The Biological Basis of Complacency

Complacency is often attributed to an employee’s mental or emotional state. As a result, the advice for tackling complacency often revolves around reminding employees to pay attention and think about what they’re doing, exhorting them not to take shortcuts and/or encouraging them to slow down. It’s advice that relies heavily on fixing employees’ sense of responsibility and attention to detail. While those things may be true, those are symptoms— not the root cause. Cutting-edge neuroscience research suggests that complacency is actually rooted in which structures the brain activates while performing its activities.

The Neuroscience of Habit

Typically when someone performs a behavior or action for the first time, their prefrontal cortex (PFC) fires and communicates with their striatum. The PFC is the part of the brain that sits above the eyeballs and is involved in many of our executive functions. Looking at the list of activities assisted by the PFC reveals a wishlist of employee behavior like planning, making decisions and anticipating consequences. The striatum is the habit, reward and goal motivated behavior center.

When the brain is doing something new, it is a lot of work, and all the neurons along this path between the PFC and the striatum fire. However, the brain is a quick learner. The next time it repeats that action, it’s a little more familiar, so fewer neurons fire. As this process is repeated, the action gets easier and easier and fewer and fewer neurons fire. When something is habit, the PFC does not need to be involved, and it’s not all the neurons during this activity. It’s just the ones at the beginning and the end.

Repetition is the mother of habit. By repeating an action over and over, a person carves a neural pathway deep in the brain that requires very little energy or effort to run.

Habits are a powerful competitive advantage that provide human beings with the ability to learn rapidly and perform repetitive tasks with as little energy and effort as possible. Unfortunately, it also potentially leaves people less aware of what’s going on around them as they may not be engaging the executive functions of the PFC.

Based on this understanding of the biological process of the human brain, we can offer a more accurate definition of complacency that also opens the door to solving the problem in a way that doesn’t blame people for being human.

A New Definition of Complacency

Complacency is a state of decreased external awareness and sensitivity to hazards caused by the brain’s ability to activate neural pathways that require less PFC activity and executive function.

Conclusion

Complacency is a byproduct of habit— of being able to operate out of the striatum and avoid the executive functions of the PFC. Complacency is not a conscious choice or a moral failing. It’s how the brain is designed. The better the brain can get at moving behaviors to habit level, the more efficient it can be with its limited resources. Most of the time complacency works in favor of the employee and their productivity, but when it poses a safety concern, eliminating complacency requires reengaging the executive functions of the brain. The more cognitively engaged an employee, the safer they will be.