The Mere Exposure Effect Read online Loyal fans of Nudge will have heard me talk about the mere exposure effect. In 1969, psychologist Robert Zajonc¹ found that students rated unfamiliar Turkish words more favourably when they had seen them more often. It's not a revolutionary finding. We prefer things we're familiar with. And many great inventors knew this instinctively. Edison and the electric light bulb Thomas Edison understood that while the lightbulb was revolutionary, new inventions...

Specific Goals > Unspecific Goals Read online Unspecific goals don't work. Psychologists¹ Locke and Latham proved it. In 1975, the two researchers set up a real-world experiment at a logging company. Drivers were only loading trucks to 60% capacity. For the control, all staff members were given an unspecific goal: Unspecific goal = “Do your best.” Performance did not increase. The researchers then asked staff what a hard but fair goal would be. They said 94%. That became their new specific...

Veblen Effect Read online Last week, I wrote about how Blue-Emu successfully sells pain relief cream (that doesn't actually cure pain). It indicated that perception trumps reality and reminded me of this study 👇 Rory Sutherland described this eloquently in a recent talk, saying: “I don’t have a $0.79 headache—I’ve got a $3.99 headache!” It's not just painkillers that benefit from higher prices. Eco-products do too. Research¹ cited in the brilliant Science Says measured sales of sustainable...