{"id":43072,"date":"2022-01-22T00:02:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T22:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/?p=43072"},"modified":"2022-01-21T21:41:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T19:41:51","slug":"the-technique-that-will-allow-us-to-change-the-habits-we-do-not-like-part-b-2818b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/the-technique-that-will-allow-us-to-change-the-habits-we-do-not-like-part-b-2818b\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"The technique that will allow us to change the habits we do not like (CHARLES DUHIGG) | Part B\u2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

STEP THREE: ISOLATE THE CUE<\/p>\n

About a decade ago, a psychologist at the University of Western
\nOntario tried to answer a question that had bewildered social
\nscientists for years: Why do some eyewitnesses of crimes
\nmisremember what they see, while other recall events accurately?
\nThe recollections of eyewitnesses, of course, are incredibly
\nimportant. And yet studies indicate that eyewitnesses often
\nmisremember what they observe. They insist that the thief was a man,
\nfor instance, when she was wearing a skirt; or that the crime occurred
\nat dusk, even though police reports say it happened at 2:00 in the
\nafternoon. Other eyewitnesses, on the other hand, can remember the
\ncrimes they\u2019ve seen with near-perfect recall.<\/p>\n

Dozens of studies have examined this phenomena, trying to
\ndetermine why some people are better eyewitnesses than others.
\nResearchers theorized that some people simply have better memories,
\nor that a crime that occurs in a familiar place is easier to recall. But
\nthose theories didn\u2019t test out\u2014people with strong and weak memories,
\nor more and less familiarity with the scene of a crime, were equally
\nliable to misremember what took place.<\/p>\n

The psychologist at the University of Western Ontario took a
\ndifferent approach. She wondered if researchers were making a
\nmistake by focusing on what questioners and witnesses had said,
\nrather than how they were saying it. She suspected there were subtle
\ncues that were influencing the questioning process. But when she
\nwatched videotape after videotape of witness interviews, looking for
\nthese cues, she couldn\u2019t see anything. There was so much activity in
\neach interview\u2014all the facial expressions, the different ways the
\nquestions were posed, the fluctuating emotions\u2014that she couldn\u2019t
\ndetect any patterns.<\/p>\n

So she came up with an idea: She made a list of a few elements she
\nwould focus on\u2014the questioners\u2019 tone, the facial expressions of the
\nwitness, and how close the witness and the questioner were sitting to
\neach other. Then she removed any information that would distract her
\nfrom those elements. She turned down the volume on the television so
\ninstead of hearing words, all she could detect was the tone of the
\nquestioner\u2019s voice. She taped a sheet of paper over the questioner\u2019s
\nface, so all she could see was the witnesses\u2019 expressions. She held a
\ntape measure to the screen to measure their distance from each other.
\nAnd once she started studying these specific elements, patterns
\nleapt out. She saw that witnesses who misremembered facts usually
\nwere questioned by cops who used a gentle, friendly tone. When
\nwitnesses smiled more, or sat closer to the person asking the
\nquestions, they were more likely to misremember.<\/p>\n

In other words, when environmental cues said \u201cwe are friends\u201d\u2014a
\ngentle tone, a smiling face\u2014the witnesses were more likely to
\nmisremember what had occurred. Perhaps it was because,
\nsubconsciously, those friendship cues triggered a habit to please the
\nquestioner.<\/p>\n

But the importance of this experiment is that those same tapes had
\nbeen watched by dozens of other researchers. Lots of smart people had
\nseen the same patterns, but no one had recognized them before.
\nBecause there was too much information in each tape to see a subtle
\ncue.<\/p>\n

Once the psychologist decided to focus on only three categories of
\nbehavior, however, and eliminate the extraneous information, the
\npatterns leapt out.<\/p>\n

Our lives are the same way. The reason why it is so hard to identify
\nthe cues that trigger our habits is because there is too much
\ninformation bombarding us as our behaviors unfold. Ask yourself, do
\nyou eat breakfast at a certain time each day because you are hungry?
\nOr because the clock says 7:30? Or because your kids have started
\neating? Or because you\u2019re dressed, and that\u2019s when the breakfast habit
\nkicks in?<\/p>\n

When you automatically turn your car left while driving to work,
\nwhat triggers that behavior? A street sign? A particular tree? The
\nknowledge that this is, in fact, the correct route? All of them together?
\nWhen you\u2019re driving your kid to school and you find that you\u2019ve
\nabsentmindedly started taking the route to work\u2014rather than to the
\nschool\u2014what caused the mistake? What was the cue that caused the
\n\u201cdrive to work\u201d habit to kick in, rather than the \u201cdrive to school\u201d
\npattern?<\/p>\n

To identify a cue amid the noise, we can use the same system as the
\npsychologist: Identify categories of behaviors ahead of time to
\nscrutinize in order to see patterns. Luckily, science offers some help in
\nthis regard. Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit
\ninto one of five categories:<\/p>\n

