Bad Habits

Get people to want to agree with you. Then show them how.

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How do habits influence behavior? Significantly, according to returning Remnant favorite Cass Sunstein, Harvard professor and co-author of the new book Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There. In it, he argues that breaking habits and routines can enable us to find greater fulfillment in life. But why did humans evolve to acquire habits in the first place? How do habits desensitize us? And how can we encourage people to adopt healthy habits of the heart?

Show Notes:

– Cass’ new book, Look Again

– Cass and co-author Tali Sharot on how we become habituated to horrible things 

– Cass’ Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech

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Comments (34)
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  1. Frederickwf

    I just finished this one—really enjoyed it—and I know no one will read this, but I have to note the irony of Jonah complaining about the frog study as a pet peeve of his while also publishing a newsletter in his magazine called “Boiling Frogs”

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    C C Writer

    Haven't finished listening, but so far I am fascinated by the explanation of the brain mechanisms and chemistry and the thing with shutting off the alarms that normally sound when something is very wrong. This doesn't sound like pop psychology to me, but actual science. And it explains a lot. Not everything, but this seems to be where conditioning and desensitizing impinge on morals. (It's way more immoral to do this to people than it is for them to let it be done to them. But at some point they have some responsibility to avoid it if they can.)

    How many times in these comments have people asked "But how could Trump brainwash so many people so badly? Why do they believe his lies?" Apparently it can be done by pushing certain buttons, hard enough, cleverly enough, often enough, and en masse. I don't know what the cure or the defense might be, but this is a starting point for figuring it out.

    Similarly, knowing that social media amplify those kinds of effects may give us a place to start in working out what guardrails can reasonably put in place, or at least ways of warning people what can happen, and building a societal consensus that this is needed.

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  3. Bobby D

    Good podcast!

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  4. Payette

    Very good discussion, Jonah. Thanks!

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    Sharon.Slaten

    Jonah, thank you for a great podcast. The discussion with Cass Sunstein was so interesting that I downloaded Look Again as soon as the podcast ended.

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    Kevin Johnson

    This one is great. The two of you line up in many ways and are at a slight angle elsewhere. This makes for profitable musings all around. Cass is a great guest, who thinks out loud as well as explains his ponderings. I found this great counter programming to sick current events. But it also contributed to more thoughtful examination of a lot of our problems. I get the pop psychology complaint below. Many theories have been shallow and/or exaggerated or exploited. But I find Cass stimulating about real issues. He often, as you say, shows us grandma was right. But he loves counter intuitive notions as well. It is so much more useful than partisan screaming. Well done so keep him coming back, please…don’t forget the dog angle.

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    1. Pohl

      I feel like you’re just mocking me now with that last bit. Lol

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        Kevin Johnson

        no, no, no! i love dogs, jonah’s love for his dogs, pods about dig genetics…all of it. he previously said he might go dog book with Sunstrin. this is real and important. don’t get distracted by minutiae like SOTU!

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          C C Writer

          Dogs are good. Very good.

          Last week at work I met a dog that was medium to large with a curly white coat, and it was so friendly it would stand up and let me hold its front paws and dance with it. Made my day! This is one reason I keep working there. Positive reinforcement by means of oxytocin.

          Oh--guess this isn't off topic after all!

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            Kevin Johnson

            essential truths are always on topic, even if some find me insane. just came from a dog beach in Venice, Florida where sibling golden retrievers had me spellbound. one relentlessly scanning the sea and sky for birds or other encroachers while the other tirelessly pawed for petting. heaven

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        2. Pohl

          Well, you’re clearly insane, but you’ve made the one comparison I can agree with. Dogs are better than the SOTU. I will probably watch “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” reruns or do crosswords instead.

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    Ben Connelly

    I wanted that story about Tom Brady to be true…

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  8. Pohl

    Not my cup of tea. Kinda pop psychology. But it picks up around the time of Jonah quoting Solzhenitsyn, which was my thought throughout because the approach before that was too passive and fatalistic about habituating people to falsehoods. Truth has the power to cut through, but it’s also true that bad habits can make people less receptive. It’s why Jonah was right to laud the search for Truth. Lying is one of the great modern bad habits. The closing minutes, minus the usual dog guff, were good.

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  9. Davidcurtin455

    Jonah, have you ever had John Gray as a guest? It occurred to me as I listened to this episode that he would be a great fit. He is described (even by himself) as a "pessimist", but it is not that he denies the reality of progress--he just argues that it is quite reversible. I think that is also the basic thesis of Suicide of the West. And this ties in with this latest episode--if we don't have gratitude, if we don't seek to conserve the miracle, we will regress, and nature will claw its way back.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gray_(philosopher)

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    Ben Connelly

    I think it’s time to have Jack Butler back on to talk about Dune. Maybe David French too.

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