Posted by What you are looking above in the title is an equation I read in the book Atomic Habits I am currently reading.
It says,
Behavior is a function of the person and the environment.
I solved a lot of calculus in my 11th and 12th Standards but I never thought a human behavior can be expressed so elegantly in a mathematical equation like this.
I am fascinated by it because it somehow relates to my fundamental principle of life.
Behavior is not concrete. It is relative. Subjective. To the person and the environment.
If a person is alone when no one is watching he will act in a different way compared to when around others.
Also a particular behavior varies from person to person. Person A’s tendency to steal stuff when alone is same as Person B’s tendency to steal when around others.
Obviously Person B’s tendency to steal will be even greater when alone. And Person A doesn’t think about stealing when around others.
We tend to think that we have a certain personality or we sometimes say “Ohh….I will never do that” but the truth is if right kind of environment is created all of us can and will do things we never thought we might do.
I would also like to throw an example of cheating in a relationship here.
There is more likelihood of a person cheating on another if they are far apart (in different cities) than when they are close like in the same city.
However comical, I think there is a fair degree of truth in the statement “When I am not near the girl I love, I love the girl near me.”
(Should I be writing this on my blog? I don’t know)
Anyways, that is really an awesome equation to describe Human Behavior.