Input Bias Read online Does the 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 put into a shop display 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 influence sales? That's what Morales¹ set out to answer in 2005. Participants were shown round the same store, except half saw the shelves 𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐬. The other participants saw the same products, but with a 𝐥𝐨𝐰-𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲. The results are striking. Those who saw the high-effort display were willing to pay 24.4% 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆. After seeing a store display like Boots, customers were willing to pay...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Concrete Phrases Read online Which electric bus would stick in your mind? It's not even a competition. Copy that's easy to visualise is easy to memorise. In 2021, Richard Shotton¹ showed participants a number of vague phrases, like 'innovative quality', and then some concrete phrases, e.g., 'money in your pocket'. Shotton’s concrete phrases were 8.6x more likely to be remembered. Richard Shotton's Concrete Phrases Study He’d proved the concrete phrases' effect, a phenomenon first discovered...
16 days ago • 1 min read
Psychology of Pricing Read online 1) Charm Pricing for High-Quality Products Imagine you’re buying a shatterproof iPhone case Does it matter if it is priced at £49.99 or £49.95? Well, yes. Apple uses charm pricing but usually ends prices with a 5. Gendall, Fox, and Wilton (1998)¹ ran an experiment with fast-moving consumer goods (fly spray, cheese) and durables (electric kettles). They found that prices with endings in 99 cents are more attractive for low-priced, fast-moving consumer goods...
23 days ago • 1 min read
Unit Asking Read online Which of these articles encouraged Brits to donate more? It's the one on the right. 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...
30 days ago • 1 min read
Hyperbolic Discounting Read online One of these ads looks 108% better value. Can you guess which? In 2025, Shotton and Flicker¹ tested ads like this in their book. 282 consumers were shown Sierra Nevada Pale Ale priced at $18.99 for 12 bottles. Half were told this equated to $1.58 per bottle. Among those shown the per-bottle price, 28.6% said it was good or very good value (more than double the 13.7% who only saw the total price). Framing the cost at the per-unit level made the purchase feel...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Specific Number Bias Read online Which coaster makes Guinness seem like the ‘𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘵’? That’s what Schindler¹ (Rutgers University) and Yalch (University of Washington) studied in 2006. They showed participants ads that used specific numbers, for example: “It takes 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect pint.” Vs. rounded numbers: “It takes 2 minutes to pour the perfect pint.” Turns out, claims made using 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 are perceived to be 10% 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. By pointing out that it takes...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
The Framing Effect Read online Your perception is shaped by framing. Reference how lean a steak is, and you'll boost perceptions of quality.¹ Politicians know this. Pollster Frank Luntz² reports that 68% of people oppose inheritance tax if it's labelled "estate tax," but the figure jumps to 78% when it's called a "death tax." And yet most marketers forget this. We talk about our products and services in unimaginative ways. At bookshops, marketers promote the top "picks this summer". This...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Do new managers give teams a "bounce"? Read online In sports, it's common to hear about the "new manager bounce". It's an immediate improvement in performance following a change of manager. Like most sporting clichés, it's made its way into the working world. An old boss of mine justified a managerial replacement. by citing the need to quickly hit that quarter's KPIs. But is the new manager bounce real? One detailed study¹ on Polish football managers found that players initially ran faster...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The Framing Effect Read online "Does your kid have a ten-dollar head?" That's what Bell Helmets asked parents in this newspaper ad. It seems like a strange question until we understand the power of framing. Let's look at a study on beer to explain. In a study led by Donald Lichtenstein¹ from Colorado University, bar menus with descending price order increased average beer sales by 4%. Framing the menu with high-priced options first made the mid-range prices seem like a better deal. Sales for...
2 months ago • 1 min read