Habitus
Individuals are influenced and organised by the path they tread in life, through a series of engrained habits, routines and socialised norms. Habitus is the way in which individuals come to perceive the social and cultural world around them. Consequently, it guides their everyday behaviour.
“Obesity and bad diet are going to be the biggest killers in England by 2025” (Generic Government Press Release). The ‘facts’ about public health tend to alienate the very people whose behaviour they intend to change.
Our ethnographic study with families across the UK found that public health messages took a pejorative tone, which went in one ear and out of the other. Instead, we looked at ingrained habits and suboptimal, normalised behaviours like ‘Take Away Fridays’ and the habit of over-feeding to demonstrate love. This helped government to intervene more successfully to change behaviours. By focusing on the habitus, our client was able to create change by influencing behaviour without the need to change minds.