Read articles on how the latest insights from the world of neuroscience and behavioural science can make a difference to your organisation.
In current times, when many of us are working from home, our brains are having to adapt to a whole new way of working, often not in ideal conditions. The norms of going to the office 5 days a week are on hold, and a new normal has to be established. One thing that is...
Emotion-driven habits Human beings are creatures of habit. Often working on an automatic pilot in response to various triggers that we come across throughout the day. And whilst these triggers could include walking past a cafe selling tasty treats, or the sound alert...
Creatures of Habit Did you make a new year's resolution this year? Or more importantly, did you manage to stick with it? Maybe you decided to take up running or to eat more healthily. Some kind of relatively “minor” lifestyle change. It might have seemed quite...
The Power of Conscientiousness Hard working, diligent, studious, ethical, meticulous, punctual, dutiful. They are all words which describe a certain type of person. A person who, from reading those words, you might think is a little bit boring. Not much fun. Even a...
Work-based safety is one of the main strands of focus in the team of which I am part at the Wales Centre for Behaviour Change (WCBC). This area perhaps lends itself most obviously to collaboration between research psychology and industry. Although studied...
In this series of articles I have been exploring how the neuropsychological theory of dual processing may belie some our most fundamental ways of being in the world. The way in which we process information has implications for all sorts of psychological functions, including memory, learning, attention, problem solving and social cognition…..
The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. – William James, Psychology: Briefer Course Think...
It’s February. Memories of Christmas may be fading fast but in the New Year some things are undoubtedly still playing on our minds. Whether it’s a touch of guilt about festive over-indulgence or a sense of the significance of the New Year as a new opportunity, there are a number of reasons why many of us think about making New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions are important because give us an opportunity to improve ourselves for our own benefit and for the benefit of those….
Last time I described differences between ACTIONS and HABITS. Actions are intentional which means we consciously identify a goal and then decide how we’re going to get it. These goals may change as our motivation changes (we shift from chips to cake part way through a three-course meal; we put a jumper on and then take it off as the temperature changes; we stop phoning a colleague when we’re told they are in a….
We’re making a neuroscientific foray into hard-core science of the brain – delving into the world of rat brains and minds. Specifically, I am going to focus on a series of studies that have great relevance to understanding human behaviour. And you might even give little ratty a bit more respect afterwards too.
We often talk about habits. We say we’ve developed a bad habit. Or a good one. But what is a habit? And before we have got into the habit, how would we….
What do you do when you want to change someone’s behaviour? You can simply ask them to change. You could put up a poster. Perhaps you can try and explain why they should change. These are the traditional approaches - an attempt to change attitudes or beliefs with the...
Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink... Next week I travel to Denmark for a conference on Behaviour Change. In fact it is run by the Danish Nudge Network! What on earth is that, I hear you ask. Well, it’s a long story and it involves competing brain systems trying to control our...
In the last article, I described “self-control” and ended by noting that it can be learnt. I also made a case for ‘control’ being a valuable ability to have. Sometimes of course we want to let go and our creativity would benefit...
I was proof reading a document recently and part way through I had a “stuff this!” moment and gave up. I then sent the document back saying it was proofed. I was tired and every time I read a sentence I lost track and had to go...
So, apparently habits can be a good thing. They help us to achieve goals, help us to stay on track when distracted, they free up our minds to focus on important issues and they sit quietly in the darkest recesses of our minds...
If asked about our working life, most of us would probably say that we are doing okay but perhaps not flourishing. We perform well but not always at our best. We could be better but things are okay. Neuroscience research offers a...
Habits are notorious. When we have good habits we achieve things easily and enjoy our productivity. When we have bad habits we feel the impact of them. So what actually is a habit? They tend to be a repeated behaviour that has a strong unconscious element to it. This...
Do you believe you have free will? Do you believe you control your mind, your actions, your fate? In a series of controversial experiments (the results were controversial, not the methods) some startling discoveries came to light. Bear in mind as we look at these they...
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