How can you be motivated in life?


We all have certain behaviors that we would like to change about ourselves. And we all definitely want to help someone change their behavior in a positive way. So, maybe it's your child, your spouse, your colleague. So I want to share with you some new research that I think reveals something very important about what causes people to change their behavior. But before I do that, let's get close to one system that I think you might use the most. Suppose, then, that you try to control your feelings. What do you tell yourself? Well, most people, at the monetary monument, will say, "Be careful. You will have fat." And if this was your child, you would tell him that smoking kills, and, by the way, you're in big trouble. (Laughter) So, what we are trying to do here is try to intimidate ourselves and others into changing their behavior. And it is not just about us. Alerts and threats are very common in health, policy campaigns. It is because we all share this strong belief that if you threaten people, if fear is instigated, it will move them to action. And it looks like a pretty reasonable assumption, unless science shows that warnings have very little effect on behavior. Thus, bright pictures in cigarette packages, for example, do not deter smokers, and one study found that, after looking at those pictures, quitting was actually a priority for smokers. So, I'm not saying that warnings and threats don't work, but what I'm saying is, on average, they seem to have very little effect. And then, the question is: why? Why do we resist warnings? Well, when you think about animals, when you make a fear of an animal, the general answer you will see is that it is snowing or running away; fighting, not so much. And then, people are the same. So when something is scary, we tend to shut down and try to eliminate negative emotions. So, we can use the reasons. For example, you could tell: "My grandfather smoked. 

He lived to be 90 years old. So, I have really good genes and I have absolutely nothing to worry about." And this process can actually make you feel more resilient than before, which is why alerts sometimes have a boomerang effect. Sometimes, we just put our heads in the ground. (Laughter) Take the stock market for example. You know when people get their heads out of the ground to look accounts - not to make transactions, sign in to check their account? So, what you see here, in black, is a 500 Sample over two years, and gray, the number of times people log into their account to check. When the market is high, people always sign in, because good information makes you feel good, so you want it. And when the market is low, people refrain from signing in, as negative information makes us feel bad, so we try to avoid it altogether. And all of this is true as long as bad information can be properly avoided. So, what you don't see here happened a few months later, in the financial collapse of 2008, when the market dropped sharply and that's when people started to come in in surprise, but it was too late. So, you can think of this then - it's not just about money: In many areas of our lives, (Laughter) we have warning signs and immorality now. And they can lead to all these side effects over time, but not necessarily, because there are different paths from your own to your future, right? It can go this way, it can go that way. Also, as time goes by, you gather more and more information about when the wind is blowing. (Laughter) And, at any time, you can step in and change the outcome, but that requires energy and you can tell yourself: "What's the point of worrying about something that might happen? It might not happen." Until we get to this point, by the time you can get into action, but sometimes it's too late. So, we wanted to know, in my lab, what kind of information is rewarding for people. Therefore, we conducted a test in which we asked approximately 100 people to estimate the probability of 80 different events that might occur to them in the future. So, for example, I would ask you: "What are your chances of hearing loss in your future?" And suppose you think it's about 50%. After that, I give you the opinion of two different scholars. So, expert A tells you: "You know, for someone like you, I think it's only 40%." Therefore, they give you a good look at your future. Expert B says: "You know, for someone like you, I actually think it's about 60%. It's too bad." 

