(Behavioural Economics cont. 4)

Language is Important.

This is sometimes called framing (more details, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base), ie
"...The idea that choices depend, in part, on the way in which problems are stated......framing works because people tend to be somewhat mindless, passive decision-makers..."
Richard Thaler et al, 2021

The brain prefers to use fast thinking rather than slow thinking.

Some examples:

i) don't use 'the' organisation, 'the' team, etc; instead use 'your' or 'our' organisation, 'your' or 'our' team, etc. By using 'your' or 'our', we are increasing the sense of ownership.

ii) be positive rather than negative; some examples:
    - survival rate versus mortality rate, ie a 90% survival rate sounds better than a 10% mortality rate!!!!
    - think of challenges, problems, issues, etc as 'opportunities'.

iii) use discount rather than surcharge, eg having different prices for cash (lower) and credit (higher) customers. Rather than stating that credit cards have a surcharge, it is more effective to state that cash has a discount.

iv) petrified wood (in Arizona, USA there is a National Park full of petrified trees; however, visitors were illegally taking samples from the park despite signage stating 'your heritage is being vandalised every day by theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time'. In fact the sign resulted in increased theft as it created the perception that everyone was doing it, ie socially acceptable; it normalised the very behaviour it was trying to prevent.

Changing the wording had a dramatic impact, ie
    - 'please don't remove the petrified wood from the Park, in order to preserve the natural state of the Petrified Forest' resulted in significantly reduced theft as it demonstrated how you should behave
    - 'many past visitors have removed the petrified wood from the park, changing the state of the petrified forest' significantly increased the theft as it demonstrated that it was socially acceptable to take samples and get your sample before it is too late!!!!

This highlights the importance of framing.

More effective to frame things in terms of potential losses rather than gains, ie you will lose so much more than what you could gain.

You will remember the negatives rather than the positives.

Also, negative words trigger the threat response from the brain, ie amygdala hijack response. So be careful of creating a crisis, or a sense of urgency, as this can initiate an unnecessary threat response that can do much damage.

If you have a real, visible crisis, like pandemic, everybody's energy is going to go to solving that immediate problem rather than looking at the future. If the organisational performance is going well, there is a good chance that people will think about the future and be more receptive to change.

If too many negativesare involved, maybe you need to rewrite the story or narrative.

The more positive a person is, the more likely other people want to be associated with them, ie they give you energy.
"...for every negative thought you need three positive thoughts in order to mitigate it and reset the damage it does..."
Edwina Pike, 2022

NB Dangerous words are 'I think'. When you hear this you go into a defensive mode as it is perceived the words mean you have taken a position.