It seems that if you want to make healthy interventions in people’s lives, pique their curiosity.
Researchers designed four experiments designed to encourage curiosity and the end result was that curiosity encouraged them to take the stairs and eat more healthily.
Dr Evan Polman, the study’s first author, said:
“Our research shows that piquing people’s curiosity can influence their choices by steering them away from tempting desires, like unhealthy foods or taking the elevator, and toward less tempting, but healthier options, such as buying more fresh produce or taking the stairs.”
For example, 200 people were given a choice between two cookies, one of which was plain and one of which was covered with chocolate and sprinkles.
After being told the plain one was a fortune cookie which contained some personal information about them (it wasn’t and it didn’t, merely telling them “You are not illiterate”!), 71% of people chose the plain cookie over the chocolate one.
The second experiment included a promise to reveal the secret to a magic trick. This was also strongly motivating.
The third experiment encouraged people to take the stairs rather than using a lift by posting trivia questions at the bottom of the stairs with the answers in the stairwell.
Dr Polman said: “Evidently, people really have a need for closure when something has piqued their curiosity.
They want the information that fills the curiosity gap, and they will go to great lengths to get it.”
The effect is sometimes known as the ‘curiosity gap’ and would seem to be surprisingly powerful, and is something that can be put to good use.
“Our results suggest that using interventions based on curiosity gaps has the potential to increase participation in desired behaviours for which people often lack motivation.
“It also provides new evidence that curiosity-based interventions come at an incredibly small cost and could help steer people toward a variety of positive actions,” said Dr Polman.
The study was presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, 2016 (Polman et al., 2016).
How might you use this information in your practice to help clients make more healthy choices?