Using Neuroscience to Influence Behavior
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The document explores the relationship between neuroscience and human behavior, focusing on various behavior types such as amateur, skillful, habitual, and addictive behaviors. It discusses strategies for influencing behavior change through understanding the roles of the 'rider' (rational mind), the 'elephant' (impulsive mind), and environmental triggers. Techniques for creating desire and automaticity in habits, along with the importance of cognitive biases and rewards, are also outlined to help facilitate behavioral change and improve personal and professional growth.
Using Neuroscience to Influence Behavior
- 1. USING NEUROSCIENCE TO INFLUENCE HUMAN BEHAVIOR “Come on now, who do you think you are? Bless your soul, you really think you’re in control?” - Gnarls Barkley
- 2. Welcome to the experiment
- 3. 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)
- 4. The nature of behavior
- 5. One brain, two minds • Elephant = impulsive mind • Rider = Rational mind • Path = the environment Willpower is the strength of the rider
- 6. Where the elephant lives • “Primitive” parts of brain • Basal ganglia • Storage of instinctual habitual behaviors • Nucleus accumbens • Center of reward system • Wants immediate gratification / satiation
- 7. Where the rider lives • “Newest” part of brain • Pre-frontal cortex (PFC) • Executive function • Controls impulses and higher level thinking
- 8. Think of your behaviors • What are the routines, habits, skills, addictions in one’s life?
- 9. Amateur behaviors Amateur Do Resist doing Low High Self-Control Required
- 10. What defines 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
- 12. How did you create your amateur behavior?
- 13. Creating amateur behaviors • Create a path for the elephant • Make it simple, easy • Placing well-timed cues • “Baby steps”
- 14. Skillful behaviors Skillful Do Resist doing Low High Self-Control Required
- 16. What defines skillful behaviors? • Rider is steering the elephant • Outcome, goal driven • Hard work, grit
- 17. How did you create your skillful behavior?
- 18. Creating skillful behaviors • Deliberate practice • Focus on fixing failures • Grit and persistence • Often with coaching
- 20. Running Amateur Skillful - Casual - Goal driven enjoyment - Win a - Jog into old age marathon
- 21. Habitual behaviors Do Habitual Resist doing Low High Self-Control Required
- 23. What defines habitual (negative) behaviors? • The rider tries to control the elephant • Constant temptation • Struggle with desire
- 24. How did you stop your habitual behavior?
- 25. Resisting habitual behaviors • Mindfulness • Surfing the urge, creating space (ex - 10- minute rule) • Reminder of purpose • Self-compassion
- 27. Addictive behaviors Do Addictive Resist doing Low High Self-Control Required
- 29. What defines addictive behaviors? • The rider has lost control and the elephant is charging • Self-destructive • Extremely hard to resist
- 30. Resisting addictive behaviors • Reigning in the elephant • Abstinence, removal of cues • Physical detoxification • Social support • Root cause analysis
- 31. Behavior types Amateur Skillful Do Habitual Addictive Resist doing Low High Self-Control Required
- 32. Matching behavior types with change methods
- 33. Change with right tool Behavior type Change method
- 34. Change methods Create Train the Do rider to push the path the elephant Train the Resist Reign the rider to pull doing elephant the elephant Low High Self-Control Required
- 35. Does the method match the type? • “No pain, no gain” • “Never quit” • “Set strict goals” • “Hold yourself accountable”
- 36. Healthy lifestyle • Over a lifetime • Do (amateur behaviors): • Physical activity • Eating healthy foods • Resist doing (habitual behaviors): • Eating unhealthy foods • Overconsumption
- 37. 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”
- 38. 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 non- dieters after drinking the milkshake • Showed increased activity in nucleus accumbens Source: Kelly McDonigal, “The Willpower Instinct”, Heatherton & Wagner, 2011
- 40. One size does not fit all Amateur Skillful - Goal driven - Path driven Do - Long-term - Grit - Hard work - Self-directed - Coaching Habitual Addictive Resist - Abstinence - Surfing urge - Physical detox doing - Mindfulness - Root cause - Self-compassion - Social support Low High Self-Control Required
- 41. In summary • Rider, elephant and path • Before changing a behavior: • Identify behavior type • Match with appropriate change method
- 42. Take a break and a survey www.OpinionTo.us (and take your stuff)
- 44. Helping people do what they want to do.
- 45. Persuasive products Amateur Skillful Do Habitual Addictive Resist doing Low High Self-Control Required
- 46. pref· er· ence /ˈpref(ə)rəns/ Noun, Def: A greater liking for one alternative over another or others.
- 47. be· hav· ior /biˈhāvyər/ Noun, Def: The way in which an animal or person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus.
- 48. rou· tine /ro͞oˈtēn/ Noun, Def: A sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.
