The Power Of Environment: Fridge Edition

If you couldn’t tell by now, I am a behavior change nerd. I am obsessed with understanding the factors that go into influencing behavior. It’s fascinating to observe how the design of life around us plays out, and how our unconscious mind interacts with things to make decisions.

A ridiculous example of this happened last week when I was putting some food in my refrigerator. I had just gotten back from the store and I had a pre-wrapped salad kit. Normally I’d put it in the bin at the bottom with the other produce, but this time I put it square in the middle shelf of the fridge. 

I closed the door, realized what I had done, and thought deeply about why it happened. 

Normally, the shelf isn’t wide open like that. It’s a prime spot so usually it’s occupied. It was clearly the easiest and lowest effort place to put the salad kit, and knowing that the human mind always wants to take the path of least resistance, that’s what I unconsciously decided to do - the easy option within that environment.

The resolution to the riveting story is: When I put it all together, I chose to move the salad kit to the appropriate bin. At any moment we can use conscious will to overcome the design of our environment and our unconscious tendencies. But that requires that we’re aware of what’s happening. Otherwise, we’re blindly susceptible to the way things are set up around us.

Here are some other arbitrary, household examples of the unconscious force that is environmental design:

When you’re in your living room, you choose to sit on the couch. It’s the obvious, comfortable choice - especially when compared to sitting on the floor or on a table. Yet we don’t consciously choose to sit there, we naturally do.

Or when you enter a dark room you automatically flip on the light. Why? So you can see! But more importantly because being able to see is the safer thing to do, and you’re at less risk for injury. Also because it makes whatever you’re trying to do easier, so you waste less energy trying to do it.

Like I said… Silly, everyday examples that are almost too obvious to make a meaningful point. But that’s exactly it - our lives operate based on our environment, which is so deeply embedded in the way things are that it’s ridiculous to think it would be any other way.

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