We take pride in our choices and actions. We think they reflect who we are as individuals, our value systems, upbringing and family background, education, moral values, etc. Well, they do but they also reflect what we are thinking about at the moment we make those choices and take those actions. Human beings are easily influenced. Simple cues like questions, music, and imagery can bring specific thoughts into the foreground and make us act on them. Robert Cialdini’s books Influence and Pre-suasion are dedicated to understanding this in some detail. One of my favorite examples from the book Pre-suasion is how a fine wine store used to play French classical music to persuade people into picking the more expensive French vino. In another instance, a car dealership used the smell of musk to incite people into buying SUVs as the musk smell elevated the thoughts of beaches and adventure into people’s minds.
In this post, however, I take a famous example that highlights how the same personality type can make different choices on the basis of what’s on top of their minds. It also underscores how important it is not to judge people by the actions they take without considering the circumstances leading to those actions.
In an experiment conducted with resident doctors at a hospital in the US, Adam Grant and David Hoffman posted a note that said ‘handwashing saves your life’. It had little effect on motivating doctors to wash their hands more regularly. After a while, another note was posted that said ‘handwashing saves patients’ lives’. This note, surprisingly, had a huge impact on motivating doctors to wash their hands much more regularly. This experiment says a lot about how doctors get motivated and where their priorities lie. Clearly, doctors are other-oriented individuals, so when the attention to their patients’ health is elevated in their minds, they do the right thing. Does this unequivocally state that doctors always do what’s best for their patients? Well, not quite.
In another experiment, a group of doctors was asked questions about the controversial practice of receiving gifts from pharmaceutical companies. This practice of accepting gifts like pizza parties, training offsites, speaking engagements, vacation trips, etc could influence doctors into putting the companies’ interests ahead of the patient. Enough has been talked about this issue. I am not going to get into the various sides of this complex issue and stick to the findings of this experiment, but I will say that receiving and not giving back is hard. I have written about the inherent human desire to reciprocate before and you should check it out if you haven’t to understand the severity of this phenomenon.
The doctors were divided into three groups. The first group was asked the simple question of whether it was ethical for doctors to accept gifts from pharma companies. Nobody in this group said it was ethical for them to receive gifts. In the second group, before posing this same question, the doctors were told to think about all the hours they put in and the effort that goes into working for their patients. Then, the same question was asked, in this group, some of the doctors said it was indeed ok for them to accept gifts from the pharmaceutical companies. In the final group, the doctors were asked to think long and hard about the amount of money and effort they have spent in trying to secure their MDs, before posing them the same question. In this group, the majority of the doctors said it was ok for them to accept the gifts.
Between the two experiments, two very different personalities come across. So do doctors care about themselves more, or for their patients? Could it be that since washing hands for their patients’ health was a low-value choice and that when the matter was of high-value gifts, selfish interests won? The answer is doctors, like any other people, are both. People are not singularly selfish or selfless. They can be both, based on what is on the top of their minds. When doctors are asked to think about how hard they have worked for their positions, they start thinking they deserve the gifts that are on offer. It’s not that they have become selfish, it is just that at that moment in time, having thought about all they have done, persuades them into making a specific choice.
Next time you find the urge to judge someone based on their actions, may be spare a thought or two about their frame of mind first.
I run a startup called Harmonize. We are hiring and if you’re looking for an exciting startup journey, please write to jobs@harmonizehq.com. Apart from this blog, I tweet about startup life and practical wisdom in books.