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Program Snapshot

The Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) program used a systematic approach to improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that would drive behavior change. Unhealthful behaviors—such as smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle—contribute to negative health outcomes and common diseases. Effective approaches to adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors remain few. Though some interventions may lead to changes in behavior in some people, scientists rarely know how or why they work. SOBC researchers used a scientific method to investigate how and why people adopt and sustain healthy behaviors. SOBC brought together scientists from various disciplines, spanning basic and translational science across different health-related behaviors, to explore how a focus on the mechanisms of behavior change in the development of behavior change interventions could reliably improve health outcomes.

Program Scientific Advances

The first Stage of the SOBC program sought to improve our understanding of basic mechanisms of human behavior change across a broad array of health-related behaviors and to use this knowledge to develop more effective behavioral interventions. Research funded during Stage 1 led to the identification of three broad classes of intervention targets that are highly relevant to understanding the mechanisms of behavior change: self-regulation, stress reactivity and stress resilience, and interpersonal and social processes.

The second stage of the program, the SOBC Research Network, began in fiscal year 2015 and built on knowledge gained from the first stage of the program. This network of SOBC researchers identified potential targets for behavior change interventions and demonstrated that these targets were promising as drivers of behavior change and adherence to medical regimens and health behaviors; measurable in multiple ways at the psychological, behavioral, social, biological levels; and relevant to various disease conditions like disrupted sleep, type 2 diabetes, and chronic pain. For example, SOBC researchers:

  • Identified that targets such as emotion regulation and self-awareness cognition were linked to obesity and depression, and that these targets were likely malleable through evidence-based therapies like problem-solving therapy and lifestyle balance.
  • Provided early evidence that mindfulness-based training can significantly reduce blood pressure. Participants who completed an eight-week mindfulness-based program focused on behaviors that contribute to high-blood pressure all showed overall improvements in several determinants of blood pressure, including those who weren’t following the American Heart Association guidelines.
  • Demonstrated that delay discounting is related to deteriorating glycemic control over time, and by implication, impacts the transition from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes; supporting the hypothesis that delay discounting serves as a target to be engaged and manipulated to reduce variability in behavior.
  • Found that engaging the self-regulatory targets of perseverance and emotion regulation produces a desired change in medical regimen adherence and in health behavior.

The targets, measures, and experimental outcomes produced by the network are provided publicly in the SOBC Measures Repository managed by the SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center (RCC).

Other Contributions to the Research Field

The SOBC Program’s emphasis on the importance of basic-to-applied translation, use-inspired basic research, and its focus on a systematic approach to understanding mechanisms of healthful behavior change has had impact on the field by:

  • Contributing to a unified, cumulative science of behavior change, and transforming how the research field conducts behavior change research to include a focus on the mechanisms of action and a systematic approach to behavioral intervention development.
  • Developing a Measures Repository that continues to evolve, with more than 100 publicly available behavioral science measures.
  • Establishing a mechanistic approach as a key aspect of rigorous behavior change research, which behavioral and social science programs across the NIH consider as new programs are developed.
  • Integrating mechanisms-focused behavior change research into NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices-specific funding opportunity announcements.
  • Promoting collaboration with an increasing number of efforts and initiatives outside of NIH with an even wider research community now committed to improving the resources and tools developed by SOBC.

Science Highlights

For more highlighted scientific advances, please visit the program highlights page.

Program Publications

For more SOBC publications, please visit the program publications page.

News

Learn more about the work of the SOBC Research Network in the following special issues:

  • “An experimental medicine approach to behavior change: The NIH Science of Behavior Change (SOBC)” Behavioural Research and Therapy (February 2018)
  •  “Understanding and Predicting Health Behaviour Change: A Contemporary View Through the Lenses of Meta-Reviews” Health Psychology Review (February 2020)
  •  “The Science of Behavior Change: Implementing the Experimental Medicine Approach” Health Psychology (September 2020)

Resources and Tools

One of the key deliverables of the SOBC Program was the SOBC Measures Repository, developed and maintained by the SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center (RCC), which has also developed a public-facing website to further dissemination of a systematic approach for behavior change research. Additional products include the Grand Rounds webinar series, a program overview, and a program overview video. Visitors can subscribe to regular updates to stay apprised of SOBC RCC news, events, and additions to the Measures Repository.

Program Transition

The Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Program has transitioned from Common Fund support. Common Fund programs are strategic investments that achieve a set of high-impact goals within a 5-10-year timeframe. At the conclusion of each program, deliverables transition to other sources of support or use by the broader scientific community.

SOBC was supported by the Common Fund from 2009 to 2019. The end of the Common Fund SOBC program was marked by the SOBC Capstone Conference in February 2021. The Capstone Conference highlighted research along many dimensions of the mechanism-focused behavior change intervention development pipeline, identified strategies and opportunities for future work, and highlighted synergies between SOBC and related initiatives and frameworks.

One of the SOBC Program’s goals was to facilitate the inclusion of the SOBC systematic approach to behavior change research in the studies funded by individual NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs). The growth in IC-specific announcements requiring or promoting a mechanisms-focused experimental medicine approach to behavior change research has been strongly influenced by the work of the SOBC Program and the collaboration of program staff from multiple ICs involved in SOBC. For examples of SOBC-related announcements from various ICs, please visit the SOBC-related activities page.

Multiple NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices remain committed to sustaining innovation in the behavior change field. Efforts are already in place to foster ongoing investigator-initiated work as well as new collaborations with related behavior change research efforts. To further build on the momentum, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and 6 other ICs have co-funded another five years of the SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center, which will serve as a hub for scientists to collect & disseminate rigorous behavioral science. For more information on the successes and next steps for the SOBC program please see NIA’s reflections of the program and a commentary on the future directions of the SOBC program. You may also want to visit NIA’s SOBC webpage for information about current and future activities and resources.

Please note that since SOBC is no longer supported by the Common Fund, the program website is being maintained as an archive and will not be updated on a regular basis.

SOBC Research Network Website

Visit the SOBC Research Network Website for more details about the program and to access to the SOBC Measures Repository.

SOBC Program Overview

SOBC Program Overview

Scientific Meetings

  • This virtual Capstone Research Conference will celebrate ten years of the SOBC Program. It will highlight innovative examples of behavior change research consistent with SOBC principles, from use-inspired basic research to mechanisms-focused intervention science. Renowned national and international experts will share their research findings and visions for the future of the science of behavior change. Registration is free and open to the public.
  • What roles can behavioral science play in COVID-19 vaccination efforts? The SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center hosted a webinar where experts discussed behavioral and social challenges and potential solutions to COVID-19 vaccine uptake or adoption, and examined existing scientific evidence concerning communication about the science of COVID-19 vaccines and/or the availability or prioritization of vaccines in different communities. Watch the webinar recording on YouTube.
  • The SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center hosted a pre-conference workshop at the Annual APS Convention in Boston, MA on May 25th, 2017. Visit the SOBC website to download a resource designed to help researchers engage with the experimental medicine method when applying for NIH funding.
  • SOBC investigator Dr. Russell Poldrack participated in a workshop on Transparency and Reproducibility in Neuroimaging. Slides and videos of this workshop are available online.

This page last reviewed on January 17, 2024