This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ EthiĐal Issues iŶ DesigŶiŶg IŶteƌǀeŶtioŶs foƌ Behaǀiouƌal ChaŶge JUN Gyuchan Thomas a* ; CARVALHO Fernando a and SINCLAIR Neil b a Loughborough University b University of Nottingham * Corresponding author e-mail: g.jun@lboro.ac.uk doi: 10.21606/dma.2018.498 This paper reflects on fundamental ethical issues concerning designing for behavioural change, in order to raise questions about the factors that should be considered by design practitioners when developing interventions. It draws on existing literature on philosophical ethics, moral psychology and design. It proposes a list of ethical questions and considerations to be made throughout the design process. A case study addressing behavioural changes in antibiotics prescriptions (for Urinary Tract Infections) was carried out to demonstrate how the ethical questions identified are asked and considered. We provide a framework for addressing these issues with the hope that it will help minimise the risk of problematic and unethical intervention design processes. behavioural change, ethics, healthcare, design participation 1 Introduction Behaǀiouƌal iŶsights haǀe ďeeŶ suĐĐessfullLJ applied to Ŷaƌƌoǁ the gap ďetǁeeŶ desiƌaďle aŶd uŶdesiƌaďle ďehaǀiouƌ iŶ ǀaƌious health aŶd puďliĐ seƌǀiĐes ;The CaďiŶet OffiĐe Behaǀiouƌal IŶsights Team, 2010; Perry, Chhatralia, Damesick, Hobden & Volpe, 2015; Hallsworth et al., 2016). The field of design has been shown to make substantial contributions to this area, as it offers a variety of methods and tools that can facilitate the creation of effective interventions which can narrow the gap (often in unexpected, nudging, ways). However, the process of designing for behavioural change can be unethical or counterproductive if a set of important issues – pertaining both to the practical and the philosophical realms – are not carefully considered. The primary questions that arise as a result of considering the potential ethical dimensions of designing for behavioural change are: 1. WhLJ do people peƌsist ǁith uŶdesiƌaďle ďehaǀiouƌ? ;QuestioŶs of ŵoƌal psLJĐhologLJͿ 2. What is desiƌaďle ďehaǀiouƌ? ;QuestioŶs of philosophiĐal ethiĐsͿ