The midwifes who relied on psychology not medical science | Nudge Newsletter 🧠


The illusion of effort.

Rory Sutherland shares the story of the highly successful Chamberlen family from the 1500s.

Chamberlens acquired an extremely good reputation for delivering babies during difficult births — and charged a lot to do so.

Their success lay in psychology.

When called, the Chamberlens would arrive with an unbelievably heavy box hauled into the birthing chamber.

The pregnant woman would have a blanket which covered everything below breast height. She could listen to the Chamberlens but not see them.

After removing everyone from the room, the Chamberlens would open the box.

The pregnant women would begin to hear strange noises.

Bells, hammers, clicks and whirls from dozens of devices.

These noises sounded important, but they weren't.

The bells and hammers were completely irrelevant, as were the contents of the box, and the box's weight was probably artificial.

The critical piece of equipment wasn't in the box.

It was in an inside pocket of their coat...

The medical forceps (invented by the Chamberlens).

Over 100 years, the Chamberlens conducted this ritual and hid the medical forceps from the world.

So why use the bells and whistles? Well, Rory explains it neatly.

Without the giant box and the theatre, the Chamberlen's work would have seemed effortless and perhaps scary.

The box made the procedure seem highly-skilled, technical, and complex, which made the women feel more at ease.

We intuitively know this, preferring the;

  • Dentist who carefully cleans each tooth
  • Brain surgeon who diligently spends 14 hours in surgery
  • Plumber who takes a whole morning to fix the toilet (and refuses tea breaks)

Speed can seem like low effort. And so can a pair of medical forceps in a coat pocket.

So, the Chamberlen's invented theatre to alter perception.

There's an important marketing lesson in this, too.

Cheers!

Phill

P.S. Some predict 300,000 lives would have been saved if the Chamberlens had shared their innovation 100 years earlier. It just shows the things we do for repeat business.

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