Author: The Pip

Yes you know that we all eat too much sugar. Yes you know that you should eat low GI foods for slower energy release and that you should really put that chocolate bar down and reach for the nuts.

But you have a meeting in 15 minutes, you don’t have any nuts and the vending machine is right there.

Sometimes knowledge isn’t the problem, it’s the practicalities. This is why research in the science behind ‘nudging’ or guiding behaviour has exploded in recent years (e.g. [1]).

An example of this involves moving snacks from arm reach to just out of arm reach. One group of researchers actually tested this. They placed a bowl of chocolate M&Ms either 20cm, 70cm or 140cm away from people and then measured how many M&Ms they ate. The further the M&Ms were from people, the less they ate [2]. That is despite the fact that it isn’t a huge effort to reach 140cm for something that you want.

Most of our behaviour is governed by unconscious processes or habits. We reach for the M&Ms because they are there. We may not even think about it, we may reach for them while talking to someone just to have something to do. Before we know it we’ve eaten a family-size pack.

Another study found that when a cafeteria moved the crisps away from healthy lunch food people were far less likely to buy crisps [3].

In a hospital cafeteria researchers found that labelling some foods as unhealthy and placing those below eye level reduced the number of people eating them [4].

A recent summary of all of the research in this area so far concluded that these types of changes to the position or availability of food can make a difference to people’s choice of foods [5].

Some people might argue that they don’t like the implications of an organisation or their workplace deciding on their behaviour. The reality is though that most of us live relatively sedentary lives with high sugar and high fat diets. Most of us, if we were asked, would probably say that we would like to be healthier. If you were told that there was a way for you to eat healthier without conscious effort or change would you do it? Probably.

Someone has to make a decision about where food is placed in a cafeteria. Most of the time it is decided by the brand or by the retailer. If you want to encourage yourself and your colleagues to lead a healthier lifestyle why not take back control by deciding on the positioning yourselves and nudge you and your colleagues into a healthier diet in the workplace.

References

1. Thaler, R. & Sunstein, C. (2008). Nudget: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. Yale University Press.
2. Maas J, de Ridder DT, de Vet E, et al. (2012) Do distant foods decrease intake? The effect of food accessibility on consumption. Psychological Health 27, Suppl. 2, 59–73.
3. Meiselman HL, Hedderley D, Staddon SL, et al. (1994) Effect of effort on meal selection and meal acceptability in a student cafeteria. Appetite 23, 43–55.
4. Levy DE, Riis J, Sonnenberg LM, et al. (2012) Food choices of minority and low-income employees: a cafeteria intervention. American Journal of Preventative Medicine 43, 240–248.
5. Bucher, T., Collins, C., Rollo, M. E., McCaffrey, T. A., De Vlieger, N., Van der Bend, D., . . . Perez-Cueto, F. J. (2016). Nudging consumers towards healthier choices: a systematic review of positional influences on food choice. British Journal of Nutrition, 115(12), 2252-2263.

We have the universe at our fingertips.

Want to know the fundamental laws of physics? Need a recipe for meringue? Learning a new language?

With a few taps of our fingers our smartphones, laptops, tablets, e-readers and even watches can transport us into a world of discovery.

But do you ever spend time just thinking?

New York Times columnist David Leonhardt reports that new business formation in the U.S. has declined over the past 15 years [1]. This is surprising in light of the digital revolution and all of the resources it provides for learning. In fact, the average person spends over 5 hours on their phone every day [2].

Yet with all of this information that we are bombarded with do we have time to reflect on what we are learning?

This, David Leonhardt suggests, may be one reason why business development has stalled [1]. Our constant ‘on’ switch means that we don’t have time to sit idle and let our font of creativity and imagination bubble up; something that is of fundamental importance for new ideas and resulting businesses.

Indeed, he cites past U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz who used to take one hour each week to sit, uninterrupted, with a pad of paper and a pen just to think and reflect.

Can you imagine doing this? It is difficult. We are so connected, so attached to our phones that the thought of an hour without checking emails, WhatsApp, social media and phone calls seems unrealistic. We are all guilty of using our phones as anti-boredom devices the minute we are not occupied by something.

The problem is that we rarely find time to finish a thought. Our minds can only hold so much information at once. Wandering through multiple unfinished tasks in our minds can actually affect both our mood and our ability to think clearly [3, 4].

