Managing behavior based on consequences is a widely used approach.  The concept relies on fear as a motivator.  That is, behave accordingly or suffer.

Intuitively we believe fear has urgency and can drive behavioral change.   In some cases this true but often through the process of rationalization, we mitigate the fear and thus are not motivated to alter our behavior.

Rationalization

When advised, “stop smoking, it will kill you” many people consider and develop a fear defense by focusing on the positive.  Smoking might kill others but it won’t kill me.

A number of psychology studies conducted on cigarette package warnings (fear tactic) are all conclusive that these warnings have no impact on smokers’ behavior.

It is human nature to focus on the positive, that is things that make us feel good and avoid scary and unpleasant things as much as possible.

For Example

A neat example of this is investor behavior.  A recent analytic study compared investment account log-ins over a five year period with reported market highs and lows (based on the S&P 500 index).

High markets corresponded with high log-ins and low markets with a low volume of balance checking.  Basically, when the news is bad we just don’t want to know, classic avoidance.

Motivating Change

The bottom line, positive behavior changes are best motivated by instant reward, fact-based analysis, comparison and competitive incentive (others are doing it so I should too) NOT consequences.

When you want to make a change, or you would like to help someone else change, remember to focus on the positive, reward them (or yourself) at the moment and consider the fact-based analysis and what others are doing.