O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)
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The document summarizes and discusses several studies related to human behavior and decision making: 1. A study found that people go to great lengths to justify indulgent decisions like eating chocolate, providing many reasons to give themselves "permission" to indulge rather than seeing it as an impulse. 2. Nostalgia can increase spending by making people feel more socially connected and less needing of money. 3. Happiness fuels success more than the other way around, as positive emotions lead to cognitive advantages that increase productivity, intelligence and problem solving. 4. Materialism is negatively correlated with well-being, impacting health, relationships and self-esteem, though some careers and cultures mitigate this effect.
O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)
- 1. O BEHAVE! Issue 9 • December 2014
- 2. Oh Go On, It’s Christmas 3 Bias of the Month 4 How to be Happier in the New Year 5 We are Living in a Material World 6 Why Losing Can Be The Secret To Winning 7 Real Life Nudge 9 Upcoming Events 9 CONTENTS
- 3. de Witt Huberts, J., Evers, C., & de Ridder, D. (2014). Thinking before sinning: reasoning processes in hedonic consumption. Frontiers of Psychology, 5 (1268), 1-6. At this time of year, you’re likely to be confronted with an excess of food and alcohol, which may directly challenge your goals to live healthily. Traditionally, it has been assumed that giving in to such temptations is just a result of acting impulsively, but new research shows that we consciously go to great lengths to justify these decisions to ourselves. De Witt Huberts, Evers and de Ridder (2014) recruited health-conscious students to take part in their study, framed as market research ahead of the launch of a new chocolate bar. Participants were presented with the bar and told it would be positioned as an indulgent treat. They were then asked to give the reasons they would use to justify eating the chocolate bar, such as, “After a day of studying hard” or, “For finishing/passing my midterms”. The more tempted participants indicated they were by the chocolate bar, the more reasons they provided. OH GO ON, IT’S CHRISTMAS This is called self-licensing: we give ourselves permission to behave badly as a reward for being good, or even for intending to be good in the future. This effect has also been studied more implicitly by the same authors; they found that participants who were told they had exerted more effort than average on a task were more likely to have an indulgent treat afterwards. Similarly, Werle, Wansink & Payne (2014) asked two groups of participants to go for a walk; those for whom the walk had been framed as exercise subsequently ate more than those who viewed it as fun. This research makes an interesting addition to a classic study that shows exerting effort, e.g. solving difficult puzzles, reduces pre- frontal capacity for self-control, therefore leading to a greater preference for chocolate over fruit. Is self-control really reduced, or is the indulgence easier to justify - or both? More research is needed to untangle the relationship between the two. So this Christmas, remember that you’re not just giving in to impulse; you deserve it, because it’s the festive season/you’re having to put up with your in-laws/you’ll turn over a new leaf in 2015. Go on, treat yourself.
- 4. BIAS OF THE MONTH The Nostalgia Effect Christmas is a time where we all get together with our families and reminisce about the past over lots of food wine and laughter. This should be music to retailers ears and not only the food and wine retailers as recent research suggests that reminiscing about the past can make us spend more on products. Research just published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that when partipcants were asked to view print ads featuring either nostalgic experiences from the past or neutral experiences, those in the nostalgic group were significantly more willing to purchase products from a catalogue they were given following the print ads. According to the researchers, the reason nostalgia makes us spend more is due to a link between nostalgia, social connectedness and our desire for money. They note that when we look back at fond memories we do so through rose-tinted glasses and a sense of positivity which leads to a sense of social connectedness. They also state that nostalgia, social connectedness and money are interchangeable such that when people have a lot of one, their need for the other lessons; once we have our fair share of social connectedness, our need for money lessons. This can be seen in countries with strong social support (Scandinavian countries) as they rate financial skills and business success as being less important. This finding can partly explain why people are so generous to charities at Christmas and is one charities can use to prompt pro-social behaviour in their campaigns. Lasaleta, J. D., Sedikides, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2014). Nostalgia weakens the desire for money. Journal of Consumer Research, 41, 713-729.
- 5. HOW TO BE HAPPIER IN THE NEW YEAR Its nearly time that time of year when we will all be making our new years resolutions and I can bet most of you reading this will have somewhere in their list “I want to be happier”. When contemplating how to achieve this conventional wisdom holds that if we work harder we will be more successful, and if we are more successful then we’ll be happier. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. Recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. Research has shown that only 10% of our long term happiness can be predicated by our external world whereas 90% of our long term happiness is predicated by how we process the world; in a positive light or negative light. Achor, S. (2011). The happiness advantage: The seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work. Random House. If people can raise their level of positivity in the present the brain experiences a “happiness advantage”. A positive brain performs significantly better then a negative, neutral or stressed brain and leads to an increase in intelligence, creativity and energy. A positive brain is 31% more productive than a negative, neutral or stressed brain and doctors in a state of positivity are 19% faster and more accurate at correctly diagnosing a patient than in a negative or neutral brain state. Although we think our job success is due our intelligence research has shown that only 25% of job success is due to IQ whereas 75% is due to optimism levels, social support and the ability to see stress a s a challenge rather than a threat. So when putting a plan into place of how to make yourself happier in the new year, instead of concentrating on getting that new job or promotion you want, start concentrating on trying to be positive in the present and enjoy gaining that competitive edge at work.
