Health-care
workers don't wash their hands as often as they should, but a one-word
change on posters improved behavior. Researchers monitored the contents
of 66 sanitary-gel dispensers, before and after putting signs near them.
The signs were "Hand hygiene prevents you from catching diseases," the
same sentence substituting "patients" for "you" and a control slogan.
The first sign had no effect, but the
sentence about patients' health sparked a rise in gel use from 37% to
54% of the dispensers' contents.
The authors note the need to appreciate (and combat) doctors' and nurses' inflated sense of their own immunity to infection.
"It's Not All About Me: Motivating
Hand Hygiene Among Health Care Professionals by Focusing on Patients,"
Adam Grant and David A. Hofmann, Psychological Science (forthcoming)
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