Go Small or Go Home: How the Housefly Effect Offers Little Solutions for Big Problems
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Big problems call for radical solutions, right?
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Not necessarily, say authors Tim den Heijer and Eva van den Broek, who argue for the impact of housefly effect: making small changes in your everyday life
When faced with tough problems, we naturally assume that we need big solutions. Whether it's a personal struggle like weight loss or global issues such as climate change, the assumption is that only bold, sweeping actions can make a difference. We think we need a clean break, a groundbreaking shift, or a new way of seeing the world. This often involves dramatic effort and total commitment. After all, if the problem is big, surely the solution must be, too?
However, real life doesn’t always work that way. In many cases, these ambitious solutions don’t deliver the desired outcomes. That crash diet may help you lose weight fast, but within a few weeks, the pounds return, often with interest. Major government interventions designed to solve societal problems sometimes backfire, creating unintended consequences that leave the situation worse than before. So, what’s the answer? Double down, make the solution even bigger? Reorganise your entire company, overhaul your life, or perhaps retreat to a detox camp in Bali?
If this sounds familiar, you may be experiencing the effects of proportionality bias—a mental shortcut that convinces us a solution must match the size of the problem. It’s an intuitive but flawed belief: large problems call for large solutions. When the proposed fix seems small by comparison, it feels like it couldn’t possibly be effective.
Yet, as reasonable as this might seem, it's often misleading. Minor interventions can have a massive impact, like a mosquito disturbing your entire night of sleep or a loose screw causing a significant accident.
We see small causes with big effects all the time, yet when it comes to challenges in our own lives or larger societal issues, we tend to ignore this and opt for grand approaches. But the truth is, when you look closer, the solution to some of our most significant problems often lies in a smaller, simpler tweak—at the level of a housefly.
The housefly effect: Big changes through small nudges
You may have heard of the now-famous experiment at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. Faced with the annoying issue of poor aim in men’s toilets, which led to messy floors, frequent cleaning, and unhappy travellers, the solution wasn’t fines, rewards, or persuasive posters asking for better behaviour. Instead, a small fly was painted inside the urinals, giving men something to aim at. Remarkably, this tiny intervention resulted in a dramatic improvement in cleanliness. No speeches, no incentives—just a subtle change in the environment.
This fly became the symbol of what behavioural scientists call a nudge: a small tweak in an environment that gently steers behaviour without force, incentives, or even conscious effort. We capture this idea in our book The Housefly Effect, using the fly as a metaphor for those tiny, often unnoticed changes that profoundly affect how we behave. These ‘houseflies’ are small interventions in our daily lives that can lead to big shifts in our habits, decisions, and actions.
At first, the idea that your behaviour can be so easily influenced might feel unsettling—nobody likes to think they’re being subtly manipulated. But understanding the power of nudges can actually be a cause for optimism. It means that many of the big changes you want to make, whether in your personal life or on a larger scale, might require less time, effort, and energy than you imagine. The secret to tackling those daunting challenges may lie in seemingly minor adjustments to your daily routine or surroundings.
Nudges that work: Small steps to achieving big goals
So, how can you harness the power of the housefly effect in your own life? Here are a few examples of ‘houseflies’ or nudges, that may help you achieve your goals with minimal effort:
1. Positioning matters
Want to eat healthier? Simply moving fruit to eye level in your kitchen or at the front of your fridge increases the chance that you’ll reach for it. Research shows that making healthy choices more visible or easier to access subtly nudges you to make better decisions without even thinking about it.
2. Use visual cues
Trying to establish a new habit, like exercising more or drinking enough water? Use visual reminders in your environment. Placing a yoga mat by your bed or a water bottle on your desk makes these activities easier to start. You don’t need to overhaul your day; small reminders prompt you to act without effort.
3. Commitment devices
Another effective nudge is committing yourself in advance. If you want to save money, set up automatic transfers to a savings account. If you want to stick to your fitness goals, schedule workout sessions with a friend. These tiny actions create a commitment that keeps you on track without the need for constant self-discipline.
4. Choice architecture
The way options are presented can drastically affect your choices. For example, if you want to cut down on your meat consumption, try starting your meal planning by choosing plant-based dishes first. This simple reordering of choices can help you shift your eating habits without feeling like you’re making a sacrifice.
5. Positive reinforcement
If you’re trying to change behaviour at work or in a team setting, offering small rewards can nudge people in the right direction. For example, praising punctuality or acknowledging small improvements can encourage more of the same behaviour without the need for major incentives.
Discover the power of small changes
These are just a few examples of how minor adjustments can help you achieve your goals. The real promise of the housefly effect is that it doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your life or mindset. Instead, it’s about identifying those small, seemingly insignificant elements in your environment that may be holding you back—or propelling you forward.
What might seem like trivial details—the order of tasks on your to-do list, the placement of objects in your home, or the automatic settings on your phone—can have a surprisingly significant impact on behaviour. Once you start paying attention to these details, you can begin to design your environment in ways that gently nudge you toward your goals.
So why not start small? Make one tiny change today, and see where it leads. Whether it’s setting up a visual reminder, changing the order of your daily routine, or adjusting your surroundings, the housefly effect can help you achieve meaningful change without grand gestures. Give it a try, and discover just how powerful those small nudges can be in transforming your life
Tim den Heijer and Eva van den Broek are the authors of The Housefly Effect: How Nudge Psychology Steers Your Everyday Behaviour
