---
id: "coronavirus-smarter-crowdsourcing:strategies/Governments-should-analyze-what-physical-barriers-"
type: "GovLab policy strategy"
title: "Governments should analyze what physical barriers make it more difficult or increase the perceived effort of…"
url: "https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/strategies/governments-should-analyze-what-physical-barriers-"
summary: "Governments should analyze what physical barriers make it more difficult or increase the perceived effort of following preferred behaviors,and minimize or remove these barriers. The fewer steps and the less thought a preferred behavior requires,the more likely people are to follow it."
source: "The GovLab (coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# Governments should analyze what physical barriers make it more difficult or increase the perceived effort of…

Governments should analyze what physical barriers make it more difficult or increase the perceived effort of following preferred behaviors,and minimize or remove these barriers. The fewer steps and the less thought a preferred behavior requires,the more likely people are to follow it.

- Timeframe: 3-6 Months (medium)
- Audience: Academia, Civil Society, Healthcare Providers, Government Workers
- Type: Research, Data, Technology/Innovation
- Recommendation: [Data and innovation](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/recommendations/data-and-innovation)
- Part of: [Smarter Crowdsourcing in the Age of Coronavirus](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/)

## Actions governments should take

1. Identify the problem that needs to be addressed or the behavior that is preferred.
2. List the physical barriers that are preventing individuals or communities from solving that problem or performing the preferred behavior.
3. Design interventions that specifically address individual barriers.
4. Test alternative interventions through experimental design to validate optimal interventions.
5. Scale interventions that are most effective.

## Examples from around the world

1. According to the [World Health Organization](https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/falls), the second most common cause of unintentional injury deaths is injuries related to falling. To address falls on stairs, researchers developed the “dead person silhouette” which was painted at the bottom of staircases in office buildings to nudge people to use the handrail on the staircase to avoid accidents. [A review of the intervention](https://inudgeyou.com/en/applying-behavioural-science-to-ensure-stairway-safety/) showed that the nudge increased handrail usage by 9.2 percentage points.