USING NEUROSCIENCE TO INFLUENCE HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Come on now, who do you think you are? Bless your soul, you really think youre in control?
- Gnarls Barkley
Welcome to the experiment
Assignments
Today - Time provided to meet with team, discuss and post to Coursework Tuesday - Meet with team after class to build Desire Engine for group assignment. Wednesday - Work on team and individual assignments. Thursday - Time provided to meet with team, discuss and post to Coursework Friday - Presentations. Present individual assignment (5 min each) or group assignment (15-20 min) (but only if entire team agrees)
The nature of behavior
One brain, two minds
Elephant = impulsive mind Rider = Rational mind Path = the environment
Willpower is the strength of the rider
Where the elephant lives
Primitive parts of brain Basal ganglia Storage of instinctual
habitual behaviors
Nucleus accumbens Center of reward system Wants immediate
gratication / satiation
Where the rider lives
Newest part of brain Pre-frontal cortex (PFC) Executive function Controls impulses and
higher level thinking
Think of your behaviors
What are the routines, habits, skills,
addictions in ones life?
Amateur behaviors
Amateur Do
Resist doing Low High
Self-Control Required
What denes amateur behaviors?
The rider and elephant are in sync Easy to do, but also easy to forget Reward, process motivated, for the love Long-term
Amateur behaviors
How did you create your amateur behavior?
Creating amateur behaviors
Create a path for the elephant Make it simple, easy Placing well-timed cues Baby steps
Skillful behaviors
Skillful Do
Resist doing Low High
Self-Control Required
Skillful behaviors
What denes skillful behaviors?
Rider is steering the elephant Outcome, goal driven Hard work, grit
How did you create your skillful behavior?
Creating skillful behaviors
Deliberate practice Focus on xing failures Grit and persistence Often with coaching
Skillful behaviors
Running
Amateur
- Casual enjoyment - Jog into old age
Skillful
- Goal driven - Win a marathon
Habitual behaviors
Do
Resist doing
Habitual
Low
High
Self-Control Required
Habitual behaviors
What denes habitual (negative) behaviors?
The rider tries to control the elephant Constant temptation Struggle with desire
How did you stop your habitual behavior?
Resisting habitual behaviors
Mindfulness Surng the urge, creating space (ex - 10minute rule)
Reminder of purpose Self-compassion
Addictive behaviors
Do
Resist doing Low
Addictive
High
Self-Control Required
Addictive behaviors
What denes addictive behaviors?
The rider has lost control and the elephant
is charging
Self-destructive Extremely hard to resist
Resisting addictive behaviors
Reigning in the elephant Abstinence, removal of cues Physical detoxication Social support Root cause analysis
Behavior types
Amateur Do Skillful
Resist doing
Habitual
Addictive
Low
High
Self-Control Required
Matching behavior types with change methods
Change with right tool
Behavior type
Change method
Change methods
Do
Create the path Train the rider to pull the elephant
Low
Train the rider to push the elephant Reign the elephant
High
Resist doing
Self-Control Required
Does the method match the type?
No pain, no gain Never quit Set strict goals Hold yourself
accountable
Healthy lifestyle
Over a lifetime Do (amateur behaviors):
Physical activity Eating healthy foods Eating unhealthy foods Overconsumption
Resist doing (habitual behaviors):
Beating yourself up hurts
The worse a drinker feels about how much they drank the night before, the more they drank the next night. (Muraven et al 2005) Gamblers who feel most ashamed by losses, most likely to chase the loss and keep gambling. (Yi and Kanatar 201) Students who feel the worst about procrastinating, put off studying the longest for next exam. (Wohl, Pychyl, Bennett 2010) Addicts who feel most guilt about a minor relapse, were most likely to have a major relapse. (Stephens et al 1994)
Source: Kelly McDonigal, The Willpower Instinct
The what-the-hell effect
Dieters and non-dieters asked to drink a milkshake as part of taste perception study Then asked to sample as much ice cream as needed for taste test. Dieters ate more than nondieters after drinking the milkshake Showed increased activity in nucleus accumbens
Source: Kelly McDonigal, The Willpower Instinct, Heatherton & Wagner, 2011
One size does not t all
Do
- Path driven - Long-term - Self-directed
Amateur
- Goal driven - Grit - Hard work - Coaching - Abstinence - Physical detox - Root cause - Social support
Skillful
Resist doing
- Surng urge - Mindfulness - Self-compassion
Habitual
Addictive
Low
High
Self-Control Required
In summary
Rider, elephant and path Before changing a behavior: Identify behavior type Match with appropriate change method
Take a break and a survey www.OpinionTo.us (and take your stuff)
Why inuence behavior?
