HOW STREAKS MOTIVATE BEHAVIOUR

By tapping into various psychological drivers of behaviour, streaks can motivate people in several ways.

In general, a streak adds a higher-level goal (keeping the streak alive) to a lower-level goal (completing an individual activity). Streaks also add structure to an activity, and structure can simplify thinking and decision making. The extent to which goal achievement or structure is important to you would influence your commitment to a streak.

I also found the way a streak is structured can affect the streak-holders commitment to it. For example, a streak of meditating at least 20 minutes each day may be more appealing, and lead to more commitment, than a streak of meditating at least 140 minutes each week.

While the amount of meditating is the same in both cases, a daily streak adds structure, thus simplifying decision making, and encourages the person to regularly engage in a beneficial behaviour.

Streaks can serve to gamify the underlying activity by creating rules and quantifying the outcome, and many people enjoy the challenge of a game.

Finally, I found that activities that are more relevant to ones identity are more likely to generate commitment to a streak. If someone identifies as religious, a daily streak of praying may be more appealing than a daily streak of playing Wordle because a praying streak can provide a way of demonstrating ones desired identity to others.

While streaks can compel behaviour, they do not motivate all people for all situations. They can even have the opposite effect. Some people are turned off by the prospect of a streak because theyre concerned about being obligated to it, as reflected in the comments of a former streak runner: I realised that, if I let it, the streak could become a thing that controlled my life, my travel and those around me.

As the calendar turns to a new year, many people resolve to engage in self-improving behaviours that facilitate better mental or physical health. People often begin streaks on Jan 1 or other important dates, such as holidays, birthdays or anniversaries of noteworthy events. Such temporal landmarks add meaning and structure to the streak and create a fresh start effect.

While many people make New Years resolutions, only a small percentage of people complete them. My research suggests that structuring a resolution as a streak may be the nudge that some people need to stick with it further into the new year - and maybe far beyond.

Danny Weathers is Professor of Marketing at Clemson University. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.

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Commentary: Keeping a streak alive can be strong motivation to stick with a chosen activity - CNA