-response associations that develop through instrumental learning and rewards. As a type of implicit memory system, behavioral habits exhibit features, such as automaticity, context-dependence, and the ability to forgo alternative, immediate rewards. Behavioral habit formation emerges through two learning mechanisms: “context-response” association learning and implicit rewards learning. Psychology reveals that building successful habits depends not only on repetition but also on the presence of stable context cues and the rewards provided. In the early stages of habit formation, goals motivate individuals to repeat beneficial behaviors. Based on the core valences in the process of cultivating good behavioral habits, we outline three intervention strategies for public policy makers, including context stability, repetition, and rewards, which will enable them to better understand habits and design strategies that assist in cultivating behavioral habits. Further research would explore habits from a more diverse range of fields, experiment with new research paradigms, examine the possibility of redesigning public facilities for the purpose of increasing access to beneficial behaviors, and collaborate with commercial businesses to nudge members of society to restructure their daily routine.