The Behaviour Effect

I was recently at a Customer Service workshop and during a conversation on what we expected as customers,  action within reasonable time frames was mentioned.  One of the ladies in the group mentioned that she is forever procrastinating.  She explained that she’ll read documents or emails any number of times before actually dealing with them or replying.

She reminded me of a suggestion I was once given which helps us measure how mad our procrastination of this type is and motivate us to postpone procrastination and act!

“Draw a black dot on a document or email each time you handle it”.

Simple.  Easy.  Effective?

Well, it certainly surprised me how many black dots appeared on my documents.  It was a visual demonstration of ineffective working. And its surprising the effect that mild shame will have on motivation

Procrastination can cause us anxiety, sleepless night…or put us in a perpetual state of catching up.  There is even evidence to suggest that it damages our immune system.  So my interest is pricked and I will be developing this topic over the next few posts.  First I will ask whether you are indeed a procrastinator, next we will examine why we procrastinate and then we will look at ways we can avoid it.

The reasons why we procrastinate are pushing for attention inside my head at the moment but considering the importance of time management on this very topic….I need to complete a more urgent task….so watch this space for the next post…

How much of an effect does the print font we use have on the reader?  Does the ease or difficulty of reading text have an impact on our view of the information?  How do we process information?

Recent experimental research shows that the print font we use can have a profound effect on our understanding of information.  This happens because the print fonts influence how fluently we process the information, even though the font has no actually relationship with the information it is displaying.  How much consideration do you give to the font that you use?

Take for example a recipe…how easy the steps are to read will have a significant effect on how easy we presume the recipe is to follow and meal is to prepare.  This is above and beyond the link we place on complex recipes being difficult to prepare.  A recommendation than would be for restaurants to display their menu in a harder to read font as customers will presume that they are more difficult to prepare, taking additional skill and effort.  It might even prevent the hobby cook from trying the dish at home.

Another point is highlighted with regards to how quickly the reader will make a decision related to the information.  The more difficult to read, the longer the reader will take to make a decision based on it adn they may not make a decision at all.  Novemsky and colleagues presented the same information about two cordless phones in easy to read or difficult to read formats.  They observed that 17% of their participants deferred choice when it was easy to read whereas 41% did so when the font was difficult to read.  Pretty clear results!  So if you want your reader to act on what you are writing about, you need to ensure the print font is clear and easy to read.

The effect is also evident when the name of a product or offering is difficult to pronounce.  For example, amusement park rides with difficult to pronounce names are perceived as being more adventurous than rides with easy to pronounce names…and are also perceived as more likely to make you sick!  The fluency of the name having a effect on how we understand the product.

Taking this knowledge into the stock market the effect is repeated.  Companies that had difficult to pronounce names were seen as more risky than company names that were easy to say.  In fact Exchange, Alter and Oppenheimer found that companies with easy to pronounce ticker symbols actually performed better than those with difficult to pronounce ticker symbols.

Next time you need to present written information…how much care will you take to make it easy to read…and thus be seen as easy to implement and understand?

PS. If in doubt use Ariel print font…its known to be the easiest to read!

Been watching the X factor? Have you noticed that X Factor contestants are more likely to get the boot if they sing near the start of the show.

Cambridge University academics compiled data from 150 editions of the X Factor and Pop Idol to prove the theory that a contestant’s fate does not boil down to whether they can sing.  This theory will more than likely not surprise any of you….but what did they find out?

In eight live X Factor shows this year, four singers were eliminated after being either the second or third act to perform, researchers said. When contestants sang later in the evening they were less likely to be eliminated.  He added that the first singer to perform in the X Factor is not at the greatest advantage, but less likely to be eliminated than those in second or third place.  Dr Lionel, who undertook the research with the University of London, said that none of the people who sang last on this year’s series of the X Factor had been eliminated.

What Dr Lionel is talking about is that fact that people tend to be biased when there is a sequence. You are influenced by the fact that you remember people depending on whether they were singing first or last.  And memory can have a huge effect on how we judge a performance.

So what can we take from this research?  Well, its the primacy and recency effect at work.  The psychologist Murdock completed research into these effects on memory, which he called the Serial Position Curve.  Or how well we remember items on a list is dependant on where they are placed on the list.

In the stage theory of memory, information goes through to our short term memory, if the information is not lost through decay or displacement then it goes into our long term memory.  The short term memory is widely regarded as havinga capacity of seven plus or minus two pieces of information.  The size of the pieces of information is not a factor, in fact, making these pieces of information larger (or ‘chunking’ as it is known in psychology) makes us able to remember much more information.  However, we are at this point talking about the positioning of information in a list. The theory behind the serial position curve is that people recall words better at the beginning or end of a wordlist. A better recall at the beginning is an example of the primacy effect whereas a better recall at the end is an example of the recency effect.

So what does this all mean to us I hear you cry??  Well, it can help us study and work better.  If we remember information better at the start and end of a list then we need to make the most of this knowledge.  When studying were you ever told to take regular breaks?  Did you do it?

Taking regular breaks is necessary so we are not overloaded with information but it also allows the primacy and recency effect to help our memory.  The more breaks, the more times the primacy and recency effect can help us remember.

Any other ways in which we can use these effects to our advantage?

Ever been distracted?  What was it that distracted you?  What was the consequence?

It is one of the easiest things in the world to become distracted.  To not pay full attention to what we are doing at any one point in time.  We have other things on our mind.  Something catches the corner of our eye.  We are preoccupied with our preconceived beliefs.  We are not paying full attention because we don’t value the act/action in our schema. This ‘noise’ can have an impact on our behaviour and ultimately our success.

Harry Houdini was a talented escape artist.  A performer who was very concerned with putting on a show for his audience.  It might surprise you to learn that not only was he a magician and escape artist…he was also the first person to fly an aeroplane in Australia, to create a new diving suit, to start a movie company…and he was the man that was so impressed by how az certain Joseph Keaton managed to fall downstairs that he called him ‘Buster’.

You would think that a man with these talents wouldn’t let his guard drop.  His concentration must be complete.  Yet when he suffered from stomach pains, he refused to go to the doctor.  Distracted by  not wanting to let his audience down, keen to continue with his performances.  Then, in his dressing room, a student punched him in the stomach. Houdini had long prfessed his abiltiy to withstand blows but he was not prepared for this one.  He didn’t have time to tense his muscles.  A week later, he collapsed on stage.  Six days later he died from peritonitis, caused by appendicitis and the stomach punch.

The ‘noise’ that distracted Houdini comprised of the desire not to disappoint his audience, his fear of losing his popularity, his keeness not to return to the poor situation of his childhood, his drive, his ambition…his male thoguht processes that told him to ignore the stomach pains, to not go to the doctor…and of course, not paying attention to the student who decided to test the magician’s claim.

What ‘noise’ distracts us from giving complete attention to our actions? How does the ‘noise’ that distracts us impact our behaviour and ultimately our success?