Studies reveal that as much as 45% of what we do every day is performed almost without thinking, usually because of subtle cues.
And many of the products we use every day -- chewing gums,
skin moisturizers, disinfecting wipes, air fresheners, water purifiers -- are results of manufactured habits.
When anthropologist Val Curtis wanted to double the hand-washing rate in
Ghana -- a West African nation where almost every home contains a soap bar but only 4% of adults regularly lather up after using the toilet -- she persuaded Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and
Unilever to join an initiative called the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing With Soap.
These companies, Curtis realized, had invested hundreds of millions of dollars
finding the subtle cues in consumers' lives that corporations could use to introduce new routines. The trick was to create a habit wherein people felt a sense of disgust that was cued by the toilet.
That queasiness, in turn, could become a cue for soap. The solution was ads showing mothers and children walking out of bathrooms with a glowing purple pigment on their hands that contaminated
everything they touched. By last year, Ghanaians surveyed by Curtis's team reported a 13% increase in the use of soap after the toilet, and soap use before eating went up 41%.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at The New York Times »