Jeni Cross who is a sociology professor at Colorado State University, talks about the three Myths of Behavior change. In these notes below I’ve ignored the SOM jargon and instead written about how the research applies to values. I could find five main takeaways from the 3 Myths.

MYTH 1. Information is enough to change behavior.

  1. If we speak to what folks value by making things tangible, personalized and interactive this is far more likely to change their mind than simply supplying them facts.

  2. Also, because folks are also loss averse, that is, they don’t want to lose value they already have, they are far more likely to change their behavior if it means they won’t lose value.

MYTH 2. Changing attitudes changes behavior.

  1. You can actually set qualitative behavioral expectations to change behavior and attitudes.

  2. You can also change behavior by speaking to what folks already value.

MYTH 3. Folks know their values.

  1. Social norms influence behavior far more than folks give credit for. If you speak to folks value of social norms, then you’re far more likely to change their behavior than they give credit for.

“Lying just beneath the surface of (political) arguments with passions raging on all sides are big questions of Moral Philosophy.. But we too rarely articulate and defend and argue about those big moral questions in our Politics”
Michael Sandel

Michael Sandel has a great series on Justice which explains the currently competing philosophical theories of social justice that exist in the world today. Unlike anyone else I’ve seen he’s bringing the problems of Moral Philosophy to the public at large in an easily accessible way.

In the TED Talk above, Sandel gives a passionate plea to bring some of this intelligent philosophical discourse to our political dialogue. I share his frustration and it is heartwarming to see someone make such an argument in a public setting. Of course, the Metaphysics of Quality provides us with a vastly improved language with which we can discuss morality and it brings with it coherence and evolutionary context to these discussions where there previously was none.

“I think nowadays though, the more general idea, the more plausible idea to many people; is that when we die we just cease to be.  That’s all there is to it.  But we’re inclined I think, to have in our minds, a picture of this.  Which indeed is depressing.  Of being shut up in the dark for always, and always, and always.  To be kind of buried alive in a blackness. Where we are blind, deaf and dumb but somehow still conscious..”
Alan Watts