Add? Subtract? Or Both?

It seemed like a good idea.

Highlight the total number of traffic related deaths and people will drive more safely.?

Transportation experts were tasked with lowering traffic fatalities. Research shows that fear is a powerful motivator. The hypothesis was that if you added these signs, you would decrease accidents.?

28 states in the US implemented these signs on major roads as a preventative measure.

And then, as it usually goes, more researchers stepped in. For eight years, researchers decided to test how well the signs worked in Texas. They turned the signs off for one week each month and measured the results compared to when the signs were on.

After considering all of the other variables at play, they estimated the signs led to an additional 2,600 accidents and 16 deaths each year.

What the original problem solvers failed to consider was the impact of intentionally distracting drivers with fear based messaging. They had succeeded in capturing the attention of drivers which then meant drivers were not focused on the road, which is where their main focus should have been. It turns out that we can’t have our attention diverted from our main focus without causing some unintended consequences.

The researchers conclusion was pretty simple:

“Ceasing these campaigns is a low-cost way to improve traffic safety.”

(shout out to David Epstein for sharing the study above in his newsletter this week)

When you are tasked with moving from a current state to a desired state for yourself, for others, or for projects, what’s your default response?

It's a safe bet that ‘addition’ crossed your mind. If only you could add a new habit, program, tool, or system, everything will work out.

“My research has shown that people systematically overlook subtraction. When we’re trying to take things from how they are to how we want them to be, our first instinct is to think “What can I add?,” which means we’re overlooking one of the most basic ways to make change.” Leidy Klotz

While the traffic example is interesting, I’m more interested in this:

“The United States is experiencing an extreme teenage mental-health crisis. From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study. This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded.”?“Why American Teens are so Sad,” The Atlantic

Schools around the world are trying to solve this problem.

I work at a high achieving school, resourced like a small university.

• We offer over 40 college level courses.
• We have kids send experiments to the space station each year.
• The average senior graduates with 1.5 years of college courses complete.
• We had 650 students take a total of over 1,800 AP tests and 95% of them scored 3+ last spring.
• University acceptance is a given.

AND….

Like many schools right now, we have kids struggling with overwhelm, anxiety, and inadequacy. I met with a student who shared that everywhere they looked were reminders that they weren’t enough.

The solution?

Well, schools are willing to try anything and everything.

• Add more counselors.?
• Add more social emotional programs.
• Add more pep rallies.
• Add more guest speakers.
• Add more time for teachers to learn from consultants about mental health.
• Add more surveys asking about mental health.
• Add more college level courses. (not actually a solution but still happens most years)
• Add more college counseling events. (also not a solution but still these continue piling up)
• Add more parent coffees to help parents be able to support their child.

Each of these solutions on its own can be good. But while everyone is looking for new programs, more resources, and every expert they can find, who is asking the question, “what could we stop doing?” Or an even more pointed one, “how are we contributing to this problem?”

“If subtracting is roughly as useful as addition — yet is used far less often — then there is untapped potential. We need to go from thinking add or subtract to thinking add and subtract. The question is not, “Should we add or subtract?”, it’s “How do we use both?” Our Nature research shows that people often add but then quickly move on, failing to consider even superior, higher-order subtractions. That jump right to adding wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if people then considered subtracting. If more makes things better, then maybe less can too.” Leidy Klotz

I like that. How do we use both??

Maybe we do need another counselor. And maybe we need less focus on college courses. Both could be true. Or maybe we need more pep rallies and less assessments.?

Unfortunately, we are biased. And our extreme aversion to losing or having things taken away from us makes subtracting hard. The pain of loss is actually more pronounced than the pleasure of gain which means we would need to add even more in order to offset the pain we might feel from losing something.?

I see this all the time. I’m part of the problem!

There’s no easy answer to many of the issues we face and the reality is that asking the question is only the beginning. We need the courage to act, to be willing to let something go even when the crowd is asking for more.?