Szymon's Zettelkasten
Powered by 🌱Roam GardenP: How to compel people to action (the Fogg Behavioral Model)
Reference::
The Fogg Behavior Model (FBM) tells us that for a behavior to occur you have to have a sufficient and non-zero amount of motivation (desire to do the behavior), ability (capacity to complete the behavior), and be triggered to do the do the task. These three factors have to occur at the same time (it's not a sequence).
What's crucial is that the trigger works only (i.e., the behavior will occur only) if you're over the behavior activation threshold which is the sufficient amount of motivation and ability.
The model implies that ability and motivation are trade-offs of a sort.
People with low motivation will only perform easy tasks (meaning, high on ability) or won't do them at all. For example, let's say you have a very low motivation to eat healthy. But if someone offered you to pay for the food, cook for you, and every day serve you healthy dishes, you would probably agree because your ability to eat this way would be high. You would start eating healthy even though your motivation is low.
Conversely, people with high motivation will be willing to perform hard tasks (meaning, low on ability). For example, if I asked you to solve a hard math puzzle for free, you probably wouldn't do it. However, if I told you that for solving the math puzzle I'd pay you $1,000, you would find a way to solve it, although it's very hard.
That said, how can you increase both motivation and ability? To be able to influence each of them, you need to first understand what they really are.
Fogg determined three main motivators that increase our desire to perform a particular behavior: Sensation (Pain/Pleasure), Anticipation (Hope/Fear), and Belonging (Social Acceptance/Rejection). More on that here: P: Motivation (Fogg Behavioral Model)
There are six main parts of ability: Money, Time, Physical Effort, Mental Effort, Social Deviance, Non-Routine. More on that here: TK P: Ability (Fogg Behavioral Model)
These parts should be inlined. They should work like a chain. Ability differs between individuals.
People have different simplicity profiles. Some people may have more time, some people may have more money, while others cannot. These factors vary by the individual, but they also vary by context.
In general, it's best to focus on the person's scarcest resource. You need to find the part that is the scarcest and focus on it.
What to focus on first—motivation or ability?
It's easier to increase ability than it is to increase motivation because we humans love simplicity. We're lazy crazy creatures and anything that drains energy will tend to be avoided.
Framework for persuasion:
The Hooked model for the long-term: how to make someone do something consistently over time with less and less effort.
The Fogg Behavior Model for the short-term: how to make someone do something at the moment of the ask?
Heuristics: how to smoothen everything (or how to keep system 2 asleep). It acts as a lubricant, like oil in a car that makes everything work more effortlessly.
Where do Cialdini's principles fit in? Are they a separate category or are they part of heuristics? I think the latter because they aren't a framework. Rather, they supplement a given model aiding with principles that facilitate cognitive ease, or that ensure something is a good choice—because I like you; because others do it; because an authority recommends it; because it's gonna run out soon; because I must repay you; because we're in the same team; because it's consistent with my identity. (are Cialdini's principles tools that aid in creating cognitive ease and coherence, so that action flows uninterrupted in accordance with the persuader's goal? so that system 2 stays asleep? Is persuasion about not waking up system 2 [nice name for a note]?)
Not waking up system 2 is similar to the whispering into the elephant's ear P: People judge mostly emotionally
And here, what are the things that keep system 2 asleep? Cognitive ease,
Relevant notes (PN: )/questions (Q:):
PN: How to use all principles of persuasion: where do Cialdini's principles fit into that model?
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Referenced in
P: You're the subject to your environment
Another aspect that informs how the environment shapes us is our innate decision-making wiring. Our bodies want to spend energy in the most effective manner. Fogg described it using psychological motivation and ability, saying, in short, that the simpler a behavior is, the more likely we are to do it (all other things being equal). For instance, if you have cookies at your home, you'll be more likely to eat sweets compared to if you didn't have them because it's simpler. You don't have to get to the shop to get them, you just need to get to the kitchen and grab them.
P: Maslow's Pyramid of Needs
P: How to compel people to action (the Fogg Behavioral Model): Maslow's pyramid may act as a great complement to Fogg's motivations
P: Motivation (Fogg Behavioral Model)
Motivation is part of the Fogg Behavioral Model which describes what compels people to action. Motivation is our desire to do a particular behavior.