- 6. WE ARE LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD One thing we are constantly bombarded with at this time of year - as well as Mariah Carey and Wham! - is lamentations of how commercialised it has all become and how we’ve forgotten the “true meaning of Christmas”, a gripe which in fact dates back to at least the 1850s. But perhaps the self-righteous really are right about the benefits of focusing on family and friends over the more material aspects of Christmas: a meta-analysis of all relevant studies from the last thirty years revealed a significant negative correlation between well-being and materialism. Dittmar, H., Bond, R., Hurst, M., & Kasser, T. (2014). The relationship between materialism and personal well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107 (5), 879-924. Dittmar, Bond, Hurst and Kasser (2014) defined materialism as the long-term endorsement of values, goals and beliefs that focus on acquiring money and possessions to convey status. They also measured well-being on a number of different indices, from physical and mental health characteristics to subjective well-being and self- appraisals. Materialism was found to impact negatively on all of these different aspects and across a range of different demographics, including gender, household income and economic climate. Of these well-being measures, somewhat unsurprisingly, compulsive shopping had the strongest relationship with materialism. There were also strong correlations with negative self-appraisals and activities that put physical health at risk, such as smoking and taking drugs. It is possible that compulsive shopping and substance use could be used to self-medicate against low self-esteem, caused by inevitably failing to meet unrealistic standards. While the relationship between well-being and materialism was always found to be negative, some factors mediated this relationship. For example, students or practitioners of business and law were less affected by having materialistic goals, perhaps because these goals were shared by their peers and they were rewarded for pursuing them. However, there was a stronger negative effect in cultures that emphasise the importance of pleasure-seeking and leading an exciting life, which could be due to greater dejection when faced with the gap between reality and expectation. Maybe this year, for our own well-being, we should eschew our materialistic ideals and return to the true meaning of Christmas. How did they celebrate in 1849 again?
- 7. WHY WE PERFORM BETTER WHEN WE ARE LOSING Although most of us hate losing, sports professionals particularly hate to lose. Research has shown that in situations where golfers are striving to avoid defeat they will perform better rather than if they are aiming to win. After studying 2,525,161 putts from the PGA tours between 2004-2009 these researchers found that taking all things equal (e.g. distance) golfers were significantly more likely to get a par shot in rather than a birdie. They explain this is due to a principle known as loss aversion; humans hate losing twice as much as they like to gain something of equal value. Pope, D. G., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2011). Is Tiger Woods loss averse? Persistent bias in the face of experience, competition, and high stakes. The American Economic Review, 101(1), 129-157. Although missing a par shot (getting the ball in the allowed number of putts) or birdie shot (get the ball in one putt less than the allowed number of putts) leaves the golfer worse off, the researchers explain that psychologically missing a par shot is worse than missing a birdie. Missing a birdie still allows the player to “win” the hole by getting a par score whereas missing the par shot means psychologically the player “loses” the hole (one-over par). As people hate to lose this research suggests that players tend to up their game on par shots to ensure they don’t lose the hole. Most people also assume that experts and professionals tend not to show biases in their area of specialty but this research shows that although professionals may show biases to a lesser degree than non professionals, they are not exempt from them. They are only human after all.
- 8. Spotted: Priming on the roads in Bangalore We all know that when we are driving and we spot a police man we automatically check that we are going the correct speed and following the rules of the road which leads to a decrease in accidents. If only there were enough police men to ensure everyone was obeying the rules of the road to reduce traffic accidents but of course this isn’t realistic. India which has a reputation of reckless driving and accidents decided to instead of physically placing more police men on the road they would put cardboard cutouts of them to prime drivers to driver slower. REAL LIFE NUDGE OF THE MONTH UPCOMING EVENTS Annual International Conference on Cognitive, Social and Behavioural Sciences Tuesday 6th - Friday 9th January, Cyprus http://lanyrd.com/2015/the-annual-international-conference-on-cognitive-2/ Behavioural Boozeonomics with the London Behavioural Economics Network Tuesday 13th January, 7.00-10.30pm http://www.meetup.com/London-behavioural-comms-monthly-informal-drinks/events/210023942/ Nudgeathon Saturday 31st January - Sunday 1st February, Warwick Business School http://www.wbs.ac.uk/events/view/4597
- 9. Cíosa Garrahan @CiosaGarrahan ciosa.garrahan@ogilvy.com BROUGHT TO YOU BY Juliet Hodges @hulietjodges juliet.hodges@ogilvy.com