(Confusing) Terminology

Confused by the terminology? You’re not alone!

The truth is that there are no official definitions for these terms and many organizations use them in their own way. The overall field has taken terms and wording from psychology, decision science, sociology, marketing, and design thinking, to name a few. The terms are constantly evolving and it’s best to ask the person or organization how they define the term so it’s clear what they are talking about.

Social and behavior change (SBC): Frequently used to comprehensively describe a systematic and evidence-driven approach to improve and sustain changes in behaviors, norms, and the environment. The term SBC is common in global health and is increasingly replacing the term SBCC.

Behavioral economics (BE): Typically describes using a combination of economics and psychology to explain and influence human behavior. (Interestingly enough, some early behavioral economists or BE firms have switched to using the term “behavioral science” since it implies a broader focus, but some of them still focus primarily on BE.)

Behavioral science (BSci – never written BS!): Frequently used as a general description of the study of human behavior and the ways that it can be influenced. Some people use BSci interchangeably with SBC, while others use it to describe what is primarily just behavioral economics.

SBCC (Social and Behavior Change Communication but rarely written out in full): Used in global health to describe behavior change communication programs and until recently it was the main term for behavior change programming in global health. SBCC programs can include interventions other than just communication.

Behavioral insights (BI): A term pulled from design thinking and SBC. It can mean the set of factors that are underlying behavior or it can mean an approach using psychology and other social sciences to discover those factors. The term BE/BI is increasingly being used to reflect that behavioral insights come from both BE and BI approaches.