Helping people do what they want to do.
Persuasive products
Amateur Do Skillful
Resist doing
Habitual
Addictive
Low
High
Self-Control Required
pref er ence
/pref()rns/ Noun, Def: A greater liking for one alternative over another or others.
be hav ior
/bihvyr/ Noun, Def: The way in which an animal or person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus.
rou tine
/rootn/ Noun, Def: A sequence of actions regularly followed; a xed program.
hab it
/habit/ Noun, Def: An behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary, without cognition.
ad dic tion
/dikSHn/ Noun, Def: A persistent, compulsive dependence on a behavior or substance.
Are customer habits good for business?
Higher life-time value Greater price inelasticity, can charge more Word-of-mouth brings down cost of
acquisition = Higher ROI
Why is this graph smiling?
Source: Inc. magazine, Dec. 2011
StackOverow
Largest technical
QA site
Alexa rank 93 5,000 questions are
answered per day
FT Staff: 66
Holding on to customers by forming habits
Source: Amy Jo Kim, Community Building on the Web
To build habits need...
Au to ma ta city
Noun, Def: The ability to do things without occupying the mind with low-level details, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern.
What is automaticity good for?
Ability to learn Helps us decide Saves energy Allows multitasking
Impairment of basal ganglia
Trouble performing tasks requiring multistep behaviors or where emotion is deciding factor. With elephant out, the rider tries but fails. Making simple decisions. (which pen?) Ignoring insignicant details. (reading faces) Inability to act quickly from the gut.
Source: Antonio Demasio via Lehrer "How We Decide"
Decision fatigue
Rider gets tired and lazy because decision making requires effort. Prisoners appearing for parole hearings early in the morning granted parole 70% of the time. However, those appearing late in the day, when judges were more tired, paroled less than 10% of the time. So, making more decisions through habit instead of logic, can leave more resources for important decisions
Source: Levav and Danziger, 2011
How to build automaticity?
Frequency and utility
How do we get users to come back?
Building desire through engagement
Low engagement High engagement
The Desire Engine
Remember: A TARI
A - A Desire Engine has 4 parts: T - Trigger A - Action R - Reward I - Investment
In summary
Habits can be good for business. Habits require automaticity - action
without cognition. reserve.
Leaves us with more decision making Creating automaticity is a function of utility
and frequency.
Frequency from creating desire.
Triggers
Habits arent created, they are built upon
Where are you sitting?
Who is sitting where they sat
before break?
Why did you sit there? What told you to sit? Where did you learn this
behavior?
Triggers
External Alarms Calls-to-action Emails Stores Authority What to do next is in the trigger Internal Emotions Routines Situations Places People What to do next is in the users head
Triggers
External Alarms Advertising Calls-to-action Emails Stores Authority What to do next is in the trigger Internal Emotions Routines Situations Places People What to do next is in the users head
Negative emotions are powerful internal triggers
Dissatised Indecisive Lost Tense Fatigued Inferior Fear of loss Bored Lonesome Confused Powerless Discouraged
Internally triggered technologies
When I feel... Lonely Hungry Unsure Anxious Lost Mentally fatigued ... I use Facebook Yelp Google Email GPS ESPN, Glam
Emotional triggers Shiv x-framework
Content Excited
Bored
Stressed
People with depression check email more.
Source: Kotikalapudi et al 2012, Associating Depressive Symptoms in College Students with Internet Usage Using Real Internet Data
Habits form from frequent problem/solution t.
To nd the problem, know the narrative
Need to nd the existing behavior to
attach to. before.
Find the behavior that occurs just Every time you (verb), use (product).
