What G.I. Joe gets wrong

Knowing is only part of the battle

Readers of a certain age might remember the cartoon G.I. Joe. The episodes ended with a public service announcement for making good choices. “Now I know!” the informed child would say. “And knowing is half the battle,” the announcement would conclude.

It made for good TV, but it turns out G.I. Joe was wrong. That percentage of “half” is probably a ways off.

Many years ago, psychologist Laurie Santos and philosopher and cognitive scientist Tamar Gendler coined the phrase “the G.I. Joe Fallacy” for this idea that knowledge is highly likely to lead to good choices. We know all sorts of things, but our day-to-day actions tend to be more influenced by habits, environment, and our emotions.

For instance, I’m pretty sure most people know that to lose weight, or at least stave off chronic disease, it would be helpful to eat well and exercise. That doesn’t mean we do it. We know that we’re supposed to save for a rainy day, and for retirement. People don’t under-save because they don’t know that saving money is a good idea, it’s just that in the moment, there are often other things to spend money on, or competing priorities.

Knowing is part of the battle, but probably not that much of it.

Change the environment to change yourself

Instead, in general, success is more likely if we shape our environments. Someone who doesn’t want to drink alcohol probably shouldn’t have it in the house. Same with junk food. If you want to spend less time on social media, an easy way to follow through on that intention is to delete the apps from your phone. If you want to save money, create an automatic transfer from your paycheck to your investment account so you never even see the cash.

In situations where it’s harder to shape the environment, it helps to have a plan. If you don’t want to drink at a party, know what you’ll say if someone offers you a glass of wine. Or plan to grab a seltzer first thing so your hands are occupied.

Habits of ignorance

To be sure, knowledge can be helpful in certain situations. It took trial and error to figure out what was contributing to some reflux issues I was having, but once I pegged the culprits, changing my diet and habits wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be (pain turns out to be a good motivator). If you didn’t know that a certain phrase was offensive to a friend of yours, and she told you, that probably would be at least half the battle on changing that habit.

But in a lot of other situations, knowledge is much more widespread, and not that hidden. If knowing were half the battle, habit change would be a lot easier than it is. The good news is that it’s still doable — we just have to focus on the right things.