The Psychology Of Smell Read online I've got a shameful secret. My mouth salivates when I walk past Subway. I know the food is dire, the lettuce is plastic, and the bread is like a sponge. Yet I can't help but feel an urge to go in. After reading Consumerology¹, I think I've learnt why. The Psychology of Smell You'll smell a Subway before you see it. The yeasty, sweet, toasty smell is pumped out onto the street. And I think it's on purpose. Just looking at this image reminds me of the smell....

"I'm A Student Here Too" Read online In 1994¹, researchers asked 100s of college students for charitable donations. All were told to interrupt the students and solicit a donation. But there was a twist. Half were told to make a straightforward request, with no extra commentary. Half were told to emphasise a shared identity, saying "I'm a student here too". The results were astonishing. Only 9.8% of students in the control group made a donation. While 47.1% donated in the variant group, a 3x...

Placebos And Marketing Read online From December 2007 to January 2012, 146 men participated in an eye-opening study¹. All men had persistent knee pain. All had visited public hospitals in Finland and asked for help. Here's where the study started. Half underwent arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (removal of damaged meniscus tissue). That's the appropriate treatment. The other half underwent sham surgery (anaesthesia and incisions but no tissue removed). It was a placebo surgery. The sham...