Health promotion has come a long way
Do you remember the anxiety of being picked last for the team in phys ed? Or the pressure of doing an oral presentation right after the coolest kid around in English class? Of course you do! Such events threatened your fundamental need to belong, and so they impacted you deeply at the time they happened.
The desire to fit in is a powerful shaper of behavior. In some cases, social pressures serve us well. Only 20 or 30 years ago, the following behaviors were widely accepted: smoking in public places, drinking and driving, littering, riding in a car without a seat belt or on a motorcycle without a helmet, and unprotected sex.
I’m so glad things have changed!
In other cases, social pressures are lagging behind the times. Below are some examples which are still widely accepted, but really need to change:
- Sleep: We still glorify sleep deprivation, as if it proves our strong work ethic. But in reality, we should realize that those bragging about their sleep debt are temporarily and reversibly mentally-impaired, and too groggy to realize it.
- Food: It is still common to twist somebody else’s arm so they eat something unhealthy. “Come on, just one piece of brownie won’t kill you!” We all have enough of a hard time all on our own resisting temptations. We should work harder to applaud other’s self-discipline.
- Mood: Few ignore how pervasive, contagious, and detrimental stress can be, yet we all sink in our seats when someone spreads unnecessary stress around. No one benefits when we accept others dumping their garbage around as they please, so why are we still silent?
- Exercise: Sitting is the new smoking. There’s new research coming out every month about the dangers of our sedentary lifestyles – see this Washington Post infographic for one example. Yet social convention pressures us into spending long days at work without refreshing our minds and bodies through a little healthy movement.
Improving Norms
How can we start shifting things so that the unhealthy norms just listed can become a thing of the past, much like smoking in public places and drinking and driving did?
Most people are willing to change when they see a clear personal benefit in the proposed change, and when they are convinced that those around them are implementing the change as well, says the World Bank.
The first portion of that equation is easier: most people understand that sleeping enough, eating right and moving more will help them be at their best and avoid undesirable health conditions. Our challenge lies not in promoting individual reasons for change, but in challenging what’s considered normal social behavior, and in defining new norms.
A North Carolina program aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy used the tagline ‘Talk to Your Kids About Sex. Everyone else is.’ (DuRant et al, 2006). This message created a tension more uncomfortable then the uncomfortable conversation itself. Who would want their kid to be the only one uninformed about important issues that affect people their age? A phone survey found that parents who had been exposed to this campaign were more likely to talk to their teens about sex the next month.
This experiment suggests that social norms can be effective motivators for behavior change, and I’d like to explore how to use them for the greater good. Some may be concerned that following others is a shallow extrinsic motivation that won’t last. However, the desire to fit in is a powerful intrinsic motivation, which is what I want to tap into here. Plus, once healthy behaviors are in place, they are often self-reinforcing.
In part 2, we’ll look at how we can apply these strategies to the wellness problems we discussed earlier.
Photo credits:
Pregnancy concerns courtesy of artur84
Sources:
DuRant, R.H., Wolfson, M., LeFrance, B., Balkrishan, R. & Altman, D. (2006). An evaluation of a mass media campaign to encourage parents of adolescents to talk to their children about sex. Journal of Adolescent Health 38 (3) 298–309.
Rath, T. (2013). Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes. Arlington, VA: Missionday.
Schultz, P. W., Nolan, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2007). The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychological Science, 18(5), 429–434.
Shaar, M.J. & Britton, K. (2011). Smarts and Stamina: The Busy Person’s Guide to Optimal Health and Performance. Philadelphia, PA: Positive Psychology Press.