Providing attractive alternatives beats prohibiting unwanted behavior.

Evidence

It is a well-established psychological principle that it is easier to eliminate detrimental behavior by providing a more attractive alternative than by trying to prohibit the detrimental one. The fourth approach is founded on this principle. The power of attractive alternatives is nowhere better illustrated than in children’s programming, which had aroused the greatest public criticism. For years parents complained about the heavy diet of violence on prime-time television and the weekend commercial fare served their children. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 994 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Secretary of State John Kerry commented on the deficiencies of the remedy: “We are still on a course leading to tragedy” (Davenport, 2014d). Weaning the top polluters from fossil fuels will not be easy. However, change comes more easily through replacement than through prohibition. We are now at the dawning of a transformative change in energy production (Gillis, 2014a). Renewable energy, as generated through wind and sun power, is on the rise and costs are dropping sharply. As we have seen, Germany has become the model for this nascent transformative change. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2940 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

All these devices work because they allow us to pretend that we are not free. We know very well that we can always reset the alarm clock or disable the software, but we arrange things so that this option does not seem readily available. If we didn’t resort to such tricks, we would have to deal with the whole vast scope of our freedom at every instant, and that would make life extremely difficult. Most of us therefore keep ourselves entangled in all kinds of subtle ways throughout the day. Sartre gives examples: ‘I have an appointment this evening with Pierre. I must not forget to reply to Simon. I do not have the right to conceal the truth any longer from Claude.’ Such phrases imply that we are boxed in, but for Sartre they are ‘projections’ of my choices. They are, in his great vertiginous turn of phrase, ‘so many guard rails against anguish’. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 504 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Personal and external control are interchangeable ways of warding off perceived randomness. — Dmitrij Agroskin and Eva Jonas, Controlling death by defending…, 21; Detrimental behavior is best eliminated by attractive alternatives, not prohibition. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 994; Prescribing the unwanted behavior collapses resistance into compliance — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence: Opening…, 107 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Detrimental behavior is best eliminated by attractive alternatives, not prohibition. #corroborates (0.98) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 994
• Behavioral change succeeds more readily through replacement than prohibition #corroborates (0.94) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2940
• People use small self-imposed constraints to avoid confronting their freedom #complicates (0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 504