- 49. hab· it /ˈhabit/ Noun, Def: An behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary, without cognition.
- 50. ad· dic· tion /əˈdikSHən/ Noun, Def: A persistent, compulsive dependence on a behavior or substance.
- 51. 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
- 52. Why is this graph “smiling”? Source: Inc. magazine, Dec. 2011
- 53. StackOverflow • Largest technical QA site • Alexa rank 93 • 5,000 questions are answered per day • FT Staff: 66
- 54. Holding on to customers by forming habits Source: Amy Jo Kim, “Community Building on the Web”
- 55. To build habits need...
- 56. 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.
- 57. What is automaticity good for? • Ability to learn • Helps us decide • Saves energy • Allows multitasking
- 58. Impairment of habit system • Trouble performing tasks requiring multi- step behaviors or where emotion is deciding factor. • With “elephant” out, the “rider” tries but fails. • Making simple decisions. (which pen?) • Ignoring insignificant details. (reading faces) • Inability to act quickly “from the gut.” Source: Antonio Demasio via Lehrer "How We Decide"
- 59. 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
- 62. How do we get users to come back?
- 63. Building desire through engagement Low High engagement engagement
- 65. Remember: A TARI A - A Desire Engine has 4 parts: T - Trigger A - Action R - Reward I - Investment
- 66. In summary • Habits can be good for business. • Habits require automaticity - action without cognition. • Leaves us with more “decision making reserve.” • Creating automaticity is a function of utility and frequency. • Frequency from creating desire.
- 67. Triggers
- 68. Habits aren’t created, they are built upon
- 69. 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?
- 70. Triggers External Internal Alarms Emotions Calls-to-action Routines Emails Situations Stores Places Authority People What to do next What to do next is in is in the trigger the user’s head
- 73. Triggers External Internal Alarms Emotions Advertising Routines Calls-to-action Situations Emails Places Stores People Authority What to do next What to do next is in is in the trigger the user’s head
- 74. Negative emotions are powerful internal triggers Dissatisfied Fear of loss Indecisive Bored Lost Lonesome Tense Confused Fatigued Powerless Inferior Discouraged
- 75. Internally triggered technologies When I feel... ... I use Lonely Facebook Hungry Yelp Unsure Google Anxious Email Lost GPS Mentally fatigued ESPN, Glam
- 76. Emotional triggers Shiv x-framework Content Excited Bored Stressed
- 77. People with depression check email more. Source: Kotikalapudi et al 2012, Associating Depressive Symptoms in College Students with Internet Usage Using Real Internet Data
- 78. Habits form from frequent problem/solution fit.
- 79. To find the problem, know the narrative • Need to find the existing behavior to attach to. • Find the behavior that occurs just before. • “Every time you (verb), use (product).”
- 80. Jack Dorsey on narratives http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acMXhhdWylQ
- 82. Instagram triggers External Internal - FB and Twitter - Fear of loosing - App notifications the moment . . . - Bored, lonesome, curious...
- 83. Your turn • Pick an “amateur” behavior you’d like to turn into a new routine in your life. • Brainstorm with the person next to you for 5 min each about potential triggers. • Describe the narrative of both external and internal triggers. • Write this down and be prepared to share.
- 84. 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
- 85. Triggers External Internal Alarms Emotions Calls-to-action Routines Emails Situations Stores Places Authority People What to do next What to do next is in is in the trigger the user’s head
- 86. Pharma triggers External Internal What to do next What to do next is in is in the trigger the user’s head (Designer controls)
- 87. Actions
- 88. when doing < thinking = action Creating the path
- 89. Fogg Behavior Model B = m.a.t. motivation triggers Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University ability
- 90. Fogg Behavior Model B = m.a.t. trigger motivation (SUCCESS!) trigger (FAIL!) Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University ability
- 91. mo· ti· va· tion /mōtə vāSHən/ Noun, Def: The psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal.
- 92. Motivators of Behavior Seek: Avoid: Sensation Pleasure Pain Anticipation Hope Fear motivation Social Cohesion Acceptance Rejection Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
- 98. a· bil· i· ty /əˈbilitē/ Noun, Def: The capacity to do something
- 99. How increase capacity to do something? Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University ability
- 100. Factors of ability Time Money Physical effort Brain cycles Social deviance Non-routine Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University ability
- 101. Simplicity “Simplicity is a Factors of ability function of your Time scarcest resource Money at that moment.” Physical effort Brain cycles - BJ Fogg Social deviance Non-routine Differ by person and context
- 102. What move first?
- 103. Move ability before motivation motivation triggers Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University ability
- 104. Focus on ability and triggers before motivation
- 105. Focus on ability and triggers before motivation
- 106. Which has fewer calories?
