The first time is easiest. It does not matter whether this is running, squash, going to the gym, or even unrelated health activities, such as implementing your newly learned skills from a training. The most difficult part, however, is to stay committed and keep on doing these activities.
Golden Behaviors
– Nudges for a Healthy Lifestyle –
Reading time: 6 minutes
In my last blog I disclosed that my personal goal is to exercise three times a week. As long as that is squash, it is no problem holding up to that goal. It is easy. I would not mind playing four times a week. I am limited in playing squash because of three reasons. First, I must admit: I do procrastinate. So sometimes I have not planned ahead and either the squash courts are fully booked or my squash friends are fully booked (or both). Second, my wife appreciates that I spend my evening at home sometimes, as I usually play squash in the evenings. So at least she likes me to be around (looking at the bright side) or she likes me to look after the children so she can see some friends (being more realistic). Third, sometimes I have less possibilities to play squash: holidays for my squash friends or myself, for example. Well, no trouble at all: in that case I go running.
Public commitment to an activity helps
But then the Corona virus hit The Netherlands. The squash courts were closed as a measure against spreading the virus. Since there is no other alternative, I run three times a week instead of an incidental run every few weeks or so. I wonder if I would have run three times a week if I had not explicitly written about this in my previous blog. Then I could have rationalized my reduction in activity by blaming the Corona virus or the government for closing the squash courts: after all, there is nothing I can do to influence those decisions. However, currently I feel I have to hold up to my publicly committed goal of exercising three times a week even though at the time my first blog wasn’t even published yet. So even a commitment to a personal goal mentioned in an unpublished blog made me more likely to stick to this goal. Why does such a commitment work, even when nobody but yourself knows about it?
You have a need for consistency
This is because people have an innate need for consistency: we want our behavior and beliefs to align with one another. We need consistency between our inner beliefs and our outer actions. So we behave in a manner that matches past decisions or behaviors. The need for consistency serves as a heuristic in decision making: it is easier to perform the same behavior we did before rather than making the decision time and time again. Once we make a decision, we will encounter pressure to behave consistently with that commitment.
We not only adjust our current behavior to match with our previous behavior, but we may also adjust our beliefs to match our behavior. The famous American social psychologist Leon Festinger (1957) believes that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and behavior in harmony and avoid dissonance. This process of justifying our previous behavior and adjusting our beliefs to match our behavior is called cognitive dissonance. That also explains why Stanford professor Robert Cialdini found that not only will people go out of their way to behave consistently, they will also feel positively about being consistent with their decisions, even when faced with evidence that their decisions were erroneous. We cannot change our behavior anymore, but we can change how we feel about it.
There are two levels of consistency
The need for consistency acts at both the personal and the social level. On the personal level, you make commitments to yourself and do not share them with others. You will feel compelled to stick to promises once you have made them. On the social level, you share your promises with others. This makes the pressure to stick to your promises even stronger. Whereas inconsistency on a personal level may result in some guilt, inconsistency on a social level may result in disappointment, confusion or even anger from your environment. Inconsistency is seen as an undesirable trait and is associated with incompetence, which usually leads to large amounts of social pressure to stay consistent.
The most famous example for the need for consistency on the social level comes from experiments performed by the infamous psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1950s. Respondents were instructed to teach word-pairs to a learner. When the learner made a mistake, the respondent was instructed to punish the learner by giving him a shock, 15 volts higher for each mistake. The learner never received the shocks, but pre-taped audio was triggered when a shock-switch was pressed. Once the respondents committed themselves to administer the first shocks, it was difficult for them to break with that behavior, because that would be inconsistent with their previous behavior.
How consistent are you?
People want themselves and others to be consistent in their behaviors. However, the extent to which people indeed behave consistently varies from person to person. If you would like to know how consistently you behave, just answer the flowing question. According to researchers Nichols and Webster this Single-item Consistency Scale (SIN-C) is a valid and reliable measure of your tendency for consistency:
To what extent do you agree with the following statement:
“I make an effort to appear consistent to others.”
completely disagree – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 – completely agree
If you are on the far right side of the scale (say 8 or 9) like myself, then it is enough to make personal commitments that you do not necessarily have to disclose. This is the commitment I made in an unpublished blog: I want myself to be consistent with my personal goal of exercising three times a week. The more you are to the left of the scale, the larger the measures required to make you committed. When you score somewhere in the middle, you may have to rely more on social commitment for the goals you set. Let friends remind you when you do not keep your promises. If you’re on the left part of the scale you may even have to put some money on the line and tell a trusted friend: if I do not reach my goal of exercising three times a week in the next three months, then donate €500 to the Red Cross.
How consistent are you? Delen op XI hope this helps you to improve your health and fitness with just a small nudge. Let me know in the comments how you score on the SIN-C scale and what measures are required to secure your commitment. Please let me know what is required to make you committed.
Niels Vink (1975) is author of Golden Behaviors and behavioral designer. He uses insights from the behavioral sciences to explain why people often act against their own interests. As a behavioral expert, he explores how you can nudge your behavior for a healthy lifestyle. He has Master degrees in Social Psychology (Leiden University) and Industrial Design Engineering (Delft University of Technology) and holds a PhD in Consumer Behavior.
When you have been inspired to start and maintain your Golden Behaviors, reach out to me.
Source of top image: Shotstash
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