The Psychology Of Smell Read online I've got a shameful secret. My mouth salivates when I walk past Subway. I know the food is dire, the lettuce is plastic, and the bread is like a sponge. Yet I can't help but feel an urge to go in. After reading Consumerology¹, I think I've learnt why. The Psychology of Smell You'll smell a Subway before you see it. The yeasty, sweet, toasty smell is pumped out onto the street. And I think it's on purpose. Just looking at this image reminds me of the smell....
16 days ago • 1 min read
Losses Feel Worse Than Gains Read online Kahneman proved that "𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴". So, Nationwide don't say:❌ "We've kept our Holloway store open. So you can keep banking in-person."They say:✅ "Santander is leaving Holloway. Maybe it's time you left Santander." It's the best ad I've seen in weeks because it concretely applies behavioural science. Highlighting what a customer will lose is often more persuasive¹ than highlighting what they'll gain. Richard...
22 days ago • 1 min read
"I'm A Student Here Too" Read online In 1994¹, researchers asked 100s of college students for charitable donations. All were told to interrupt the students and solicit a donation. But there was a twist. Half were told to make a straightforward request, with no extra commentary. Half were told to emphasise a shared identity, saying "I'm a student here too". The results were astonishing. Only 9.8% of students in the control group made a donation. While 47.1% donated in the variant group, a 3x...
29 days ago • 1 min read
Placebos And Marketing Read online From December 2007 to January 2012, 146 men participated in an eye-opening study¹. All men had persistent knee pain. All had visited public hospitals in Finland and asked for help. Here's where the study started. Half underwent arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (removal of damaged meniscus tissue). That's the appropriate treatment. The other half underwent sham surgery (anaesthesia and incisions but no tissue removed). It was a placebo surgery. The sham...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
The Veblen Effect Read online In 2008¹, researchers in California conducted brain scans on wine drinkers. They measured the area of the brain responsible for encoding pleasure. All participants were given an identical glass of wine. However, some were told the wine cost $10. Others were told the wine costs $90. When the participants believed they were drinking an expensive wine, they experienced more pleasure. Taken from the 2008 paper¹ But no one actually drinks wine in a brain scanner. So,...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Effort Boosts Value Read online Last Wednesday, I walked 60.7km to talk at Creator Day 25. I only had one pair of shoes. It took me 12 hours. 3,818 calories. 2 Greggs sausage rolls. And 6 nasty blisters. My day started at sunrise and didn't finish until 6:49 pm. I got through four pairs of socks, got lost twice, and almost gave up. So, why? Why did I do it Effort boosts your enjoyment. I knew the more effort I put in, the more I'd value the talk. That's the IKEA Effect¹. So, I decided, rather...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The Decoy Effect Read online Adding a worthless option could increase your sales. Take this study¹ from the University of Liechtenstein. The researchers showed a representative sample of readers these two book choices: The vast majority of people decided to buy the $10 e-book rather than both the e-book and the hardcover. However, the researchers then tested adding a third decoy option. This option was pointless, offering just the hardcover for $20, yet it altered behaviour. Now, the least...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The Contrast Effect Read online Rosser Reeves, an American ad executive from the 1950s, was eating lunch in Central Park. He and his colleague saw a man begging for money. It was late afternoon, but the beggar hadn't made much money. Reeves told his colleague: “I bet I can dramatically increase the amount of money that guy is raising simply by adding four words to his sign." The colleague agreed, and Reeves introduced himself to the homeless man. He explained that he knew something about...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Titles That Sell Read online Emanuel Haldeman-Julius was an incredibly wealthy book salesman. He didn't write. He resold famous literature to an American audience. Goethe and Shakespeare were printed on cheap paper and sold in big quantities. He sold more than 200 million¹ booklets, each for five cents. Emanuel Haldeman-Julius in the 1930s. Emanuel noticed that some books sold better than others. He hypothesised that buyers judge a book by its title. So, he rewrote the titles of his least...
2 months ago • 2 min read