How to change your behavior for the better

Hi.

You might have noticed
that I have half a beard.

It's not because I lost a bet.

Many years ago, I was badly burned.

Most of my body is covered with scars,

including the right side of my face.

I just don't have hair.
That's just how it happened.

It looks symmetrical, but almost.

Anyway, now that we discussed facial hair,

let's move to social science,

and in particularly I want us to think
about where is the potential for humanity

and where we are now.

And if you think about it,
there's a big gap

between where we think we could be
and where we are,

and it's in all kinds of areas.

So let me ask you:

how many of you in the last month
have eaten more than you think you should?

Just kind of general.

How many of you in the last month

have exercised less than
you think you should?

OK, and for how many of you have
raising your hands twice

been the most exercise you got today?

(Laughter)

How many of you have ever
texted while driving?

OK, we're getting honest.
Let's test your honesty.

How many people here in the last month

have not always washed your hands
when you left the bathroom?

A little less honest.

By the way, it's interesting how we're
willing to admit texting and driving,

but not washing our hands,
that's difficult.

(Laughter)

We can go on and on,

and the problem in the topic is
that there's lots of things

when we know what we could do.

We could be very, very different
by reacting in a very different way.

And when we think
how do we bridge that gap,

the usual answer is just tell people.

For example, just tell people
that texting and driving is dangerous.

Did you know it's dangerous?
You should stop doing it.

And you tell people something
is dangerous and they will stop.

Texting and driving is one example.

Another very sad example
is that in the US, we spend

between seven and eight hundred
million dollars a year

on what's called financial literacy.

And what do we get
as a consequence of that?

There was recently a study that looked
at all the research ever to be conducted

on financial literacy,
what's called a meta-analysis,

and what they found is that
when you tell people,

you teach them financial literacy,

they learn and they remember.

But do people execute? Not so much.

The improvement is about
three or four percent

immediately after the course,

and then it goes down.

And at the end of the day,

the improvement is about 0.1 percent,

not zero but as humanely close
to zero as possible.

(Laughter)

So that's the sad news.

The sad news is giving
information to people

is just not a good recipe
to change behavior.

What is?

Well, social science
has made lots of strides,

and the basic insight is that
if we want to change behavior,

we have to change the environment.

The right way is not to change people,
it's to change the environment,

and