Location
\nTime
\nEmotional state
\nOther people
\nImmediately preceding action<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re trying to figure out the cue for the \u201cgoing to the cafeteria
\nand buying a chocolate chip cookie\u201d habit, you write down five things
\nthe moment the urge hits (these are my actual notes from when I was
\ntrying to diagnose my habit):<\/p>\n

Where are you? (sitting at my desk)
\nWhat time is it? (3:36 P.M.)
\nWhat\u2019s your emotional state? (bored)
\nWho else is around? (no one)
\nWhat action preceded the urge? (answered an email)
\nThe next day:
\nWhere are you? (walking back from the copier)
\nWhat time is it? (3:18 P.M.)
\nWhat\u2019s your emotional state? (happy)
\nWho else is around? (Jim from Sports)
\nWhat action preceded the urge? (made a photocopy)
\nThe third day:
\nWhere are you? (conference room)
\nWhat time is it? (3:41 P.M.)
\nWhat\u2019s your emotional state? (tired, excited about the project I\u2019m
\nworking on)
\nWho else is around? (editors who are coming to this meeting)
\nWhat action preceded the urge? (I sat down because the meeting is
\nabout to start)
\nThree days in, it was pretty clear which cue was triggering my cookie
\nhabit\u2014I felt an urge to get a snack at a certain time of day. I had
\nalready figured out, in step two, that it wasn\u2019t hunger driving my
\nbehavior. The reward I was seeking was a temporary distraction\u2014the
\nkind that comes from gossiping with a friend. And the habit, I now
\nknew, was triggered between 3:00 and 4:00.<\/p>\n

STEP FOUR: HAVE A PLAN<\/strong>
\nOnce you\u2019ve figured out your habit loop\u2014you\u2019ve identified the reward
\ndriving your behavior, the cue triggering it, and the routine itself\u2014you
\ncan begin to shift the behavior. You can change to a better routine by
\nplanning for the cue and choosing a behavior that delivers the reward
\nyou are craving. What you need is a plan.<\/p>\n

In the prologue, we learned that a habit is a choice that we
\ndeliberately make at some point, and then stop thinking about, but
\ncontinue doing, often every day.<\/p>\n

Put another way, a habit is a formula our brain automatically
\nfollows: When I see CUE, I will do ROUTINE in order to get a
\nREWARD.<\/p>\n

To re-engineer that formula, we need to begin making choices again.
\nAnd the easiest way to do this, according to study after study, is to
\nhave a plan. Within psychology, these plans are known as
\n\u201cimplementation intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, my cookie-in-the-afternoon habit. By using this
\nframework, I learned that my cue was roughly 3:30 in the afternoon. I
\nknew that my routine was to go to the cafeteria, buy a cookie, and chat
\nwith friends. And, through experimentation, I had learned that it
\nwasn\u2019t really the cookie I craved\u2014rather, it was a moment of
\ndistraction and the opportunity to socialize.<\/p>\n

So I wrote a plan:
\nAt 3:30, every day, I will walk to a friend\u2019s desk and talk for 10
\nminutes.
\nTo make sure I remembered to do this, I set the alarm on my watch
\nfor 3:30.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t work immediately. There were some days I was too busy
\nand ignored the alarm, and then fell off the wagon. Other times it
\nseemed like too much work to find a friend willing to chat\u2014it was
\neasier to get a cookie, and so I gave in to the urge. But on those days
\nthat I abided by my plan\u2014when my alarm went off, I forced myself to
\nwalk to a friend\u2019s desk and chat for ten minutes\u2014I found that I ended
\nthe workday feeling better. I hadn\u2019t gone to the cafeteria, I hadn\u2019t
\neaten a cookie, and I felt fine. Eventually, it got to be automatic: when
\nthe alarm rang, I found a friend and ended the day feeling a small, but
\nreal, sense of accomplishment. After a few weeks, I hardly thought
\nabout the routine anymore. And when I couldn\u2019t find anyone to chat
\nwith, I went to the cafeteria and bought tea and drank it with friends.
\nThat all happened about six months ago. I don\u2019t have my watch
\nanymore\u2014I lost it at some point. But at about 3:30 every day, I
\nabsentmindedly stand up, look around the newsroom for someone to
\ntalk to, spend ten minutes gossiping about the news, and then go back
\nto my desk. It occurs almost without me thinking about it. It has
\nbecome a habit.<\/p>\n

Obviously, changing some habits can be more difficult. But this
\nframework is a place to start. Sometimes change takes a long time.
\nSometimes it requires repeated experiments and failures. But once you
\nunderstand how a habit operates\u2014once you diagnose the cue, the
\nroutine and the reward\u2014you gain power over it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Part A’ : https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/the-technique-that-will-allow-us-to-change-the-habits-we-do-not-like-part-a-2818a\/?lang=en<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The power of habit<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

CHARLES DUHIGG<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEP THREE: ISOLATE THE CUE About a decade ago, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario tried to answer a question that had bewildered social scientists for years: Why do some eyewitnesses of crimes misremember what they see, while other recall events accurately? 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