Goal Dilution Effect Read online Keen listeners of Nudge will have heard Richard Shotton explain how Five Guys succeeded because they limited the number of items on their menu. Taken from Shotton's episode in late 2025. They focused on just burgers and chips. That helped them improve and benefit from economies of scale. But it also helped them psychologically, due to the goal dilution effect. Here's why: In a 2007 study by Zhang and Fishbach¹, participants were given information about how...

Pratfall Effect Read online A few months ago on Reddit, someone asked, "Is this the best Black Friday marketing campaign?" Personally, I think it's disingenuous garbage, but clearly, something about this type of ad resonates with some. And it might be because of the first two words. "We're sorry." In 2024¹ a number of researchers from Belgium ran four experiments. They tested what happened when a company apologised for a trivial mistake. In one study, participants were shown an email from a...

Humor Effect Read online Are funny ads actually more 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆? That's what seven Californian¹ researchers set out to test in 2014. A group of participants were instructed to remember a long list of words. 50% of the participants then waited for 20 minutes in silence. 🤫50% of the participants then watched a funny 20-minute video. 🤣The researchers asked both groups to recall as many words as possible. Those who sat in silence remembered just 20% of the words. 🤫For those who watched the...