The Behavioral State Model (Part 2)

If you look at the Behavioral State Model, you’ll notice that there’s a section called Identity. It comprises 6 of the 8 components:

1. Ability

2. Motivation

3. Social Status / Social Situation

4. Emotions

5. Perception

6. Personality

I call it “Identity”, but you could also call it “Personal Components”. These components are the things that are coming from within the individuals we’re trying to analyze and affect.

In other words: these are the components that describe the individuals we’re trying to influence.

The other two components in the Behavioral State Model, Physical Environment and Social Environment, describe the context in which the person exists.

So you have a person with all their internal psychological and behavioral characteristics (Identity) existing within an external context (Physical Environment and Social Environment).

It’s the interplay of these internal characteristics and external influences that determines what a person will do in any given moment.

Identity: The Missing Variable

Most popular behavior-change models spend too much time focusing on external/contextual variables, and not enough time focusing on the specific characteristics of the influence group.

However, the specific characteristics of the influence group are actually a much larger determinant of behavior than any external factors. This is for a couple of primary reasons:

1. Self selection

2. Environmental modification

Self Selection

People are not passive players. They do not randomly float from one location to another. They actively select the settings they wish to be a part of based on their goals, interests, abilities, personalities, etc. If you look at any given environment, it will consist of a non-random group of individuals. Thus, even though it may look like an environment is “causing” a given behavior, that may not quite be the case.

Examples:

• Gyms: It may look like spending time in a gym is causing people to change their behavior. However, the people who actually sign up for and go to a gym are those who care most about gaining muscle, staying physically fit, etc. They are also those who tend to have more conscientious and goal-driven personalities. The personality and motivation differences are the cause of the behavior—not the environment—even though a superficial analysis of the situation may cause someone to conclude otherwise. This is especially true with higher end gyms that cost hundreds of dollars per month. Most people who are not motivated to work out are eliminated from the gym member pool.

Environmental Modification

Once an individual selects an environment, they do not merely adapt to it—the environment is dynamically modified based on their motivations, abilities, and personalities. In essence, people shape their surroundings just as much as their surroundings shape them.

Examples:

• A manager who values team cohesion may alter the work environment to encourage collaboration and collective decision-making, which in turn shapes the behavior of the team members.

• A student with a proclivity for quiet study may rearrange their home setting to minimize distractions, thereby creating an environment conducive to focused behavior.

In all of the above examples, the individuals’ internal characteristics are the main determinants, the prime movers, of behavior. However, a naive analysis of each of the above scenarios could leave someone to attribute these behaviors to environmental components (“John is collaborative because of the office layout”) instead of internal components (“John is a collaborative person and shaped the office to fit his unique personality”).

This is why, in order to understand and shape behavior, it’s absolutely critical to include these Identity components in our analyses and plans.

Personalization is the key

The fact that 6 of the 8 components of behavior are related to the individual(s), instead of the context, gives us a hint as to how we should approach behavior change interventions.

We should focus the bulk of our efforts on understanding the individual(s) in question.

It should be our goal to understand:

• What are they capable of?

  • What are their strengths?

  • What are their weaknesses?

• What motivates them?

  • What goals do they have?

  • What problems are they trying to solve in their lives?

• Social Status / Social Situation

  • What are their social goals?

  • What is high status in their social group (including family)?

• Emotions

  • What are the dominant emotions in their life (related to this area)?

• Perception

  • What are the beliefs they have related to this area of life?

  • What are the other, powerful worldview-shaping beliefs they have?

• Personality

  • What are their natural, behavioral inclinations?

  • Are they organized or more go-with-the-flow?

  • Are they open minded and like the explore new things, or do they prefer the tried and true?

  • Are they competitive or collaborative?

  • Are they driven by gaining and achieving new things? Or do they prefer to just hang out and appreciate what they have?

  • Are they risk loving or risk avoidant?

