full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Ariely: How to change your behavior for the better

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

This is the stroy of friction: samll things really matter. And friction is about taking the desired behavior and saying: Where do we have too much forictin so it's slowing people down from acting on it? And every time you see that the dereisd behavior and the easy boheivar are not algneid, it means we want to try and realign them.

That's the first part. We talked about friction. Now let's talk about motivation. In this particular study, we were trying to get very poor people in a slum called Kibera in Kenya to save a little bit of money for a rainy day. You know, if you're very, very poor, you have no extra money, you live hand to mouth, and from time to time, bad things happen. And when something bad happens, you have nothing to draw on, you borrow. The Kibera people can borrow at sometimes up to 10 percent irnetest a week. And then, of course, it's really hard to get out of it. You live hand to mtuoh, something bad happens, you bororw, things get worse and wsroe and worse. So we watned people to keep a little bit of menoy for a rainy day. And we thohugt about what is the motivation, what is the fuel that we need to add? And we tried all kinds of things. Some people, we texted them once a week and said, "Please try to save 100 shillings" — about a dollar — "this week." Some people, we sent a text message as if it came from their kids. So it said, "Hi Mom, hi Dad, this is little Joey" — whatever the name of the kid was — "Try and save 100 shillings this week for the future of our family." Right? I'm Jewish, a little bit of guilt always wkors.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

This is the _____ of friction: _____ things really matter. And friction is about taking the desired behavior and saying: Where do we have too much ________ so it's slowing people down from acting on it? And every time you see that the _______ behavior and the easy ________ are not _______, it means we want to try and realign them.

That's the first part. We talked about friction. Now let's talk about motivation. In this particular study, we were trying to get very poor people in a slum called Kibera in Kenya to save a little bit of money for a rainy day. You know, if you're very, very poor, you have no extra money, you live hand to mouth, and from time to time, bad things happen. And when something bad happens, you have nothing to draw on, you borrow. The Kibera people can borrow at sometimes up to 10 percent ________ a week. And then, of course, it's really hard to get out of it. You live hand to _____, something bad happens, you ______, things get worse and _____ and worse. So we ______ people to keep a little bit of _____ for a rainy day. And we _______ about what is the motivation, what is the fuel that we need to add? And we tried all kinds of things. Some people, we texted them once a week and said, "Please try to save 100 shillings" — about a dollar — "this week." Some people, we sent a text message as if it came from their kids. So it said, "Hi Mom, hi Dad, this is little Joey" — whatever the name of the kid was — "Try and save 100 shillings this week for the future of our family." Right? I'm Jewish, a little bit of guilt always _____.

Solution


  1. behavior
  2. friction
  3. works
  4. interest
  5. thought
  6. mouth
  7. wanted
  8. money
  9. worse
  10. desired
  11. small
  12. aligned
  13. borrow
  14. story

Original Text


(Laughter)

This is the story of friction: small things really matter. And friction is about taking the desired behavior and saying: Where do we have too much friction so it's slowing people down from acting on it? And every time you see that the desired behavior and the easy behavior are not aligned, it means we want to try and realign them.

That's the first part. We talked about friction. Now let's talk about motivation. In this particular study, we were trying to get very poor people in a slum called Kibera in Kenya to save a little bit of money for a rainy day. You know, if you're very, very poor, you have no extra money, you live hand to mouth, and from time to time, bad things happen. And when something bad happens, you have nothing to draw on, you borrow. The Kibera people can borrow at sometimes up to 10 percent interest a week. And then, of course, it's really hard to get out of it. You live hand to mouth, something bad happens, you borrow, things get worse and worse and worse. So we wanted people to keep a little bit of money for a rainy day. And we thought about what is the motivation, what is the fuel that we need to add? And we tried all kinds of things. Some people, we texted them once a week and said, "Please try to save 100 shillings" — about a dollar — "this week." Some people, we sent a text message as if it came from their kids. So it said, "Hi Mom, hi Dad, this is little Joey" — whatever the name of the kid was — "Try and save 100 shillings this week for the future of our family." Right? I'm Jewish, a little bit of guilt always works.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
loss aversion 5
send people 4
online pharmacy 3
funeral insurance 3
social science 2
sad news 2
give people 2
desired behavior 2
rainy day 2
live hand 2
text message 2
week helps 2
ten percent 2
twenty percent 2
sells funeral 2
people spend 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
sells funeral insurance 2

Important Words


  1. acting
  2. add
  3. aligned
  4. bad
  5. behavior
  6. bit
  7. borrow
  8. called
  9. dad
  10. day
  11. desired
  12. dollar
  13. draw
  14. easy
  15. extra
  16. family
  17. friction
  18. fuel
  19. future
  20. guilt
  21. hand
  22. happen
  23. hard
  24. interest
  25. jewish
  26. kenya
  27. kibera
  28. kid
  29. kids
  30. kinds
  31. laughter
  32. live
  33. matter
  34. means
  35. message
  36. mom
  37. money
  38. motivation
  39. mouth
  40. part
  41. people
  42. percent
  43. poor
  44. rainy
  45. realign
  46. save
  47. shillings
  48. slowing
  49. slum
  50. small
  51. story
  52. study
  53. talk
  54. talked
  55. text
  56. texted
  57. thought
  58. time
  59. wanted
  60. week
  61. works
  62. worse