The logic behind illogical behavior

My boyfriend looks at me confused, “Why did you do that?

I look from him to the spice jar of paprika powder in my hand.

‘What?” I ask.

‘Why did you twist the top right back on? Without the top you can reach it much better. Now almost nothing is coming out.’

Indeed, it takes me a lot of effort to get to two teaspoons of paprika through the tiny holes. Again I twist off the top of the jar and soon have my teaspoon full of paprika.

I had twisted off the top of the spice jar the first time because it was a new jar and I needed to remove the seal. That was logical behavior. That I immediately turned the top back on was less logical. At least from an efficiency perspective.

Still, my original behavior was not very strange if you look at how our brain works. After all, a lot of behavior is driven by automated behavioral schemes. In my case, the new spice jar activated my commonly used behavioral scheme for new spice jars, namely, “top off,” “seal off,” “top back” on.

The field of Human Factors is full of examples of seemingly illogical or suboptimal behaviors that can be logically explained. My favorite example is still that of ATMs.

There was a period when a remarkable number of people forgot their ATM cards in the Netherlands . One simple change was then made to the process, a sequence change, and then the problem was over.

What had happened? In the old situation, the ATM spit out the money first and then the debit card. People go to an ATM with a purpose, which is to get their money. The moment they get the money, the goal is achieved and they walk away.

In the new situation, the ATM gives the card back first. People don’t walk away, because they haven’t reached their goal yet. They neatly wait for their money while their ATM card is already safely back in their wallet.

When we focus on how a process ought to go, the abnormal behavior seems illogical or wrong. The tendency is then to think of interventions that focus on the individual. For example, one could have put stickers everywhere with ‘don’t forget your card’.

When we let go of how things are ‘supposed to be’ and focus on what behavior is actually exhibited, we can discover what the logic is behind the behavior. This knowledge can inspire adjustments in task design. In the ATM example, the adjustment was a sequence change, and this was very effective!

Although the ATM is disappearing more and more from the streets, I will never forget it. What a great example of the impact of a human centered design adaptation.

#humanfactors #psychologie #humancentereddesign

This post has been translated. Do you want to read my posts in Dutch? www.juliaburggraaf.nl/blog

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