profile

Nudge Newsletter

How loss aversion boosts motivation | Nudge Newsletter 🧠

Published about 2 years ago • 1 min read

Losses motivate more than gains.

Imagine I gave you $4,000 to motivate your sales rep.

You'd probably set them a target like this:

  • Hit 120% of quota and I'll give you $4,000

But...

There's a better way to motivate.

Loss aversion reveals that losses are more salient than equivalent gains.

And when it comes to bonuses, the thought of losing a bonus is more motivating than gaining one.

Here's the study behind this insight 👇

The right way to motivate the sales rep is to say:

  • We've added an extra $4,000 bonus in your pay check this month. If you hit 120% of quota, you keep it. If not, we'll subtract it from future months.

Big thank you to today's sponsor Lately. Don't miss this tech 👇

​Transform Your Social Marketing with Neuroscience-Driven AI™​
​
Lately’s neuroscience-driven AI™ learns and adapts to your unique brand voice to create social media content that your audience will love.
​

  • +12,000% ENGAGEMENT – No, that’s not a typo.
  • +245% MORE CLICKS – More clicks = mo’ better.
  • +200% MORE LEADS – Higher quality leads for marketing and sales.

Our AI schedules and populates your social media calendar faster than you can grab a cup of coffee. ☕️

Want to sponsor Nudge? Here's all you need to know.​

Cheers,

Phill

P.S. I don't listen to many podcasts, but one I tune into religiously is Dan Murray-Serter's Secret Leaders. It's fantastic. If you've got a spare hour this week, I'd reccomend his episode with Mo Gawdat. It's dynamite. Listen here.

This isn't sponsored. I just like the show.

Nudge Newsletter

Phill Agnew

I spend 18 hours each week turning marketing psychology into readable newsletters.

Read more from Nudge Newsletter

Labour Illusion Read online I have a slightly unhinged theory that most websites lie to me. I know you're reaching for the unsubscribe button, wondering how many tin foil hats I can fit on my massive hat, but wait. I have some evidence. In 2025, most of the major LLM models made an almost identical update. Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and many others started to show what they were thinking. What Claude told me when I asked it if websites were lying to me. According to Claude, Anthropic does this...

1 day ago • 2 min read
Ibrahimovic's kids join AC Milan and Swede, 40, could stay as a coach when he FINALLY retires

Prove Your Dedication Read online Imagine your hometown football club booked Swedish legend Ibrahimovic to host a 2-hour training session with local children. That’s what 113 participants at the Stockholm School of Economics were asked to imagine in 2017¹. But there was a catch. Half were told the club spent almost no time persuading Ibrahimovic, with the manager saying: "It's fantastic that it was so easy to persuade you to come." The others were told booking Ibrahimovic took extreme...

8 days ago • 1 min read

Framing Your Food Read online Which of these would you rather eat: One Shepherd's Pie is described as: Beef shepherd's pie, tomato and pesto sauce The other is described as: Beef subtly seasoned with Espelette pepper under a rich velvety potato puree, topped with crisp parmesan cheese crumbs Two researchers ran a small study at a French cafeteria to test if these descriptions changed the perception of the food.¹ Diners were invited to eat a prix fixe lunch. A real photo of the cafeteria from...

15 days ago • 1 min read