Behavior Modeling: You Download Habits From Others

Behavior modeling is a process in which we learn behaviors by observing others and imitating their actions. This is commonly discussed in the context of how children learn in their early years. It was famously introduced in Albert Bandura’s 1961 experiment where children were divided into groups and made to watch an adult confederate—the model in this case—interact with toys in the room, including a Bobo doll. For some children, the adult ignored the doll. The other group saw the role model physically aggressing the doll and shouting at it.

The results were kind of shocking. For the kids in the non-aggressive condition, they played quietly with the toys and rarely showed violence. Children who watched the aggressive model modeled according behavior: they hit, kicked, shouted at, and otherwise displayed hostility toward the Bobo doll. Bandura proposed four components to contribute to such learning: attention, retention, reproduction, and reinforcement. See and pay attention to it. Remember it well enough to recreate it. Physically repeat the observed behavior. Reward it afterward. Boom. Behavior learned.

The modeling of behavior is part of observational learning. Watching and imitating others is enough for us to learn. It’s a fundamental concept in learning theory and shows how we acquire skills, habits, and social norms from models in our environment. The basic idea: see it, copy it, be rewarded for it, and we learn it. In the context of behavior, to “learn” something is typically referring to forming a habit. We often did it as children and still do it as adults. For instance, in yoga class, the instructor demonstrates a pose and we follow. Or in a martial arts gym, the coach shows a particular kick and we copy. When starting a new job, we might shadow a colleague to understand how to perform our responsibilities.

We don’t just learn but alter our behavior in response to our models’ values and norms. For example, if our parents value formal schooling and we observe them reading books and attending seminars, chances are we’ll also display those values later on. Another case of this is social norms. When we find ourselves in an open culture like the US, we behave openly. Whereas if we’re on a train in Japan where it is considered rude to accept calls on a train, we are prompted to imitate that behavior. This is the basis for reducing the prevalence of violent content in media that children interact with: television shows, video games, social media, and so on. Hostile behavior can be normalized or encouraged if it is seen in high enough frequency and potency. Especially in younger audiences. Associations between violent game use and aggressive behavior—shouting, pushing—have already been found.

Real-life applications of behavior modeling:

• Organizational behavior: to optimize workplace processes, improve employee engagement, and foster leadership development, workplace cultures can exploit modeling: a company might have it’s leadership act as role models for certain team or project handling methods;

• Marketing: it can be used to predict purchasing decisions, promote brand loyalty, and convert more customers via effective advertising; companies already use behavior models to segment consumers, forecast sales, and design personalized advertising, such as a retail business that analyzes customer data to know which promotions to send them;

• Public policy: behavior modeling can act as a basis for policymakers to promote beneficial behaviors like health or education initiatives; think modeling vaccination uptake rates to determine the most effective health messaging strategies;

• Education: in aim of understanding how students learn and identifying elements and how they interact with academic performance, using data of student engagement to refine teaching techniques.

Simply put, modeling is a fundamental concept of learning. Leverage it wherever acquiring new behaviors and/or skills is important: work, education, sports, or therapy. Teachers demonstrate skills for students to imitate. Employees shadow existing workers to learn from observing. Athletes watch their coaches and more experienced players to learn techniques. Psychologists use methods like role play to help clients process their feelings and thoughts. Residents watch experienced doctors perform surgeries to mimic their precision. It’s useful for most fields, except those that rely on critical engagement with material: computer science, philosophy. Behavior modeling is an incredible model to understand, predict, and influence the actions of individuals.

How you might apply behavior modeling to augment your brains: (1) define the system or variables you want to understand and affect—customer satisfaction, employee engagement, production speed; (2) figure out how the variables behave and/or interact, like the link between customer satisfaction and the demeanor of your sales team; (3) pick a fitting role model for the team members to learn from, such as a salesperson with a higher regard for ethics and natural sense of charisma; (4) have the team observe, to listen and watch recordings of their sales presentations to customers, to eventually be able to imitate the behavior on their own; (5) put it into action, asking the team members to display the behavior in their own sales pitches from now on; (6) reinforce positive behavior and identify areas for improvement, further honing their skills, and monitor whether the variable—customer satisfaction in our case—is affected.