Strong views ... weakly held

Robert Cialdini has famously written about the "science of influence", a fascinating account, backed up by the astonishing results of years of research.  One of his Six Principles is that of "consistency", which is our tendency to make choices that reinforce, or are consistent with, commitments we've already made.  It may not sound too surprising that we do this but Cialdini gives examples from research that take the principle to extremes.

In one experiment, researchers knocked on doors and asked householders if they'd be willing to display an advertisement, in the form of a small card, in their window.  A proportion of people agreed.  A few weeks later, the researchers were out again and contacting a wider group, including those who had been approached in part one, but also others who had not.  This time they asked the subjects if they would be willing to have a large advertising banner positioned in their front gardens!  Not surprisingly, virtually all of those being contacted for the first time declined.  But amazingly, many of the first group, who had agreed to display the small card, also agreed to host an intrusive banner.

This (and other) experiments showed that people can be "conditioned" to make choices that they wouldn't otherwise have made.

And the principle of consistency also shows itself in the way we tend to advocate the things we've invested in, irrespective of their true qualities.  No-one wants to be seen as having made a bad decision so we'll continue to look for the positives in, say, a product we've bought long after the faults become apparent.

But sometimes the outcome has been so bad that it crosses your threshold of tolerance and you flip to become a vociferous critic.  "Don't make my mistake!" you say whenever you get the chance.

It's remarkable how we can reverse our opinions in this way.  In the TV series "Cheers", The Coach would say things like, "XXXX was the greatest linebacker I've ever seen in the league!"  Norm says, "No I don't think so." The Coach, after a moment's thought says, "You're right, he was terrible!"

So, consistency only goes so far (except in politics where it usually goes way too far) and then it collapses spectacularly.

In the physical world, many systems exhibit a "switching" behaviour where a seemingly stable state suddenly becomes unstable and there's a jump to a new equilibrium.

In the 1960s, the French mathematician Ren? Thom studied the different mathematical forms that allowed this kind of "catastrophic" behaviour.  He described 7 types of catastrophe.  But they all share the characteristic that a smooth change in some parameter can, at a certain point, result in a discontinuous change in some other property.

You'd see this kind of behaviour, for example, if you measured the viscosity of water at different temperatures.  As it cools, water becomes progressively more viscous (not much, but some) until at 0?C the viscosity suddenly becomes infinite. The water is no longer a liquid.  In Thom's terms, a catastrophic change has occurred.

And these jumps are common in human behaviour.  We accommodate changes that challenge our beliefs.  The principle of consistency is very powerful and, as in the example of the advertising banners, people will put up with an incredible amount of inconvenience before they will act against a prior decision.  If the challenge is too great though, there's a catastrophic shift and our language contains many expressions for this happening:

The response to crossing this threshold of tolerance may be very vigorous, even violent.  But it might not be expressed at all, at least not immediately.  If the shift is from a state of "coping" to one of "not coping" then the individual could either explode or just quietly break down.

So, for managers, it's important to be aware that even those in your team who willingly take on more work and responsibility have their limits. There may be no sign that they're approaching a limit - and they might not know it themselves - so it's worth talking to each of them now and again about how they're managing and to look for signs of overload.

And in leadership, you can take people in directions they don't want to go provided it's in small enough steps.  But eventually they'll balk when the gap becomes too great.  So you need to be aware of their opinions and their feelings.  Which is empathy - last month's topic!

Footnote: I'm pretty sure that "Strong views, weakly held" was the headline of historian A J P Taylor's obituary in The Guardian newspaper.  It seems he once described himself this way.