Hypocrisy as a tool

Here's an interesting Washington Post article about how one can motivate a person to do something that may not be the most appealing activity but is for their own good in the long run. The basic idea is that if you can get a person to publicly declare something to be true/better/their habit (e.g. exercising regularly, eating healthily, or using a condom), then that person becomes significantly more likely to actually do that something. (Two caveats: 1. The person has to believe that you are correct in what you are asking them to declare; and, 2. You have to be supportive in pointing out their hypocrisy rather than aggressive.)

The examples provided range from using condoms to going to the gym, and in each case those who were made to feel publicly hypocritical about their own actions were much more likely to make the 'right' decision in the future. No spectacular methodology and no real long-term follow-up on the results, but a pretty interesting (and intuitive) result (and even six months of increased condom use is pretty impressive). Perhaps Blagojevich needed to be appointed head of a committee to fight corruption...