Jack Dorsey on narratives
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acMXhhdWylQ
The Instagram moment
Instagram triggers
External - FB and Twitter - App notications Internal - Fear of loosing the moment . . . - Bored, lonesome, curious...
Your turn
Pick an amateur behavior youd like to
turn into a new routine in your life.
Brainstorm with the person next to you for
5 min each about potential triggers. internal triggers.
Describe the narrative of both external and Write this down and be prepared to share.
Form teams and complete Coursework assignment (see syllabus) Debrief with team: - What resonated with you? - What stimulated new thinking? - Ideas for personal and professional growth? - Ideas for new ventures? - What intrigued you, either by creating new questions or by kindling a quest for more? 30 min discussion 15 min post to Coursework
Actions
when doing < thinking = action Creating the path
Fogg Behavior Model B = m.a.t.
motivation triggers
Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
ability
Fogg Behavior Model B = m.a.t.
motivation trigger (SUCCESS!) trigger (FAIL!) ability
Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
mo ti va tion
/mt vSHn/ Noun, Def: The psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal.
Motivators of Behavior
Sensation Anticipation Social Cohesion Seek: Pleasure Hope Acceptance Avoid: Pain Fear Rejection
motivation
Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
a bil i ty
/bilit/ Noun, Def: The capacity to do something
How increase capacity to do something?
Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
ability
Factors of ability
Time Money Physical effort Brain cycles Social deviance Non-routine
Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
ability
Simplicity
Simplicity is a function of your scarcest resource at that moment. - BJ Fogg
Factors of ability
Time Money Physical effort Brain cycles Social deviance Non-routine
Differ by person and context
What move rst?
Move ability before motivation
motivation
triggers
Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
ability
Focus on ability and triggers before motivation
Focus on ability and triggers before motivation
Which has fewer calories?
Motivated people know healthier option
Source: (Chernov et al. 2011; Chandon & Wansink 2007)
America the obese
2010
Source: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Centers for Disease Control
Twitter homepage
2009
Twitter homepage
2010
Twitter homepage
2012
The evolution of Twitter
2009 2010
2012
Behaviors to actions with cross-functional teams
motivation = marketing triggers = interface design
ability = product
Your turn
Take out your behavior from yesterday or pick a new one. Rate your ability to do your behavior. (1 is not at all able, 10 is very able, easy) Rate how motivated you are to do your behavior. (1 is not at all, 10 is very) How could you make your behavior easier (considering your scarcest resource to increase ability)? and / or increase motivation? Brainstorm with the person next to you for 5 min each. Write this down and be prepared to share.
Factors of ability
Time Money Physical effort Brain cycles Social deviance Non-routine
Motivators of Behavior
Sensation Anticipation Social Cohesion
Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
Seek: Pleasure Hope Acceptance
Avoid: Pain Fear Rejection
Bi as
/bs/ Noun, Def: 1. A tendency or inclination; a prejudice 2. A lever to increase motivation or ability
A well-studied bias
Classical biases
Rational Can articulate, Id buy it if it were cheaper. Predictable (for the most part)
Cognitive Biases
Rational or irrational Unable to articulate Predictable
Scarcity
People value cookies
more in a nearly empty jar than in a full jar.
Source: Worchel, Lee, and Adewole (1975)
Value attribution
Wine actually
tastes better if you believe its more expensive
Source: Plassmann, ODoherty. Shiv, and Rangel, 2008
Remember this?
Source: (Chernov et al. 2011; Chandon & Wansink 2007)
The halo effect
Source: (Chernov et al. 2011; Chandon & Wansink 2007)
Which car owner?
Are involved in more collisions. Receive 65% more trafc tickets. Drives 25% more miles than other drivers. Are a more costly risk to insure than other
vehicles.
Source: Data from insurance analytics company Quality Planning, reported in Mitchell Industry Trends Report 2010
Moral licensing
We tend to reward
ourselves with the freedom to be bad when were acting good.
Anchoring
We tend to rely too heavily on just one trait
of a decision.
We overvalue things on sale
Jockey only!
