A behavioural scientist says the pandemic response confirmed most people will go along with wrongful measures because it is easier.David Charalambous shared three main points with the Reclaiming Canada Conference hosted by We Unify in Victoria on June 23:Understanding better behaviour leads to better leadingChange the inputs, the outputs will change.Bad situations drive bad outcomes. Good situations drive good outcomes.The consultant with 25 years of international experience pointed to numerous studies. In one, nurses were given a prescription over the phone (against policy) by a doctor they never met for a fictitious drug not approved for use at a dose twice the maximum amount recommended on its containers. Nineteen of every 20 nurses filled the prescription anyway.Charalambous said manipulators of the pandemic response understood how to get compliance."If you're wondering why everyone went along, it's because they understand behaviour. They understand how to create the situation to get the outcome that they want," he said."There's about 10 or 20% that you can't manipulate in the same way."In another study, heart operation patients were given access to a study for $50 to gain access to data that showed mortality rates would be three times worse if one procedure was done versus another. Only 8% paid the $50.A large gap exists between what we say we will do and what people say or think they will do, Charalambous said."Whether at work or at home, our instinct is: if we have something to convey, the other person will want to know...This instinct is wrong," he explained."How you say it is important. If you can't get it into someone's head, it has no value."Charalambous pointed to Yale Psychologist Stanley Milgram's 1961 obedience experiment that examined what percentage of people would electrocute someone if urged by the study supervisor. Psychology students predicted 1% compliance, professional psychiatrists predicted 0.1% compliance, but the actual compliance was 67%. People do what they're told."Hidden forces" on a subconscious level motivate us 90% of the time, Charalambous explained."The problem is that all of that unconscious processing, it can be influenced and the governments now know how to do that," he said.The scientist showed a BBC weather map where warmer temperatures were portrayed in hues like raging fires, at temperatures of only 14C to 16C. He quoted Voltaire who said, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."Charalambous summarized: “That is what we've seen the last four years. There are so many people who believe that what they're doing is for the greater good and if you can make them believe that, they will do anything.""Experience, stories, metaphors, questions" change people, he said."It's not from being told. You tell someone the government's lying, they're going to want to back up their belief system. But when you show them, they're going to have a real trouble (refuting it)."The behavioural scientist said the reason the pandemic response succeeded in its goals is that 65% of the population can have their moral compass moved under certain conditions.“What dictates a person’s reaction is the situation for 90% and personality for only 10%," he explained.“We should be designed in our system so they don't contain those conditions.”In a real-life example, Wells Fargo made it a condition that people had to sign up new customers or lose their job. The result was 5,000 employees committed fraud.In another study, people were told they would make $10 for every time a coin they flipped turned up heads. Banking employees did not cheat. But if they were reminded they were bank employees, they cheated more than prison inmates."The culture of banking, the situation of banking, is to cheat," he said."The systems that we have are breeding bad behaviour. And many people can't resist the situation, and the incentives...You put a carrot out there and you're going to find people who want to eat that carrot. It's not hard to find a load of corrupt people who want to be a politician."The Reaching People founder said behavioural motivations can be used for the good. People can be motivated to act towards good causes if you provide them convenient ways to engage. He gave tips to BC rising, encouraged by their goals and motives."The ninja move to achieve anything is starting," he said.
