Opt-in vs Opt-out Psychology

Understanding the secret to creating lasting change- Kurt Lewin and the Lewinian Recepie

Alpha's Path
3 min readApr 25, 2019
Opt-in vs Opt-out Psychology- Alpha’s Path (Cover Image)

The Father of American Social Psychology- Kurt Lewin

Back in the 1940s, a German-American psychologist by the name of Kurt Lewin was at the very forefront of discoveries being made in the branch of psychology that we know today as social psychology. His many contributions have- over the years- earned him the title of being the Father of American Social Psychology.

One of his most significant contributions to the field was a simple change of strategy to create behavioral change among people.

Lewin noticed that when people try to change someone’s behavior, they typically do so by giving the person in picture a push in the right direction- either by promising rewards for desired behavior and issuing threats for undesired behavior.

While this may be effective in some situations, there are two problems with this line of thinking;

(1) The fact that most people- in any given situation- already know what the right thing is for them to be doing. Typically they don’t do “the right thing” because of some situational barrier that they see an an obstruction to doing it.

(2) As a result of this, being pushed by another person or a set of laws often creates resentment and rebellion. Quite the contrary to the objectives of the push.

A more fruitful strategy Lewin suggested, is to identify and then eliminate the obstacles standing in the way of the desired behavior.

The Lewinian Recepie

Often referred to as the Lewinian Recipie, Lewin simply stated, “make the actions you want to encourage easier, akin to moving downhill; and make the actions you want to discourage more difficult, akin to moving uphill.”

In their book The Wisest One in the Room, authors Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross reference a brilliant example of this principle manifesting itself. In the book they reference a study that examined organ donation rates in European countries with different default donation policies. Like the United States, many European countries have an opt in policy. To be a potential organ donor, the individual has to take some action- typically signing the back of his driver’s license. Without this signature the person’s organs cannot be used for someone in need. In other European countries the default is reversed. All individuals are considered potential donors unless they sign the back of their license indicating otherwise.

Regardless of weather the country had an opt in or opt out policy the study found the general sentiment and interest in donating one’s organs to be optimistic and near constant among all.

However, countries with an opt out policy had participation rates of near 100 percent in all countries, while participation rates in countries with an opt in policy average about 15 percent. The difference is more profound than you’d imagine.

Difference in organ donation rates in EU countries with an opt in policy (Green) and an opt out policy (Purple)

By making the government’s desired behavior- having more organ donors- the default behavior, countries with an opt out policy had no barriers in the way of being an organ donor- you were considered one by default, thus making the action more common place.

The lesson here is a very straightforward one- make the desired behavior as simple as possible by removing any obstacles in the way of performing them, and instead have obstacles in the way of not performing them (should you want to have obstacles at all).

For more such psychology insights, I’d recommend you grab a copy of the book, The Wisest One in the Room, by Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross. I will add a link to the book in the description down below.

Until next time.

You may write to me at askalphaspath@gmail.com

Find me on YouTube: bit.ly/alphaspath

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Alpha's Path
Alpha's Path

Written by Alpha's Path

Unraveling truths and making mankind great again. Modern-day Philosopher. Stoic. Believer. Find me on YouTube: bit.ly/alphaspath

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