Column Judith Witte: Reptile brain

Us humans are creatures of habit. Every day we have the same morning routine, the same route to work, a fixed place at the table. Change makes us restless. To prove this premise at home, I ran a little test. At dinner, I will sit on a different seat for a change. "What are you doing?" my daughter asks. "That's my seat!", says my son. "Má-ham...", the middle one says with a sigh.

Our reptile brain, the oldest part of our brain reacts instinctively and automatically. It determines as much as 95% of the decisions we make every day and thus has a huge influence on our behaviour. It does not like change.

I continue testing. "Imagine," I say to my husband, "it's summer and we're sitting near our swimming lake. You grab a can from the cooler bag. Can you portray exactly what you do next?" I often have strange questions and tasks, so he doesn't really look surprised. With his left hand he grabs a fictitious can, with the other hand he pulls the loop and flattens it. He grabs it over in his right hand and puts it to his mouth. "'Drink it all," I urge him. He tilts his head back, slurps it down to the last drop, looks at me again, then grabs the bottom with his left hand, the top with his right, and then with one smooth motion turns the imaginary object into a twist. "Ha!" I call out, because this is exactly what I expected him to do. The movement is ingrained. We are creatures of habit. "You shouldn't do that last part from 1 April!"

This is no joke. This is because as of that date, there will be a deposit on metal beverage containers. The deposit system on cans should go a long way towards reducing litter. If you bring them back to a collection point, provided they are undented, not crushed or twisted into a wobble, you will get 15 cents in return. 

The Waste Fund expects consumers to get used to it soon. But my son doubts it. "You can seal a bottle," he reasons. " A can does not. I don't know whether I would put that empty can back in my bag. It will leak, won't it?" He has a point. That's why there will be thousands of collection points; supermarkets, railway stations, sports clubs, cinemas, petrol stations, etc. That'll be something... Fortunately, we know that with focus, knowledge and awareness, ingrained patterns in the reptile brain can change again.

Judith Witte
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