Barriers to behavior change may include misinformation, social stigma, cost, inconvenience or other issues. Interfaces that enable social support and accurate information may allow users to overcome perceived barriers.
![Woman holding her chest with an expression of pain] (/assets/images/hbd01.png) Credit to hubpages.com</sub></sup>
Women may avoid scheduling regular breast exams because of concerns about modesty, cost, scheduling, or discomfort. If their specific concerns can be addressed through social support or accurate information, women are more likely to follow through on getting regular mammograms.
![Screenshot of the Headspace mobile website] (/assets/images/hbd02.png) Credit toHeadspace</sub></sup>
The home screen of the headspace website immediately addresses possible concerns about meditation, such as time commitment and difficulty.
Perceived barriers were the most powerful single predictor across all studies and behaviors.
A critical review of HBM studies conducted between 1974 and 1984 combined new results with earlier findings to permit an overall assessment of the model’s performance (Becker, 1974; Janz and Becker, 1984)
ETHICAL NOTE: It may be tempting to overstate the perceived benefits or severity of a behavior to help people overcome barriers, but it would be unethical to do so.
