The Streisand Effect

In 2003 the California Coastal Records Project wanted to take pictures in the Malibu area to record the cause of coastal erosion. But in doing so, they inadvertently took photographs of Barbera Streisand’s home.

As you can imagine, in the affluent area of Malibu, her house was one of many big houses with acres of land and nobody knew that it was Streisand’s home. In fact, nobody really cared.

It was only when her lawyers brought attention to this picture and accused the photographer of breaking privacy rights did the whole world suddenly care about where Streisand lived. Her house was now being shared on the newest sharing networks at the time and every newspaper in the world had published the picture of Streisand’s home.

The acts of Streisand and her lawyers not only created the opposite effect of what they wanted, but it escalated into what we now know as The Streisand Effect. Attempting to prohibit something which leads to increased attention.

Have you ever had an experience where you have tried to prohibit something which leads you to want this forbidden fruit even more?

As a coach specialising in weight control I have come across people trying to ban chocolate, crisps, takeaways, carbs, fats, eating before a certain time, eating after a certain time. They’ve tried to cancel alcohol, bread, cheese, coca cola and even some types of fruit and veg because they have been told that it will contribute to their weight gain.

9 times out of 10, when they banned a type of food, this tactic exploded in their face and led to a situation that became out of control. Suddenly, this food type is wanted even more because of the restrictions put upon it.

It’s like when I tell my kids that I have just painted the door frame you can bet that they touch it. And it’s not just my kids. If my wife tells me that the bath water is too hot I will get in anyway and have two red arse cheeks while I try to place my feet on each side of the tub to hover above the lava like, hotter than hell, water below.

Like the media frenzy at Streisand’s lawyers calling for privacy rights, we begin to obsess at what we are told we shouldn’t see, do and eat.

In the month before the lawsuit, the picture had been downloaded 6 times. The month following the lawsuit the picture had been downloaded 420,000 times.

In my personal experience if I agree to a takeaway every 4 weeks then I give myself a happy compromise. If I tell myself that takeaways are banned then I would want one this coming weekend. I also like cheese. I know that I go through periods of eating too much of it. Yet if I can develope a habit where I have one evening a week where I eat cheese and biscuits rather than cut cheese out of my diet altogether then I won’t feel resentment or frustration towards my health and fitness goals. In fact I have found that I go without cheese and biscuits for weeks and weeks now because it just isn’t a part of my thoughts. I created a positive habit that became so constructive that my obsession for cheese wasn’t even a thing anymore.

And if you’re wondering what happened to the lawsuit, it was dropped later that year. The paradoxical effect had already done the damage.

If you have any questions regarding weight control then please get in touch. Thanks for reading. See you soon!