Making changes can be difficult. It’s hard to get motivated to do something over and over again – even if you know that it’s good for you. But what if I told you there was a different option? Something that didn’t require an ounce of motivation?
Would You Like to Be an Organ Donor?
The researchers collected data from 11 countries in Europe, showing the percentage of people in each country who had selected to be an organ donor and the differences in organ donors by country.
- There is one group of countries with very low percentages of organ donors (on the left) and one group with very high percentages (right).
- Differences in donation rates are due to environment design and organ donations.
How to Design Your Environment for Success
By changing your surroundings, you can place a hurdle in the way of bad behaviors and remove barriers to good ones
- Think about your environment in relation to the number of steps it takes to perform a habit
- Reduce mindless eating
- Eat more vegetables
- Turn on the TV less often
- Unplug the TV and put it in a drawer or closet
- Workout more frequently
Environment Design: Where to Go From Here
Most of the time we assume that to take a certain action, we need to have an incentive
- Environment design proves that our choices and preferences can be crafted by the environment around us
- We simply need to be surrounded by the right cues
- How often would you make healthy and productive choices if they were simply your default response to your environment?
- It doesn’t have to be that way
What Made the Difference
The difference in donation rates was due to the type of form that each country sent out
- Countries with low rates of organ donors sent out a form that said, “If you want to be an organ donor, check here.”
- This form required people to opt-in.
- Meanwhile, countries with high rates of donation sent out an opt-out form
- In both cases, people opted-out.
How Your Environment Impacts Your Behavior
The researchers summarized the impact of the environment design by saying, “In most cases, the majority of people choose the default option to which they were assigned.”
- Most of us respond the same way to the cues that surround us
- Your environment determines the default actions you take day-to-day
