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O BEHAVE! Issue 9 • December 2014

O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

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Page 1: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

O BEHAVE!Issue 9 • December 2014

Page 2: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

Oh Go On, It’s Christmas 3

Bias of the Month 4

How to be Happier in the New Year 5

We are Living in a Material World 6

Why Losing Can Be The Secret To Winning 7

Real Life Nudge 9

Upcoming Events 9

CONTENTS

Page 3: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

de Witt Huberts, J., Evers, C., & de Ridder, D. (2014). Thinking before sinning: reasoning processes in hedonic consumption. Frontiers of Psychology, 5 (1268), 1-6.

At this time of year, you’re likely to be confronted with an excess of food and alcohol, which may directly challenge your goals

to live healthily. Traditionally, it has been assumed that giving in to such temptations is just a result of acting impulsively, but

new research shows that we consciously go to great lengths to justify these decisions to ourselves.

De Witt Huberts, Evers and de Ridder (2014) recruited health-conscious students to take part in their study, framed as market

research ahead of the launch of a new chocolate bar. Participants were presented with the bar and told it would be positioned

as an indulgent treat. They were then asked to give the reasons they would use to justify eating the chocolate bar, such as,

“After a day of studying hard” or, “For finishing/passing my midterms”. The more tempted participants indicated they were by

the chocolate bar, the more reasons they provided.

OH GO ON, IT’S CHRISTMAS

This is called self-licensing: we give ourselves permission to

behave badly as a reward for being good, or even for intending to

be good in the future. This effect has also been studied more

implicitly by the same authors; they found that participants who

were told they had exerted more effort than average on a task were

more likely to have an indulgent treat afterwards. Similarly, Werle,

Wansink & Payne (2014) asked two groups of participants to go for

a walk; those for whom the walk had been framed as exercise

subsequently ate more than those who viewed it as fun. This

research makes an interesting addition to a classic study that

shows exerting effort, e.g. solving difficult puzzles, reduces pre-

frontal capacity for self-control, therefore leading to a greater

preference for chocolate over fruit. Is self-control really reduced, or

is the indulgence easier to justify - or both? More research is

needed to untangle the relationship between the two.

So this Christmas, remember that you’re not just giving in to impulse; you deserve it, because it’s the festive season/you’re

having to put up with your in-laws/you’ll turn over a new leaf in 2015. Go on, treat yourself.

Page 4: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

BIAS OF THE MONTH

The Nostalgia Effect

Christmas is a time where we all get together with our families and reminisce about the

past over lots of food wine and laughter. This should be music to retailers ears and not

only the food and wine retailers as recent research suggests that reminiscing about

the past can make us spend more on products.

Research just published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that when

partipcants were asked to view print ads featuring either nostalgic experiences from

the past or neutral experiences, those in the nostalgic group were significantly more

willing to purchase products from a catalogue they were given following the print ads.

According to the researchers, the reason nostalgia makes us spend more is due to a

link between nostalgia, social connectedness and our desire for money. They note that

when we look back at fond memories we do so through rose-tinted glasses and a

sense of positivity which leads to a sense of social connectedness. They also state

that nostalgia, social connectedness and money are interchangeable such that when

people have a lot of one, their need for the other lessons; once we have our fair share

of social connectedness, our need for money lessons. This can be seen in countries

with strong social support (Scandinavian countries) as they rate financial skills and

business success as being less important.

This finding can partly explain why people are so generous to charities at Christmas

and is one charities can use to prompt pro-social behaviour in their campaigns.

Lasaleta, J. D., Sedikides, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2014). Nostalgia weakens the desire for money. Journal of Consumer Research, 41, 713-729.

Page 5: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

HOW TO BE HAPPIER IN THE NEW YEAR

Its nearly time that time of year when we will all be making our new years resolutions and I can bet most of you reading

this will have somewhere in their list “I want to be happier”. When contemplating how to achieve this conventional

wisdom holds that if we work harder we will be more successful, and if we are more successful then we’ll be happier. If

we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. Recent discoveries

in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the

other way around.

Research has shown that only 10% of our long term happiness can be predicated by our external world whereas 90% of

our long term happiness is predicated by how we process the world; in a positive light or negative light.

Achor, S. (2011). The happiness advantage: The seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work. Random House.

If people can raise their level of positivity in the present the brain

experiences a “happiness advantage”. A positive brain performs

significantly better then a negative, neutral or stressed brain and leads to

an increase in intelligence, creativity and energy. A positive brain is 31%

more productive than a negative, neutral or stressed brain and doctors in

a state of positivity are 19% faster and more accurate at correctly

diagnosing a patient than in a negative or neutral brain state. Although we

think our job success is due our intelligence research has shown that only

25% of job success is due to IQ whereas 75% is due to optimism levels,

social support and the ability to see stress a s a challenge rather than a

threat.

