Friends ask friends to wear masks.

 

Public shaming is very popular these days.  Here's what my students had to say about it last month...

 

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2020/11/should-we-be-shaming-people-into-doing.html

 

I get it.  It's very tempting to call someone out about their bad behavior.  The problem is - who gets to decide what's bad?

 

President-elect Biden has been shaming Trump publicly over the past few weeks in an effort to get him to do his job.  Trump's reaction?  He's playing golf.

 

We really shouldn't be surprised.  Shaming is not on the list of most effective persuasion techniques.

 

What is on the list is liking.  Research shows that taking a few minutes to establish commonalities - which leads to liking, prior to negotiations, results in successful outcomes 90% of the time versus 55%  if this step is skipped. (Cialdini, 2020)

 

Every time we can get another person to wear a mask we all win. 

 

So focus your efforts on people who like you.  Explain that you wear your mask to protect them.  Ask them to do the same for you. 

 

You never know, it might just work.

 

 

Cialdini, R. (2020) Science of Persuasion.  Influence at Work.  retrieved December 30, 2020, from

https://www.influenceatwork.com/principles-of-persuasion/

I'm sure everyone can pronounce Harris properly.

 

It seems like lots of people are spending lots of time discussing how to pronounce Kamala.  I can't imagine why.  Have people been regularly referring to Vice President Pence as Mike?  Of course not.

 

But referring to a woman by her first name is a common trick practiced by insecure men.  A not so subtle put down.  And it works.

 

One can only wonder if it the 2016 election results would have been different if  instead of being "Hillary versus Trump" it was "Clinton versus Donald."

 

Janes, C. (2020, October 24)  Mispronouncing ‘Kamala’: Accident or message?  washingtonpost.com.  Retrieved December 23, 2020 , from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mispronouncing-kamala-accident-or-message/2020/10/23/5927f120-13b3-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_story.html

 

You only need 11 minutes of exercise a day to live longer.

 

Are you as shocked to read that as I am?  For years we have been hearing that you need 60 minutes of exercise a day to be healthier - an amount that most people consider to be unreachable.  Now it turns out that while 35 minutes a day is the exercise sweet spot, even 11 minutes a day of moderate exercise will improve longevity significantly. (Reynolds, 2020)

 

So, why the change?  Better data.  What made it better?  It wasn't based on consumer surveys. 

 

Ask a person how many hours they sat still yesterday and you will get a wrong answer.  Ask a person how many minutes they exercised yesterday and you will get a wrong answer.  Why?  Because most of us aren't tuned in enough to our actions to be accurate when we are asked to recap them.

 

That's why we need to seek actual behavioral data when we do research.

 

A new study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine in November analyzed the exercise habits of 44,000 middle-aged and older individuals based on the data from the fitness trackers that they wore.  (Ekelund, Tarp, Fagerland, et al, 2020)

 

What they found is that people can be divided into three groups - less than 11 minutes of exercise a day, 11 minutes to 35 minutes of exercise a day and 35+ minutes of exercise a day. 

 

While the latter group lived the longest.  The middle group didn't do so badly either.  With as little as 11 minutes of exercise a day. 

 

That's a low enough bar that some people who got discouraged by the 60 minute threshold might be inspired to participate and reap the rewards.  But first they have to know about the new findings.  So spread the word.   

 

11 minutes of exercise a day.  

 

Say it over and over again until people actually hear it.

 

 

Reynolds, G. (2020, December 2)  11 Minutes of Exercise a Day May Help Counter the Effects of Sitting.  nytimes.com.  Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/well/move/exercise-sitting-longevity.html

 

Ekelund U, Tarp J, Fagerland MW, et al

Joint associations of accelero-meter measured physical activity and sedentary time with all-cause mortality: a harmonised meta-analysis in more than 44 000 middle-aged and older individuals

British Journal of Sports Medicine 2020;54:1499-1506.  Retrieved December 16, 2020, from

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/54/24/1499