What is "behavioral momentum"?

Behavioral momentum refers to the concept of starting with simple, easy-to-accomplish tasks to build a person's compliance and motivation before moving on to more difficult tasks. The underlying principle is that success in completing easier tasks can create a momentum effect, whereby the individual is more likely to continue engaging with subsequent activities, even if they are challenging. This approach taps into the psychological readiness that comes from achieving success, enhancing the likelihood that the person will follow through with more demanding requests.

In contrast to this, other methods listed might attempt to deal with behaviors in various ways but do not embody the concept of behavioral momentum as directly. For example, incentivizing delayed tasks and using rewards to encourage difficult tasks may involve external motivators and strategies but do not specifically focus on the gradual build-up of success through prior easy tasks. Additionally, eliminating challenging behaviors could involve a variety of strategies that may or may not effectively use the idea of behavioral momentum to promote compliance. Thus, starting with easy tasks effectively embodies the concept of behavioral momentum, making it the correct answer.