To predict a person’s behavior, the single most useful piece of information is nothing about them as an individual, but is instead the answer to the question “What behavior setting are they in?”
A behavior setting is a standing pattern of behavior (a set of standard practices, routines, and activities) entwined in a complementary physical milieu (Barker, 1968). Discovered by a group of psychologists as a result of extensive observations of the real-world behavior of people in small-town Kansas, it proved, in the early years of its development, to be a powerful means of structuring empirical observation, and analysing and predicting people’s actions.
Despite this scientific potency the theory lapsed into relative obscurity over the past four decades. Scott (2005) indicates that the cost and difficulty of engaging in naturalistic observation at the scale required for effective use of the theory was amongst the most significant factors, as were other professional demands and incentives on researchers’ time and output.