By Kate Nateras
When you know you’re the kind of person that has seemingly no control over certain things of your own behavior, you often find yourself wishing you had someone by your side yelling at you as you eat something you shouldn’t, or when you spend more than you actually can afford. But self-control is something you can learn or develop—even if you need a little push to get there. Amazon, and more specifically Behavioral Technology Group, offer precisely that: a device that can give you a little nudge in the right direction in order to get rid of those bad habits, without needing to bug anyone else for it. All you need, it seems, is a wristband.
Yep, a simple wristband, which has the goal of stopping you from engaging in undesirable or otherwise bad habits, such as overspending money or eating too much junk food, through a small “zaptic feedback.” Its name is Pavlok, a behavioral-shaping wristband that uses operant conditioning through haptic feedback.
According to its creators, this conditioning device is essentially behavioral training: it uses negative stimulation and association to reaffirm a specific action as undesirable. For example, many people can’t stop smoking because they find it an exceedingly pleasant activity. Then, this device will help you start associating smoking with more unpleasant sensations, to ultimately get rid of the pleasure-ridden aspect of it and force yourself to acknowledge the damage smoking causes. The same applies to bad eating habits, etc.
Pavlok can thus help you break many habits that are negatively affecting your lifestyle, like wasting time on the internet, overeating, overspending, oversleeping, nail-biting, smoking, or procrastinating. This innovative product has actually gotten pretty good user-reviews, which makes it, at the very least, worth checking out.
The way to use the wristband is very simple. Its creators compare it with getting food poisoning, meaning that, once you experience it, you stop consuming that which initially caused the ailment. It literally will “zap” you with a few volts whenever you engage in a bad habit you’re consciously trying to get rid of, and helps you train your brain to associate that uncomfortable shock with the corresponding behavior. After a few weeks, your brain will automatically avoid the undesirable activities, leading into an improved and healthier lifestyle.
If you want to get Pavlok through Amazon, click here.
Translated by Oliver G. Alvar
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