Therefore, they provide you with a balanced view of your future. What should you do? Well, you shouldn't change your beliefs, right? It's bad. What we find is that people often change their beliefs to something else desirable vision. In other words, people listen to good information. Now, this research was done for college students, so you might say: "Well, college students are fake, right? We all know that." (Laughter) And surely, as we get older, we become more and more wise. So we said: "OK, let's explore that. Is this normal? Does it fit your child, to your parent? Does it happen to your spouse?" And then, we surveyed people from 10 to 80 years, the answer was yes. In all these age groups, people submit information they want to hear - like someone who tells you that you look more than you thought - than information they don't want to hear. And the power to learn the good news remains stable throughout life, but the power to learn from the bad news, that changes as you get older. So, what we found was that kids and teens were just as bad at learning the bad news, and the ability got better and better as adults. However, at age 40, about mid-life, it began to deteriorate again. Therefore, this means that most vulnerable people, children and adolescents on the one hand, and the elderly on the other, are less likely to read accurately from warnings. But what you see here is that it doesn't matter how old you are. You can be 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60; everyone takes information they want to hear more than information they can hear. And of course, we end up with a look just like ours. (Laughter) It is our fault as educators, as advisors, as employers that, instead of dealing with this beautiful image that people always work for, we try to put a clear picture in front of them. We tell them: "You know, the picture is going to get worse." And it doesn't work. It doesn't work because the brain will try to distort the image, using Photoshop and fun lenses, until you get a happy picture. But what would happen if we went along with how our mind works and not against it? Take hand-holding, for example. We all know that hand-holding is the first step in stopping the spread of disease, and this is especially important in hospitals. So, in a hospital here in the United States, a camera was installed to see how often they performed medical personnel, in fact, washing their hands before and after entering the ambulance. Now, medical staff knew the camera was installed.
However, only one in ten washed their hands before and after entering the ambulance. However, a brief introduction was made: an electronic board that told medical staff how well they were doing. Each time you washed your hands, the numbers would go up on the screen and show you your current change rate and weekly staff level. And what happened? Boom. 90% compatibility recommended, which is totally amazing. The study staff were surprised too, and made sure to repeat it to another section of the hospital. Again, the same results. So, why is this intervention so effective? It works better because, instead of using warnings about possible bad things about the future, such as a disease, we use three principles that we know really drive your mind and behavior. Let me explain. The first is social motives. In a hospital study, medical staff saw what other people were doing. They see exchange rates, weekly rate. We are social, we really care about what other people are doing, and we want to do the same and we want to do it better. This is a photo from a study we did, led by PhD student, Micah Adelson, and what it shows you shows the background of your brain when you hear the perspective of others. And what we've found is that this signal can predict when you'll be able to come to an agreement at some point in time, how much you can change your behavior. Thus, the British government is using this policy to make people pay taxes on time. In an old letter they sent to people who "forgot" to pay taxes on time, they simply emphasized how important it was to pay taxes, and that didn't help. After that, they could add one sentence, and the sentence stated: "Nine out of ten people in Britain pay their taxes on time." And that single sentence has improved compliance within that group by 15 percent, and is estimated to bring in the British government $ 5.6 billion. So, highlighting what other people are doing is a great motivator. Another goal is immediate rewards. So, every time the staff washed their hand, they could see the numbers going up the board and made them feel good. And knowing that early on caused them to do something they, if not, might not want to do. Now, this is working because we value immediate rewards, the rewards we can get now, in addition to the rewards we can receive in the future.

People think this because we don't care about the future, but it's totally wrong, we all care about our future, right? We want to be happy and healthy in the future, we want to be successful, but the future is far from over. I mean, maybe you are behaving badly now and you will be fine in the future, and you will die completely. (Laughter) So, here's the drink that is uncertain, rather than the uncertainty of the future. If you think about it, it's totally irrational, right? You are definitely choosing something now rather than the future. What happens if you reward people now for doing good to them in the future? Studies show that giving people instant gifts is more likely to quit smoking and begin exercising, and this effect lasts at least six months because smoking is not associated with reward, and exercise is associated with reward and is a habit, it is a lifestyle . So, we can now reward ourselves and others for behaving in good ways in the future, and this is a way for us to reduce the temporal gap. And third principles monitor progress. So, the electronic board is focusing on the medical staff to improve their performance. This is a picture from the study we conducted, which shows you the brain activity of effective coding of positive information about the future. And what we have found is that the brain does a good job in this, but it does not do so well in processing negative information about the future. So, what does this mean? This means that if you are trying to get people’s attention, you may want to highlight progress, not decline. So, for example, if you take that kid with a cigarette, you might want to tell them: "You know, if you quit smoking, you're better at sports." Highlight the progress, not the decline. Now, before I compile, let me share this short story with you. A few weeks ago, I came home and found this bill in my fridge. I was really surprised because there were never bills in my fridge. So, I wondered why my husband decided to keep it in our fridge. So, looking at the bill, I could see what this bill was trying to do to be more efficient with my electricity consumption. And how is it doing? Social incentives, immediate
Rewards and progress monitoring. Let me show you Here are the social incentives. The energy consumption is about the average energy consumption of people in my neighborhood in gray. And blue is my energy consumption, and green is the most efficient neighbor. My response to this is - my immediate reaction: "I'm a little better than average" (laughter) - a little bit, but still ... and my husband has exactly the same reaction - and "I want to go to the green bar." Come face to face. That was my immediate gift and it was telling me "you're doing well" and wanted to keep it in my fridge. (Laughter) And even though I have this one smiley face, I see an opportunity to get two smiley faces. (Laughter) So, it's possible to progress and it shows my progress throughout the year, how my energy consumption changes throughout the year. And the last thing this bill gave me was: It gave me control. So, I was able to control my power consumption. And this is the most important thing, if you try to get people to change their behavior, because the brain is constantly trying to find ways to control its environment. This is one of the principles of what the brain actually does. Therefore, giving people a sense of control is a really important motivation. As well. So, what am I not saying? I'm not saying that we don't have to communicate risks, and I don't mean a solution to everything, but I say, if we want to inspire change, we need to rethink how to do it, because fear, the fear of losing your health, the fear of losing money, inactivity, but profit The thrill of the trigger action. Therefore, in order to change behavior in ourselves and others, we may want to try these positive strategies rather than threats, using the human tendency to really seek progress. Thank you.

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