Electroshock to help: how people struggle with bad habits

Фото: Depositphotos

Does punishment—say, electric shocks or monetary fines—help break a bad habit?

To wean yourself to fall asleep with a smartphone in hand, the browser BBC Future experienced some radical methods.

On my wrist it’s quite a massive thing. This is a silicone bracelet with a built-in battery that is capable of delivering an electric shock with a voltage of more than 200 volts.

The image of the zipper on the top of the bright red bracelet constantly reminds me of its purpose.

Judging by the special program in my smartphone, the device is charged and set to the weakest blow. All I have to do is click on the lightning icon and get electrocuted.

The device is called Pavlok and is controversial. Some say it's a trinket, while others claim it helped you get rid of the habit of biting your nails or eating candy one after another.

Manish Sethi, founder of the company that produces Pavlok, claims that the device can get rid of a bad habit in just 5 days.

Why do I need it? I want to disaccustom myself to fall asleep with a smartphone in hand. Experts believe that this habit of mine can contribute to sleep disorders and even lead to temporary blindness.

In the video below, BBC Click correspondent Stephen Beckett demonstrates how Pavlok works. (ВThe video was recorded under safety conditions - as it should be when using devices that create electrical discharge.)

The name "Pavlok" is, of course, an allusion to the name of the famous Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, famous for causing experimental dogs to salivate at the bell preceding feeding.

Pavlok's developers hope that users will give themselves a mild electric shock every time they feel like they can't control one of their bad habits - in my case, reading from a smartphone screen in bed.

The expectation is that when a habit is associated with a person with such an unpleasant thing as an electric shock, it gradually dies off.

In the end, I had enough courage to hit myself with a shock. With the settings in 50%, the shock was such that it could not be ignored and forgotten.

So, can punishments - be it light electric shocks or, say, fines - really change our behavior for the better?

Promotion or pain?

Punishment is a kind of tool for developing a conditioned reflex. While reward is a consequence that strengthens and confirms us in a certain behavior, punishment should weaken the wrong tendencies that arise in our heads.

Researchers have tried to compare how people react to both. For example, in one such experiment, participants were given or rewarded with a small amount of “money” (tokens) based on their success in completing a task.

Small fines have been found to be more effective in influencing behavior change than rewards, even when the latter are much larger.

“This means that the brain reacts differently to gains and losses,” says Jan Kubanek, a researcher at Stanford. “Your reaction to losses is the same whether you lost 5 cents or 25 cents.”

Not so with incentives. “If you buy nickels, you're more likely to make the same choice again next time. However, when you get 5 cents, the likelihood of making the same choice increases, he explains. - The more you win, the more likely you are to make the same choice. While any loss of magnitude leads to an equally strong signal “avoid!”, “Don’t do that again!”

Kubanek believes that the results of these experiments could be useful outside the laboratory - when it comes to determining the extent to which negative feedback or punishment can help. For example, at a university, teachers can use this knowledge in structuring a performance assessment system.

Research shows that the threat of punishment influences our behavior. In one of the experiments, it was demonstrated that even one image of eyes is enough to stop littering in that place - people thought that someone was looking at them. (However, in subsequent studies it turned out to be quite difficult to replicate the “following eyes effect.”)

In his book “God is Watching You” (God is watching you) Dominic Johnson argues that the fear of punishment from above - whether from God, from hell, in connection with karma - provides an additional degree of cooperation within society, independent of the activities of government institutions.

“The capabilities of governments and police are limited. They can't keep track of everything, and their options for punishment are limited, Johnson says. - Another thing is the gods, who are omnipresent and whose possibilities for punishment are limitless. The gods are much more powerful than the police. At least for those who believe in them."

This idea is supported by some studies - for example, psychologist Azim Sharif, who found that the level of crime in a society depends on the belief in the existence of hell.

“It upset some people, but it turns out that people are more willing to cooperate when they are afraid of going to hell than when they want to go to heaven,” Johnson says.

Some researchers have noticed that the eyes drawn on the wall are enough for people to watch their behavior. True, this does not always work. Photo: Depositphotos

This very possibility of being punished may be the reason why Pavlok turned out to be very effective for some people.

My red bracelet has a prominent lightning bolt design on it. This alone is enough for me to remember: I need to punish myself with an electric shock for lying in bed with a smartphone!

The bracelet served its purpose - I constantly remembered it and spent much less time on the Internet in the evenings.

However, voluntarily exposing myself to electric shock for reading in Facebook bed, I did not achieve a complete failure to use the smartphone before bedtime.

But what worked, at least throughout the next week. I imposed a huge fine on myself, which I paid to my own husband - and he had the right to spend this money on anything.

Just one long evening spent in bed with a smartphone - and the amount turned out to be so impressive that I swore off doing it again (but when my experiment ended, I returned to my bad habits).

Looks like I can live with this - constantly shocking myself and regularly shelling out money. But isn't this too high a price to pay for an innocent habit?

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