If we understand all these things about the individual(s) we’re attempting to influence, then we will be able to better predict 1) what they’re likely to do 2) what they’re unlikely to do 3) which behaviors/activities will be the best fit for them.

Behavior Market Fit

You can define Behavior Market Fit as a behavior that scores highly across all 6 Identity components for a given person or target group.

The Identity Components

1. Ability

2. Motivation

3. Social Status / Social Situation

4. Emotions

5. Perception

6. Personality

These components are fairly stable. However, that does not mean they do not change. For example, people’s motivations can change from hour to hour and from week to week. The same thing is true of emotions. Nothing is ever completely static.

However, for simplicity’s sake, we can treat the Identity component as fairly stable over a period of weeks and, sometimes, even months.

Behavior Matching

Behaviors that are not a good match for a target individual or group and therefore have a low Behavior Market Fit are unlikely to occur, no matter what environment that individual or group is in.

This is why the most important thing someone can do when attempting to change behavior is choosing the right behavior for the target to do. If the chosen behavior is a good match for the target’s Abilities, Motivations, Social Status/Situation, Emotions, Perception, and Personality, it is likely to be accepted and performed. If it is not a good match, it is unlikely to occur—no matter the contextual factors present.

Identity + Context = Behavioral State

The context is made up of the Physical Environment and the Social Environment.

Context = Physical Environment + Social Environment

If a behavior is a bad fit for a person’s Identity, then modifying their context is the only chance one has of getting them to do that behavior in the short term.

For example, let’s say that someone hates weight lifting, but is placed in a college dormitory in which athletics and weight-lifting are highly valued. That person may end up going to the gym with their fellow dorm-mates and forcing themselves to lift weights, since that is how one builds social connections and gains social status in that particular Social Environment.

This is an example of a Social Environment change getting someone to act differently than their Identity components would predict.

If a behavior does not mesh well with someone’s Identity components, and you want them to perform a given behavior in the near future, then your first option is to change their Social Environment, Physical Environment, or both.

If you have a longer time horizon, you can also work on modifying their Ability, Motivation, Social Status/Social Situation, Emotions, and Perception related to the given behavior.

For example, let’s say you want someone to start meditating for 30 minutes each day. It’s not necessary that they do this immediately. You have time. To achieve this, you can:

• Ability:

  • Increase their ability to meditate by having them start with 5 or 10 minute meditation sessions, so they can increase their attention span.

  • Have them perform attention exercises using a Mendi or other neurofeedback device.

• Motivation:

  • Help them tie the meditation activity to their larger goals.

  • Educate them on the various benefits of meditation, hopefully increasing how much credibility they give the practice.

• Social Status / Social Situation:

  • Have them tie the benefits of meditation to their social goals.

  • Have them make new friends or connect with new people who value meditation.

• Emotions

  • Have them schedule these sessions during periods of low emotion.

  • Have them begin their meditation journey during a non-hectic, non-stressful part of the year.

• Perception

  • Help them realize that the struggle during meditation is actually a sign that their brain is growing, not a sign that they’re failing.

  • Help them realize that having a wandering mind is actually normal, and not a sign that they’re “not meant” to meditate.

Doing any of these things takes time and repetition. You cannot increase someone’s ability or change their perceptions/beliefs in a few short messages or over the course of an afternoon. These Identity-level modifications are much harder, but the changes, if they occur, are longer lasting.

To summarize:

• Identity is the primary driver of behavior.

• Most of our time should be spent trying to understand the person or group we’re attempting to influence.

• Behavior Market Fit is when a behavior is a good fit for a target person/group (in other words, it matches up well with their Identity components).

• Behavior Matching is the most effective way of changing behavior. Choose the right behavior for the person/group, and the rest will take care of itself.

• If you need to change behavior in the short term, your main option is to change the context (either the Social Environment or Physical Environment).

• If you have more time to change behavior, you can also work on changing some of the Identity components, specifically Ability, Motivation, Social Status/Situation, Emotions, and Perception.