The problem is, as much as we understand that, even perceptibly insignificant changes in our daily routine, like eating a healthier meal, replying to an important email-or going to a health center for a tetanus jab-can be enough to dissuade us. This is evident in the new romantic partners we date, the careers we change and the new countries we relocate to: we believe change will lead to growth and we will be better off for it. On an intellectual and emotional level, we know change is inevitable, and to cope with that reality, we may even choose to embrace it (be it consciously or unconsciously). The problem is, as much as we’re advocates for change, we fear it. If you’re a regular reader, you’re probably interested in behaviour change and habit formation, and how you can create widespread changes in your life. The reality is, knowledge is only as powerful as its application. Sir Francis Bacon famously said, “Knowledge is power”, but as studies like the aforementioned show, seldom is knowledge enough to overcome the inertia of starting. So, what happened? Why Information Doesn’t Lead To Action The experiment didn’t inspire change in the students. One month after the experiment, almost none of the students had actually gone to the health centre: only a mere 3 percent had got inoculated.įor some reason, the subjects had forgotten everything they had learnt about the dangers of tetanus, and the lessons they had been taught had not been applied. When they were given a questionnaire later, all the students appeared to be clued up about the dangers of tetanus.īut those who were given the high-fear booklet, were more convinced of the importance of jabs and were more likely to say they were going to get inoculated.īut when Levanthal looked at how many of the subjects actually went and got the jab, all of these differences vanished. The results, as you can imagine, were quite predictable. Levanthal wanted to know what impact the different booklets had on the subjects’ attitudes toward tetanus and their likelihood of getting a jab. In the “low fear” version, the language describing the risks of tetanus was toned down, and the photographs were omitted. Some of the students were given a “high fear” version, which described tetanus in graphic terms and included colour photographs of a child having a tetanus seizure. He divided them up into several groups, and gave all of them a seven-page booklet explaining the dangers of tetanus, the importance of inoculation, and the fact that the university was offering free tetanus jabs at the campus health centre to anyone interested. In 1965, a social psychologist called Howard Levanthal wanted to see if he could persuade a group of university students at Yale University to get a tetanus jab.

The tipping point gladwell