People always have ideas on what the right way to change one’s behavior was, but what has been proven was how humans don’t respond well to negative feedback about the future. However, Tali Sharot has found that there is a better way to change behavior. This way is through positive feedback, as in giving immediate rewards for doing something that would benefit them in the future. This however, can lead to some problems.
The first problem is that if this really becomes widespread, people will start taking shortcuts and rewarding themselves for it. This would be a problem because this wont actually lead to any real change, but just more people feeling good about themselves. Rewarding oneself for good behavior is a good idea, however, people will still come up with ways to exploit the situation.
Another concern is privacy. One good example of this is the example of seeing who is most efficient in using their energy. This might help lead to people being more efficient with their energy, but it will also lead to data privacy issues, as this data is being shown to everybody in the neighborhood. Data privacy is an important issue for people, and if this idea of competition becomes big, some people will start opting out of the idea of this, which will lead to them not changing their behavior.
This is not to say that the idea of encouraging good behavior through instantaneous feedback is a bad idea, but just to point out minor issues associated with it.
