Pavlov's Humans
Ivan Pavlov conducted a famous experiment where he was able to condition his dogs to salivate upon hearing the ringing of a bell. The dogs were trained to associate the sound of the bell with being fed. Salivating became an automatic response for them. Most of us also have bells that get rung constantly that cause us to salivate and it is for much more for than just food.
In the world of technology that is today we are assaulted by a potpourri of stimuli regularly. Most of our us are not even aware of our responses to them even when we can see our own drool. Some of these responses are funny and novel, some not so much. I go for a walk everyday during my lunch break and it seems like no less than three out of every ten drivers I see are on their phone. Not just speaking into their phone, their eyes are completely fixated on that 5 inch led screen and not watching the road. It's as scary as it is fascinating. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely says it is something we simply have gotten conditioned to. Most people aren't even aware of it. Once that chime goes off even if we don't respond to it, we must at the very least see who sent the text or what app alert it is. He says he turns his phone off or just puts it into the glove compartment where it is unreachable when he drives. This is an example of engineering our environment for the behavior we want.
Odysseus wanted to hear the sounds of the infamous sirens that caused all of the ships to crash when heard. He knew though that if he heard them he too would crash his ship. He decided to have himself tied down so that he couldn't move so that he could not steer the ship when he heard the sirens so he could avoid crashing his own ship. Hopefully some of us who are unaware of our bells being rung can take note and stop salivating each time we receive a text while driving a motor vehicle before we too crash our own ship.
In the world of technology that is today we are assaulted by a potpourri of stimuli regularly. Most of our us are not even aware of our responses to them even when we can see our own drool. Some of these responses are funny and novel, some not so much. I go for a walk everyday during my lunch break and it seems like no less than three out of every ten drivers I see are on their phone. Not just speaking into their phone, their eyes are completely fixated on that 5 inch led screen and not watching the road. It's as scary as it is fascinating. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely says it is something we simply have gotten conditioned to. Most people aren't even aware of it. Once that chime goes off even if we don't respond to it, we must at the very least see who sent the text or what app alert it is. He says he turns his phone off or just puts it into the glove compartment where it is unreachable when he drives. This is an example of engineering our environment for the behavior we want.
Odysseus wanted to hear the sounds of the infamous sirens that caused all of the ships to crash when heard. He knew though that if he heard them he too would crash his ship. He decided to have himself tied down so that he couldn't move so that he could not steer the ship when he heard the sirens so he could avoid crashing his own ship. Hopefully some of us who are unaware of our bells being rung can take note and stop salivating each time we receive a text while driving a motor vehicle before we too crash our own ship.
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