Chrysalis or Sisyphus?
Parts of the world are starting to emerge from their COVID-induced lockdowns. Some of us, such as those in the UK, have to wait a little longer.
But no matter where you are on the re-opening timetable, there are all sorts of questions and challenges that confront us.
Principal of these is what kind of world are we re-emerging into?
What is the ‘new normal’ that everyone seems to be talking about?
Perhaps more accurately, what kind of normal do we want it to be?
Are we going to simply return to our old habits and ways, with the Venice canals refilling with sewage, the air of New Delhi, London or Beijing once again chock-full of particulate pollution, choking their inhabitants, business decisions driven for the most part by the bottom line with scant regard to individual and social consequences, and with individual behavior weighted in favor of self-interest rather than the common good?
It’s of little value looking to the past for help in answering these questions. We have as a society been woefully remiss in learning lessons from previous similar experiences. Besides, there is a case to be made that the present situation is qualitatively different in context alone. For example, we now live in a far more connected, interdependent, and technologically facilitated world.
What kind of society do we want? I don't know about you but I feel that COVID has handed us a golden opportunity to rewrite or at least reset some of the rules. Rules we’ve kind of taken at face value as if they were the natural order of things, as if they were immutable rather than socially constructed.
They are not.
Rethinking What We Value
We have a chance to change how we think, how we feel, how we see the world, what we value.
We have a chance to change our state of being in the world.
And with that individual change, social and cultural change surely follows.
Think about some of the positive experiences you’ve had coming out of COVID. Do you have a re-appreciation of nature? A greener world is possible.
What about a hug from a loved one - the tenderness and diffusion of love that that simple act brings. The joy.
Reconnecting with far-flung family. Why didn’t we do it earlier?
By re-evaluating what’s truly important in our lives we are on the way to changing our state of being - how we see the world, how we operate in it, how we treat ourselves, our loved ones and even strangers.
I’m not saying this is necessarily easy for everyone, though it is doable. If it were that easy, we’d have already opted for a more egalitarian, a more compassionate, a kinder world - a world where more emotionally intelligent virtues come to the fore.
It has taken the Virus for us to see that which has been in front of us, within us, all along.
Hang on a minute I hear you say: “we can’t control the world, in order to remake it”.
I couldn’t agree more. We can, however, control how we respond to the world. And, in that control, I would submit, lies the mechanism for changing the world.
It takes a set of beliefs and behaviors though that many of us are not practiced in exercising.
For example:
- An ability to accept that external events are not in your control. This may sound obvious but it is the source of much anguish. It’s a very human tendency to become frustrated at our impotence over external events. We remonstrate over past happenings, we wish things were different, or wish they were the same, we fantasize about events that we’d like to see materialize. Lottery participation being a salient case in point.
- An ability to embrace change and see and make the most of the opportunity it brings. Change typically instills fear, or at the very least a concern over things like what does it mean for me, do my normal patterns of behavior fit this change, does the change make me less in some way - more incapable, more obsolete, can I adapt, how do I keep doing what I like and are comfortable doing while things are changing? Some of these are conscious, others lurk menacingly beneath awareness and consciousness
- A belief that the locus of control lies within, is accessible, can be discovered and can be learnt
- A belief that compassion, empathy, generosity and kindness have the power to positively change the world
Creativity For Good
There have been many many acts of compassion, generosity and kindness throughout this period, not least of which those performed daily by medical and other front line personnel.
I for one hope that these will be celebrated and commemorated down through history in much the same way as WWII or other veterans of great sacrifice are.
To what degree these or similar behaviors in the wider society are crisis-dependent remains to be seen. A bigger question is what do these or other acts of kindness from individuals, organizations, or even businesses have on cultivating these values and behaviors in the greater population? And if so, what mechanisms are at work - at an individual and at a social level?
I was fascinated by the recent campaign by the London creative agency St. Lukes.
The story of this campaign is simple but quite profound in the potential repercussions it has for the agency itself, but also for society. It also begs the question: does it herald a step in the right direction for a new post-COVID more generous world?
The campaign originated in the context of rapidly climbing COVID infection and death rates and the UK government’s entreaties for people to quarantine themselves at home to avoid catching or spreading the virus and thus to alleviate pressure on the National Health Service - the NHS.
Fuelled by a belief in ‘creativity for good’ St. Lukes transposed the letters of something we are all familiar with, NHS, to read SHN - Stay at Home Now. The campaign was produced as an act of generosity with the intent of changing people’s behavior - triggering awareness of the common plight in which we find ourselves, motivating a shift in how people see their own personal role and a gentle nudge in the direction of getting people to think and behave more selflessly and compassionately toward others.
The campaign was made not for the usual rewards - there was no financial remuneration or (admitted) desire for more gold Pencils and Lions to gather dust in the reception area. And, its generosity is underscored by St. Lukes making the assets freely available to all, through a simple download.
By some measures the campaign seemed to have achieved its desired intent. That, in and of itself, is hopeful.
So, what do the results actually reveal is at work here - from a psychological and social perspective? Why did it work to the degree it did? And, what is the potential of this sort of approach to business decision making for brands, individuals and society?
Does it have a place in, or a role to play in, how we as a society create a more humane and caring post-COVID world? A world where at least some of the positive outcomes of our COVID experiences are recodified in an evolved and lived value system that motivates compassionate and caring behaviors.
At the time of writing the campaign had received a decent chunk of earned media - free publicity to the tune of 117 million impressions and over 4 million celebrity views. These boosted the awareness of the campaign to 72% prompted in London.
And people engaged with the campaign - almost half of researched respondents had shared the campaign on social media. The campaign seemed to take on a life of its own with its positive message for social change spreading between people throughout the UK, almost like a virus.