So when putting a plan into place of how to make yourself happier in the

new year, instead of concentrating on getting that new job or promotion

you want, start concentrating on trying to be positive in the present and

enjoy gaining that competitive edge at work.

Page 6: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

WE ARE LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD

One thing we are constantly bombarded with at this time of year - as well as Mariah Carey and Wham! - is lamentations of

how commercialised it has all become and how we’ve forgotten the “true meaning of Christmas”, a gripe which in fact dates

back to at least the 1850s. But perhaps the self-righteous really are right about the benefits of focusing on family and friends

over the more material aspects of Christmas: a meta-analysis of all relevant studies from the last thirty years revealed a

significant negative correlation between well-being and materialism.

Dittmar, H., Bond, R., Hurst, M., & Kasser, T. (2014). The relationship between materialism and personal well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 107 (5), 879-924.

Dittmar, Bond, Hurst and Kasser (2014) defined materialism as the

long-term endorsement of values, goals and beliefs that focus on

acquiring money and possessions to convey status. They also

measured well-being on a number of different indices, from physical

and mental health characteristics to subjective well-being and self-

appraisals. Materialism was found to impact negatively on all of these

different aspects and across a range of different demographics,

including gender, household income and economic climate. Of these

well-being measures, somewhat unsurprisingly, compulsive shopping

had the strongest relationship with materialism. There were also

strong correlations with negative self-appraisals and activities that

put physical health at risk, such as smoking and taking drugs. It is

possible that compulsive shopping and substance use could be used

to self-medicate against low self-esteem, caused by inevitably failing

to meet unrealistic standards.

While the relationship between well-being and materialism was always found to be negative, some factors mediated this

relationship. For example, students or practitioners of business and law were less affected by having materialistic goals, perhaps

because these goals were shared by their peers and they were rewarded for pursuing them. However, there was a stronger

negative effect in cultures that emphasise the importance of pleasure-seeking and leading an exciting life, which could be due to

greater dejection when faced with the gap between reality and expectation. Maybe this year, for our own well-being, we should

eschew our materialistic ideals and return to the true meaning of Christmas. How did they celebrate in 1849 again?

Page 7: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

WHY WE PERFORM BETTER WHEN WE ARE LOSING

Although most of us hate losing, sports professionals particularly hate to lose. Research has shown that in situations where

golfers are striving to avoid defeat they will perform better rather than if they are aiming to win. After studying 2,525,161 putts

from the PGA tours between 2004-2009 these researchers found that taking all things equal (e.g. distance) golfers were

significantly more likely to get a par shot in rather than a birdie. They explain this is due to a principle known as loss aversion;

humans hate losing twice as much as they like to gain something of equal value.

Pope, D. G., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2011). Is Tiger Woods loss averse? Persistent bias in the face of experience, competition, and high stakes. The American Economic

Review, 101(1), 129-157.

Although missing a par shot (getting the ball in the

allowed number of putts) or birdie shot (get the ball in

one putt less than the allowed number of putts) leaves

the golfer worse off, the researchers explain that

psychologically missing a par shot is worse than missing

a birdie. Missing a birdie still allows the player to “win”

the hole by getting a par score whereas missing the par

shot means psychologically the player “loses” the hole

(one-over par). As people hate to lose this research

suggests that players tend to up their game on par shots

to ensure they don’t lose the hole.

Most people also assume that experts and professionals

tend not to show biases in their area of specialty but this

research shows that although professionals may show

biases to a lesser degree than non professionals, they

are not exempt from them. They are only human after

all.

Page 8: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

Spotted: Priming on the roads in Bangalore

We all know that when we are driving and we spot a police man we

automatically check that we are going the correct speed and following the

rules of the road which leads to a decrease in accidents. If only there were

enough police men to ensure everyone was obeying the rules of the road to

reduce traffic accidents but of course this isn’t realistic. India which has a

reputation of reckless driving and accidents decided to instead of physically

placing more police men on the road they would put cardboard cutouts of

them to prime drivers to driver slower.

REAL LIFE NUDGE OF THE MONTH

UPCOMING EVENTS

Annual International Conference on Cognitive, Social and Behavioural Sciences

Tuesday 6th - Friday 9th January, Cyprus

http://lanyrd.com/2015/the-annual-international-conference-on-cognitive-2/

Behavioural Boozeonomics with the London Behavioural Economics Network

Tuesday 13th January, 7.00-10.30pm

http://www.meetup.com/London-behavioural-comms-monthly-informal-drinks/events/210023942/

Nudgeathon

Saturday 31st January - Sunday 1st February, Warwick Business School

http://www.wbs.ac.uk/events/view/4597

Page 9: O Behave! Issue 9 (December Issue)

Cíosa Garrahan

@CiosaGarrahan

[email protected]

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

Juliet Hodges

@hulietjodges

[email protected]