Author: Maneesh Sethi

61% of heavy smokers quit habit

“If it weren’t for nicotine in tobacco smoke, people would be little more inclined to smoke than they are to blow bubbles or light sparklers” (Russell)

M.A.H. Russell, a nicotine researcher who worked for Maudsley Hospital and the Addiction Research Unit in the Institute of Psychiatry in De Crespigny Park, London (UK) insisted, “There is little doubt that if it weren’t for nicotine in tobacco smoke, people would be little more inclined to smoke than they are to blow bubbles or light sparklers.”

He was probably right.

When you think about it in a strictly mechanical way, inhaling smoke into the lungs shouldn’t be a pleasurable activity at all. Yet, smoking is one of the most common addictive habits.

If you are a smoker and have ever tried to quit, you are well aware of the vicious grip smoking has on its victims. Willpower is rarely enough. Cravings, withdrawal symptoms, mood swings and irritability can wreak havoc in your life.

The smoking habit is a fearsome opponent, and every time you quit and relapse, the habit gains a little more control over you, suppressing you even more.

However, breaking the smoking habit is definitely doable.

The study below shows that you do not need to depend on willpower alone to succeed. Willpower is a finite resource — it’s great for sprints but sucks at marathons. However, there is a tool that can keep you on track when your willpower fails, and it is scientifically proven to work.

Small electric jolts used to treat smoking habit in group of dependent heavy smokers (32 cigarettes per day)

In a clinical study, small electric jolts were used to help a group of dependent heavy smokers (32 cigarettes per day) quit their habit.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of five groups. While one group did not receive any treatment (what is usually referred to as the “control group” in experiments) the other four groups were treated with electric jolts.

Those receiving the electric jolt treatment had small electrodes attached to their forearms. While the sequence used for each group varied, the method basically involved the participants engaging in the act of smoking, and receiving small electric jolts before, after or during the activity.

Within just 5 sessions, 41% of participants stop smoking completely. By the end of the treatment, 61% of those receiving electric jolts had quit their smoking habit.

Electric Shock vs Smoking

Nearly a century of data shows how electric jolts can help stop smoking and other persistent habits

When you think about how many people try to quit smoking every day, and fail, a 61% success rate is staggering. However, this figure is neither surprising nor unheard of in the field of aversion therapy.

Almost a century of research has already proven the effectiveness of this method. In another study (Russell 1970) 67% of smokers quit their habit using the same technology. These electric jolts even helped 84.2% of chronic marijuana users break habit using electric jolts.

One particular clinical study (Lubetkin, 1974) showed how electric jolts helped a young man break free of a 3-year heroin addiction.

If you have been fighting a losing battle against your smoking habit, these electric jolts could offer you the key to break free from your addiction.

Bibliography

Lubetkin, B. S., & Fishman, S. T. (1974). Electrical aversion therapy with a chronic heroin user. Journal Of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 5(2), 193–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(74)90113-X

Russell, M. A. H. (1970). Effect of Electric Aversion on Cigarette Smoking. Bmj, 1(5688), 82–86. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.5688.82

Russell, M., Armstrong, E., & Patel, U. (1976). Temporal contiguity in electric aversion therapy for cigarette smoking. Behaviour Research And Therapy, 14(2), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(76)90065-6

 

The Science Behind #SELFIES

Next time you log on to Facebook to update your status or change your profile picture, take a second to ask yourself why.

It’s one thing if you’ve been living under a rock, and your default doesn’t reflect the 3 foot long beard you’ve grown since your last update.

But if you routinely find yourself posting new statuses, adjusting your photo albums, or even just browsing your feed to get all the latest happenings from your family and friends, new evidence suggests that this behavior isn’t fueled by curiosity or a genuine desire to share news with others.

Instead, a 2015 study from the University of Florence has shown time spent on social networking sites has a positive correlation with social anxiety levels.

It’s not difficult to imagine that a socially anxious individual would spend more time inside and thus, perusing sites like Facebook.

But the study included an in-depth survey of all subjects, and found that time devoted to social networking was driven by the need for self-presentation, an aspect of social anxiety.

In other words, if you notice that you consistently devote too much time to social media, it may be because you brain is attempting to improve the way you perceive yourself.

Next time you are scrolling away on Facebook, think about whether you may be better served by going for a jog or talking to a close friend face-to-face.

Optimize Your Daily Routine with 7 Habit Hacks

On the weekend I was hanging out with Pavlok’s Head Habit Hacker — Justus.

First stop was a pub where they had one of those basketball arcade games.

Why did we spend Saturday night feeding $1 bills into Hoop Fever?

