This report shares findings from research delivered by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to inform our work promoting the Countryside Code, which sets out the responsibilities that visitors and land managers have in relation to the countryside. Focusing on three visitor behaviours – avoiding littering, adhering to fire safety guidelines and keeping to paths – the report summarises a review of the literature to identify relevant behavioural insights for these behaviours, and the results of an online message testing experiment with a representative sample of 2,418 adults in England to investigate the effectiveness of messages informed by behavioural insights. In addition to making a series of recommendations both for how we communicate with countryside visitors about these behaviours and for future research, the report includes a summary of more general behavioural insights principles for communications.
An alternative format of this report has been created to be more accessible, see file ‘NECR386 Edition 1 [Alternative Format] Applying behavioural insights to improve the messaging around the new Countryside Code’ under Downloads available for this record.