ThinkPlace brings together systems thinking, human-centred design and behavioural psychology to solve some of the world’s most complex challenges. The company zooms in to understand the user, their experience, and what is happening psychologically.

The Variable Reward Systems is a behavioural intervention that was developed to address the hardest to change, most difficult (and typically most important) health-related behavioural challenges. In order to overcome these challenges, ThinkPlace leveraged psychological principles behind variable reward systems, which are systems which reinforce behaviour by delivering rewards in a randomised and variable manner.

The result of this work was a nutrition-based game, named HerÍonas, in Mozambique. Through the game, adolescent girls not only learn about nutrition in the context of their routines and social obligations, but they are also incentivised to try certain foods, and are also able to spread the message and motivate others in their families and social networks to improve their eating habits. Results from this work showed that youth were 16 times more likely to shift diet behaviours throughout their experience playing the game compared to traditional education-based social behaviour change programs.