It’s a way to make exercise fun (shooting balls, aiming for high scores), and that helps build the habit.

FYI, I’m terrible at sports — but that doesn’t matter — 326 missed shots is still a good arm workout.

And that is just one way our Head Habit Hacker optimizes his off hours.

For today’s post, I asked Justus to share 7 more habit hacks you can build into your daily routine.

Here’s his list…

1: Tea and Burpees

One of our teammates taught me this. When you put on a pot of tea, do some pushups, or better: some burpees. This hack includes two of our favorite principles of habit-change: triggers and routines.

When Pavlov rang the bell, his dogs salivated. When you put on a pot of tea, do some calisthenics. The dog got fed, you get ripped.

When x happens, do y behavior, reap z reward.

2: One-Foot Tooth-Brushing

Improve your balance by standing on one foot while you brush your teeth. I’m at the point where I can brush my teeth and floss without leaving my non-dominant foot. I honestly want to bolster my hygiene routine just to take this habit to the next level.

This is a good example of using a challenge to make the habit more fun.

FYI: I’m actually writing this in tree pose at my standing desk (a cooler on a desk).

3: A Journal Silhouette

One of our highest-performing customers has started a consistent writing habit using Pavlok. She has been notoriously creative with her habit-modification tactics.

Not so long ago, she found herself misplacing her journal. The solution to this was to outline the journal’s usual resting place with painter’s tape. Now, whenever the journal’s silhouette is empty, she instinctively seeks the journal to return it.

4: Commit to a Cause

One of the most popular — and most effective — tools for habit change is placing a bet. Our customers often bet medium dollar amounts ($200-2000) on their behavior.

If the client is successful, they spend the money on an awesome trip or other reward.

If the client fails, the money can be forwarded to a charity they wouldn’t normally support (since we can’t legally burn currency on camera).

This bet mechanism is generally quite effective. I have not had many clients begrudgingly hand over their cash. Our CEO, Maneesh, is well-known for making ridiculous fitness bets with his friends as well as at least one $10,000 longevity bet with a Pavlok employee.

5: Morning Pages

Big ups to my coach for introducing me to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, which introduced me to morning pages.

This habit is very simple:

  1. Wake up
  2. Free write 3 pages
  3. That’s it.

This is one of the best early-morning habits for turbo-charging creativity on a daily basis. If you’re not familiar with free-writing, it’s simply writing whatever comes to mind with no concern for content or substance.

6: Cleanup Time

I learned this one from a master of organizational psychology, a kindergarten teacher.

To encourage collective cleanliness:

  1. Acquire the attention of a group by clearing your throat.
  2. Announce cleanup time.
  3. Play a block-rocking-beat.
  4. Start cleaning and don’t quit ’til the music stops.

This is the best way I’ve found of getting engineers to clean their workspace.

7: Celebrate Every Win

Take a moment and pat yourself for reading through this entire post. Most things don’t get finished. The fact that you made it this far is a small win and you should celebrate it.

Now use that win as momentum. Get off the computer and make something. Be something!

Have a favorite habit hack? Share it in the comments below.

This post was written by Justus Eapen, Head Habit Hacker at Pavlok. For more of his writing, you can follow Justus on Twitter.

Will you run out of money before you die?

After retirement you may live on your savings for decades.

Yet two-thirds of baby boomers don’t have enough savings to continue their pre-retirement standard of living — which means you downsize or go broke.

Attention eye-rolling 20 somethings: it’s easy to say “pfff, the baby boomers screwed everything up, I’m going to do better” — and okay great, Pavlok believes in you — but isn’t it better to stack the odds in your favour?

And saving IS hard because we value immediate gains higher than those in the future.

There are two well known methods to countering the bias of valuing “money now” higher.

  1. Precommitment is when you enact constraints in the present to limit undesirable behaviors in the future. e.g., asking your employer to deposit 10% of your paycheque in a separate savings account.
  2. Future-Boosting is increasing the expected enjoyment of future spending by directing your imagination to future uses for that money. This is why financial investment commercials show you pictures of happy old-people on vacation.

But a 2011 study found a third route that can make a massive impact.

Researchers from leading universities (NYU, Stanford, etc.) proposed that by strengthening the connection between your present and future selves you will save more for the future.

Here’s how they did it.

20 men and 22 women in their early twenties were randomly assigned to two groups: current self or future self.

Each participant was then shown a Retirement Allocation Slider with a 3D avatar of that participant matched to their group.

current and future

Participants in the Current Group would see their avatar become happy as they allocated more resources to now, and sad when they allocated resources to the future.

