Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Would you let your valentine shock you? That was a question that I asked my husband the other day. And so I thought I would ask you guys and see what you think about this.
[00:00:13] So back in December, a little bit of context here. I discovered that there's a device. It's a wearable for people, and it's called Pavlok, and it's a play on the word Pavlov. Now, if you'll remember, Pavlov was the guy in Russia who was doing experiments to see what would happen to dogs and the production of saliva when a bell was rung. And he wrote a book. It was called Conditional Responses. So anyways, Fast forward to 2025, December. I discover that there's this device called Pavlok. And what it is is a bracelet that you put on. And you can program it to either play a tone or vibrate or stim you so shock you like an E collar, depending on what you program it to do.
[00:01:00] So last week, a friend of mine told me that she bought one for herself. Now, I have no idea how it's going for her. I haven't checked in, but of course, I went straight to the website and they were having a Valentine's Day special on the rings, which don't work quite the same, but it was a buy one, get one free valentine special.
[00:01:17] And so I got to thinking, what if you and your valentine both got the bracelet? And. And you can program that bracelet to do whatever you want. You can program it to change whatever behavior you want. Maybe you're spending too much time on social media. And so after a certain amount of time, you tell it to zap you so that you get off of social media. Maybe you're slouching. Whatever. Whatever this thing is capable of. So you and your valentine each get one of these things, and you can program it to do whatever you want. But here's the catch. You also get to program one thing. You in your partner's Pavlok device, in your partner's wearable, that one behavior of theirs that you'd like to change. And there's no debate about this. You're both on board with the game for whatever crazy reasons. So you get to program one thing on their device, and they get to program one thing on your device. So you're doing your own behavior change, but you also get to pick one behavior of theirs you'd like to change with this Pavlok device. And they get to pick one behavior of yours that they'd like to change with this wearable shock collar. Basically, I think it's even called a shot clock.
[00:02:25] So that was the first part of this little thought experiment. And then the next question that came up was, all right, so if you're both going to play this game and you're both on board, would you rather know what that behavior is that your partner programmed? Would you rather know what behavior it is that you need to avoid in order to avoid getting shocked for engaging that behavior, or would you rather not know about that behavior? Either way, you're both on board, you're both playing by the rules of, of the game. It's going to happen. But would you rather know that what that behavior is so that you can avoid it, or would you rather not know what that behavior is? And I want you to take a second to think about this because it had some interesting sort of psychological rabbit holes that we could fall down. So first of all, remember, the goal of this thing is behavior change, right? The goal of this little wearable device is behavior change. And so if the behavior is changed, the goal is accomplished. But.
[00:03:22] But there's the knowing versus the not knowing. And how would you feel if you had this device on you and you were walking around in your daily life and you didn't know what the behavior was? Gosh, what behavior is it that my valentine, my partner, my husband, my wife, my spouse, whatever, my best friend. What behavior is it that they want to change so much that they are willing to program this little thing to shock me every time I engage in it? What is that behavior? I just have no idea. They've never said anything, They've never expressed any displeasure. I don't know, maybe. Maybe they have, but. But I don't know, maybe there's 10 things that they'd like to change. I don't know which one it is.
[00:03:57] Or would you rather know up front? Hey, I programmed it to zap you when this thing happens. That's it. If you do it, it's going to happen. And so I kind of got to thinking, how would you feel if you were going through your day and you didn't know what that thing was? I mean, you're going to find out probably as soon as it happens, as long as you're paying attention. But maybe you're not. Maybe you're just going through your day doing your thing and suddenly you get this random shock. And by the register it, you've done three other things, so you might not actually know.
[00:04:29] So would you rather go through your day not knowing, kind of looking over your shoulder, metaphorically. What am I going to do that is going to cause this thing, or would you rather know up front if you do this thing, you're going to get shocked? And following, kind of following that line of logic, what is your experience of that shock, that punishment likely to be?
[00:04:49] If you know it's coming versus you don't know it's coming and you don't know what it's contingent on, would that change your experience?
[00:04:57] Would it feel worse to get zapped not knowing why? Or would it be worse to get zapped knowing why? Would the experience be down regulated or upregulated for you? Anyway, all of that stuff came to mind when that Valentine's Day ad for this Pavlok device floated up. I couldn't turn my dog training brain off. I couldn't turn my behavior change brain off. And so I just dove hard down that rabbit hole of what if? And does it matter if you know versus you don't know, remembering that the goal is behavior change, how would it change your experience of moving through your day? And how would it change your experience of the actual punishment that's coming? So that's it. Happy Valentine's Day. Just kind of want to throw that out there for those of you behavior change interested people, whether it's dogs or animal of your choice, including maybe your partner.
