Hi
I'm sorry to start out by being a party killer today
because you guys just totally failed
I'm so sorry
earlier today at this Tedx event we had lunch
and it was a really nice lunch
we had it outside
the weather was good and everything was fine
but you guys just left a total mess
you left the lunch areas looking like this
like that
without even noticing you guys left just plates
napkins you know, you name it everywhere
it was such a mess
but today I'm going to talk about how changing human behaviour
can make the world a greener and better place to live
because I did something actually
I put up notes saying 'Your mum doesn't work here, clean up your own mess'
but I guess none of you noticed it
or maybe you just didn't care
or maybe you didn't really intend to make a mess but you just did it anyway
because I'm going to let you in on something
I fail all the time
and I'm going to tell you a bit about that
This is me
every day I get up and I brush my teeth
I do that twice a day
every morning and every evening
but that's not the problem
the problem is that while I'm brushing my teeth
I leave the water running
and leaving the water running for 5 minutes every day means that I'm wasting 20 litres of water every day
just by brushing my teeth
and on an annual basis this means that I could be flushing my toilet more than 600 times and still I wouldn't waste
the same amount of water
so that's crazy
and the weirdest thing is that I actually see myself as a responsible person
I don't intend to waste water
and I know what the right thing is
I know I should be turning off the water while brushing my teeth
but every day I just end up doing the same thing anyway
and another crazy thing is that every day I drive my kids to school
I take the same way
and I actually see myself as a responsible driver
I'm pretty experienced if I should say myself
and I know all the traffic rules
but despite that I find myself texting my husband while I'm driving
I find myself not checking the mirrors
and I find myself speeding in areas where I know I'm not supposed to
so I'm actually having a really hard time following my good intentions
and what I know is the right thing to do
because these situations they just go on and on and on
so who cares? I mean why is this even interesting to talk about
well I think its realy interesting
because today we are over 7 billion smart people on this planet
and I believe that most of us intend or actually all of us intend to do the right thing
and I think a lot of the times we know what the right thing is
so we're not lacking motivation or knowledge
but somehow during our everyday life we end up doing something completely different
and its starting to create serious problems for us
we spend more fresh water than the planet can provide
and today every day 3000 people are killed in traffic
and today more than half the worlds population live in countries where people die of overweight and
obesity instead of underweight
so our every day behaviour is starting to create serious problems for us
we are having such a hard time following our good intentions and what we know is the right thing
so our every day behaviour is actually the biggest threat to mankind today
but we can change that
we can make great solutions that can change that
but in order to do that we have to understand what drives human behaviour
and basically human behaviour is driven by two systems
the automatic system and the reflective system
let me demonstrate to you what that means
now have a look at this picture
all of us in here can see that this is a woman
and she looks a bit upset
so its pretty fair to conclude that this is a really angry woman
and this conclusion came pretty fast to us
it was effortless and we couldn't have not seen the angry woman
this is an example of automatic thinking
now have a look at this picture
up here
all of us in here can see that it's a piece of math
its a blackboard with white numbers
but if I asked you to tell me the result some of us would need a piece of paper and a pen
and a little bit of time to solve it
and those of you who's already calculating you can stop now
the result is 4179
so stop calculating
but
the conclusion of this it didn't come to us as fast as the angry woman
its slow and if we all sat down and started figuring out the result we can actually measure our blood sugar dropping
and this is an example of reflective thinking
biologically we are coded to save as much energy as possible
so we always try to avoid being reflective for too long
another important thing we have to take into consideration
when working with humans
is our basic instincts
and one of them is our pack mentality
and that's actually one of the strongest basic instincts we have
our pack mentality means that we mirror the people around us
we do what we see other people do
if they stand in line we start queuing behind them
if people start to whisper we lower our voices
and this instinct is so strong that it actually overrules a lot of our own good intentions
or what we know is the right thing
because what happened today at lunch was I gave you the information that your mum doesn't work here
and you had to clean up your own mess
but anyway what you did was that you just started mirroring the behaviour of the people around you
so when they left a plate on the ground you did the same
and that's how we ended up with the mess
our basic instincts often overrule what we know is the right thing
another thing we have to take into consideration is our human flaws
we have tonnes of them
but one of them is having very limited attention
we are very bad at keeping attention and very bad at taking it out at the moment we need it the most
so if somebody a week ago told you 'don't smoke here'
and then you come back a week later
then the odds that you're actually going to pull out that information in that moment when you're back in the same area are so small
that means that we live in the now
our behaviour is relying on everything that's around us right now
I'm walking on this stage according to how the things are right here
and that's how we actually live
we are not that reflective
so when we have to change this we have to use all these insights to create solutions
