Precaution adoption process model
A stage model of taking up a precaution that starts before awareness and includes a distinct 'decided not to act' dead end.
What it means
PAPM describes adopting a protective behavior as a sequence of seven qualitatively distinct stages: unaware of the issue, aware but unengaged, deciding about acting, decided not to act, decided to act, acting, and maintenance. Its key distinctions from other stage theories are an explicit pre-awareness stage and a separate stage for people who have actively decided against the precaution — a group that needs different messaging than the merely undecided. Because the barriers differ by stage (awareness for stage 1, persuasion for the engaged, logistics for the decided), matched interventions outperform one-size-fits-all appeals. Critics question whether the stages are truly discrete or a smoothed continuum. It matters because it warns that lumping 'non-adopters' together wastes effort: the unaware, the resistant, and the willing-but-stuck are three different audiences.
Examples
For home radon testing, the unaware need an alert, the engaged need persuasion, and the decided need an easy kit — the same leaflet cannot move all three.
For the flu jab, some staff have never considered it, some are weighing it up, and some have firmly refused; the poster by the lift only reaches the first group.
A landlord promoting smoke alarms meets tenants who never knew the rule, tenants still deciding, and tenants who hate the beeping — the last group needs a conversation, not another leaflet.
First described in Neil Weinstein (1988); with Peter Sandman.