Here's a better example that people can relate to, taken from the book "Designing the obvious":
A few weeks ago, I heard an interesting story that did a nice job of revealing the
differences between how people think
they act and how they actually act.
The story was about a new sandwich
from a fast-food restaurant.
See, the marketers did lots of
research before releasing the idea
upon the public. They asked a bunch of
people if they would find appealing
the idea of ordering a low-carb
version of their hottest-selling
cheeseburger. Resound-ingly, people
said they would, indeed, love to take
their usual trip to the establishment
and order something they know is good
for them and their families. The
marketers knew they were on to
something. So they whipped up a plan,
sent the recipe-makers into action,
and released the sandwich, sure that
their hours of hard work would pay off
and earn the company big dividends.
Reality kicked in a short while later.
The sandwich failed miserably and
quickly disappeared from the menu.
Why, you ask?
People often don't do what they think
they would do. They don't act the way
they think they would act. We can talk
for hours about how we would respond
in any given situation, but we don't
really know what will happen when the
hypothetical becomes real. The
sandwich failed to live up to its
promise because the promise was based
on meaningless conversations with
people who thought they would do the
smart, responsible thing and make the
healthy choice.
The marketers, I'm sure, didn't mean
to have meaningless conversations.
It's more likely that they asked
leading questions, such as "Would you
choose to eat the healthier version
when given the choice?" It's a
question designed to make the person
who says, "No, I wouldn't" feel like
an idiot for doing so. It's a question
designed to get a "Yes, I would."
And even if the questions were
presented in an unbiased way, you
can't just walk up to people on the
street and ask them what they would
do. No one really knows what he or she
would do. History shows us that people
don't always make the right choices.
They make comfortable choices. They
make safe choices. More to the point,
they make the choices they know how to
make.
It's difficult to predict how we'd
make decisions in hypothetical
situations. Hardly anyone can do this
well. When we intentionally begin
making better choices, we usually do
so in increments, making small
improvements for a short time. At some
point we find ourselves in a stressful
situation and immediately revert. We
fall back on the types of choices
we've been making our whole lives. The
ones we know how to make.
