We all make commitments we fail to honor. How many times have you said, ‘I’ll communicate better with my co-workers’, or ‘I’ll commit to executing plans or completing tasks on time’, only to fall short of your plan? Of course we intend to follow through, but good intentions aren’t enough to create meaningful change. A well-designed question, however, might be.

After combing through more than a 100 studies spanning 40 years of research, a team of scientists from four US universities discovered that asking is better than telling when it comes to influencing your own, or another’s behavior.

David Sprott, a co-author of research from Washington State University said: ‘If you question a person about preforming a future behavior, the likelihood of that behavior happening will change.’ Questions prompt a psychological reaction that is different from the reaction to statements.

Astonishingly, research found that turning a statement into a question could influence a person’s behavior for up to six months. The question/behavior effect is even more powerful with questions that can only be answered with a yes or no.
-Steven Bartlett, The Diary of a CEO

“Human behavior flows from three main sources; desire, emotion, and knowledge.”
-Plato

“The answers are all out there, we just need to ask the right questions.”
-Oscar Wilde

Questions, unlike statements, elicit an active response – they make people think, they make people react. Questions can be a very effective tool in communication – question become extremely more effective than simply making a statement or a demand. Questions involve people, they illicit a response, and therefore create engagement with people in a positive way.

A study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, says that asking the right question, in the correct way, is the key to behavior change. Coined the “Question-Behavior Effect,” researchers found that asking a question about future behavior speeds up an individual’s readiness for change.

So rather than tell someone – or yourself – that it’s important to invest in a retirement fund, for example, ask, “Are you going to set aside money for retirement?” That question offers a gentle reminder that investing is important and it causes some slight discomfort to someone who isn’t saving money. That discomfort is what motivates people to change. When an individual isn’t exhibiting a healthy behavior, the question serves as a reminder of their choices.