"I would like to address the universal problem of procrastination This behavioral problem rooted so deeply in human nature can be credited to human intelligence. Our limited analytically brain cannot comprehend the consequences of procrastination till it has caused enough damage to make us act in a fire fighting mode. We have a local proverb, "When the beard catches fire, one starts digging the well". Let me highlight the impact of procrastination.
1. People decide to quit tobacco or alcohol only to procrastinate it for the next day!
2.Students procrastinate completing their assignments till the last day. This was highlighted by Dan in the lecture.
3. Governments procrastinate investments in basic research or projects which will not yield results in their lifetime.
4. Individuals procrastinate exercising or eating healthy.
Procrastination is a problem of large magnitude affecting individuals, organizations, nations.
When we try to understand the reasons for procrastination we realize that it is more to do with results in the distant future. Erudition and analysis may make one aware of the fact that smoking/tobacco is bad for health. Not investing in education or for a country in research and development can result in poorer economic growth in future. Not exercising can have detrimental health consequences.
But this realization does not result in change of behavior. People procrastinate to do the right thing.
Why?
One of the main reason is that they cannot completely fathom the consequences. Observation bias tricks them into believing that they can get away by procrastination Let me explain, you see 70 or 80 year old guy smoking. The brain interprets that smoking is not harmful. All the people ho have died of cancer or COPD are not there to create that visual impression. So the realization which had come from reading takes a backseat.
Same is true with exercise or nations. The fact that few nations are able to get away with financial bailout will impact the policies of other nations.
Research on procrastination has looked into the psychology behind it. Dan Ariely has also researched the topic.
Few salient features from research:
1. Dan's research focuses on self-imposed deadlines, cost of them, timing or spacing of deadlines and externally imposed deadlines. Externally imposed deadlines work the best followed by self-imposed well spaced deadlines.
2. Psychological parameters, avoidance behavior, negative self-image, impulsiveness loss aversion (Prospect theory, Kahnemann and Tversky) have all been linked to the behavior of procrastination.
In future we may understand better about the genetics, dopamine pathway, serotonin pathway involvement in procrastination.
One more aspect of the behavior of procrastination is to accept the consequences of procrastination as the stress of overcoming it is more costlier for brain than accepting the negative consequence of procrastination.
So what solution can be proposed?
We know that our behavior is shaped by incentives and punishments. If the incentives are in distant future which the brain has difficulty in imagining. Also it has difficulty imagining the positive experience of overcoming procrastination.
The other aspect is constantly seeing individuals escaping punishment or adverse consequences of procrastination.
So the concept of positive paternalism steps in!
Organizations, governments can penalize those who smoke by deducting a significant part of their salary and locking it in a investment account. This can either change the behavior or the corpus will be useful for his health crisis!
Positive discrimination, rewarding healthy individuals with financial, vacation rewards. This should be based on outcomes. An employee can have diabetes and there may be hundred diabetics, but the one who exercises and has glucose levels in normal range for three months gets quarterly incentive.
Peer pressure is a strong force for behavioral changes. Rewarding groups or people with positive behaviors and punishing detrimental behavior has potential to change behavior.
Multifactorial causative agents can mislead the brain in understanding the importance/contribution of single agent. Videos of patients who have suffered from lung cancer, COPD needs to be displayed in smoking rooms if they still exist! This may sound dictatorial but necessary considering human fallibility in modifying behavior.
Governments which invest in infrastructure, research and development, increase GDP spending on health and education are rewarded by World Bank or G7 nations. A economically stronger, healthy, educated Asia and Africa will revive economy of the world. Penalizing nations which do not spend on education and health will compel them to change behavior. The penalty should hurt the political fortunes of the ruling party thereby inducing change of behavior.
I conclude by stressing that procrastination is a big challenge all around us. It can be tackled by employing means and mechanisms of rewarding individuals who have overcome procrastination openly at home, office, city and national level. Equally important is punishing or dis-incentivizing poor performers."
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