3 for $29.50 5 for $34 so, 6 for $44.25 Unit cost = $6.80 Unit cost = $7.38
Completion
Motivation
effect increases the closer get to a goal
8 car wash, get one
free
Endowed progress
8 blank squares vs.
10 squares with 2 free punches completion rate
82% higher
Source: Nunes and Drze, The Endowed Progress Effect: How Articial Advancement Increases Effort, 2006
Sequencing
Tendency to
complete complex behavior if parsed into smaller steps
Many more...
Social proof, framing, reciprocity, relevance,
status quo, loss aversion, familiarity bias, regret aversion, peak-end effect, money proxy, authority bias ...
Your turn
Pick 2-3 Mental Notes cards. How could you make use of cognitive
biases to increase your behavior? 5 min each.
Brainstorm with the person next to you for Write this down and be prepared to share.
Take a break and a survey www.OpinionTo.us
Playlist: Aeroplane, Cocaine, Your love is my Drug, Satisfaction
Variable rewards
The brain and rewards
Watch
Source: Olds and Milner, 1945
What triggers the reward system?
Stimulation of brains reward system
activates new behaviors
Awakening the elephant is possible
through probes or drugs
What stimulates the brain naturally?
Dopamine triggers
Were Olds and Milner stimulating pleasure? (not exactly)
I like pleasure spiked with pain, its my aeroplane
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Anns story
Sufferers from
Parkinsons
Treatment includes
gambler
dopamine boosters
Becomes a compulsive Why?
The promise of reward
Dopamine system activated by anticipation of reward And dampened when reward achieved
Source: Knutson et al 2001
To supercharge the stress of desire ... add variability.
We crave predictability
Variable rewards
drive us nuts
Compulsion to make
sense of cause and effect drives the search
Dopamine system
Curious by nature
I cant get no satisfaction
- The Rolling Stones
The search for rewards
the Tribe the Hunt the Self
Search for Social Rewards
the Tribe
- Acceptance - Sex - Power
Rewards of the tribe
Rewards of the tribe
Search for Resources
the Hunt
- Food - Money - Information
Rewards of the hunt: search for resources
Rewards of the hunt: search for information
Dare you not to scroll
Rewards of the hunt: search for resources
Search for Sensation
the Self
- Mastery - Consistency - Competency - Purpose
Rewards of the self: Search for competency and mastery
Rewards of the self: Search for control
Fish bowl technique
Addiction Recovery Study (Petry 2006) Patients earned opportunity to draw a ticket out of a bowl every time they passed a drug test. Half of the tickets said Keep up the good work. The rest won the patient a nominal prize worth $1 to $20 but one ticket was worth $100 prize. 83% of sh bowl patients stayed in treatment for full 12 weeks (vs 20% of standard-care patients). 80% of sh bowl patients passed all their drug tests (vs. 40% of standard-care patients). Fish bowl group less likely to relapse. Technique worked better than paying patients for passing drug tests.
Rewards Decay
As rewards become predictable, they
become less novel
Finite Variability
- Single-player games - Consumption of media - Finishing a race
Innite Variability
- Multi-player games - Creation of content - Communities - Running for pleasure or competition
Who gets hooked?
Pathological gamblers and non-pathological placed in MRI. See images of win, lose, and near-miss. Pathological gamblers experienced more excitement from seeing win. Gamblers brain saw near-miss as near-win. Non-pathological experienced near-miss as near-loss. Unknown if gamblers brain is different at birth or if caused by repeated exposure.
Source: Habib, 2010
Variable reward levers
Type (Tribe, Hunt, Self) Frequency Amplitude
Keep em guessing
Your turn
How could you make use of variable
rewards to create your behavior? unknown, or surprise?
How can you add an element of mystery, the The search for rewards of the tribe (social),
hunt (resources), self (mastery, control) 5 min each and prepare to share.
Brainstorm with the person next to you for
Investments
Investment
Where user does a bit
of work.
Pays with something
of value: time, money, social capital, effort, emotional commitment, personal data ...
Investment is about future rewards that makes the next action more likely.
Twitter (consumer)
T
Facebook, friend, email ...
