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Emotional Triggers - SCARF Model

The SCARF Model helps you understand how everyday interactions can trigger threat or reward responses. By recognising the five domains — Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness — you can create coaching and officiating development experiences that feel safer, more supportive and more effective.

What you will learn

Social interactions can strongly influence how people think, feel and behave. The SCARF Model helps you recognise the types of situations that may make people feel threatened or supported, and how this can affect learning, collaboration and engagement.

This animation describes:

  • The five SCARF domains: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.
  • How each domain can trigger either a threat or reward response.
  • How to design coaching or officiating development sessions that reduce unnecessary threat responses and encourage more positive engagement.
  • How to recognise when you, or someone you are supporting, may be experiencing a threat response and respond more effectively.

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