🎬 Every week I share a short (fun!) product video teardown and some hot takes on behavior change. Pro tip: The video only takes 〜2 minutes at 2x speed. And it will be more memorable. ;)
As a behavioral scientist, I know theoretically how to get a four-year-old dressed in the morning. But this morning I forgot it. I spent about 20 minutes nagging her, asking in a nice voice, then a mean voice, please get dressed, please get dressed. Then I remembered the secret.
The reward has to be right now
You don’t just ask them to get dressed, you give them a motivating reason to get dressed. So I said, “Look, you get to wear your leotard!” It clicked after 20 minutes of nagging: I had to motivate this person to do the thing she didn’t want to do, and the way I do that is by giving her an immediate reward. Today her reward was wearing a fun outfit.
Behavioral scientists call this present bias, which means that humans prioritize near-term rewards over future rewards. With a kid, it’s just so obvious. They’re not going to do anything for a reward in a week, in a day, or even at lunchtime. They’re doing it for a reward right now.
They just gave away free candy
It turns out this also works for adults (or big toddlers). A former leader told me about a historical conundrum they faced at Visa: In the 80’s and 90’s, everyone thought you could only use your debit card at an ATM. You’d take your card to the machine and get cash. But the banks wanted people to use it in the store, too. They wanted you to hand your card to the merchant and pay for your groceries. The merchants were interested and they would accept the card, but if nobody was using it, it was hard to scale.
The key insight was present bias. They put a jar of candy at checkout, and anyone who used their debit card to check out would get a piece of candy. Literally, this was how they said they scaled debit cards in grocery stores. They just gave away free candy. The leader said in hindsight he thought the candy was a key component of the scaling strategy and success for debit cards in grocery stores.
We’re all just toddlers looking to wear our leotards
At the baseline, we are all little toddlers looking to wear our leotards to daycare. We want an immediate reward to do something we don’t want to do.
I actually find this very comforting. We’re very simple humans. In a perfect world we want prosperity, we want happiness, but in the moment, we want a reward right now. And that’s a really lovely solve. Sometimes you just need a leotard and a piece of chocolate.
Trying to get someone to do the thing they keep putting off? Tell me what immediate reward you’re testing. kristen@irrationallabs.com.
Want more insights on behavioral science and life or product design?
Subscribe so you don’t miss the next teardown. 👋
Like this teardown? Share it with your team.