Participants in the Future Group saw the opposite — more resources in the future led to a happier avatar.

future happy

The results were inline with predictions — participants in the Future Self Group allocated a significantly higher percentage of pay to retirement (M = 6.76%, SD = 1.68%) than the Current Self Group (M = 5.20%, SD = 2.35%).

The researchers concluded “although the effect size for this result is medium, the difference between conditions of 1.56% is practically quite significant.”

FYI 1.56% invested annually, can be worth $175,000+ by the time you retire.

Now here is a brain-hack you can use…

Next time you get paid, stop thinking about how spending it will bring you happiness now, and instead picture your future self frowning — research shows you will save a little more to help future-you out.

Are late night snacks bad for you?

If you’re interested in losing weight, it can be hard to know where to start. But before you ban all of your favorite guilty pleasures, consider this:

Recent findings from the University of California suggest that it’s not what you eat that’s sabotaging your diet, but when you eat.

To prove this, they had two identical groups of mice eat the same high-fat diet for 18 weeks. One group had access to the food 24 hours a day, while the other could only eat for 8 hours — according to when the sun was out.

Screen Shot 2015-05-21 at 2.40.36 PM

They started at the same weight, but after 18 weeks of eating the same number of calories…

Not only were mice made obese from habitually eating at night, but they were also more susceptible to diabetes, inflammation of the liver, and heart disease.

So if you’ve ever wondered why late night snacks seem to sit a little bit heavier on your waistline — the time of day is a contributing factor.

If the sun has set, it’s time to store energy as fat for later use. So don’t stress about completely cutting out certain food groups — instead, next time you’re craving pizza while heading home from a late-night party, get some sleep and save the pizza for tomorrow.

 

Obsessive compulsive handwashing ended

Effects of electric shock treatment on hand washing compulsive behavior

Man suffering from 25-year-long compulsive handwashing behavior claims it occupies 90% of his time at home and has killed his social life

In this clinical study (Le Boeuf, 1974), a 49-year-old man who had been suffering from compulsive handwashing behavior (a form of OCD) for 25 years, was treated with small electric jolts to help control this undesired behavior.

He had developed this compulsive behavior shortly after joining the army at age 24, and it persisted through a fear of contamination.

Hand washing now occupied 90% of his time at home and had virtually eliminated his social life. Additionally, due to his condition, he was forced to wake up at an unreasonably early hour to prepare for work.

Electric jolts help 49-year-old male stop compulsive handwashing behavior within 42 days — Still clear of habit 12 months later

During an initial round of treatment, the participant was given a timer to carry throughout the day. The timer would sound an alarm every 20 minutes. During those 20 minutes, the participant was asked to refrain from washing his hands using willpower alone. This approach did not have much of an effect.

For the next phase, the participant’s willpower was reinforced by using a device that would deliver an electric jolt to his forearm every time he dipped his hands in water. The only time he was allowed to immerse his hands in water was when the timer went off.

The man was then instructed to gradually increase the time limit restricting him from washing his hands. By week 6, he had increased this time limit to 2 hours.

After just 7 weeks, the man’s hand washing frequency had decreased to normal limits, while 6-month and 12-month follow-ups found he was completely free of his hand washing rituals.
Effects of electric shock treatment on hand washing compulsive behavior

3.3 million Americans aged 18 – 54, and an additional 1 million children and adolescents suffer from OCD

While the case illustrated above might be an extreme one, it is not uncommon. In fact, data shows 3.3 million Americans aged 18 – 54, and an additional 1 million children and adolescents, suffer from OCD.

In reality, a behavior doesn’t need to be a full blown OCD to become an inconvenience. It could be a small thing, such as nail biting that’s getting slightly out of control. Or maybe using too many swear words.

Over a century of research finds electric jolts effective against a multitude of habits

The treatment via electric jolts as mentioned earlier, isn’t exclusive to this case. There is almost a century of research showing the effectiveness of this method against all sorts of habits, including smoking, alcoholism, overeating, and gambling.

One particular clinical study (Lubetkin, 1974) showed how electric jolts helped a young man break free of a 3-year heroin addiction.

With such an amazing track record, this method promises to be an effective solution for a wide range of habits that keep plaguing the 21st century.

 

References

Boeuf, A. L. (1974, 12). An automated aversion device in the treatment of a compulsive handwashing ritual. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 5(3-4), 267-270. doi:10.1016/0005-7916(74)90076-7

Lubetkin, B. S., & Fishman, S. T. (1974, 12). Electrical aversion therapy with a chronic heroin user. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 5(2), 193-195. doi:10.1016/0005-7916(74)90113-X

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2015, from https://www.lef.org/protocols/emotional-health/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/page-01