Our lives are governed by informal and formal systems that maintain order and signal what is right and wrong.


Principles & Strategies

Mandate or prohibit behavior

  • Enact mandates that require or encourage certain behaviors
  • Enact prohibitions that limit or forbid certain behaviors

Tips:

People have different responses to rules across contexts. Be sure to learn about how different rules are understood by your target audience. Bans on behavior can also be very difficult to monitor or enforce, especially for behaviors done in private.

A local patrolman checks whether a fisher's catch meets the size regulations. Photo credit: Jason Houston
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