EVIDENCE CLAIM
The COM-B framework describes capability, opportunity, and motivation as interacting conditions required for behavior.
- Claim type
- Contextual
- Last reviewed
- August 11, 2026
This page isolates one claim from the wider argument of The Human OS Manual.
The classification describes the evidence supporting this claim, not the Human OS framework as a whole.
What the evidence supports
Michie, van Stralen, and West developed the Behaviour Change Wheel around a COM-B behavior system in which capability, opportunity, and motivation interact to generate behavior.
What it does not establish
COM-B is a framework for characterizing behavior and interventions. This source does not establish that those three labels are the only valid causal decomposition of every behavior.
Context
Chapter 23 uses COM-B to challenge motivation-only explanations. The Evidence Map presents it as an external framework, not as proof of the Human OS architecture.
Sources
Sources are listed according to the role they play in this claim. One source may provide direct support, another may explain a mechanism, establish a limitation, or prevent an interpretation from becoming broader than the evidence allows.
Context
Susan Michie, Maartje M. van Stralen, and Robert West, “The Behaviour Change Wheel: A New Method for Characterising and Designing Behaviour Change Interventions,” Implementation Science 6 (2011): 42, https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-6-42.
journal article · theoretical framework
Defines the COM-B behavior system at the center of the Behaviour Change Wheel.
Where this appears in the book
The printed book preserves the claim inside the argument that gives it meaning. These references connect the current digital record to the first-edition evidence trail.
Chapter 23: Why Most Change Fails
Behavior depends on capability, opportunity, motivation, and how effort is weighed against expected value. · First edition, 2026
Human OS connections
This claim connects to the following parts of the Human OS architecture. The module labels locate the claim inside the framework; they do not imply that the research source validates the architecture itself.
Read the argument in context
The Evidence Map separates one claim from the wider architecture. The Human OS Manual connects the evidence across biology, behavior, environment, recovery, adaptation, relationships, and time.