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Speaker 1: Hello, How I Work, listener. My latest book, The Health

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Speaker 1: Habit is coming out on January nine, but you can

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Speaker 1: pre order it now wherever you buy books. If you're

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Speaker 1: stuck in a cycle of unhealthy habits, then The Health

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Speaker 1: Habit will help you design a personalized, science backed plan

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Speaker 1: to change your habits for good. My name is doctor

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Speaker 1: Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of

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Speaker 1: behavior change consultancy Inventium. And this is How I Work,

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Speaker 1: a show about how to help you get so much

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Speaker 1: more out of the hours in your day. For the

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Speaker 1: next few weeks, I'm sharing a few extracts from my

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Speaker 1: new book, The Health Habit on How I Work. Today's

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Speaker 1: extract is all about how to curate your social media

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Speaker 1: feed to improve your health. When I was eleven years old,

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Speaker 1: I was mad about sticker collecting, and after school trade

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Speaker 1: my mum would take me to a local toy shop

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Speaker 1: called Child an Adult, which had the largest collection of

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Speaker 1: stickers I had ever known a shop to possess. They

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Speaker 1: had glittery stickers, they had stickers adorned with fake gems,

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Speaker 1: and they even had little animal stickers with tiny bits

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Speaker 1: of fuzz on them. My personal favorite, I must have

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Speaker 1: bought hundreds and hundreds of stickers during my year of

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Speaker 1: sticker collecting. But here's the thing. Sticker collecting was not

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Speaker 1: in my genes. I hadn't come from a long line

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Speaker 1: of sticker traders. What drove my obsession with all things

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Speaker 1: that stuck was that my peer group also collected stickers,

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Speaker 1: and more importantly, compared, showed off, and leveled up their

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Speaker 1: social currency through trading stickers. We would all bring our bright,

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Speaker 1: shiny sticker collection books to school and to each other's

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Speaker 1: houses and compare our latest purchasers. We would trade for

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Speaker 1: hours on end, and I would find such joy in

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Speaker 1: rubbing my fingers over the gentle fuzz of the ever

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Speaker 1: growing assortment of animal stickers I collected. When I reminisce

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Speaker 1: about this time in my life, I now recognize it

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Speaker 1: as a classic example of social normative theory. Social normative

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Speaker 1: theory explains how people's behavior is influenced by the perceived

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Speaker 1: norms and expectations of the social groups we belong to

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Speaker 1: or identify with. The theory suggests we conform to social

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Speaker 1: norms because we want to be accepted and respected by others,

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Speaker 1: hence sticker collecting. We also know that good habits are contagious.

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Speaker 1: Professor Scott Carroll from the University of California Davis found

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Speaker 1: that the academic performance of university students is heavily influenced

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Speaker 1: by peers. If you have smarter friends who presumably have

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Speaker 1: solid study habits, you'll end up performing better too, through

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Speaker 1: those habits rubbing off on you. In a world where

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Speaker 1: so much of our exposure to social norms is through

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Speaker 1: social media, the average person spends nearly two point five

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Speaker 1: hours a day on the socials, it stands to reason

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Speaker 1: that how we curate our feeds will have a big

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Speaker 1: impact on our behaviors and habits. Professor Shawan Young, the

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Speaker 1: founder and executive director of the University of California Institute

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Speaker 1: for Prediction Technology and the UCLA Center for Digital Behavior,

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Speaker 1: conducted research to test where the social media influenced health

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Speaker 1: related behavior. In a study involving Stanford undergraduate students, participants

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Speaker 1: were asked to view fifteen g rated Facebook photos of

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Speaker 1: their peers, which featured minimal sexually suggestive content that is,

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Speaker 1: no flirting with the camera, revealing clothing, etc. Compared to

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Speaker 1: a control group not exposed to any images. The g

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Speaker 1: rated photo viewers believed that more of their peers used

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Speaker 1: condoms and expressed a higher likelihood of using condoms themselves.

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Speaker 1: This finding highlights the significant influence of social media images

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Speaker 1: on our expectations and related behaviors. Images of people behaving

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Speaker 1: responsibly and modestly can lead us to assume that this

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Speaker 1: is the norm, thus making us more likely to adopt

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Speaker 1: such behaviors ourselves, in this case, increased condom usage. While

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Speaker 1: social media is often presented as causing harm, we can

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Speaker 1: actually use it as a tool for good and specifically

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Speaker 1: for good health. By strategically curating our social media feed,

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Speaker 1: we can trick our brain into seeing healthy behavior as

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Speaker 1: the norm, making it easier to change our behavior harness

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Speaker 1: the hero. Step one, think about the main area of

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Speaker 1: your health you want to improve, whether this be sleep, movement,

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Speaker 1: or nutrition. Step two, reflect on your current social media diet.

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Speaker 1: If nutrition is your focus, do you follow lots of

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Speaker 1: food porn posters, cake decorating, erotica, desert debauchery. If you do,

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Speaker 1: try unfollowing them for a few weeks, because I can

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Speaker 1: tell you right now they are not helping you meet

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Speaker 1: your goals. Not only these accounts keeping sugarific food front

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Speaker 1: of mind, but they are also potentially making you think

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Speaker 1: that this food is normal to consume and consume regularly. Instead,

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Speaker 1: curate your feed with people who post healthy meals and

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Speaker 1: give you creative tips on cooking with broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

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Speaker 1: If sleep is your goal, unfollow the influencers who party

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Speaker 1: hard into the wee hours of the morning. And if

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Speaker 1: you're trying to up the movement in your day, get

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Speaker 1: some fitsbo in your feed. Recurating your social media feed

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Speaker 1: will adjust your social norms so that your behavior naturally

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Speaker 1: becomes more aligned to your overall goal. If you found

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Speaker 1: today's episode useful, then I guarantee you will love my

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Speaker 1: new book, The Health Habit. Search for The Health Habit

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your books, and pre order your coffee today.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing part of your day with me

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Speaker 1: by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for

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Speaker 1: more tips on how to work better, connect with me

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Speaker 1: via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just

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Speaker 1: search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on

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Speaker 1: the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the

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Speaker 1: Koln Nation. I am so grateful for being able to

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Speaker 1: work and live on this beautiful land and I want

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Speaker 1: to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging.

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Speaker 1: How I work is produced by Inventium with production support

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Speaker 1: from Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimba

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Speaker 1: who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better

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Speaker 1: than it would have otherwise