The COM-B Model for Behavior Change
What is COM-B?
The COM-B model is a behavior change framework that proposes three necessary components for any behavior (B) to occur. Through assessing capability (C), opportunity (O), and motivation (M), leaders, policymakers, and behavioral scientists can understand why a specific behavior occurs and how to create targeted interventions that lead to effective change.
The Basic Idea
The COM-B model for behavior change cites capability (C), opportunity (O), and motivation (M) as three key factors capable of changing behavior (B). Capability refers to an individual’s psychological and physical ability to participate in an activity. Opportunity refers to external factors that make a behavior possible. Lastly, motivation refers to the conscious and unconscious cognitive processes that direct and inspire change.5
Let’s look into each of these factors in a little bit more detail:
- Capability
Capability, in the context of COM-B, refers to whether we have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to engage in a behavior. This comprises psychological capability, including mental states, knowledge, and skills, as well as physical capability. For example, to make an individual feel capable of performing a behavior or achieving an outcome, implementing a training session to help support learning may boost feelings of capability. - Opportunity
Opportunity, in the context of COM-B, refers to external factors that make the execution of a behavior possible. Physical opportunity, opportunities provided by the environment, and social opportunity are all valid components. For example, to create the opportunity to begin performing a behavior like new dietary patterns, free nutrition classes might help. - Motivation
Motivation, in the context of COM-B, refers to the internal processes that influence decision-making and behavior. According to the model, two main components are reflective motivation (the reflective process involved in making plans) and automatic motivation (automatic processes such as impulses and inhibition). For example, to improve motivation, it may be helpful to turn a desired behavior from something one needs to do to something one wants to do, encouraging reflection on the benefits of performing that behavior.
An individual’s behavior will change if the above potential levers of change are successfully implemented. This model recognizes that behavior is influenced by many factors and that behavior change is induced by modifying at least one of these components.5 The COM-B model is particularly important when considering intervention methods, as interveners need to ensure the sustainability of learned behavior. To assist with its application, the COM-B is also often used in conjunction with the Behavior Change Wheel, which identifies categories of intervention that can be used to encourage behaviors in a target population.
Behaviour change interventions are fundamental to the effective practice of clinical medicine and public health, as indeed they are to many pressing issues facing society."
Susan Michie, Maartje van Stralen, & Robert West, inventors of the COM-B Model5
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Dr. Sekoul Krastev is a decision scientist and Co-Founder of The Decision Lab, one of the world's leading behavioral science consultancies. His team works with large organizations—Fortune 500 companies, governments, foundations and supernationals—to apply behavioral science and decision theory for social good. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from McGill University and is currently a visiting scholar at NYU. His work has been featured in academic journals as well as in The New York Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg. He is also the author of Intention (Wiley, 2024), a bestselling book on the science of human agency. Before founding The Decision Lab, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group and Google.