As the New York Times suggests maybe we should all consider taking a ‘Shultz hour’, at least occasionally. If you consider how much time we spend aimlessly scrolling through our phones we can certainly fit at least half an hour in. Here are some suggestions:

• One morning or evening commute as designated technology-free thinking time.
• One weekday lunchtime when you don’t meet anyone, find a quiet space, turn off your phone and let your mind free.
• Delay going home from work for half an hour to give yourself thinking space.
• Take one weekend morning before you get up to lie back and reflect.

Let’s be honest, giving yourself time to ponder something – be it an interesting problem or idea you came across during the week or just personal reflection – will leave you with a lot more headspace than you would get from scrolling through the latest photos on Facebook. Maybe a ‘Shultz hour’ will be something we’re all doing next year.

References

1. Leonhardt, D. (2017). You’re Too Busy. You Need a ‘Shultz Hour.’ New York Times, 18^th April 2017, p. A19. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/opinion/youre-too-busy-you-need-a-shultz-hour.html – Accessed 15^th May 2017].
2. Andrews, S., Ellis, D. A., Shaw, H., & Piwek, L. (2015). Beyond self-report: tools to compare estimated and real-world smartphone use. PLoS One, 10(10), e0139004.
3. Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), 932-932.
4. Masicampo, E. and R.F. Baumeister, Unfulfilled goals interfere with tasks that require executive functions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2011. 47(2): p. 300-311.

Success? Money? Happiness? Excitement? Peace?

Each of these things drive each of us to a lesser or greater degree. But there is something that rarely appears on these types of lists that may be even more important: having a sense of purpose.

Having purpose in life means that you find meaning in something you do and goals that direct you towards it. This isn’t specific to the workplace, it can be any aspect of your life whether it is in your job, home life, community or other.

You may find meaning in your role as a parent, a friend, a sibling or a spouse. Your relationships with other people and caring for those people when they need you may be what gives your life meaning.

Or it may be your work. You know that your role in the workplace, no matter how small or big, is an important cog that keeps everything running smoothly. Your purpose may be doing that job to the best of your abilities whether for the work itself or to support colleagues.

Why is purpose so important? Well multiple studies have shown that having a purpose in life is hugely protective when it comes to health. People with a stronger purpose in life are less likely to suffer from depression [1], have a lower risk of heart attacks [3] and are even less likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease [3].

It’s not yet entirely clear why but recent research suggests that it may be to do with stress. One group of researchers found that people who have a higher purpose in life are better at recovering emotionally from seeing something negative than those without a sense of purpose [4]. Having a purpose in life may help people to reframe stressful situations and therefore build resilience.

All of us have parts of our lives that we find meaningful and others that we don’t. If you feel a strong purpose in life – that’s great. It is likely to not only protect your psychological well-being but also your health.

However there are many times in our lives where we don’t feel a sense of purpose and that’s ok. We all go through phases that are more meaningful than others.

If you feel that it has been a while since you had a goal or a sense of purpose it may be worth taking stock. Is there something that you would like to do that feels important to you? It doesn’t have to be a dramatic change. It may be trying out a volunteering activity that you’ve been interested in but never done. It may be reacquainting yourself with something you used to find meaning in but which you have let slip. Or it may be taking the first step towards a career aspiration that you have harboured but not acted on.

As one researcher put it “happiness is everything, or is it?” [5]. Sometimes having a sense of purpose is just as, if not more, important for your overall well-being.

References

1. Wood, A. M., & Joseph, S. (2010). The absence of positive psychological (eudemonic) well-being as a risk factor for depression: A ten year cohort study. Journal of affective disorders, 122(3), 213-217.
2. Ryff, C. D., Singer, B. H., & Love, G. D. (2004). Positive health: Connecting well-being with biology. Philosophical Transactions-Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences, 1383-1394.
3. Boyle, P. A., Buchman, A. S., Barnes, L. L., & Bennett, D. A. (2010). Effect of a purpose in life on risk of incident Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older persons. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 67(3), 304-310.
4. Schaefer, S. M., Boylan, J. M., Van Reekum, C. M., Lapate, R. C., Norris, C. J., Ryff, C. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Purpose in life predicts better emotional recovery from negative stimuli. PLoS One, 8(11), e80329.
5. Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology, 57(6), 1069.

You’ve had a tough few months in work. You were assigned to a new project 6 months ago and the learning curve was steep. You’re pretty exhausted but you’ve learnt a lot. In fact, when you look back you can’t believe just how much you know now that you didn’t know then.

But did you know that it’s not only your knowledge that has increased? Your brain has physically grown in size as well.

Every time you learn something new you shape your brain’s internal connections. Remember Pavlov’s dogs? (see link to blog here) Pavlov trained his dogs to associate the sound of a bell ringing with food. Whenever the bell was rung they started drooling. What happened in the brain is called Hebbian learning [1].

