Another July 4th passed. Another round of cold watermelon chunks, America’s birthday fireworks, and cold drinks on a hot summer night.
This year, a new type of water landed on my radar: Liquid Death.
Liquid Death marketers hit a homerun with its packaging and messaging. It’s water in an aluminum can, fun language, branding, and produced for a good cause – eliminating plastic water bottles. Liquid Death brings death to plastics and “murders” your thirst.
Outside of the fun packaging, I couldn’t help but experience first-hand the behavioral mechanisms at play.
My Brain Wants To Think I’m Drinking A Beer
After inspecting, holding, and drinking one can of Liquid Death, you cannot help but notice how similar it looks and feels like a traditional can of beer.
Because a can of Liquid Death shares so many stimuli with canned beer, I expect to taste and enjoy a beer. Stimuli associated with beer drinking are so tightly paired (or associated) that my brain learned what to expect when these stimuli are presented over and again. Most of the time, tall, cylindrical cans, that weigh 1 pound filled with liquid bring forth these consequences: beer flavors, good times, and depending on volume, drunkenness.
The key is:
Based on my learning history, consuming many beers, over many years, teaches my brain to expect a beer.
Stimuli paired consistently predict what consequences follow.
Tricky Stimuli
Stimuli that are similar, yet produce a different consequence produce brain trickery and create a very odd experience.
(This is my own experience but may not apply to you).
Let’s look at the shared stimuli between Liquid Death and any popular pilsner:
Packaging, vessel, size, drinking content, and arm motion produce stimulus conditions that should produce beer but don’t.
Here lies the magic of learning. Our behavior interacts with the environment, and we need stimuli to help us navigate and bring meaning to certain outcomes. If stimuli always changed and were not predictive of what was to come, then we would be thoroughly confused.
Plus, the product name “Liquid Death” conjures up images and thoughts of the latest India Pale Ale, Kölsch, or Lager release at my local Indiana microbrewery. Not water.
Learning Again
While I learned to associate these stimuli with beer, if I continue to drink Liquid Death and re-pair these stimuli with a new outcome – consuming water – then my expectations will reverse. That is, I will expect water when drinking out of tall, white, cylindrical cans that weigh 1 pound.
These processes, technically referred to as stimulus-stimulus pairing & discrimination training apply to other areas of health and fitness.
Think about your expectations when:
- Entering a gym – Do you go during peak hours? Will you finish your workout on time? Have all equipment available?
- Organizing your food – Are food items lost in the pantry? What will you see when you open the refrigerator?
- Going to bed – Which stimuli make it easier or more difficult to fall asleep? Which consequences are associated with waking up?
Our ever-changing world and stimulus conditions challenge what it takes to maintain a healthy, fit, and balanced lifestyle. Understand that learning the learning process tells us to expect water or beer and you can learn again.
Keep moving.
