Making Group Think Your Think

I have increasingly less patience with magazines that like to quote research. One reason is that the stories seldom delve beyond the headlines and thus don't really tell you what, if anything, the research should mean to you and the other is that the research is often old news or worse, disproved old news.

In a magazine I read through today there was mention of several studies, all small and all by the same researcher, regarding the influence of persons with high levels of self control. The study author, Michelle vanDellen, PhD, contends that people who witness others exhibiting self control or think about persons they know who have high levels of self control, will then exhibit this same self control during testing. For this study, my thought was, AND THEN??? What about when the other person is not around or you are no longer thinking about them?

Dr. vanDellen's study reminds me of other studies that came out last year. These studies indicated that people seemed to model the behavior of their friends and coworkers in regards to maintaining healthy weights, exercising regularly, quitting smoking and eating less junk food.

This sort of group behavior works the opposite way as well.

I do not need a research study to convince me that people who work together can become healthy together - my coworkers are proof. The study I would like to see regards what it might take to get people to INTERNALIZE the self control they witness. How does one go from doing something because their coworker does it, to doing it because it is what they truly want to do?

There are plenty of behavior theories that could explain the process. The ones that make the most sense have to do with whether or not the behavior witnessed is one that the other person feels capable of doing, if that behavior is seen as capable (effective) of providing the desired result(change), if that result is indeed desirable to the person who is trying it, the perception of reward, benefit or satisfaction the doer gets from the new behavior and the response of others when the person does it.

Health educators try to provide role models who are like the target audience so that people see people JUST LIKE THEM doing the desired activity. Health educators also try to show behaviors that are easy, possible, and repeatable. The behavior should also have some immediate positive association. It is hard to make exercise addictive because the pay off doesn't come immediately, but a payoff can be a sense of accomplishment or the verbal praise someone receives from completing an activity.

My coworkers do a really good job of adopting health promoting behaviors, some of them are more consistent than others. The consistent ones, those are the ones we need to study and emulate - not me, I am beyond consistent, a little less driven is better but some drive IS needed. So yes, group influence is great, but only if it's positive and only if it can be internalized.

Sadly, it seems like we are more likely to internalize the "all you can eat" mentality than the " I need to exercise every day" one. :(