Initially, the part of the dog’s brain that controls drool was completely independent from the part that controls hearing. When the dogs saw food the part of their brain that controls drool would jump into action but the hearing part would be dormant. Because Pavlov kept ringing the bell whenever the dogs were drooling their brain connection changed. They developed a physical connection between the hearing and drooling parts of their brain.

This means that whenever you learn something new you physically change your brain.

This becomes even more fascinating when we consider the more complicated tasks that we all do in school or the workplace.

Researchers in Germany examined this when they studied the brains of students studying for final exams. They put students in a brain scanner so that they could see the size of different parts of their brains on three different occasions: while they were studying, while they were doing the exams and when they had finished.

They found that between studying and finishing the exams the part of the brain responsible for memory had physically grown in size. Not only that but it kept growing even 3 months after the students had finished their exams [2].

Sure, bigger is not always better but in the case of your brain it is usually a good thing. In fact, increasing the size of your brain from learning new things keeps it healthy as you get older [3].

So the next time you’re embarking on a daunting new project in work don’t stress, your brain will thank you for tending to it when you get through the other side.

References

1. Hebb, D.O. (1949).The Organization of Behavior. New York: Wiley & Sons.
2. Draganski, B., Gaser, C., Kempermann, G., Kuhn, H. G., Winkler, J., Büchel, C., & May, A. (2006). Temporal and spatial dynamics of brain structure changes during extensive learning. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(23), 6314-6317.
3. Robertson, I. H. (2013). A noradrenergic theory of cognitive reserve: implications for Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of aging, 34(1), 298-308.

Have you ever been left disappointed when you offer a brilliant idea at a meeting only for your point to go unnoticed?

Or a little annoyed that after playing an intensive, self-sacrificing role in a successful group project your contribution seems underappreciated?

While this feeling can sometimes be justified at others times it may be your mind playing tricks on you. This is the psychological phenomenon known as the egocentric bias. Studies have shown that there are disparities between the way we view our own performance and the way it is viewed by others [1]. We can be so focused on our own contributions to a joint enterprise that our assessment of ‘who did how much’ tends to be biased in our own favour [2].

In the workplace people can also overestimate their own abilities in doing their job when comparing themselves to their colleagues. This can even happen to professionals whose very job it is to make unbiased decisions.

In one study 155 judges in the U.S. were asked how likely their decisions were to be overturned when compared to their colleagues [3]. Or put another way, was their ‘appeal rate’ higher or lower than their colleagues? The judges thought far more highly of their own abilities than was actually the case. Over 50% of them believed that their ‘appeal rate’ was in the lowest quartile of overturned decisions compared to their colleagues. Less than 5% believed their appeal rate was in the highest quartile. Clearly these estimates don’t stack up.

In fact, this egocentricity goes far beyond the workplace. Other studies have shown that we all have a tendency to believe that we are ‘above average’ when compared to our peers. People tend to think that they have more desirable and less undesirable characteristics than other people [4]. People also tend to consider their personal risk of misfortune as being less than other people’s [5].

That’s not to say that we are all insufferable egotists. It is just that we spend all of our time viewing things from our own perspective so our own contribution naturally gets distorted. In fact, people’s egocentric bias can be tempered when they are exposed to other people’s perceptions of themselves [5].

So the next time you feel disappointed when your stellar contribution didn’t quite get the recognition you feel it deserved, perhaps reflect for a moment and talk to your colleagues about their contributions. Your own contribution will have been noticed, maybe just not to the extent you thought it should be. Take comfort in knowing you’re an important part of a solid team because, after all, we’re stronger together than alone.

References:

1. Gilovich, T. Medvec, V. & Savitsky, K. (2000). The Spotlight Effect in Social Judgment: An Egocentric Bias in Estimates of the Salience of One’s Own Actions and Appearance Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78(2), 211-222.
2. Ross, L. Greene, D. & House, P. (1977). The “False Consensus Effect”: An Egocentric Bias in Social Perception and Attribution Processes Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 13(3), 279-301.
3. Guthrie, C. Rachlinski, J. & Wistrich, A. (2001). Inside the Judicial Mind Cornell Law Review 86(4), 777-830.
4. Alicke, M. D., Klotz, M. L., Breitenbecher, D. L., Yurak, T. J., & Vredenburg, D. S. (1995). Personal contact, individuation, and the better-than-average effect. Journal of personality and social psychology, 68(5), 804.
5. Weinstein, N. D. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of personality and social psychology, 39(5), 806.