Yes -- avoidance behavior.
An old behavioral technique also mentioned by Thaler and Sunstein in
Nudge.
On Mar 27, 2009, at 10:03 AM, Michael Britt wrote:
Interesting article on the front page of the Chronicle this week
called, "Falling Behind? Try Shame, Fear, and Greed". Basically the
idea is that people are trying to motivate themselves by "taking a
contract out on themselves" on a site called, StickK (http://
www.stickk.com/
). Despite the slick website, the idea actually seems pretty basic:
you decide that if you don't reach a certain goal (say, "lose X amount
of weight", or, more pertinent to us, let's say, "write the
introduction section to my manuscript") by X date/time, you agree to
do something negative (say, donate money to a cause you don't really
endorse). If you accomplish your goal, the negative thing will not
happen.
Sounds like simple negative reinforcement?
Michael
Paul Brandon
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Minnesota State University, Mankato
[email protected]
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