#charity learnings at #SXSW — Part 1:
The behavioral science behind community management
As we are browsing around SXSW this week, we want to share our learnings from the most inspiring sessions we visited.
This post comes from Jozsef, who is a huge fan of Daniel Pink and couldn’t wait to attend his speech.
So, here we go:
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Hey Guys,
today I had the chance to meet Daniel Pink at SXSW.
I’m a huge fan of him and proponent of behavioral science as a field. Without diving too deep right now, I think modern, purpose-driven businesses should use behavioral science, especially when it comes to empathizing with their community members and understanding their customers.
Anyway, I would like to share my learnings/takeaways with you guys!
If you are into learning more about building purpose-driven, community-centered businesses or are just into understanding people and their incentives a little better — keep reading.
Learning 1 — Use fear the right way
Here is the fact:
People don’t listen to the safety announcements on the airplanes so there is a good chance that they will die in emergency situations.
So what’s wrong here?
Consider this case — An experiment with flight attendant students in a flight simulator.
1 — In the first attempt they did the usual way of announcing the safety instructions.
In the simulated emergency situation more than 50% of them died. (Damn!)
2 — In the second attempt they announced at the beginning, that if they will listen carefully, they will have the chance to win a $250 prize in a quiz at the end of the flight.
This time they improved a lot, so rewarding people worked/ works.
3 — In the final attempt, they started the announcement with this:
“If you won’t listen carefully there is a high chance that you will die in an emergency situation.” They also changed the graphics in the safety instruction magazine to more shocking ones.
The result was “great” in terms of that most of the people listened carefully and did what they had to do during the emergency situation.
What does this mean?
Negative emotion narrows the scope (In our case participants became more focused).
But we have to be careful. In situations when you expect people to be creative and produce new ideas, you have to do the opposite. You have to give positive emotions, because positive emotions expand the scope.
Makes sense? ☺
Learning 2 — Use questions at the right time
Consider this scenario:
It all goes back to the 1980 US Election. We know that Nixon did not succeed in his re-election, because Reagan won that year. But how did Reagan do it? With something remarkable…
Of course he wanted to “blame” Nixon’s last 4 years of economic decisions. The easiest way would be just say that the economy is worse than 4 years ago. But he did not say this. He came up with a question: Is the economy better than 4 years ago?
People in the US started to think back and basically answered the question for themselves. It was clear, almost obvious that the economy got worse, but asking a question instead of just interpreting a statement got people to answer immediately, arriving at their own conclusions and deriving their own reasons to act and vote for Reagan.
So here is my conclusion: When the facts are clearly on your side, persuade with questions. With a question you generate immediate response, even if it only happens in people’s heads. They will add their value and from this moment this cause matters to each of us for our very own reasons.
Again, sometimes you have to be careful. When the facts are not as clear as in our example, stay away from asking questions, but instead, get some new facts ☺. At the end of the day, communities should evolve for the right reasons — A strong belief in its core values and ingredients.
With the same analogy there was another example from Pink’s private life that I just loved.
He has a 16 year old daughter. She does not like cleaning her room, but her parents really want her to do it (hahaha. I am sure that sounds familiar to all of us). You can try different things, most of them won’t work but will make the situation and the relationship worst.
So here is the solution. Ask 2 questions:
From 1..10 scale how ready you are to clean your room?
Usually the answer is 2, maybe 3 or 4. And here comes the tricky part with the second question:
Why didn’t you pick a lower number?
After this she will start thinking about it and will figure out that she at least a bit thinks that it would be the right thing to do and make herself up to the level where she will clean her room.
We can’t deny reality, but sometimes we need a little help to see it! We need others to ask us the right questions at the right time and we see the unseen path in front of us. Pretty inspiring, isn’t it?!
Learning 3 — People are looking for social proof
They did an experiment with towels in a hotel room. I am sure you have seen this too: They always put out a sign that if you want to save the environment use a towel for more than one day. In about 30% of cases it works. But the hotel wanted to decrease the amount of ‘towel wasters’ so al they did is… changed the wording!
First they changed to something around those lines:
In the last 3 years 75% people in hotel rooms used more than a day their towels, join the movement. It worked, the number went up to 44%.
And they changed it again, with another small tweak: In the last 3 years 75% people in this hotel room (room number XXX) used more than a day their towels, join the movement. The result was amazing, the number went up to more than 50%.
The question is, why? Because people look for social proof when they decide on their behavior.
What does this mean? Social proof comes by narrowing the field (see learning 1) and by creating a feeling for immediate gratification. The fact that others in the room you just spent a cosy night in, had already contributed to what you can do right now, tirggers a feeling of commonality and social acceptance. It is not so much the high number of people that triggers the hotel room visitors to change their behavior, but much more the feeling that someone else in this room has done it too. And through this you can immediately become part of the movement.
This is why focus and target groups are such an important concept — Gather the people who think alike, have similar aspirations and motivations for life and your community is off to a great start.
Learning 4 — It’s all about the context.
In a group of students they asked people to name those who are most and least willing to give money to charity and they started to test these two groups.
First, they sent out a general letter (no exact recipient name) to the least likely students with a donation opportunity. The result? 0% of people donated.
They sent out the same letter to the most likely students. The result was different this time, 8% donated.
After this, they changed the letter to a more specific one, with exact name of the recipient and also, they said that they will come back with a reminder in a week.
The result is shocking. The ratio went up to 44% of the most likely students and also, it went up to 25% with the least likely students.
What is the learning here? Don’t say he or she is this. Stop. Give people an off-ramp.
Learning 5 — Put a face on it!
People don’t care about the disabled people sign in the parking lot, we know it. In Austin they did an experiment. Instead of the usual (rather boring) sign they asked real disabled people in wheelchairs for a picture and put these pictures out in the parking lot spaces. The result was mind-blowing: It worked in 100% of all cases. People still went to these parking spaces but when they saw the pictures, they turned around and went somewhere else to park.
What is the learning? We should be more concrete. Don’t make things abstract. Show how things really are. Do authentic business. Tackle real challenges and name them.
Bonus learning during the Q&A — Can you do this? If so, how?
We know that before things like important presentations, sales meetings, etc it’s helpful to say to ourselves before go to the room that Yes, we can do it, we will nail it. It helps with our confidence.
But there is something even better - We should ask ourselves: Can you do it? If so, how? It works better.
Why? Because you don’t take it for granted, You start explaining why you will do it. You are preparing. You are facing your weak and sweet spots!
Well, guys — I hope you enjoyed my rough notes here!
Would love to hear your comments!
You can reach me at @czapinho anytime!
Have a great day,
Jozsef
