profile

Nudge Newsletter

One simple way you could make your message more persuasive | Nudge Newsletter

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Unit Asking

​Read online​

Which of these articles encouraged Brits to donate more?

Research by Christopher Hsee¹ found that donors gave nearly twice as much when first asked to consider the needs of a single person before being asked to donate to a larger cause.

This “unit asking” strategy made contributions feel more reasonable and personal.

And it explains this² rather bizarre study:

The study looked at the success rate of donation requests on the r/Random_Acts_Of_Pizza subreddit (where individuals ask for a free pizza).

Here are the study details:

  • The dataset contains 5,671 requests from the subreddit between December 8, 2010 and September 29, 2013.

The dataset documentation reports an “average success rate” of 24.6%.

That's incredibly high. Most donation appeals at best receive just a 2% return.

Why were requests on Random Acts Of Pizza so successful?

Unit asking. Individuals shared their own, individual story.

The takeaway? To persuade, showcase a recognisable individual, not an abstract group — Phill ​

P.S. Hacking The Human Mind is easily one of the best behavioural science books I've read this year. I can't recommend it enough.

P.P.S Next Monday I'm releasing something that took six months of work (stay tuned!).

¹Hsee, C. K., Zhang, J., Lu, Z. Y., & Xu, F. (2013). Unit asking: A method to boost donations and beyond. Psychological Science, 24(9), 1801–1808.

​

²Althoff, T., Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, C., & Jurafsky, D. (2014, May). How to ask for a favor: A case study on the success of altruistic requests. In Proceedings of the Eighth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (pp. 102–110). AAAI Press.

​

As a behavioural science practitioner, I believe in the peak-end rule.

​

​Tune into Nudge | Advertise with Nudge | Unsubscribe

Nudge Newsletter

Phill Agnew

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

Read more from Nudge Newsletter

The Country-of-Origin Effect Read online You’re thinking of buying a new pair of running shoes. Usually, you go with Nike. But this time, you’re considering Umbro (a lesser-known brand). Then you find out: Umbro makes their shoes in the UK. Nice. It's always good to find locally made brands. You’re willing to pay a decent price. But the next day, you hear Umbro are moving production to South Korea. Now, would you still pay the same? Probably not. That’s exactly what these researchers¹ found....

6 days ago • 1 min read

The Anchoring Effect Read online In the 1970s, Tversky and Kahneman¹ ran a simple experiment. They asked people: "What percentage of African countries are in the UN?" But before answering, participants had to spin a wheel with numbers from 0 to 100. The wheel was rigged to land on either 10 or 65. Then came the important question: "Is the actual percentage higher or lower than that number?" After that, participants gave their best estimate. Here’s what happened: People who saw 10 guessed 25%...

13 days ago • 1 min read

The Illusion of Choice Read online Give people $1 and two identical packs of gum. Same flavour. Same price. What happens? Most people aren't interested. That’s what Kim, Novemsky, and Dhar¹ found in a South Korean experiment. They gave participants ₩1,000 and two gum options, both priced at ₩630. Only 46% bought anything. But then they did something clever. They made the prices slightly different: ₩620 vs. ₩640. Now 77% decided to buy. Same gum. Slight price difference. Big impact. Why? When...

20 days ago • 1 min read