A hectic after-work routine is probably familiar to many people. The standard evening then looks something like this: finish work, bike home, run errands, pick up the kids, cook dinner, clean up, eat, put the kids to bed and then... curl up on the couch with your feet up, some good food and drink and a series on. Not a hair on your head thinking about getting off that couch and going for a run. But for me, and perhaps for many, things have changed in this routine since the introduction of the corona measures. Suddenly I'm running in the evening or doing some other athletic activity and have traded in the bag of chips for slices of cucumber. How is this possible? Why now all of a sudden?

Understanding change begins with knowledge of behavior

The first step to changing behavior is understanding how behavior comes about in the first place. And for that, (social) psychology offers many insights. One of the most important is the distinction between automatic and conscious behavior, also called a dual-process model mentioned in science (e.g., Gawronski & Creighton, 2013). Research shows that much of our behavior occurs automatically. Automatic behavior requires no effort; after all, it is performed ‘thoughtlessly,’ so it is quick and effective. Controlled behavior, on the other hand, actually requires conscious attention to perform. Thus, it is slower and takes more effort. 

As an example, consider biking to work. If you bike to work and you always cycle to your office via the same route, choosing the route is probably largely automatic. Along the way, you think about the presentation you have to give in the afternoon, or that meeting with your manager that you are dreading. Or maybe you're listening to a podcast, making a phone call to your best friend, or already preparing a shopping list. By the time you arrive at work, you actually barely remember the route. You probably wouldn't be able to recount how many traffic lights you encountered along the way, what turns you took, what the streets were called or how many oncoming cars you passed. In other words, you were consciously working on all sorts of things along the way, but not on the route, which came naturally.

Now imagine that your company has moved. Today the office is in a different location in the city. Now when you get on your bike, monitoring the route is very different. Maybe you have a navigation app open on your phone, or maybe you just looked up the route in advance and check at each new intersection to make sure you are still on the right path. If you take a wrong turn, you stop, figure out where to go and start again. Now you are very consciously working on the route and continuously monitor whether you are still cycling in the right direction. A conscious process. 

A lot of behaviors we exhibit are automatic. As you can see from the example above, automatic behavior is super efficient. By performing behavior on autopilot, you keep cognitive space free for important things (like that presentation you have to give in the afternoon).

Jonathan Haidt (2006) describes the interaction between automatic and conscious behavior as between an elephant and its rider. The elephant (automatic behavior) has enormous capacity, but always takes the easiest route. Moreover, she may get distracted along the way by things that attract attention but are not important to get to the destination (such as a tasty bunch of bananas along the route). In contrast, the rider (the monkey in the above picture) does not have the same brute force as the elephant, but does think about alternative routes and what destination to reach. Thus, the rider lets the elephant do her thing and leans back quietly as long as the elephant is heading in the right direction. However, as soon as she threatens to go in the wrong direction, or becomes distracted, the rider can intervene and make adjustments. Automatic and controlled behavior thus complement each other very well. The power of the automatic system (the elephant) is in the effortless performance of routine tasks, without requiring attention or effort. The power of the conscious system (the monkey) is in the pursuit of important goals and tasks. Employing automatic behaviors for routine behaviors and controlled behaviors for tasks that require conscious attention thus ensures efficient allocation of scarce resources (e.g., attention and brainpower).

Each type of behavior requires a specific approach

Now think back to your own evening or daytime routine. Have you ever tried to exercise more, eat less, or otherwise change your behavior before? How did you go about it? And was it successful? 

You've probably tried to motivate yourself. You may have set very conscious goals (“I want to run for 30 minutes twice a week”), or perhaps even concrete implementation intentions (“When I finish cleaning up tonight, I'll put on my gym clothes and running shoes”). Despite all your good intentions and conscious intentions, you may still have failed to change these behaviors long-term. But why is that so?

Now that you know the difference between automatic and conscious behavior, you can start working toward changing these behaviors. The most effective approach to behavior change matches the type of behavior you want to change. 

Large-scale research on ways to change behavior has shown that the most successful strategy fits well with the type of behavior you want to change (Verplanken & Wood, 2006).

Conscious behavior can be changed by a person-focused intervention, which is focused on the person themselves. Think about influencing motivation, ideas and thoughts, or forming implementation intentions. This is the kind of approach that many people take when trying to change their own behavior, and so may also apply to you and your attempts to modify your behavior. A person-focused approach, however, requires conscious control of behavior and is thus focused on the rider, not the elephant. Thus, this approach is not suitable for changing automatic behavior.

Automatic behavior, on the other hand, you can change by setting-focused interventions. This type of approach focuses on the environment the person is in; they are changes aimed at the elephant. Consider removing obstacles on the elephant's route, removing distractions along the route, or rerouting a route.

