George Orwell famously said: "All writers are vain, selfish and lazy". He could have said this for almost the entire human race. There are many altruistic people, and most of us sometimes do not fit this characterisation, but these are undoubtedly our default traits. Anybody who tries to persuade the public to behave in a certain manner must accept them or risk failure; or at the very least, be prepared for a long hard slog. The tech industry has understood this very well and created billion-dollar businesses that millions of people use daily for a cab ride (Uber), purchases (Amazon), information (Google) or other social purposes (Facebook, Twitter). Can intelligent policymakers and well-meaning politicians, who try to persuade millions to either clean up garbage, follow traffic rules, stop taking or giving bribes, learn from them? Lets first look at these characteristics.
We are lazy because we do not want to spend time and effort to learn something new. As is it, life takes a heavy toll on us: Long hours of travel to and from office, and often, regimented and boring work usually leaves us with less time to do what we really want to do - spend time with family, follow our hobbies, travel and so on. Hence, when forced to deal something new, we quickly assess how much time it requires to complete. Our first instinct is to shun anything that requires effort unless, of course, it promises clear, immediate and substantial gratification. If you buy a new product, you are impatient to use it. You certainly do not enjoy protracted unpacking, reading detailed instructions and a complicated set up process.
Product designers know this and try to make things 'plug and play'. If they achieve it, products can be wildly successful. If not, they fail. A US study shows that half the gadgets returned to stores are in good working order, but sent back because customers can't figure out how to operate them. Assuming 'users are lazy' is the first principle in software, apps and websites that expect you to take some action. If it weren't for a couple of taps to get connected, a service like Whatsapp would not have the same success.
Then comes vanity. The explosive growth of social media - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and so on, - owe their success to our vanity. We are keenly aware of how we come across to others and are eager to express ourselves. We need to know that we are looking good to others. The 'Like' icon of Facebook exemplifies this so wonderfully that it was copied by Instagram and Twitter. It is a very powerful form of engagement because it appeals to our ego. Whether it is online or offline, vanity dominates our actions, often quite unconsciously.
Most importantly, we are selfish. We care most for ourselves, at least during the initial stage of our interaction with anything. The study of 'incentives' is central to the study of economics, both for individual decision-making and cooperation and competition among institutions. When we evaluate a product, service or idea, we are really evaluating what our immediate return from it is and whether it will offer a higher return than the cost or time we are asked to spend on it. In his Independence Day speech in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi castigated us for always approaching everything from our selfish perspective. "What's in its for me" (mera kya) is our usual response to things, he lamented. He appealed to the people of India to stop thinking only about themselves. A noble appeal, but the PM was really up against human nature. Indeed, if policymaking is based on appeals to the goodness of our hearts, they will fail miserably. This is probably why the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan has not taken off so far.
While the tech sector, which dominates our working life, has figured this out and tries to make our lives frictionless, government policies that dictate the other half of our lives, only create friction. If you want to sign up for a mutual fund account, stock investment account or even a bank account, you will have to go through extensive sign-up processes and repeated Know Your Customer formalities that put you off completely. Every single interaction between the state and its citizens is fraught with friction such as repeated visits, triplicate copies, delays, lack of transparency or needless run around. If Swachch Bharat has to succeed, it will have to assume that people are lazy and so they need a garbage bin at arm's length and will not go a few metres looking for it just because the PM has appealed to them or Hema Malini has waved a broom.
Policymakers in some countries have understood this. The UK set up the "Nudge Unit" inside 10 Downing Street to make public services more cost-effective and easier to use, and to improve outcomes by introducing a more realistic model of human behaviour to policy. It has morphed into a social purpose company called The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) which is jointly owned by the UK government, Nesta (the innovation charity) and its employees. BIT tests its ideas before they are scaled up, exactly the way websites test their approaches. This enables it to understand what works and (importantly) what does not work. Why not include this sensible approach in Indian policymaking based on the three human traits?
The writer is the editor of www.moneylife.in
Twitter: @Moneylifers
Twitter: @Moneylifers
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