Wants and Shoulds

A Harvard Doctoral student is studying the correlation of two kinds of products: Wants and Shoulds.

Wants are products that we want in the moment, whereas Shoulds are products that are things we know are better for us over time. It is an interesting study from what I read in Fast Company magazine. They did a study of an Australian company (similar to Netflix) that sends movies through the mail. What they found was that people would hold should films longer than want films. Specifically they referenced Schindler's List and Die Hard Three. People watched the Die Hard want film much faster, while the Schindler's List should film sat on top of the DVD player.

Another example comes from online grocery orders. (Some of you may not even know you can order your groceries online, but you can locally, I know through Giant Foods.) People who place online orders for today are more likely to order want foods like Cheetos. While those who order for dates further out include salads. Dan and Cliff Heath sum it up this way, "We are salad people in the future and Cheetos people in the moment." (Fast Company, 04/09, p. 53)

They pose some pretty interesting applications of how we can use our wants to motivate our shoulds. For instance, what if your payroll company only sent your check after you spent quality time with your children? What if your gym received your magazine subscriptions, so that in order to read the latest magazine you had to drop by the gym?

I wonder what Churches could do to help people leverage their wants and shoulds?

--Ben