Beyond the Comfort Zone: The Role of Niches in Personal and Social Transformation

Why do we have comfort zones? For us all to have them they must have a strong evolutionary purpose. We can find that in the science of ecological niches. This approach can give us a fresh perspective on resistance to social change and how we can make it more easier and effective for people.

Comfort Zones can be considered as human niches that are hard to escape. The instinct to stay in a niche explains much of what we see when people are confronted with social change. Ecological niches provide a compelling science of understanding how we can better achieve social change and transformation for people and organisations.

Whether it’s encouraging people to change within an organisation or creating social change in a community the biggest thing holding people back is that they don’t want to leave their comfort zone.

What is a Comfort Zone?

A comfort zone is defined as a place or circumstance where someone feels safe, unthreatened and in control. 

So it is the unique combination of environment and feelings. But why do people all have this deep rooted feeling and connect emotions to places and circumstances?

Evolutionary Psychology and Comfort Zones

Evolutionary psychology explains human thinking and behaviour in terms of whether it enables the humans to successfully thrive and survive.

An evolutionary psychology perspective would say that we have comfort zones to keep ourselves (And our young) in places of low risk of harm. For example a study by McDermott et al. (2008) suggests that risk-averse behaviours are deeply rooted in evolutionary pressures, where avoiding risk increased the likelihood of survival and reproduction.

It allows us to define a space or circumstance and keep it free from threats. So that is why comfort zones are also related to a feeling of control.

Hold on is That Not an Ecological Niche?

An ecological niche is a place an organism has within an environment or an ecosystem that provides sufficient food and safety for the organisms continued survival.

Are Niches and Comfort Zones the Same Thing?

It could be argued that comfort zones are the results of our evolutionary drive to find a place of security of safety we have evolved as animals. 

The key difference is our comfort zone is our drive to find a human niche, whereas ecological niche is the functional achievement of a niche.

What is an Ecological Niche

The concept of an ecological niche was popularised in the 1950’s by George Evelyn Hutchinson, who has been described as the father of modern ecology. Now bare with me as it sounds more complicated than it is but he defined a niche as 

“An area is thus defined, each point of which corresponds to a possible environmental state… an n-dimensional hypervolume is defined, every point in which corresponds to a state of the environment which would permit the species.. to exist indefinitely.”

It basically means an organism can exist in any dimension  in which it can find space. (e.g. sound where a bird will make its call different from others).

Your Niche is a Nest

The name niche comes from French, which in turn was derived from the Latin for “nest”. So when we are talking about niches it is helpful to think about a nesting place. 

A nest is a place of safety and protection sheltering us from the threats of the outside world. It is a place where we have a lot of knowledge. We can quickly identify and act to address threats to that space. Which is why it is crucially an area where we feel we have some sort of control. 

Niches Are Not Just For One

The other thing about a nest it’s often a shared place  We let our loved ones into our nest. Arguably intimacy can be seen as a deliberate sharing of niches! A niche is also a place where we have agency freedom to do things and ability to adapt. We don’t just control our nest we have the power to adapt it.

Outside the Niche is Frightening Place

This is all in contrast to what happens outside our niche. The world outside the nest is a much scarier place. We have to be alert to threats. We are competing for resources. We are forced to respond and react to the world. Whereas our nest protects us, in the outside world we have little protection and have to respond to the ever changing world. It’s a real struggle to survive outside our niche.

Our Own Personal Niches

When we start thinking about niches in our own lives. We can see niches in everything we do. We all live within a combination of different niches. Whether it is our home, our work, our friendships. But it is also the place we shop, our favourite website (e.g. you have your own page on Facebook) and all aspects that create our identity.

In a very real sense, niches dictate who we are and how we interact with the world, as well as how the world interacts with us. Where we see threats or feel ‘out of place’ we often instinctively want to go to a place or people we know.

A Niche is A Protected Space

A niche is also a place where we can exist with low energy. We don’t go into our living room and look for threats (unless our kids have been playing with lego on the floor again), but outside we need to be on constant vigilance. Threats could come from anywhere and we require knowledge and skills to maintain our personal safety.

What About Social Niches?

Social niches are our social comfort zones. Some might argue that this sets humans apart from animals and plants. Except it doesn’t we now know that forests have wood wide webs, many animals have pecking orders and attachments. Yes human social interaction is certainly more complex, but let’s face it we all have social roles in our lives. What is a social role, but another form of niche?

Niches and Flow

Similarly when we stick to our habits we can flow and do things quickly and efficiently. Flow often happens in familiar and unthreatening places and surroundings. Whereas learning a new skill will take time and can result in a lot of mistakes. So we can flow in our comfort zone and make mistakes when we leave it. 

We Think In Niches.

Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow tells us that the automatic System 1 system can be seen as a mental process we mostly use within our niche. Whereas System 2 is more likely to be required outside our niche. So we can see that our brains could be evolved to process information in an in niche – out of niche way.

Niches for Growth

A nest is also somewhere we can mature. When we are in a niche we have space to adapt and thrive. We typically use that to establish ourselves and grow into the space. This is why a new niche can initially seem huge. Like starting a new job. But after a time we grow to fill the niche and the constraints stop us growing further. 

You Can Out Grow a Niche

Like a job you have been in for a few years and you feel you have ‘grown out of’. But switching niche is expensive in time and energy as you have to move to a new niche which could be risky as well as meaning you have to go through the expensive process of learning new skills and growing into a new niche. 

Niches Are Relaxed Easy Spaces.

A niche is a place where we exist with a low energy and information cost. We can operate efficiently in our niche and with relative safety. It is a safe easy space to exist.

Why Niches Are Important For Social Interventions

Social interventions are necessary therefore to help people out of their existing low energy comfort zone. This is why social interventions are necessary and organisational change has to be a deliberate effort. We will stay in the perceived safety of a niche. Where there is a low energy cost and low threat. Even if is bad for us or other people. We need helping out of our niche to break the safe patterns of behaviour. 

What Does Changing Niche Mean for Social and Organisational Change?

We can look at social and organisation change in two different ways using niches. You are either adapting or building an existing niche. Or you are asking people to move and change niches entirely which is a much more challenging process, but once the transition is successful it will be harder to move back.

Social Change And Niches

In an previous blog i stated that social impact is maximised by moving from a place of restrictions (a confined niche) to a place where new capabilities are possible (Essentially a stronger niche with new possibilities). If we do not move to another niche or at the very least expand our current one, we will simply, and inevitably slip back into our old ways.

Niches And Diffusion of Innovation Theory.

Niches help us explain the diffusion of innovation theory with a fresh perspective.

• The Innovators have change well within their niche
• Early Adopters are comfortable extending their existing niche for the change.
• The Early Majority the change is outside of their niche and they good reason to adapt and change
• For the Late Majority the change is outside their niche but requires relatively large amount of effort to change.
• For the Laggards the change is not consistent with their niche.

Over time people have to learn and adapt and reorient their psychology to either adapt or change niche to make the change take effect. Changing niches takes different amounts of time effort and energy for each category of adoptee.

The Flow of Change

The only way that people will ever change niches is if they are motivated to change niches. With the cost of changing niches so high, as well as there being the setback and risks of change we need to make the journey between niches as simple as possible, This is why i talk about a ‘flow of change’. 

Top Down Interventions Are Not Good For Social Change?

There is the perspective that you shouldn’t do things to people. That top down interventions are usually a bad idea. That working from the top down alone results in organisational stress and failure. That people can and should choose everything for themselves. I think there is a lot of merit in this approach if people are healthy and happy and they are not causing problems for others.

Sadly that’s not the case for so many people. If you look at our society there are so many problems that are endemic because people are choosing the easy, but harmful option. Which is why we simultaneously have epidemics of physical and mental health problems, (Health Foundation), widespread environmental damage and widespread loneliness and isolation.

I’m not arguing that people should be forced to change. Only that we should make the process of change easy. Whilst giving people the encouragement and support and motivation to choose to change. 

We need to recognise whilst the world is constantly changing and people’s emotional gravity is to stay in their nice comfortable niches. Which is why we have to be deliberate, intentional and supportive of change. 

Why Niches Are Not A Bad Thing

Niches are in fact very useful. Whenever, we lose our niche, the very first thing we have to do is create a new niche. Niches are vital for physical social and emotional safety. There is a lot of science to suggest that teams that are are afraid tend to underperform. They are also a places of agency collaboration and flow. Research (Ellis, et al 2012) suggests having a safe space to make changes from often supports us in making changes. This is why I’m emphasising extending existing niches or creating new ones.

Niches and Social Change

Niches simultaneously keep us safe help us avoid conflict as well as help us to operate efficiently in our environment. The downside is that we try and avoid changing niche. That even niches that are not good for us or the people we affect are hard to change. Social change is therefor the process or helping people change to a niche that is sustainable and help people’s health and wellbeing.

Conclusion

Understanding the role of comfort zones and niches provides valuable insights into human behaviour and the challenges of instigating change. Our evolutionary drive for safety and control anchors us to familiar environments, making it difficult to venture into new territories. However, personal growth and social transformation depend on our ability to expand or move beyond these comfort zones. By recognising the psychological and evolutionary factors at play, we can better support and motivate individuals to embrace change. Creating intentional, supportive environments for transitioning between niches can lead to sustainable improvements in both personal well-being and societal impact.