The Contagion of Compassion
In fact compassion and generosity do have viral contagious properties. This is not just about the tendency of people to mimic observed generosity and kindness in others - although this does occur. At the same time, research studies have demonstrated that when people believe others have been generous, they are more likely to be generous themselves. And generous in new and different ways - the inspiration for kindness seems to trigger both acts of kindness and a buy-in to the underlying spirit of kindness.
But why do it? Why do we change our behavior towards being more generous and kind? Why do we persist at it, once the initial trigger has subsided or long-faded from view?
The answer is that being compassionate, showing kindness boosts well-being and happiness. We feel good and have a more positive outlook on life. Studies have shown that even carrying out one simple act of kindness a day for seven days can profoundly alter your outlook to one of greater happiness. Generous acts also sow in us more empathy and friendliness to others.
These changes are nothing to be sneezed at. They profoundly affect how people see themselves, their relationship with others, and their place in the world.
Generosity and kindness are contagious motivators of a more caring society via individual acts of benevolence and selflessness. And, they are observable in neural changes to the brain.
The human tendency to withdraw from an encounter with suffering or distress is countered by compassionate training. Practicing a loving-kindness meditation for instance has shown a stronger connection between the post cingulate cortex and the prefrontal cortex - and a diminution of activity that would emphasise self-concern and weaken compassionate behavior.
When the St. Luke’s campaign hit the new reality of possible emergence from lock-down, there was a marked shift in the data.
Indeed, the efficacy of the campaign on behavior is demonstrated by the waning of the power of its message once the government began to talk about easing the restrictions - making the message, and the resultant desired behavior less impactful or necessary, respectively.
For instance, the research showed that sharing the campaign, encouraging others to stay home, and acts of kindness such as donations to charities all began to fall as the lock-down narrative evolved from one of we’re-all-in-this-together-crisis to one where the tap is being turned on again - albeit cautiously.
Does this result call into question the longevity of the effect and its potential as a behavioural lever to institute more permanent positive change? One could argue why is this required? Surely it is enough that people took notice, got involved and changed their behavior - when it was most crucially needed?
To ask any more of a single campaign is perhaps a bridge too far.
The Mental Gym: Training for Permanence
Even so, for me, the campaign demonstrated that this kind of approach by St. Lukes has far reaching potential for the new world we want as we emerge from the crisis.
To begin with, studies have shown kindness begets kindness - the more we see it in others, especially leaders, influencers, etc, the more we want to align our behavior with theirs. Neural reward paths are activated as we do this and as we behave with more kindness to others. We come to learn to place a greater value on generosity and kindness as our dopamine reward pathways reinforce the behavior.
Kind acts also tend to be long-lasting: people and animals have shown to have long memories of kindness that was done to them or kindness that was performed for others by others for the greater good. This insight alone should see a slew of positive brand associations accrue to St. Lukes in the coming era.
The campaign demonstrated that internal traits behavior such as compassion and kindness are receptive to the right kind of messaging - and positive behavioral change follows, even if temporary and contextualised to environmental conditions.
Moreover, it points to how more permanent change can be achieved. If these traits are open to change there is likely to be a neural pathway that can be targeted with more sustained and focused messaging or training. And so there is.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have found that brain activity changes during and after compassion training. Such training activates parts of the brain responsible for empathy and our understanding of others. Other areas of the brain which are associated with emotion regulation and positive emotions, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, are similarly affected.
The more training participants received, the more compassionate and kind they became. This kind of mental weight training underscores a core principle behind the efficacy of meditation to change behavior, i.e. repeated mental activity, such as loving-kindness meditation results in structural changes in the brain that drives long-lasting behavioral change.
It should be obvious that during the crisis a spreading ‘virus’ of compassion and kindness can only benefit individuals and society. A ready dose of happiness and well-being midst the sometimes relentless onslaught of bad news and lock-down anxiety and cabin fever. And a society primed to acts of selflessness by staying at home despite the disruption, inconvenience and distress that may ensue in some households.
The Genetics of Compassion
What is perhaps less obvious is that generosity and kindness have now been shown to act at a genetic level.
Specifically, researchers at the University of California, Riverside have found that acts of kindness, especially towards others, have a demonstrated effect on the body’s RNA gene expression associated with one’s immune profile.
Acts of kindness have shown a down regulation of pro-inflammatory genes - the very same response mechanism that is at the heart of the body’s extreme (and often fatal) reaction to the coronavirus.
The same research also found that acts of kindness for others boosted well-being and made people feel happier - this is especially relevant in quarantine and lockdown where people living alone and where feelings of loneliness have been shown to weaken the immune system.
The impact of St. Lukes SHN campaign then is not quite as straightforward as it first seems.
A Caring, Kinder World
The simple goal of ‘creativity for good’ not only produced positive behavioral change at a time when it was greatly needed, through drawing on the viral qualities of compassion and kindness. It also suggests a way forward for more permanent change - through compassion training and, based on the University of California research, it may have also played a much more fundamental role in helping people’s immune system respond to the infection.
As such, the campaign has the potential to propel St. Lukes to the vanguard of a more generous and caring new world. How to expand upon this role while reconciling very real financial imperatives will present challenges and a balance will be required, but like the coronavirus itself, these are challenges that can be overcome.
If you would like more information on compassion training through mindfulness meditation training that we at Healthy Mind Strategies provide given me a shout through the contact form on my website
robertcharleshutchison.com/contact
References
https://stlukes.co.uk/stay-home-now/
https://www.creativebrief.com/bite/we-dont-need-be-office-space-make-difference
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-heart-and-science-of-kindness-2019041816447
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29702043
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kindness-contagion/
The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body. Daniel Goleman & Richard J. Davidson, 2017, Penguin Random House.