- 107. Motivated people know healthier option Source: (Chernov et al. 2011; Chandon & Wansink 2007)
- 108. America the obese 2010 Source: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Centers for Disease Control
- 109. Twitter homepage 2009
- 110. Twitter homepage 2010
- 111. Twitter homepage 2012
- 112. The evolution of Twitter 2009 2010 2012
- 113. Behaviors to actions with cross-functional teams = marketing motivation triggers = interface design ability = product
- 114. 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) • Share with your partner. • Brainstorm how to increase your partner’s ability (considering your scarcest resource) and / or increase motivation? !! Crazy ideas are encouraged !! • Write this down and be prepared to share.
- 115. Factors of ability Time Money Physical effort Brain cycles Social deviance Non-routine Motivators of Behavior Seek: Avoid: Sensation Pleasure Pain Anticipation Hope Fear Social Cohesion Acceptance Rejection Source: Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University
- 116. Bi· as /ˈbīəs/ Noun, Def: 1. A tendency or inclination; a prejudice 2. A lever to increase motivation or ability
- 117. A well-studied bias
- 118. Classical biases • Rational • Can articulate, “I’d buy it if it were cheaper.” • Predictable (for the most part)
- 119. Cognitive Biases • Rational or irrational • Unable to articulate • Predictable
- 120. Scarcity • People value cookies more in a nearly empty jar than in a full jar. Source: Worchel, Lee, and Adewole (1975)
- 121. Value attribution • Wine actually tastes better if you believe it’s more expensive Source: Plassmann, O’Doherty. Shiv, and Rangel, 2008
- 122. Remember this? Source: (Chernov et al. 2011; Chandon & Wansink 2007)
- 123. The halo effect Source: (Chernov et al. 2011; Chandon & Wansink 2007)
- 124. Which car owners? • Are involved in more collisions. • Receive 65% more traffic tickets. • Drive 25% more miles than other drivers. • Are a more costly risk to insure than other vehicles in its class. Source: Data from insurance analytics company Quality Planning, reported in “Mitchell Industry Trends Report” 2010
- 125. Moral licensing • We tend to reward ourselves with the freedom to be “bad” when we’re acting “good.”
- 126. 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
- 127. Completion • Motivation • 8 car wash, get one increases the free closer get to a goal • 8 blank squares vs. • “Endowed progress 10 squares with 2 free punches effect” • 82% higher completion rate Source: Nunes and Drèze, The Endowed Progress Effect: How Artificial Advancement Increases Effort, 2006
- 128. Sequencing • Tendency to complete complex behavior if parsed into smaller steps
- 129. Many more... • Social proof, framing, reciprocity, relevance, status quo, loss aversion, familiarity bias, regret aversion, peak-end effect, money proxy, authority bias ...
- 130. Your turn • Pick one of the “Mental Notes” cards. • How could you make use of a cognitive biases to increase your partner’s behavior? • Brainstorm with the person next to you for 5 min each. !! Go for lots of ideas !! • Write this down and be prepared to share.
- 131. Take a break and a survey www.OpinionTo.us
- 132. Variable rewards
- 133. The brain and rewards Watch Source: Olds and Milner, 1945
- 134. What triggers the reward system? • Stimulation of brain’s reward system activates new behaviors • “Awakening the elephant” is possible through probes or drugs • What stimulates the brain naturally?
- 135. Dopamine triggers
- 136. Were Olds and Milner stimulating pleasure? (not exactly)
- 137. “I like pleasure spiked with pain, it’s my aeroplane” - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
- 138. Ann’s story • Sufferers from Parkinson’s • Treatment includes dopamine boosters • Becomes a compulsive gambler • Why?
- 139. The promise of reward • Dopamine system activated by anticipation of reward • And dampened when reward achieved Source: Knutson et al 2001
- 140. To supercharge the “stress of desire” ... add variability.
- 141. We crave predictability • Variable rewards drive us nuts • Compulsion to make sense of cause and effect • Dopamine system drives the search
- 142. Curious by nature
- 143. “I can’t get no satisfaction” - The Rolling Stones
- 144. The search for rewards the Tribe the the Hunt Self
- 145. Search for Social Rewards the - Acceptance - Sex Tribe - Power
- 146. Rewards of the tribe
- 147. Rewards of the tribe
- 148. Search for Resources the - Food - Money Hunt - Information
- 149. Rewards of the hunt: search for resources
- 150. Rewards of the hunt: search for information
- 151. Dare you not to scroll
- 152. Rewards of the hunt: search for resources
- 153. Search for Sensation - Mastery the - Consistency Self - Competency - Purpose
- 154. Rewards of the self: Search for competency and mastery
- 155. Rewards of the self: Search for control
- 156. 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 fish bowl patients stayed in treatment for full 12 weeks (vs 20% of standard-care patients). • 80% of fish 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.
