[Music]
let's talk behavior change we all know
it's really important and we all know
that it's really really difficult and
here's the thing it's not because we
don't have good intentions I mean we've
got gobs of good intentions right it's
because those good intentions so often
don't see the light of day now
fortunately we can learn a lot from a
couple of well-known icons
there's Homer's epic hero Odysseus and
then there's America's epic hero Kim
Kardashian stand stick with me so we we
all know the story of Odysseus in the
song of the sirens right the sirens were
awful creatures yes they sang beautiful
songs but they did it to draw sailors
closer and closer to their Island the
ships would crash on the rocks they'd
sink and everybody on board would die
now when faced with this temptation did
Odysseus count on his renowned grit in
his superior willpower no instead he
admitted his good intentions were not
enough to keep him from falling prey to
the sirens song so instead he told his
men to tie him to the mast to put
beeswax in their ears and to keep on
rowing and that allowed Odysseus to hear
the sirens song and live to tell the
tale
and Kim Kardashian well she knows that
successful dieting takes a lot more than
just good intentions and she uses a
strategy that's a lot like that of
Odysseus according to Ryan Seacrest
she orders whatever she wants for dinner
let's say it's a hamburger and a side of
fries she polishes off the hamburger
immediately and then she digs into the
fries and she gets to a point and we all
know this point she gets to the point
where she knows she shouldn't eat
another bite and it's at that point that
she pulls out a bottle of window cleaner
and sprays it all over the remaining
fries I know now I know that spraying
what's basically poison on your food is
crazy in this case with a capital K but
I think Kardashian and Odysseus are onto
something really important about
behavior change you see they know that
their good intentions are not enough to
get the job done they know that their
future selves are all too likely to let
those good intentions slip away in the
face of temptation and they know that
they need to re-engineer their situation
if their intentions are going to show up
in their actions so here's the thing bad
behaviors are not the result of bad
intentions on which we act all too often
bad behaviors are the result of good
intentions on which we don't act in
other words our intentions and our
actions all too often don't go hand in
hand now think about it think about the
last time you are annoyed with a
co-worker or you had a fight with your
spouse or maybe you were mad at yourself
for engaging in some self-defeating
behavior think back to the behavior that
really steamed you and was it really an
intentional act of ill will or is there
something more basic in primitive going
on and that is the question that's at
the heart of the matter I mean why is it
that we find it so hard to do the right
thing I believe the answer is found in a
pair of startling statistics the non
conscious part of your brain runs at an
astounding ten million bits of
information each and every second
that's the same amount of data as is in
and weekday edition of the New York
Times your brain is devouring the
equivalent of a New York Times each and
every second but the conscious part of
your brain the part that we think of as
our minds the part that is hopefully
listening to me but maybe thinking about
your next meal that part of your brain
runs at a poky 50 bits right so let's
stop for a minute and try to wrap our
measly 50 bits around how measly 50 bits
really is if the non conscious
throughput of your brain the processing
capacity is represented by a cup of
sugar then the conscious processing
capacity of your brain is only one or
two grains now I know what some of you
are probably thinking you're asking is
there some way to improve that conscious
throughput after all we've been told if
we do more Sudoku puzzles or we do
crossword puzzles or even if we expose
our unborn children to classical music
that we can strengthen our brains and
strengthen their brains well maybe but
here's the bad news
our brains were adapted for a time long
ago in a place really far away it was an
environment that was poor in calories
and rich in risks and nature advantaged
brains that operated quickly and almost
effortlessly so our brains are the
result of millions of years of evolution
and that means it's really really
difficult and really unlikely that
anything we do is going to change the
way they work in other words we're stuck
with our 50 bits and instead of chasing
after more bits we need to just get
comfortable with its limitation as part
and parcel of our daily lives if we're
going to improve our behaviors we're
going to have to trick our brains and
ourselves into it and to do that we need
a couple of powerful mind tags so here
they are here's the first mind heck
make the right thing really really easy
and if possible make it automatic take
tooth brushing right we all know we're
supposed to brush our teeth we've known
in since we
actually humans have known it for
thousands of years but it wasn't until
the early 20th century with the
introduction of Pepsodent that this
important health behavior really took
off now why the shift well unlike
competing formulations Pepsodent had a
secret ingredient mint and when you
brushed your teeth for the first time
ever your mouth felt cool and tingly and
clean and preventing cavities that was
just a side effect of doing something
that felt good in the here and now
contraception uses this same strategy
long-acting reversible methods things
like IUDs and implantable hormones they
are at least 20 times more effective
than other methods why because once
they're in place they protect women from
unintended pregnancies automatically now
obviously we can't make the right thing
automatic all the time and when that's
the case we need the second mind tag and
that's to make the wrong thing really
really difficult or as difficult as we
can let's face it we have got an eating
problem we eat too much and we eat the
wrong stuff now where our brains grew up
this was actually a feature not a flaw
after all in an environment where there
aren't very many calories it makes a lot
of sense to grab and eat as many of them
as you can whenever you can but guess
what times have changed
you know eating now all you have to do
at work is you reach across your desk to
that candy dish right or at home you
reach across the dinner table to the
bowl of mashed potatoes but the fix is
probably easier than we think simply by
putting these tempting things out of
sight and out of reach we can enjoy
substantially better outcomes so for
example changing that clear candy dish
on your desk at work to Anna Paik one
and moving it six feet away that cuts
consumption by more than 50% and you
take those tempting carbs and move them
from the table to the counter that cuts
consumption by 19% but my favorite
example of stopping people in their
tracks when they're about to make the
wrong choice is Petsmart
charities PetSmart Charities is a
not-for-profit organization whose
mission is to help save homeless pets
now this charity doesn't inundate people
with information about why it's so
important to donate they don't shower
people with swag when they make a
contribution
instead they grab people's 50 bits long
enough to ask him to make a conscious
choice between donating our not donating
and they make not donating a little bit
shameful so here's how it works
you're at the line at Petsmart it's time
to check out there's a question that
appears on the screen they ask do you
want to donate to help save homeless
pets and below the question are a series
of buttons with suggested contribution
amounts $1 $2 $5 $10 and below that is a
gigantic red no thanks button that
everybody behind you in line can see
when you push well what happens people
donate right so in the recent recession
from 2007 to 2011 individual
contributions nationwide for all
charities on average were down 3 percent
but PetSmart Charities during that same
period their contributions were up more
than 80 percent these two strategies
these two hacks are really powerful
because they help us get around our 50
bits limitation and activate the good
intentions that we all have and that's a
powerful force a force that can be
wielded for good many hotels now ask
their guests look if you want to reuse
your towels hang it on the towel rack
right and if you want a fresh towel put
your used towel on the floor it's a
great idea but it would be better if
they you know didn't use gravity to help
the wrong choice right it should be a
little more difficult to request a new
towel than dropping something on the
floor better that they have a bin
outside of the bathroom with a lid on it
that you have to put the used talent and
here's the thing and maybe this is the
biggest thing
nature's limitations that 50
it's limitation means there is a
persistent and sizable gap between our
intentions and our actions and all too
often we ignore this intent behavior gap
especially for people with whom we
disagree we observe a bad behavior and
we attribute it to an evil motive that
is not true for us and we shouldn't
expect it to be true for others we need
to do better we need to break a sweat
trying to understand how someone who's
reasonable and well-meaning might wind
up engaging in a bad behavior it's a
difficult exercise but I promise when we
do it we'll be surprised at what we
learn behavior is mission critical for
the human endeavor and it's high time
that we embrace the limitations that
nature has imposed on us and use these
strategies to activate the good
intentions that are in all of us thank
you
[Applause]