Constructing Perception

                                                                          

HOW DO WE CONTRUCT PERCEPTION?

In this speech by Rory Sutherland entitled, Life Lessons from an Ad Man, he shares his insight into how a change in perspective can begat a change in how human beings place value on intangible things.  This is evident in the advertising world, and can be applied by placing material value on something previously seen as an intangible.  The question remains as to what will facilitate someone adding value to a previously undervalued intangible?

According to B.J. Fogg there are three distinct factors that will elicit a change in the behavior of an individual.  This behavioral model is defined by: Behavior = Motivation, Ability, Trigger.  When one of these elements is missing, then a change in behavior does not occur. With Fogg’s model, the factors of motivation and ability can be traded off.  This is because if the motivation is high, then the ability can be lower. A motivated individual is not held back by difficulty when the desire to achieve is high.  The core motivators listed are pleasure/pain, hope/fear, and social acceptance/rejection. Humans will go to great lengths to avoid pain, avert fear, and find an acceptable place within society. There are also specific influences that affect ability, that are outlined as simplicity factors. They are time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, and non-routine.  People use these influences and place higher value on them differently.  For one person, time is their greatest commodity, while another will go to extreme efforts to exert the least amount of physical effort. Additionally, there are people who would rather spend money to complete a task than to exert the brain-power necessary to solve it on their own.  Finally, the triggers are the third component that initiate a change in behavior and are highlighted as a facilitator, spark, or signal.  These triggers are the final piece of the puzzle that push the thought into an action. 

Fogg discussed how this is evident with an example from his experience with FaceBook.  He relates that you will receive notifications when you have been inactive with your FaceBook account. The message received from FaceBook is a simple trigger, or facilitator to remind you about this.  You are then instructed to “click here”, which constitutes an easy ability, which lets you see what have missed. Then, the motivation, to discover more friends, with another helpful “click here” button is available. This encourages the behavior of checking in with FaceBook more regularly.  This action of clicking, actually, sets in motions the change in the behavior that FaceBook seeks for their users.  

Now, back to Sutherland and his idea that by placing value on intangibles one can illicit a change in behavior.  One example he used relates to potatoes.  The Great King of Prussia, Frederick the Great made potatoes a popular crop, to reduce the risk of famine.  The problem was that the people did not like the potato.  How could he get the people to begin farming the potato if they did not like eating it or the disliked the way that it looked?  He made it an intangible, so to speak.  He declared the potato to be a royal vegetable, and positioned guards around the potato patch.  The guards were instructed to guard the potatoes (wink, wink), in other words to do a poor job guarding them.  This caused the peasants to desire the potatoes and it began an underground (literally and figuratively) potato growing operation.  The King had re-branded the potato.  

The affect of this re-branding changed the perception of the potato.  The peasants wanted to have something that was restricted to royalty, although, the King’s ulterior motive was to reduce the likelihood for a famine, by diversifying the risk between two main staples of crops.  The motivation to have a potato was increased when it was presented as only good enough for the royal families. The ability to get the potato was technically guarded, but achievable, and the trigger for the behavior was its restriction.   This example relates that it is possible to change the perception and by applying Fogg's Behavior Model, that a change in behavior will follow when the three elements of motivation, ability and trigger are met.  

Sutherland wrapped up his anecdotes with a challenge.  He encouraged his listeners to learn to place a material value on things that have been previously discounted as intangibles, for instance; health, love, or sex.  With this understanding and change of perspective,  then people can realize that they are much wealthier that one could have possibly imagined.