- 158. Rewards Decay • As rewards become predictable, they become less novel Finite Variability Infinite Variability - Single-player games - Multi-player games - Consumption of - Creation of content media - Communities - Finishing a race - Running for pleasure or competition
- 159. 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 gambler’s brain is different at birth or if caused by repeated exposure. Source: Habib, 2010
- 160. Variable reward levers • Type (Tribe, Hunt, Self) • Frequency • Amplitude Keep ‘em guessing
- 161. Your turn • How could you use variable rewards to increase your partner’s behavior? • How can you add an element of mystery, the unknown, or surprise? • Consider the search for rewards of the tribe (social), hunt (resources), self (mastery, control) !! Crazy is ok !! • Brainstorm with the person next to you for 5 min each and prepare to share.
- 162. Investments
- 163. Investment • Where user does a bit of “work.” • “Pays” with something of value: time, money, social capital, effort, emotional commitment, personal data ...
- 164. Investment is about future rewards that makes the next action more likely.
- 165. Twitter (consumer) T A Facebook, friend, email ... Scroll Boredom, curiosity I R Information Follow (Hunt)
- 166. Twitter (creator) T A Mention, message Open app Boredom, curiosity, lonesome I R Tweet or RT Social feedback (build following) (Tribe)
- 167. Labor is love The IKEA effect Source: Dan Ariely, Upside of Irrationality
- 168. People value their labor • Value own work almost as much as an expert’s. • Even if other’s don’t. Source: Ariely, Mochon and Norton, 2012
- 169. Labor increases motivation • People who pick lottery numbers more likely to play. • Assign greater odds. Source: Langer, 1975
- 170. Value labor done for us Source: Buell and Norton, 2011
- 171. Others’ labor increases value too • Search took same time. • People “seeing” the work perceived more value. Source: Buell and Norton, 2011
- 172. As we invest, we endow and tend to overvalue.
- 173. The endowment effect • When chimps given juice bar and peanut butter, 50/50 preference split. • When given PB first, 80% chose to keep rather than exchange. • The “endowed” item was preferred • Only worked for food Source: Brosnan et al 2007
- 174. Humans endow things • Endowed mugs vs pens worth twice as much (Kahneman, Knetsch & Thaler,1990) • Endowed final four tickets worth 14 times more (Carmon and Ariely, 2000) • Employees worked harder to maintain a provisional bonus than a potential yet-to-be- awarded prize (Hossain and List, 2010) • Universal behavior across different populations and with different goods (Hoffman and Spitzer,1993) including children (Harbaugh et al, 2001)
- 175. 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) • Loss aversion. Loosing feels twice as bad as the joy of gaining. (Kahneman and Tversky, 1984) • Need for consistency causes cognitive dissonance leads to rationalization.
- 176. Rationalization and commitment Jesse Schell, Professor of game design, Carnegie Mellon University
- 177. The preference cycle Investment: “Should I ‘spend’ on this?” Confirmation: Rationalization: “Since I spent on it “Only an idiot would before, and I am not an have ‘spent’ on idiot, it must be good.” something not good.”
- 178. Little investments, big results Group 1: 17% accepted Group 2: 76% accepted Source: Freedman & Fraser, 1966
- 179. Adaptive preference formation • Changing preferences to be more compatible with the situation. • We acquire preferences to serve our need to be consistent. • Relieve pain of cognitive dissonance. Source: Jon Esler, 1983
- 180. Acquiring taste • Think of the first 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. • “I’m a ____ drinker.”
- 181. 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) “the largest experimental effects shape what we do. ever observed on objectively measured voter turnout.” Source: Bryan, Walton, Rogers, and Dweck, 2011
- 182. 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) • And behave in line with how we see ourselves (identity shaping)
- 183. Your turn • How could you use small investments and commitments to make your partner’s behavior more likely to occur? • Brainstorm with the person next to you for 5 min each. • Write this down and be prepared to share.
- 184. Desire Engines create routines Low High engagement engagement - External - Internal triggers triggers - Low - High preference preference
- 185. Email T A Icon on phone Open unread Procrastinate, anxiety, messages thoughts of others.... I R Tribe, hunt and Write back self
- 186. Spectator sports T A Everywhere Watch Monday, boredom, anxiety ... I VR Identify self as fan Outcome (Self) Buy stuff Fandom - belonging (Tribe) Attend events Capturing the win (Hunt)
- 187. With more cycles Increase motivation and difficulty of action Greater loyalty, increased price inelasticity, greater satisfaction
- 188. Using neuroscience to influence human behavior • Preferences to behaviors. • Behaviors to routines. • Routines to habits. • Habits become who we are.
- 189. 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?
- 190. Use this for good. and take a survey www.OpinionTo.us