After the New Year's celebrations are over, everyone starts to make New Year's resolutions. Often we want to be healthier, wealthier, and smarter, and are prepared to develop a lot of positive habits for it—a phenomenon known as the "starting point effect." However, this "honeymoon" phase was short-lived. Despite our best efforts, fewer gym trips, shrinking income levels and budgets, most people eventually fall back into the cycle of bad habits. But what if I told you that influencing other people's behavior is possible and that we can guide people to do the right thing to achieve their goals?
Robert Cialdini defines six principles of influence in his book Influence: Science and Practice:
return principle;
the principle of social proof;
love principle;
scarcity principle;
the principle of authority;
Commitment and consistency principles;
In this article, we'll discuss the last principle on this list: Commitment and Consistency.
Definition: Behavioral consistency refers to the tendency of people to behave similarly to past behaviors and judgments.
Consistency in behavior is our default judgment to facilitate quick decision-making. Rather than re-judging every time you encounter a problem, sticking to the last decision is a more convenient strategy. From an evolutionary perspective, behavioral b2b data consistency also helps us: in a socialized environment, a person with unpredictable behavior is less likely to be liked or to contribute to the development of a tribe.
In Cialdini's research, he found that not only did people behave consistently, they even chose to do the same when they discovered that other people's decisions were wrong.
Behavioral consistency works at both the individual and social levels. As Cialdini puts it: “Once we make a choice or take a stand, personal and interpersonal pressures demand that we align with this commitment. These pressures will drive us to respond, thus justifying our earlier decisions. ."
Let's say in your New Year's resolution that you decide to go to the 6:00 a.m. zone gym three days a week. Once you make that decision, you'll feel compelled to stick with it. This is the impact on a personal level - the pressure to commit to yourself. This pressure is stronger on a social level—that is, if the commitment is public and involves other people, such as if you and a friend both agree to meet at the gym in the morning, you'll pay more attention to your resolution and be more likely to follow through. While being inconsistent with yourself may feel a little guilty, being inconsistent with others can lead to interpersonal risk. Commitment inconsistent with behavior is considered an unwelcome trait, associated with irrationality, deceit, and even incompetence; it produces responses of disappointment, anger, and confusion. These risks generate enormous social pressures, which in turn push people to fulfill their promises. Therefore, people will work to ensure that their behavior is in line with past decisions to avoid these pressures.
If a person promises to do something, they are likely to follow through because of these personal and societal pressures. It doesn't have to be a commitment to the next big thing, in fact it's usually a small decision. It's likely that our fitness plan is a casual promise made during the New Year's celebration of drinking. Or my parents' scribbled response to my request for a dog. My dad would reply, "Maybe I'll buy it for you when you're older." He hoped I would slowly forget about it. And I asked him further: "How old do you have to be to have a puppy?", and my mother finally said helplessly: "Maybe when you are ten years old I can give you a puppy." The rest of the time until I get the puppy.
With some chagrin they kept their word, and when I was ten, I got a hound named Toby who lived an incredible 11 years. Funny (but predictably) my parents loved it too.
1. Examples of Commitment and Behavioral Consistency in UX
To take advantage of behavioral consistency, ask users to make an initial commitment to the activities you want them to engage in. The initial commitment you propose to the user must be: