Lately I have been reflecting on human behavior. Why do we do the things we do? That is the question that I want to address.

In college I “fell into” the field of economics. I originally held the view that most people do about Economics: It’s boring and confusing. But then I took some classes on game theory and looked at it a completely different way. To this day I could tell you very little about the current rate of employment and the effect of that on the value of your home over the next 5 years. That’s not what I am really interested in. What I find interesting is the whole process of decision making. How do we make decisions? Is it possible to manipulate our decisions or the decisions of others by changing the incentives?

This may not be making sense yet so I will start off with an example:

Brooklyn’s room is very messy. If I say right now “Go clean your room” then its most likely that she will not do it. That is where incentives come in.

There are two types of incentives: Punitive Incentives and Rewarding Incentives.

Punitive Incentives are the costs associated with making a decision. What is probably going through Brooklyn’s mind when I ask her to clean her room is that she doesn’t want to clean her room because she is busy playing with something else. She doesn’t want to exert the effort and fun she is having at that moment to go clean her room. But let’s say that I tell her “Go clean your room

or else

I will take your toys away from you for a day.” I have just added a punitive incentive to her decision. Now it might be worth the effort of cleaning her room because she wants to keep her toys to play with.

But let’s say this is not really convincing to her. What else can I do to “sweeten” the deal? I could keep tacking on punitive incentives or I could add rewarding incentives. Let’s now say that I tell her to “Clean her room

or else

she will lose her toys. Also you

will get

ice cream once your room is clean.”

I have injected a rewarding incentive of ice cream. Her behavior changes. I didn’t have to forcefully drag her to her room to get her to clean it. By providing the right incentives, I was able to get her to clean her room. The benefits of the decision outweigh the costs of the decision. Therefore it is a profitable and rational decision to make. I recognized what she likes and doesn’t like in order to provide information to get her to do what I wanted to. My words, and not my actions, influenced her to act a certain way. This is especially significant when we consider that our words will outlast our bodies. Our words have the power to influence future generations long after we are gone.

Now the question is, how do I get her to

want to

clean her room? How do you get your kids to develop initiative? I can’t always offer her ice cream and I will not always be there to take her toys away.

That is where faith comes in. What is true of all humans is that we will not do anything unless we have an incentive to do it. So, where is the incentive to clean your room when nobody says you have to and you don’t see the benefits of living in a tidy room? The answer is found here:

1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

We do what is right and we exercise integrity when we have a true faith in God. We find no earthly reward in doing these things but a true faith in God provides the incentive we need in order to do things that others are incapable of doing.

I gave a small example of Brooklyn and cleaning her room. But what really stirs me is whether there is a way that we could present the gospel to others in a way that is precise and effective. We have to first understand the mind of our audience. We have to understand that our audience is diverse. What works for one person may not work for another at all. What are the benefits of Christianity and what are the costs? What are the benefits of rejecting Christianity and what are the costs? What information is in the mind of our audience that is false and how can we correct it?

With many we share the gospel with, we have a very short window of time to make our words count. So, let’s figure out a method to identify what our audience needs and wants and what they don’t want, and say the right words that will show them that Christ can make their lives better than anything they had ever imagined.