1 00:00:00,470 --> 00:00:04,070 Let's better understand the difference between what people need and 2 00:00:04,070 --> 00:00:04,700 what they want. 3 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:08,060 A need, as I explained earlier, 4 00:00:08,060 --> 00:00:12,120 is a necessity arising from a problem, a real problem. 5 00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:15,170 A want is what people think or say they need. 6 00:00:16,220 --> 00:00:19,810 In most cases, there's a very big difference between what 7 00:00:19,810 --> 00:00:23,350 people say they need and what they actually need. 8 00:00:23,350 --> 00:00:27,020 This difference can be described in terms of attitude and behavior. 9 00:00:28,290 --> 00:00:31,280 Attitude is how people think they behave, 10 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:33,930 while behavior is how people actually behave. 11 00:00:34,930 --> 00:00:40,968 Attitude signals what people want, while behavior signals what they need. 12 00:00:40,968 --> 00:00:44,980 This difference has been studied by social psychologists since the beginning of 13 00:00:44,980 --> 00:00:46,740 the 20th century. 14 00:00:46,740 --> 00:00:51,130 Results were so unbelievable that researchers have been repeating these 15 00:00:51,130 --> 00:00:56,000 studies over and over only to get the same exact outcome. 16 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,280 Here are two examples. 17 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:02,270 In a study conducted in 1937 by Stephen Corey, 18 00:01:02,270 --> 00:01:05,850 students were asked about their attitude toward cheating. 19 00:01:05,850 --> 00:01:12,030 In other words, Quory wanted to know what students said about their behavior. 20 00:01:12,030 --> 00:01:16,860 A few weeks later, the same students were given the opportunity to cheat. 21 00:01:16,860 --> 00:01:21,880 Following a certain exam, they were asked to grade their own performance. 22 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:26,910 There was close to zero correlation between their attitude toward cheating and 23 00:01:26,910 --> 00:01:28,570 actual cheating. 24 00:01:28,570 --> 00:01:33,010 What they said about their behavior was very different than their actual behavior. 25 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:39,300 Now you might think that research from 1937 is not valued now a days. 26 00:01:39,300 --> 00:01:42,580 You might think that human behavior changes over time. 27 00:01:42,580 --> 00:01:46,330 The funny thing about human behavior is that it doesn't change much. 28 00:01:46,330 --> 00:01:50,960 In a study reported by the BBC News a UK wide research was lead 29 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:52,620 by Ron Cutler in 2012. 30 00:01:52,620 --> 00:01:58,420 The researchers asked people coming out of public bathrooms located in gas 31 00:01:58,420 --> 00:02:04,118 stations whether or not they washed their hands after finishing their business. 32 00:02:04,118 --> 00:02:09,070 99% of the interviewees said they indeed washed their hands. 33 00:02:09,070 --> 00:02:14,501 However, electronic recording devices only 32% of men and 34 00:02:14,501 --> 00:02:19,280 64% of women actually did wash their hands. 35 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,930 While there many possible explanations to this difference, 36 00:02:22,930 --> 00:02:28,130 the fact of the matter is that it was proven again that there is a very big 37 00:02:28,130 --> 00:02:32,800 inconsistency between what people say they do and what they actually do. 38 00:02:33,990 --> 00:02:37,430 This important difference between what people want and 39 00:02:37,430 --> 00:02:42,120 what they need is key to understand when you work on developing a new product.