Do You Want To Know, What Drives Human Behavior?
Changing behavior is not as simple as telling ourselves or others to stop doing something harmful or start doing something beneficial. Whether it’s quitting smoking, improving work habits, or encouraging a friend to adopt a healthier lifestyle, influencing behavior requires more than just willpower.
Recent studies shed light on the complex psychological factors that drive behavioral change, and they suggest that some commonly used strategies, like warnings, may not be as effective as we think. Let’s explore these insights in detail.
1. The Limited Impact of Warnings
When it comes to behavior change, many people naturally turn to warnings. If you want to quit smoking, for example, you might remind yourself of the dangers: “Smoking causes cancer,” or “Smoking kills.” This is a tactic that feels logical. By scaring ourselves or others into action, we believe that change will follow.
Warnings are prevalent not only in personal life but also in corporate settings. Companies use warnings to enforce policies and health campaigns often rely on scare tactics to promote good habits. However, research shows that these approaches don’t always deliver the desired results.
Take cigarette warnings, for example. Many countries have mandated graphic images and alarming messages on cigarette packs to deter smoking. However, studies have shown that these tactics might not have the intended effect. In fact, some research indicates that warnings can make quitting less of a priority for smokers. Instead of motivating change, fear-based messages may trigger avoidance behaviors. Smokers might rationalize their habit, thinking things like, “My grandfather smoked his whole life and lived to be 90.” This kind of justification helps them feel more secure, which diminishes the impact of the warning.
So why do warnings often fail? The answer lies in how the brain reacts to fear. Just as animals freeze or flee when threatened, humans tend to shut down when faced with fear-inducing messages. Instead of spurring action, these messages can cause people to avoid or dismiss the threat altogether. This is why scare tactics can backfire, making them a less effective tool for driving long-term behavioral change.
2. Selective Hearing: Hearing What We Want to Hear
In addition to selective attention, people also have a tendency to hear what they want to hear. Dr. Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist, has studied how emotions and motivation shape our expectations and decisions. Her research reveals that when people are presented with both optimistic and pessimistic information, they are more likely to accept the optimistic view, even if the pessimistic view is more accurate.
For example, if someone is told they have a 50% chance of experiencing hearing loss and then presented with two expert opinions—one stating a 40% chance and the other stating a 60% chance—they are likely to gravitate towards the lower risk. This is because people generally prefer to believe what aligns with their desires and emotions.
Sharot’s research also shows that while people of all ages exhibit this tendency, their ability to learn from bad news varies. Young people, particularly children and teenagers, struggle to internalize negative information. As people grow older, their ability to process negative news improves, reaching a peak around middle age. However, this ability declines again as people age into their later years. This means that both younger and older individuals may have difficulty accurately processing warnings or negative feedback.
As leaders, mentors, and coaches, this presents a challenge. When we try to force reality onto others, focusing on the negatives they need to address, their brains might distort that information to protect their self-image. This is why, when delivering feedback or trying to influence behavior, a more effective approach might be to align with people’s natural tendencies and use positive reinforcement instead.
3. Selective Attention: Seeing What We Want to See
Another challenge in changing behavior is the human tendency to focus on what we want to see and ignore what we don’t. This is known as selective attention, and it plays a significant role in how we process information.
For example, think about how people react to the stock market. When the market is doing well, investors are more likely to check their accounts and stay engaged. The positive news boosts their mood, and they feel good about their investments. On the other hand, when the market is down, many investors avoid looking at their accounts to escape the bad news. This behavior, known as “ostriching,” where people metaphorically bury their heads in the sand, illustrates how we selectively focus on information that aligns with our desired emotional state.
This selective attention doesn’t just apply to financial decisions. It permeates many areas of our lives. For example, we might ignore health warnings or procrastinate on addressing a problem at work because the immediate discomfort of confronting the issue feels worse than delaying it. This tendency to focus on short-term comfort over long-term well-being can hinder our ability to make meaningful changes.
4. Why Rewards Work Better than Warnings
In contrast to warnings, positive reinforcement and rewards tend to be more effective in driving behavioral change. A study conducted in hospitals in the United States highlights this point. The goal was to improve hand hygiene among medical staff, a critical practice for preventing the spread of infections. Cameras were installed to monitor compliance with handwashing protocols, but despite the staff knowing they were being watched, only 10% followed the guidelines.
Then, an intervention was introduced. An electronic board displayed real-time compliance rates, providing instant feedback on how well the staff was doing. This small change had a massive impact: compliance rates soared to 90%.
So why did this strategy work when warnings and surveillance did not? The success of this approach can be attributed to three key psychological principles:
- Social Incentives: People are naturally motivated by social comparisons. When the medical staff saw their colleagues’ compliance rates, they were driven to match or exceed those rates. This desire to conform and excel in social environments is a powerful motivator. Research by PhD student Micah Edelson supports this, showing that hearing others’ opinions activates an emotional response in the brain that predicts future conformity and behavior change.
- Instant Recognition and Immediate Rewards: The immediate feedback from the electronic board provided staff with a sense of instant gratification. Humans are wired to respond more strongly to immediate rewards than to distant ones. This is why short-term incentives, like seeing real-time progress, can be more motivating than the promise of future benefits. Studies have shown that immediate rewards encourage positive behaviors, such as quitting smoking or starting to exercise, with lasting effects.
- Progress Monitoring: The continuous display of compliance rates helped keep the staff focused on improving their performance. Monitoring progress is a powerful motivator because it taps into the brain’s natural tendency to focus on positive future outcomes. By emphasizing progress, rather than highlighting declines or failures, we can capture attention and drive change. For instance, instead of warning a child about the dangers of smoking, you might focus on how much better they perform in sports when they don’t smoke. This shifts the conversation from fear to progress, making the message more effective.
Rethinking Motivation Strategies
Understanding how people respond to different strategies for behavior change can help us become better at motivating ourselves and others. Whether in personal life or the workplace, aligning with natural human tendencies—like focusing on rewards and progress—can be far more effective than relying on fear-based tactics. As leaders, managers, or mentors, it’s essential to recognize that motivating change isn’t just about providing information or issuing warnings; it’s about engaging people in ways that resonate with their emotions, desires, and social instincts.
Reflect on your own experiences: What motivates you more—external rewards, internal drives, or a combination of both? How do you motivate others, and have you noticed differences in how they respond to various strategies? By adopting a more nuanced approach to motivation, you can create an environment that fosters growth, productivity, and positive change in both yourself and those around you.
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