How to motivate yourself to change your behavior | Tali Sharot | TEDxCambridge

Summary

The speaker explores the ineffectiveness of fear-based strategies in changing behavior, citing research that shows warnings often lead to avoidance or rationalization. Instead, positive approaches like social incentives, immediate rewards, and progress monitoring are more effective in motivating behavior change. The talk highlights the importance of aligning interventions with human psychology to foster positive habits and actions.

Takeaways

• 📢 The common strategy of using fear and warnings to change behavior often has limited impact due to psychological resistance.
• 🚫 Graphic health warnings, like those on cigarette packets, do not effectively deter people from engaging in harmful behaviors.
• 🧠 Humans tend to rationalize or avoid negative information, which can lead to a 'boomerang effect' where warnings reinforce the unwanted behavior.
• 🦉 People are more inclined to accept positive information that aligns with their existing beliefs, regardless of their age.
• 📈 The ability to learn from bad news improves with age until around 40, after which it starts to decline, making the very young and the elderly less responsive to warnings.
• 🤝 Social incentives, such as seeing the behavior of others, can be a powerful motivator for change, as people want to conform and excel.
• 🎁 Immediate rewards can significantly influence behavior by creating positive associations with actions that benefit future outcomes.
• 📊 Progress monitoring focuses attention on improvement, which is more effective than highlighting decline or negative outcomes.
• 🌐 A combination of social incentives, immediate rewards, and progress monitoring can drastically improve compliance with desired behaviors, as demonstrated in a hospital handwashing study.
• 💡 Providing a sense of control is crucial for motivating behavior change, as the brain seeks to manage its environment.
• 🛑 While risks need to be communicated, the approach should focus on positive strategies that capitalize on the human tendency to seek progress rather than instilling fear.

Q & A

What is the common strategy people often use to change their own or others' behavior?

People often use warnings and threats, trying to scare themselves or others into changing their behavior, such as telling oneself 'Beware, you'll be fat' or warning a child that 'smoking kills'.

Why do warnings and threats have a limited impact on behavior according to the script?

Warnings and threats have a limited impact because they can induce fear, leading people to shut down and try to eliminate the negative feelings, often resorting to rationalizations or avoidance.

What is an example given in the script where warnings have not been effective?

Graphic images on cigarette packets, which do not deter smokers from smoking, and in one study, made quitting a lower priority for smokers after viewing them.

How do humans typically respond when they are induced with fear, as mentioned in the script?

Humans tend to respond to fear with freezing, fleeing, or rationalizing, similar to how animals react, rather than actively addressing the threat.

What does the script suggest about people's reaction to negative and positive information?

The script suggests that people are more inclined to listen to and believe positive information that aligns with their desires, while they tend to ignore or rationalize away negative information.

How did the experiment involving 100 people and the estimation of negative events work?

The experiment asked participants to estimate the likelihood of various negative events happening to them. They were then given opinions from two experts, one more positive and one more negative, and observed to see if they changed their beliefs towards the more desirable opinion.

What did the study on people's reaction to good and bad news across different age groups reveal?

The study revealed that people of all ages are more receptive to good news than bad news. However, the ability to learn from bad news improves with age until around 40, after which it starts to deteriorate, making the very young and the elderly the least likely to accurately learn from warnings.

What is the alternative approach to using warnings and threats suggested in the script?

The script suggests using positive strategies that capitalize on human tendencies to seek progress, such as social incentives, immediate rewards, and progress monitoring.

Can you explain the intervention used in the hospital to improve handwashing compliance among medical staff?

The intervention involved an electronic board that displayed the handwashing compliance rates of the medical staff, showing their current shift's rate and the weekly staff rate, which motivated them to improve and led to a significant increase in compliance.

What are the three principles that the script suggests can drive behavior change effectively?

The three principles are social incentives, immediate rewards, and progress monitoring, which can motivate people to change their behavior by leveraging their desire for social acceptance, the gratification of immediate gains, and the satisfaction of seeing their progress.

How did the bill on the speaker's fridge use the principles of social incentives, immediate rewards, and progress monitoring?

The bill displayed the energy use in comparison to the neighborhood average and the most efficient neighbor, providing social incentives. It gave a smiley face as an immediate reward for good performance and showed progress throughout the year, allowing the speaker to monitor their energy use effectively.