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How to Get People to Do Stuff

By ling on March 4th, 2014 in Culture, Inspiration, Science

Basically understanding the psychology of what motivated people to take action.

Some interesting bits:

If you use nouns when making a request, rather than verbs – for example: “Be a donor” versus “Donate now” – it results in more people taking action. That’s because nouns invoke group identity. (people want to feel they belong)
Use the science of habits to help other people create or change habits, so you can get them to do stuff.
An important part of getting someone to create a new habit is to break things into really small steps.
If you want consistent behavior don’t reward people every time they do something, just some of the time.
Giving people autonomy over what they are doing will stimulate them to master a skill and will motivate them to work harder.
Don’t mix praise with feedback if you want to stimulate the desire for mastery. Just give objective feedback.
If you mention money then people become more independent and less willing to help others.
People are more likely to do something if you can get them to phrase it as a question to themselves (Will I exercise each week?) than if you get them to say a declarative statement (I will exercise each week.)