This episode is sponsored by Ground News,
a new website and app that lets you compare how major events are being covered.
Head to ground.news/scishowpsych or click the link in the description
to download the free app.
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So you want to be an organ donor or exercise more.
But have you done it?
I’ve done half of those things…
It can be really hard to do things that you know you want to do.
Because sometimes you want to make a change but never get around to it.
Sometimes you just don’t know how to get it done.
And sometimes you try to do too much too fast.
These are all legitimate barriers to just doing that thing already.
But giving change a chance has its benefits.
And psychology can give some insights into your decision-making,
or not decision-making, process.
Humans are complicated.
Your actions don’t always align with your preferences.
For example, a Gallup survey published in 1993 found that 85% of Americans like
the idea of donating an organ, but only 28% were registered organ donors.
Sometimes you really want to do something,
but it just never makes it onto the to-do list.
And in many ways, this is totally understandable.
But when that inertia isn’t in your way,
more people’s actions align with their preferences.
A study in 2012 published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
found that organ donation rates are drastically higher
in countries that automatically make everyone a donor.
Now, in those countries, you can still opt out of donating,
just like how in the US you can opt into donating.
In opt-in countries, organ donation rates are 15%,
while in opt-out countries, it’s 90%.
The percentage of organ donors in opt-out countries aligns very well
with the percentage of well-intentioned US citizens.
But because the burden of making that call and putting yourself on the donation list
is on the individual in the US, our organ donation rates are low.
So if you’re finding it hard to make that decision that you know you want to make,
there could be a similar hurdle getting in your way.
But sometimes it’s more that you just have no idea where to start.
A study conducted in 1965 by researchers at Rutgers found that people were much
more likely to get a tetanus shot when they were also provided with an action plan.
Participants were given one of four pamphlets
that either outlined the risks of tetanus in a very frightful way,
like outlining the consequences of not getting the shot, to instill fear in the reader,
or in a less frightful way.
And those pamphlets also either provided either specific or nonspecific
recommendations for how to schedule an appointment and get the shot.
And the researchers found that in the next four to six weeks, 27.6% of the people
who had specific action items went to get a tetanus shot, while only 3.37% of those
who received nonspecific prevention recommendations followed up with a shot.
Importantly, none of the participants who read the scary pamphlet and got
nonspecific recommendations ended up getting a tetanus shot afterward.
So fear is not enough on its own to cause a behavioral change.
A specific action plan is sometimes what it takes to make that move.
And when making an action plan, you might be stalled by the idea
that it doesn’t accomplish everything you hoped for all at once.
All-or-nothing thinking can shut everything down.
But making incremental progress toward things you want to get done
still eventually gets you where you want to end up.
For example, a study published in the journal Health Psychology
found that people who go from not exercising at all
to suddenly doing high-intensity workouts were less likely to finish their workouts,
compared to people who started with moderate exercises.
Jumping straight into high-intensity workouts is less sustainable than easing into it,
because people can either burn out mentally or injure themselves physically.
And in this study, easing into it refers to the intensity
but not the frequency of exercise.
If you make a habit of exercising every day and keep the intensity slow and steady,
you’re more likely to keep doing it.
But not when you try to do too hard of a workout right away.
So even when you know exactly what you want to do,
sometimes making those easy decisions and doing the thing is hard.
But research suggests that removing obstacles for yourself, making a game plan,
and moving forward gradually can get you to your end goal.
And this brings us to a much more difficult decision.
We’re sad to share that after next week’s video,
SciShow Psych will be going on an indefinite hiatus.
Over the last five years, we have had the privilege
of making videos on this channel
exploring the wonderful and complex world of psychology and the human mind.
In 2022, we’re excited to spend more time making episodes over on our main
channel, SciShow, where all of our future psychology content will be shared.
And all of the videos already on this channel will still be available.
Here. Forever. To watch any time.
Thank you so much for your support of SciShow Psych over the years.
And another huge thank you to today’s sponsor, Ground News.
This channel is all about the human brain and the ways we interact with the world.
How we consume news is also a big part of how we perceive the world around us.
There’s so much information available on the Internet,
but often, an algorithm decides what you see.
And this tends to sort us into ideological bubbles.
If you’re interested in seeing how a single news story is being covered across the
political spectrum, you might be interested in checking out Ground News.
Ground News is a new website and app that shows you the bias of some media
outlets and lets you compare how they’re framing a major event or issue
compared to other news organizations.
It’s a great tool for curious people who want to cut through media bias
and follow the issues that matter most to them - like science or health.
You can see every side of every news story by going to ground.news/scishowpsych
or click the link in the description to download the free app.
Thank you again for watching this episode, and other episodes, of SciShow Psych!
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