Pried Minds
Research demonstrates that we don’t so much decide things rationally first and then act on the decision. Instead, we make up our minds first, and then add reasons for our decision after the fact.
Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence, describes the human tendency to decide things in order to stop the inner conflict of indecision. And once we’ve loosely made up our minds, then we become committed to the ideas whole-heartedly. Often we join groups of like-minded people in order to settle an issue for ourselves once and for all. Obvious examples here include joining activist associations, political movements, or organized self-help support groups. Committing to a decision helps us conserve energy. It’s more efficient for us to not to think, but instead to find shortcuts for thinking, since our brains are energy hogs.
Public commitments give us a strong impulse to remain consistent with our decisions. They make us predictable. We tend not to prize indecision in others, either, since it makes them unpredictable, unreliable. Public commitments help us leverage the force of peer pressure on ourselves to achieve our goals.
Much of Influence tells the story of how our psycho-social tendencies work for us, and at times how they can be used against us. As an example of how commitment can work, we learn about Amazon’s annual offer to its workers: a paid bonus of five thousand dollars to quit the company. Few employees take the option. But they feel more committed to the company after rejecting it. A similar subtle pressure is at work when people stay in bad relationships—especially if they’ve had the option of leaving for a more promising suitor. As Cialdini says,
In general, the main reason for […] swings in the direction of a choice has to do with another fundamental principle of social influence. Like the other principles, this one lies deep within us, directing our actions with quiet power. It is our desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already said or done. Once we make a choice or take a stand, we encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to think and behave consistently with that commitment. Moreover, those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our decision. [Emphasis in original.]
“Compliance professionals” is the term Cialdini uses to describe people who use knowledge about human psychology for influence—whether marketers, personnel managers, or, of course, fraudsters and scammers. It is useful to know what our subtle psychological tendencies are. Our innate desire to be consistent can be a useful lever for compliance professionals.
During the Korean War, American prisoners in Chinese custody were not heavily abused, but encouraged to write down things about America that the soldiers didn’t like. If the soldiers couldn’t think of anything, they were asked to write down words dictated to them by their keepers. Before long, these loyal, patriotic American soldiers were making statements critical of the United States on propaganda recordings for broadcast to forces fighting in the field. The criticisms were not coerced, but prisoners who wrote poignantly were given small rewards, like a small candy treat or an extra cigarette. After the war, many of these prisoners returned home with entirely different views about their country that they had committed themselves to by writing them down and sharing them publicly—even when the ideas weren’t their own original thoughts. These former POWs may have been patriotic, but they were no longer as skeptical of the Chinese communists, and instead far more critical of their own country than before.
Variants of this approach have been used as a sales tactic, such as when car dealers encourage potential car buyers to write down prices they might be willing to pay in their own handwriting. While it doesn’t always work, it can cause buyers to become more committed to an actual purchase rather than a hypothetical one off in some vague future.
The same tendency can be leveraged to our own advantage. If we make open commitments in front of others for self-improvement, we may find a greater inner resolve and drive to live up to our words for the sake of protecting the image we project. It can serve as a subtle form of leverage from within bolstered on the outside.
Happy Father's Day to all fathers here and all our fathers.
Placido Domingo, everyone. I hope all the fathers and father-figures of our association have a very nice day!