and I'm just going to introduce you to some cases I have made
where I based it on these insights
this summer I did a project where I had to change the behaviour of people going to the beach
cos here was the problem
the trash cans at the beaches look like this
all the garbage was mixed together in different materials
glass, plastic and metal, it was mixed together
and if we want to recycle garbage it has to be divided into the different materials
so what I had to do was to create a solution that could help people going to the beach
sort their trash
and first we have to look at the beach situation
because when we go to the beach
we pack our car and we get out of the car
but it's not just us
we bring food, towels, beach toys, kids, all kind of stuff
and then we go to the beach
we stay at the beach for a couple of hours or so
and then we're ready to go home
but now we don't have any more food left
we only have the trash
and now the towels are wet
the beach toys are sandy
and the kids are probably really tired
so everybody's just really anxious to get back into the car without any drama
and this is the point where if we don't have a visible trash can in sight
we are more likely to just leave the trash in the sand
not because we're evil or we don't care or we're lazy but just because our attention is directed to the kids
and our towels and our beach toys
so we simply just forget
and if we even make it to the trash can with our trash the odds that we're actually going to start sorting our trash at this moment are very small
so what I did first of all I rearranged all the trash cans so that they were visible from the beachside
that was the first step
so just to make sure that everybody at the beach could see a trash can
second of all
I gave the trash cans different colours
and you can see them here
because when we see three cans standing together and they have a different colour
we intuitively understand that there's some kind of system going on here
there's a certain behaviour expected of us
so we intuitively try to figure out 'ok what does this mean?'
and the final element I did
because we have a tendency to tell people what we don't want them to do
don't litter here
don't smoke here
don't throw your laundry here
and I actually find that showing people what you want them to do has a much better effect
so the last element I put stickers on the trash cans
showing people which beach related trash goes in which can
and this July all these things were put together and tested
and after just one week the trash cans looked like this
everything was sorted into different materials
glass, metal and plastic
so that was just one example
on how we can work with our instincts
another area where working with human behaviour can have a really big impact
is in digital media
last year I was challenged by the Danish Ministry of Taxation to make more young citizens adjust and check their income
at the tax self service site
imagine starting your adult life with owing money
that might be the reality to a lot of young Danes if they
don't start adjusting or at least checking their income
at the tax self service site
and they actually have to do that
every time their financial situation changes
so that means when they get a loan,
when they get a job
if they start receiving benefits and so on
there are 5 situations where young citizens have to interact
with the self service site
so what I did was create a separate online entrance for young citizens
and structuring it in a way to match the 5 situations
first of all
secondly I made it intuitive to use
by replacing all the words with visual icons instead
and then finally I rephrased all the tax related phrases into human language
and the design looked like this
In April 2012 the site was tested
and we didn't do any promotion of the site
whatsoever
but within 7 months the number of young citizens adjusting their income at the self service site went
from 48,000 to 60,000
so just this tiny little thing significantly changed or reduced the risk of owing money to the tax man
so what I love about this is that our society is actually full of situations
where we can work with human instincts and flaws and create a big difference
in democracies today the number of young voters is descending
and this is becoming a serious problem
so right now I'm in the process of testing actually if I can use the human mirror
if I can use showing people voting to get other peoples to vote
and then of course I'm going to try to make it easy to vote
or go to to the election polls
because it has to be as easy as possible so that we are not going to be too reflective
for too long
our instincts and flaws effects everything we do
when we go to the supermarket
we spend all our energy trying to figure out what to make for dinner
and what to buy to make that for dinner
and by the time we make it to the register we're just so low on blood sugar that selling candy to us becomes really easy
and that's why the candy is always next to the register
so our instincts and flaws reflect on everything we do
how we spend our money
how we interact with products
how we litter
and so on
everything in our life
and actually
you guys really succeeded today
because you succeeded in being human
and you succeeded in showing what challenges we're facing when we're trying to change human behaviour
so I'm going to thank you for that
I'm here today because I believe that we all intend to do the right thing
and I actually believe that most of us know what the right thing is
but I think that our instincts and flaws keep getting in our way
and changing that... we need someone to lead the way
and we can lead the way just by making tiny little changes in our own everyday behaviour
if we start placing the dirty dish next to the sink
instead of on the table
or if we have kids going into our home and not taking off their shoes before entering the house
we can just start leaving our own shoes in front of the door and they will start mirroring that behaviour
the same if we start whispering
and so on
we can change
so I'm here today because I know that we have the power to be the change in the world we wish to see today
thank you