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Shikakeology is a new academic field that uses the “Shikake” as its underlying mechanism. A shikake is a trigger that is supposed to change specific behavior of an individual to the better to solve a social or personal issue. The term comes from the japanese language and has various meanings: as a noun it refers to ‘‘a device, mechanism, contrivance, and system’’ and ‘‘to start, set up, prepare, and challenge’’ as a verb. Shikakeology was significantly coined by Dr. Naohiro Matsumura, a professor at the graduate school of economics at Osaka University in Japan where he is engaged in research about behavioral economics. Matsumura brough Shikakeology into being as a methodology for investigating shikake and creating new shikakes. The paper “Shikakeology: Designing Triggers for Behavior Change” by N. Matsumura, R. Fruchter, and L. Leifer is the basis for Shikakeology and aims to explain what shikake is and how it can be applied through the use of physiological and physical “triggers”.

Related theories

Nudge Theory

The theory related to Shikakeology is the Nudge theory. The theory was developed by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein and was published in 2008 in their book Nudge (book). The theory describes how small environmental triggers are supposed to change people's behaviours. Nudges work through heuristics and cognitive bias but do not aspire to punish but rather encourage people to engage in alternative behaviours.

Shikakeology and Nudge theory are related through their primary goal of shifting people's behaviour towards alternatives.

Nudges aim at changing negative pre-existing behaviours or behaviours that result from unconscious actions. The cues work through heuristics and cognitive biases and therefore aspire to lead towards an alternative behavior. Usually, this change targets the socially more approved and preferred behaviour.

Shikakes imply behavioral change through physical and/ or psychological triggers that are available in the proximate environment of individuals. The triggers encourage alternative behaviours that targeted people feel obligated to act on.

Since nudges try to provide simple and small cues that lead to behavioural change, they can thus function as a psychological shikake themselves. Therefore, shikakeology is not purely based on the nudge theory but targets behavioural change through different tools. However, both concepts are closely related through their primary goal of altering behavior.

Implications

Piano stairs

Shikakeology can be implemented in everyday life. At a subway stop in Germany researchers have built a specific staircase. The stairs were decorated as if it were a piano, this piano required people to use their feet instead of their fingers. These piano stairs attracted a lot of attention from passers by and therefore instead of using the escalator, located directly next to the stairs, people were encouraged to use the stairs. Volkswagen fun theory, a marketing campaing from volkswagen that encrouages positve behaviour in a fun way, built the piano stairs in germany and reported that the amount of people using the stairs increased by 66%. None of the people at the subway station were forced to take the stairs instead of the escalator, the ones that were interested voluntarily used the piano staircase.

A lot of people have a pleasant experience listening to or even playing piano music, the appearance of that staircase makes for an easy association of these stairs with the piano. This association is the main trigger for people to use these special stairs. In this case shikake is implemented in this case by the use of technology. Therefore shikake is in this case realized as a combination of design, psychology and technology.

Speed camera

In an attempt to decrease the amount of traffic accidents that happen every year, different Shikake’s have been tried. For example, a camera that measures the speed of cars and shows these on a speed limit sign. If a car follows the speed limit, the speed limit sign will turn green, if the car is above the speed limit the sign turns orange or red . This method of placing speed limit signs is however not connected to the authorities, therefore drivers will not be punished with a penalty if they drive too fast. Despite that, it is seen as a very effective Shikake, as drivers become aware of their speed and are confronted about driving too fast in a child-friendly neighbourhood, which makes them slow down . An additional method was invented to contribute to the speed limit signs described above. A campaign was started in which people who drove within the speed limit could be rewarded with a lottery prize, the prize would be sent to the houses of some people who maintained the speed limit. This method was successful as well, in Sweden, where this method was tested, the driving speed reduced with 22 percent . These Shikake’s tend to psychologically trigger car drivers to slow down because they want to achieve their goal of driving within the speed limit and they hope to be rewarded for it by winning a lottery prize. It is not very usual for a Shikake to rely on technology, because that makes the Shikake more expensive and time consuming to make. However, it can be concluded from this example that technologically working Shikake possess a strong trigger for people to behave differently.

Urinal fly

Another implication of the Shikake cases is the so-called Urinal fly. A fake fly is imprinted onto a urinal in men’s bathrooms. Just by seeing this fly, men instinctively target this fly . The fly is located and designed to determine the “sweet spot” , in order to produce the least possible splashbacks. The desired result, a reduction in spillage, is reached and therefore an improvement in the cleanness of men’s bathrooms is achieved. The success of the flies and their effectiveness in terms of increased cleanness, lead to worldwide use of similar target stickers in men’s bathrooms, including bees, darts and flames, which change their color with change in temperature. The flies and various different targets will lead to instinctually, psychological triggers to aim at the target. In the implication of urical flies, a playful challenge of hitting a target is considered a potential mechanism. The implicit challenge sets an unwritten goal into people’s minds. It makes people want to hit the target although there is no reason to have to hit it, leading to a temptation to aim for the target, which most men cannot resist, seen in the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, where spillage was reduced 80% .

Tiny Shrine Gate

Due to littering being an everyday problem that plagues all societies, its underlying mechanisms have been studied in order to reduce this issue in society. Shikakes have been used to induce prosocial behavior through the use of culturally dependent triggers, such as the Tiny Shinto Shrine. A tiny replica of a gate to a Shinto Shrine is placed in or near litter disposals to induce respect and reduce littering. The way in which this works, is based on the broken window theory or the snowball effect which describes how small acts have the power to trigger a bigger result, in this case a positive one. Because it is not economically affordable to keep and maintain a perfectly clean area around trash cans, the tiny shrine induces a small trigger to reduce littering around the trash can. If there is no litter in the area, people are less likely to litter .

Other methods such as placing anti-litter signs or installing security cameras are possibilities, but they can lead to a negative atmosphere of caution and might have implications in the trust atmosphere of the neighborhood. The tiny shrine is more elegant and simple and avoids these implications .

The small physical trigger of a Shinto Shrine replica will lead to people associating the area as a holy place, a place to be respected and where one should not litter. This also has the effect of preventing bad behavior such as dog owners being more likely to pick up their dogs’ excrement from the area.

This shikake is used as a physical object trigger that induces a psychological trigger, because it gives the impression or reminds people of a holy place. The underlying mechanism of this shikake is the analogy created in people’s mind of a holy shrine gate, which is connected to the associated social norm, inducing behavior that fits the social norm observed in the presence of a holy shrine gate .

Culturally dependent shikakes such as this tiny shrine can be strong triggers due to social norms, but they can also be counterproductive if used inappropriately by not accounting for potential sensitivities that might make people upset. In the same way if a culturally dependant shikake is used in a place where the people in the area don’t have an association with it, don’t know what it is and cannot understand the social norm associated with it, the desired behavioral change is less likely to occur.