profile

Nudge Newsletter

Over 1,000 people will ignore this email | Nudge Newsletter 🧠

Published almost 2 years ago • 1 min read

Well Done! You don't follow the crowd.

Thank you for opening today’s email.

Because psychology suggests you wouldn’t.

There’s a psychological principle known as negative social proof.

Definition = if you make an unwanted behaviour seem commonplace, more people will perform the unwanted behaviour.

Few examples:

  • “Visitors steal 5 tons a year” increased wood theft at an Arizona park (Cialdini, 1984)
  • “Many miss their NHS appointments” increased no-shows (Martin, 2024)
  • “Over 1,000 people will ignore this email” should harm open rates (*ongoing study Agnew, 2024)

In 2022, BBC published an article which shouldn’t surprise you

“The Met Police practice of posting photographs of seized knives on social media could be encouraging knife-carrying, according to a new study.
​
The University of Strathclyde research also found that sharing such images risked creating ‘a culture of fear’ and ‘perpetuating negative stereotypes’”

With all the best intentions, communicators repeatedly make this mistake.

Even organisations that should be aware of consumer behaviour fail.

Take Wikipedia’s notoriously bad attempt to encourage readers to donate.

No prizes for identifying what’s wrong with this message.

So, if you’re trying to deter a certain behaviour, never make the unwanted behaviour seem commonplace.

Cheers!

Phill

Nudge Newsletter

Phill Agnew

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

Read more from Nudge Newsletter
Criticised AI mural of Bristol on Bedminster pub wall removed - BBC News

AI Designs Read online A month back, the pub down the road from me erected this mural. It tries to depict the city of Bristol, but it gets a lot wrong. The mural shows a tower from Canada rather than Bristol. There's a bridge that doesn't belong in the city. And even the Banksy looks off. Clearly, it's AI-generated. And local residents hated it. Caroline Maggs told Bristol 24/7 that it "undermines artists' work". The BMC called it disrespectful. Others called it a "slap in the face" to local...

7 days ago • 2 min read
Beyond Provocative: How One AI Company's Ad Campaign Betrays Humanity - Roger Wong

Anchoring Read online In Alex Edmans' great book The Madness of Markets, he writes about how the bookshop Computer Literacy, Inc changed its name. The store, in 1999, became Fatbrain.com. But why? What's wrong with Computer Literacy, Inc? According to Alex Edmans, it was to profit from the dot-com bubble. And it worked. Fatbrain's stock climbed 36% after the name change. A Bloomberg article about the name change. But was the Fatbrain spike in earnings a one-off? To find out, Cooper, Dimitrov...

14 days ago • 1 min read

Mere Exposure Read online In E.T., director Steven Spielberg planned a scene where the alien creature was coaxed out of hiding using sweets. Keen not to miss a profitable opportunity, Spielberg approached Mars to use M&M’s for a small fee. Mars turned Spielberg down. Undeterred, Spielberg asked Hershey’s for product placement. Hershey’s had just launched Reese’s Pieces, so they jumped at the chance to feature the new chocolates on screen. Reese’s Pieces were used to lure out the alien. After...

21 days ago • 2 min read