Why We Resist: The Surprising Truths about Behavior Change: A Guidebook for Healthcare Communicators, Advocates and Change Agents

We all set healthcare intentions for ourselves. We want to do better. We want to feel better. What holds us back from succeeding? Behavioral science has uncovered a number of fundamental underlying human truths that reveal why people reject healthcare change.

In this book, we teamed up a behavioral scientist and a healthcare communicator to work together to create one clear picture of what we know and how we can apply it in the everyday work of helping more people live healthier lives.

Inside, you'll find nine principles of behavioral science that point to new ways to design communications, interventions and programs to help people make better, more confident decisions about their health. All while building the motivation to try and the resilience to try again when they have a setback along the way.

Each principle comes with tools, examples, and new ideas to help quickly upskill you and your team on how to use what motivates people to unlock real change.

Kathleen R. Starr, Ph.D. Kathleen is one of the great teachers of our industry. She has been a professor, a clinician, a business leader, and now a leading voice for how behavioral science can fuel more powerful, effective healthcare communications and education. Kathleen has developed behavioral interventions with some of the leading brands in healthcare and is working to innovate omnichannel communication programs leveraging behavioral segmentation. She's learned about people 1:1 as a practicing psychologist and now scales that knowledge through research and ethnography programs that seek to understand the everyday challenges, barriers, and joys of life and health.

Leigh Householder Leigh began her career creating digital, social and loyalty strategies for Fortune 1000 brands. Ten years ago, she made the move to healthcare and never looked back. Leigh was a strategic lead on one of medicine's biggest launches and has been an important partner to brands working to improve the lives of people fighting both chronic and acute diseases. Today, she invests a lot of her time interviewing and engaging people who work on the frontlines of healthcare around the world to both understand and prioritize the shifts changing the industry and the world.