Behavioural science
Decisions in life, tech and health
As we get to 30 k members/ followers for the Human Behaviour Club I wanted to recap some of the highlights.
I first got into behavioural science in 2015 during my behavioural economics class at Imperial Business School and have been diving in ever since. In 2018, I got to present BJ Fogg’s (Founder of the Stanford Persuasion Lab) work at Imperial College London Sleep Week whilst I was VP innovation for the health tech start up -Owaves. Fast forward a few years of reading about decision science, habits and neuroscience and BJ Fogg is now following me on clubhouse. What interests me most about the subject is how key it is in building tech products, empowering people to live a healthy life and making better decisions. Being board certified in lifestyle medicine I learnt a lot about behavioural change models for health and working at a tech start up I learn a lot about behavioural design and consumer behaviour.
When I founded Human Behaviour Club, I have been able to have amazing co-hosts who run a weekly show: Pooja (VP growth) who has great insight into marketing and consumer behaviour, Sep from Spotify, Emily Campbell who is a designer, PM and strategist, Sheila from Snapchat and Humaira CEO of Walzay. Zaharo also hosted a stellar session with David Eagleman: a Neuroscientist from Stanford.
Alongside many fireside chats we host some regular shows. Currently we are holding weekly masterclasses on behaviour with elite performance coach - Hassan Khan as well as a weekly behavioural health show on Sundays with myself, Eleeza and Zahra being joined by experts in preventative medicine.
Behavioural health is hot right now, 70 percent of corporate companies said they were seeking tech solutions in the behavioural health space.
BJ Fogg published work on ‘Persuasive Computers’ and then a book on how Computers will change the way what we think and do. As someone who is interested in computer science and AI, I find this intersection fascinating.
BJ Fogg’s model-
Presenting the model in 2018:
In 2009, Fogg published the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM), a model for analyzing and designing human behavior.
The FBM describes three conditions needed for a behavior to occur: (1) motivation (2) ability and (3) a prompt. Motivation can be influenced by factors like pleasure/pain, hope/fear, and social acceptance/rejection. Ability can be impacted by time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, and non-routine. Prompts are also referred to as triggers. (taken from wiki)
His latest book is ‘Tiny Habits’ published in 2020- Hearing him speak in clubhouse I learnt the key things for forming habits are-
Make behaviour changes at first so small that they are easy to do (reduce friction)
Lower the bar for a habit. (lower threshold and expectations)
Celebrate small wins- positive emotion association rewires the brain and makes a habit stick
Make it a part of your routine, after an exiting habit or couple it with another habit.
Avoid negative associations and make the tiny habits a part of your identity.
Highlights of the Human Behaviour Club-
Show guests so far-
Ashley Whillans - Behavioural Scientist and Harvard Business School Professor
Ethan Weiss- Cardiologist specialising in keto diets
Danielle Belarado- Cardiologist and interest in plant based nutrition
Charlotte Cramer- Author ‘The Purpose myth’, ex- strategy advisor at Google, Facebook
Dermatologists- skin habits- Muneeb Shah- Dermatologist, 2.7 million followers on Tiktok , David Portella, Joyce Park
Matt Wallaert- Behavioural Scientist and entrepreneur- previously at Cliver health
Michelle Grant- Digital Transformation in retail and consumer goods at Salesforce
Will Ahmed- Founder Whoop- 1.2 billion valuation
Taylor Nieman- Ceo JoinToucan
Cameron Sepah- Harvard Psychologist and Entrepreneur
David Eagleman- Neuroscientist Stanford and Author
Sweta Chakraborty- Behavioural scientist on climate (Oxford PhD)
Rita Chang - CMO, VC + Strategist, ex-Nike, ex- underarmour
Gerrardo Perez- Marketing, 300 k on Tiktok
Azza Ghadir- immunologist, microbiome expert, Seed health.
Gabriela Hersham- CEO Huckletree
Ivonne Aldaz - marketing strategist and consumer behaviour
Elena Mustatea- CEO Bold Health
Pierre Fournier - CEO Hexoskin
Pete Cashmore - Ceo Mashable
Upcoming-
Ali Abdaal - Doctor and 1.2 million on YouTube
Minal Hassan- VC K2 Global
Chris Lovejoy- Doctor, AI and Data Science
Christina Farr- Journalist turned health tech Investor at Omers Ventures
Psychiatrist Ask Me Anything session - Dr Carlene McMillan, Dr Amir Shah, Dr Owen Muir.
We look forward to having more high quality guests as our club grows in a fireside chat format.
My Newsletter is sponsored by Heights. Discount code- DigitalDoctor