How can I determine the best incentives strategy?

The three basic flavours of incentive: [inSEMtive]

Social, Economic, Moral.
Very often a single incentive scheme will include all three varieties.

E.g. The anti-smoking campaign of recent years.
Economic: The addition of a $3-per-pack “sin tax” is a strong economic incentive against buying cigarettes.
Social: The banning of cigarettes in restaurants and bars is a powerful social incentive.
Moral: You know that you are damaging your health and the health of others.

Some of the most compelling incentives yet invented have been put in place to deter crime. Considering this fact, it might be worth while to take a familiar question—why is there so much crime in modern society?—and stand it on its head:

Why isn’t there a lot more crime? After all, every one of us regularly passes up opportunities to maim, steal, and defraud.

The chance of going to jail—thereby losing your job, your house, and your freedom, all of which are essentially economic penalties—is certainly a strong incentive.

But when it comes to crime, people also respond to moral incentives (they don’t want to do something they consider wrong)

and social incentives (they don’t want to be seen by others as doing something wrong).

For certain types of misbehavior, social incentives are terribly powerful.

In an echo of Hester Prynne’s scarlet letter, many American cities now fight prostitution with a “shaming” offensive, posting pictures of convicted johns (and prostitutes) on websites or on local-access television.

Which is a more horrifying deterrent: a $500 fine for soliciting a prostitute or the thought of your friends and family ogling you on www.HookersAndJohns.com?