BEHAVIOR

OVERVIEW
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social networks and social norms shape behavior and
can serve as the basis of new kinds of interventions.
Third principle: Thinking with mental models
When people think, they generally do not draw on
concepts that they have invented themselves. Instead,
they use concepts, categories, identities, prototypes,
stereotypes, causal narratives, and worldviews drawn
from their communities. These are all examples of
mental models. Mental models affect what individuals
perceive and how they interpret what they perceive, as
shown in figure O.5. There are mental models for how
much to talk to children, what risks to insure, what
to save for, what the climate is like, and what causes
disease. Many mental models are useful; others are not
and contribute to the intergenerational transmission
of poverty. Mental models come from the cognitive
side of social interactions, which people often refer to
Figure O.5 Thinking draws on mental models
Individuals do not respond to objective experience but to mental representations of experience. In constructing their mental representations, people
use interpretive frames provided by mental models. People have access to multiple and often conflicting mental models. Using a different mental
model can change what an individual perceives and how he or she interprets it.