The Top Ten Myths of Behaviour Change

- A Communications Specialist with Metro Vancouver talks about what drives behaviour change, in the context of increasing recycling, at the Recycling Council of British Columbia’s 2011 annual conference. He lists ten myths and breaks them down into anecdotes and references to studies on things like financial incentives.

For example, a daycare instituted fines for parents who picked up their kids late, but lateness increased because people felt like they’d bought a service.

After discussing myths, he talks about how we can change behaviours and develop new habits, drawing on knowledge from psychology, behavioural economics, marketing, neuroscience, sociology, social media, and more.

As an avid recycler who wants to help the environment however I can, new ways to promote recycling using social proof and other smart tactics sound very promising.

Perspective is Everything

- Perspective is essential to happiness, says Rory Sutherland. He gives examples of applied perspective and argues that the element of choice is what makes a situation more tolerable. Psychological factors should be added to mechanistic ideas in cost-benefit analyses. Things like train arrival clocks and traffic light timers have improved lives because they address human anxieties.

People believe that a company that only sells one type of product is better than a company that sells a wide array of products, which means “Google is as much a psychological success as it is a financial one.” Economics and advertising often fail to understand that what something is, has value, he asserts. An interesting intellectual TEDxAthens Talk.

A presentation about the “fantasy bond,” defined as an illusion of a close relationship with a parent that is replayed later in life with romantic partners.

Physical barriers to suicide produce results; this slide presentation video explains why we need them.

The Sh*t People Say meme is past its prime, but this overlooked homemade video still rings true by parodying common things that uneducated people say to people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Comedy skit about Catwoman in session with a frustrated psychotherapist, delving into her obsession with Batman, and her many annoying cat mannerisms.

“Vulnerability is not weakness, and that myth is profoundly dangerous,” says shame researcher Brown in this follow-up to her wildly successful 2010 TEDxHouston Talk.

Prank by college students using a cognitive illusion of an invisible rope.

Three stories of recovery from depression.

Animation of an imaginary conversation between a psychology professor and a student who wants to follow in his footsteps.