A
Scroll
I
Follow Information (Hunt)
Twitter (creator)
T
App icon, mention, message Boredom, curiosity, Lonesome
A
Re-Tweet or Tweet
Create new content Connect with others: @ reply, DM ...
R
Social feedback (Tribe)
Labor is love
The IKEA effect
Source: Dan Ariely, Upside of Irrationality
People value their labor
Value own work almost as much as an experts. Even if others dont.
Source: Ariely, Mochon and Norton, 2012
Labor increases motivation
People who pick Assign greater
odds.
Source: Langer, 1975
lottery numbers more likely to play.
Value labor done for us
Source: Buell and Norton, 2011
Others labor increases value too
Search took same
time.
People seeing the
work perceived more value.
Source: Buell and Norton, 2011
As we invest, we endow and tend to overvalue.
The endowment effect
When chimps given juice bar and peanut butter, 50/50 preference split. When given PB rst, 80% chose to keep rather than exchange. The endowed item was preferred Only worked for food
Source: Brosnan et al 2007
Humans endow things
Endowed mugs vs pens worth twice as much (Kahneman, Knetsch & Thaler,1990) Endowed nal four tickets worth 14 times more (Carmon and Ariely, 2000) Employees worked harder to maintain a provisional bonus than a potential yet-to-beawarded prize (Hossain and List, 2010) Universal behavior across different populations and with different goods (Hoffman and Spitzer,1993) including children (Harbaugh et al, 2001)
Why do we endow?
Improved bargaining position in bilateral
trades. If I act like I love it, maybe you will too. (Huck, Kirchsteiger & Oechssler 2005) the joy of gaining. (Kahneman and Tversky, 1984) dissonance leads to rationalization.
Loss aversion. Loosing feels twice as bad as Need for consistency causes cognitive
Rationalization and commitment
Jesse Schell, Professor of game design, Carnegie Mellon University
The preference cycle
Investment: Should I spend on this? Conrmation: Since I spent on it before, and I am not an idiot, it must be good. Rationalization: Only an idiot would have spent on something not good.
Little investments, big results
Group 1: 17% accepted Group 2: 76% accepted
Source: Freedman & Fraser, 1966
Adaptive preference formation
Changing preferences to be
more compatible with the situation.
We acquire preferences to serve
our need to be consistent. dissonance.
Relieve pain of cognitive
Source: Jon Esler, 1983
Acquiring taste
Think of the rst time you tried spicy food or alcohol. Acquiring taste follows similar patterns of rationalization to avoid cognitive dissonance. Change ourselves as we change our preferences. Im a ____ drinker.
Motivating through identity
Registered voters completed survey the day before or the morning of the election. How important is it to you to be a voter in the upcoming election? (Noun) How important is it to you to vote in the upcoming election? (Verb) Tracked who actually voted. How we see ourselves (the nouns) shape what we do.
the largest experimental effects ever observed on objectively measured voter turnout.
Source: Bryan, Walton, Rogers, and Dweck, 2011
In summary:
We over value the results of our labor
(endowment effect)
But need to rationalize this irrational value
(cognitive dissonance)
One way to do this is to change our taste
(adaptive preference formation) ourselves (identity shaping)
And behave in line with how we see
Your turn
How could you use small investments and
commitments to make the behavior more likely to occur? 5 min each.
Brainstorm with the person next to you for Write this down and be prepared to share.
Desire Engines create routines
Low engagement - External triggers - Low preference High engagement - Internal triggers - High preference
Email
T
Icon on phone Procrastinate, anxiety, thoughts of others.... Open unread messages
I
Write back Tribe, hunt and self
Spectator sports
T
Everywhere Watch Boredom, anxiety ...
I
Identify self as fan Buy stuff Attend events
VR
Outcome (Self) Fandom - belonging (Tribe) Capturing the win (Hunt)
With more cycles
Increase motivation and difculty of action
Greater loyalty, increased price inelasticity, greater satisfaction
Using neuroscience to inuence human behavior
Preferences to behaviors. Behaviors to routines. Routines to habits. Habits become who we are.
What are you going to do with this?
When is it right to give people what they
want?
When are people really in control? When is it ok to manipulate?
Use this for good
and take a survey www.OpinionTo.us
