Peter picked a pickled pepper. Why did Peter pick a pickled pepper?The alliterative play could go on for ages, but the rub of it lays more in the understanding of what on earth motivated our dear friend Peter.The reality is that people’s behaviours can oftentimes be more telling - and even predictable - than one may at first imagine. Harnessing an understanding of that potentially holds great value for progress in Public Relations and comms as a whole..What makes certain people tick? Be it a client or the stakeholder you’re trying to engage with, what inspires and motivates their outlook and their actions? When we get people, we get progress, both logic and behavioural science dictate. So why do we spend so little time understanding the science of people in the business of relationships?The Dunning-Kruger Effect spells out the very opportunity here. This cognitive bias sees people overestimate their own knowledge, as people tend to think we are more able and knowledgeable than we really are. We’ve all got a false sense of understanding about certain things; even worse (or better?) we don’t know what we don’t know. But what doesn’t have a facade or masquerade in any mutton-dressed-as-lamb style is data. Facts over fiction, science stands strong at every turn..Behavioural psychology (or B-Sci, as we PRs call it) leverages genuine scientific principles to understand and influence more relevant and impactful communication, whether one’s motivating for greater savings culture or working to get buy-in for community policy. It aims to understand human behaviour and decision-making, through cognition and neuroscience, social psychology and how these intersect with fields involving behaviour such as economics, politics, and communication. In the all-important fight for return on investment in our industry of apparent cloaks and daggers, tangible or proven results are gold, and B-Sci when used correctly and effectively stands to deliver this on a platter (understanding sold separately). It is as much a matter of understanding and literacy as it is adoption, and it’s a veritable tool towards enhancing potential impact and outcomes of and for comms folk.Once we appreciate how to use B-Sci to create creative and outcome-focused communications that ensure relevance, value and yet continued integrity in the work, we can genuinely (and sustainably) transform the way stakeholders live, engage, learn, shop, and make positive choices. Above all, we stand a better chance of using our real understanding of B-Sci to move from rhetoric to action and bridge the capability barrier, i.e., what prevents a person from enacting a behaviour because they do not possess the necessary awareness, knowledge or skills..It is a commonplace feature of any good brief. How do we get Peter to try potatoes if Peter says he hates starch? He thinks it’s unhealthy, but he doesn’t really know this for sure; he thinks he won’t be able to make a dietary adjustment, but he’s never tried; and he claims to know the benefits or lack thereof of a spud but hasn’t ever actually seen data or information of any merit. He can’t switch to more starches in his diet because he doesn’t know what impact it could have, good or bad. And so our dear friend Peter sticks to pickled peppers. He hasn’t bridged the capability barrier and doesn’t even know where to begin even if he tried.How would insight into his choices, beliefs and actions help us open the door of opportunity for Peter? The answer is not a billboard or a fancy TVC. It is an insights-based, critical thinking approach that helps us understand what makes Peter tick, and then make the most of this to responsibly nudge the behaviour we want. It’s all a little less wizardry sounding in real practice, and yet infinitely more promising in terms of possible impact. Asking the right questions, taking time to understand his mindset and behaviours, and adopting tried and tested approaches to drive progress..If the future of the discipline lays in hotwiring better relationships, then surely better understanding of people should be an even greater pre-requisite? B-Sci has always been part of the PR repertoire, perhaps simply not identified with the same moniker. It informs how we frame messages, how we address uncertainty and combat disinformation with facts, and how we build trust in communities. People make the world go round; perhaps it’s about time we learned how and why, opening up a proverbial treasure trove of how we can turn that learning into true social good. And isn’t that half the job of a comms professional, responsibly adding value to societies?When we understand what makes people like Peter go vroom, there’s no limit to what we can do, building understanding, trust and impact!Further reading:.Originally published on Marklives.com
Peter picked a pickled pepper. Why did Peter pick a pickled pepper?The alliterative play could go on for ages, but the rub of it lays more in the understanding of what on earth motivated our dear friend Peter.The reality is that people’s behaviours can oftentimes be more telling - and even predictable - than one may at first imagine. Harnessing an understanding of that potentially holds great value for progress in Public Relations and comms as a whole..What makes certain people tick? Be it a client or the stakeholder you’re trying to engage with, what inspires and motivates their outlook and their actions? When we get people, we get progress, both logic and behavioural science dictate. So why do we spend so little time understanding the science of people in the business of relationships?The Dunning-Kruger Effect spells out the very opportunity here. This cognitive bias sees people overestimate their own knowledge, as people tend to think we are more able and knowledgeable than we really are. We’ve all got a false sense of understanding about certain things; even worse (or better?) we don’t know what we don’t know. But what doesn’t have a facade or masquerade in any mutton-dressed-as-lamb style is data. Facts over fiction, science stands strong at every turn..Behavioural psychology (or B-Sci, as we PRs call it) leverages genuine scientific principles to understand and influence more relevant and impactful communication, whether one’s motivating for greater savings culture or working to get buy-in for community policy. It aims to understand human behaviour and decision-making, through cognition and neuroscience, social psychology and how these intersect with fields involving behaviour such as economics, politics, and communication. In the all-important fight for return on investment in our industry of apparent cloaks and daggers, tangible or proven results are gold, and B-Sci when used correctly and effectively stands to deliver this on a platter (understanding sold separately). It is as much a matter of understanding and literacy as it is adoption, and it’s a veritable tool towards enhancing potential impact and outcomes of and for comms folk.Once we appreciate how to use B-Sci to create creative and outcome-focused communications that ensure relevance, value and yet continued integrity in the work, we can genuinely (and sustainably) transform the way stakeholders live, engage, learn, shop, and make positive choices. Above all, we stand a better chance of using our real understanding of B-Sci to move from rhetoric to action and bridge the capability barrier, i.e., what prevents a person from enacting a behaviour because they do not possess the necessary awareness, knowledge or skills..It is a commonplace feature of any good brief. How do we get Peter to try potatoes if Peter says he hates starch? He thinks it’s unhealthy, but he doesn’t really know this for sure; he thinks he won’t be able to make a dietary adjustment, but he’s never tried; and he claims to know the benefits or lack thereof of a spud but hasn’t ever actually seen data or information of any merit. He can’t switch to more starches in his diet because he doesn’t know what impact it could have, good or bad. And so our dear friend Peter sticks to pickled peppers. He hasn’t bridged the capability barrier and doesn’t even know where to begin even if he tried.How would insight into his choices, beliefs and actions help us open the door of opportunity for Peter? The answer is not a billboard or a fancy TVC. It is an insights-based, critical thinking approach that helps us understand what makes Peter tick, and then make the most of this to responsibly nudge the behaviour we want. It’s all a little less wizardry sounding in real practice, and yet infinitely more promising in terms of possible impact. Asking the right questions, taking time to understand his mindset and behaviours, and adopting tried and tested approaches to drive progress..If the future of the discipline lays in hotwiring better relationships, then surely better understanding of people should be an even greater pre-requisite? B-Sci has always been part of the PR repertoire, perhaps simply not identified with the same moniker. It informs how we frame messages, how we address uncertainty and combat disinformation with facts, and how we build trust in communities. People make the world go round; perhaps it’s about time we learned how and why, opening up a proverbial treasure trove of how we can turn that learning into true social good. And isn’t that half the job of a comms professional, responsibly adding value to societies?When we understand what makes people like Peter go vroom, there’s no limit to what we can do, building understanding, trust and impact!Further reading:.Originally published on Marklives.com
