#automaticity

Automating gratitude and prayer can lead to profound self-discovery. It fosters a positive mindset and resilience, making life's challenges easier to navigate. Embrace this journey for lasting personal growth. #SelfDiscovery #PersonalGrowth #Mindfulness

Are you curious about how learned behaviors can transform into instinctual responses? Or are you seeking ways to enhance your personal growth through the power of gratitude and prayer? This comprehensive guide delves into the fascinating interplay between habit formation and self-discovery, revealing how to automate positive practices to achieve long-term well-being. Discover actionable steps to…

“Do you know that a great many of us do not actually breathe properly? It is one of the most important elements of life, otherwise, without the breath, we cannot live. Breathing may be an automatic function and a vital one, why then do we spend so much of our time shallow breathing? When we breathe in an unmindful way, we often fail to fill our lungs fully as we only using the upper part, but like…

True Living Starts With a Choice

“We are what we repeatedly do, excellence is therefore not an act but a habit” (Aristotle). Habits start with our thoughts, leading to emotions or feelings, words uttered, actions and behaviors, habits or routines, which all working together form our lifestyles and destiny. These patterns can be either positive or negative, therefore we must consciously choose helpful ways to live for maximizing…

Pete Dyson, Senior Behavioural Strategist at Ogilvy Change

Over the past few months if you live in the UK and go to the BBC iPlayer (TV & Radio on demand), you’ll probably have been greeted by the message:

 'You now need to sign in to watch. It's quick & easy. 

And we'll keep you signed in'

That’s because you‘ll shortly be locked out of the BBC’s online service unless you enter your details. They say it’s to make the BBC better for you, so the service can recommend, personalise and notify you about programmes you might like.

The move raises many fascinating psychological considerations.

First: Is this a nudge?

Probably not.

A nudge must be easy to do, but it must also be easy to not-do. Because people are not free to opt-out of signing in, this now restricts the choices available to them. This is a shove, not a nudge.

Second: Do intentions matter?

Yes.

It’s very interesting that the BBC justified their decision to make signing in compulsory by citing observed user behaviour. They had noticed that people who sign-in also watch more programming. This is a slightly wonky conclusion, as cause and effect works in the other direction; if you’re keen enough to voluntarily create a profile then you’re already a special type of BBC loyalist. At an ethical level, justifying compulsory sign-ins purely on the grounds it will get more people to watch more programming seems slightly shaky.

Third: Does framing matter?

Definitely.

There is no neutral frame. You can position this change in many ways; to enhance user choice, to improve programming, to get you to watch more, or (as many sceptics believe) to capture data at the cost of people’s time and anonymity.

There was a missed opportunity of innervation to re-frame the whole debate by getting people to reflect on how bizarre not having BBC profile really is. How many radio and TV shows go unwatched simply because people didn’t know they existed? How many people are watching a programme on TV right now simply because it’s live, in spite of the fact they would never choose to watch it.

Fourth: Who cares?

The most affected people will likely be most habituated to the BBC, most sceptical about data-capture and least able to remember passwords.

Unfortunately for the BBC, it’s a perfect storm because the 11 million Britons aged over 65 years old will over-index on these traits and they’re not receiving much support on any of these challenges.

Fifth: What are the Unseen Opportunities?

Framing: could have been improved by adding ‘operational transparency’. Instead of passing people off with how ‘quick and easy’ it is to sign-in, a short animation could have visualised what the future of customised programming looks like and how the BBC will handle data. No one should be able to create a profile without seeing this.

Automaticity: would a sign-in through Google, Twitter or Facebook have placated many users? It’s certainly much easier and almost eliminates forgotten passwords. At a deeper level, we might expect a subconscious psychological connection between the privacy policies of those organisations (even if no such partnership actually exists). Signing in with social media is physically and cognitively more fluent.