Research (Verplanken & Wood, 2006) shows how important it is to match the approach to the type of behavior. For example, it appears that there is a relationship between so-called weak habitual behaviors (or, behaviors that you can consciously control) and intentions. Namely, the stronger your intentions are to perform that particular behavior, the more often you actually do it. Thus, this indicates that you can consciously control behavior by changing your intentions. However, the researchers found no relationship between automatic behavior and intentions. The stronger the habit (and thus the more automatic the behavior), the less it matters what you think about it.

Perhaps this can also help you understand why your previous attempts to exercise more have failed. If you have a set evening routine, then that routine is what you will in all likelihood perform in the evening, regardless of whether you have made conscious plans to take a more active approach one day. Changing your automatic behavior (everything you do at night except exercise) requires change in your environment. And during corona time, many such changes are suddenly implemented.

Setting-focused changes in corona time

Thus, changing the setting, or environment, is an effective way to change automatic behavior. Thanks to corona measures, there have been several profound changes in our (social) environment.

Changed laws and regulations

Since the proclamation of the first lines (“From this moment on, we stop shaking hands, Press conference March 9, 2020) there have slowly been more and more changes in the rules everyone has to abide by. All kinds of institutions and businesses were (temporarily) closed, think of schools, childcare centers, restaurants, hairdressers and gyms. Everyone was urged to stay home as much as possible and keep at least 1.5 meters distance from others. And this is just some of the measures we have to comply with. 

Changes in laws and regulations have an enormously powerful impact on behavior. Not only because some things are no longer allowed, but also because some things are simply no longer possible. For example, if you were used to going out to the pub with your friends every Friday night, that was no longer possible when all the bars and restaurants closed down (and with that, there was also room to rearrange your Friday night now).

Changed social norms

Besides the modified regulations, there was also quite a change in social norms. What behavior is and is not accepted has changed quite a bit in a short period of time. A few months ago, no one was surprised to see people sitting or standing close together. Nowadays, people often disapprove. Whereas before March it was fine to meet with a large group of people at home, two months later it is seen as very unwise. Most people comply and think it is important that others do the same. People who deviate from the rules, or flout them, can count on disapproving looks, comments, or even calls to the police. Social norms also have a very strong influence on behavior. People find it very important to belong and be a good person (Cramwinckel, Van den Bos, & Van Dijk, 2015). Therefore, deviating from the norm, and doing ‘bad’ things in the eyes of others, is a big threshold for a lot of people. 

Physical changes in the environment

Finally, there have been many changes in our physical environment. Stores have put stripes on the ground near the checkout counter to indicate where you can and cannot stand. In public parks, circles have been drawn on the ground to make it clear where you can and cannot sit. Clear protocols have been established on patios and in restaurants. Tables are spaced farther apart and partitions have been installed so that you can no longer just walk onto the terrace. All these changes make it a lot easier to abide by the rules. So the elephant in us thrives very well with these kinds of changes, because now you can mindlessly adhere to the rules. After all, you just have to step on the dot, instead of figuring out for yourself how much 1.5 meters actually is. 

Why now?

Returning to the initial question, why do we suddenly exercise regularly now, when we never could before? Because of all the changes brought about by the corona measures, people unlearned some of their automatic behavior. Suddenly the normal program fell apart. Picking up children was no longer necessary, shopping was only done once a week, going out with friends was no longer an option. For many people this meant a switch from routine to a conscious way of spending their day or evening. When it comes to conscious behavior, intentions, motivations and conscious goals suddenly do have an important influence on behavior. So the forced departure from routine provided an opportunity to consciously think about what you want to accomplish (“exercise more”) and how you want to do it (“ run in the evening‘). As automatism fell away, people had more freedom to adopt new habits. Thus, thanks to the corona measures, a switch took place from the automatic elephant to the controlled rider, and this offered many people a unique opportunity to stick to their conscious intentions. This therefore explains why many people are now suddenly more compliant with their healthy plans.

Want to learn more about behavior and applying behavioral insights?

At Online Dialogue, we combine (scientific) knowledge about behavior with data about how people (customers, visitors) behave on your website. Are your visitors mostly in the elephant or monkey role? And how can you best address them? We answer questions like: “how do I increase conversion on my website?”, “why do so many visitors drop out before they actually checkout the products in their shopping cart?”, “how can I increase the motivation of my visitors?”. We also give extensive psychology courses where you not only gain a lot of new knowledge, but also learn how to apply it to your visitors and create a comprehensive behavioral analysis learn to draft. 

Want to learn more about what I can do for you, your team, or your website? Please contact me at email or 030 7009 774.

Resources

Cramwinckel, F. M., Van den Bos, K., & Van Dijk, E. (2015). Reactions to morally motivated deviance. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.08.007 

Gawronski, B., & Creighton, L. A. (2013). Dual Process Theories. In D. E. Carlston (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition. (pp. 282-312). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Haidt, J. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. La Vergne, TN, United States: Ingram publisher services.

Verplanken, B., & Wood, W. (2006). Interventions to break and create consumer habits. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 25(1), 90-103.