O Behave! Issue 12
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This document provides a summary of articles and research in behavioral science. It discusses studies on how people have poor recognition of the Apple logo despite frequent exposure. It also summarizes research on how uncertainty can be a more powerful motivator than certainty. Additionally, it notes that people in positions of power tend to find themselves more inspiring than others. The document advertises an upcoming introduction course to behavioral science taught by Professor Paul Dolan.
O Behave! Issue 12
- 1. O BEHAVE! Issue 12 • March 2015
- 2. How Well Do You Know the Apple Logo? 3 Bias of the Month 4 How to Motivate People 6 Powerful Inspiration 7 An Interview with Professor Paul Dolan 8 Real Life Nudge of the Month 10 Upcoming Events 10 CONTENTS
- 3. Blake, A. B., Nazarian, M., & Castel, A. D. (2015). The Apple of the mind’s eye: Everyday attention, metamemory, and reconstructive memory for the Apple logo. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2014.1002798 If asked to draw or pick out the Apple logo, do you think you could? Take a look at the pictures of the Apple logos and put your knowledge to the test. Although this is one of the most recognisable logos in the world, if you are like most people you struggled to choose the correct logo…without cheating (the answer is the apple in the middle on the last line, to put you out of your misery)! A new study from UCLA published last month found this lack of recognition effect amongst Apple and PC users and offered an explanation to explain their findings. HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE APPLE LOGO? They found that despite expressing high confidence in their ability to recognise the Apple logo, only 47% of participants chose the correct one, with no significant difference between Apple and PC users. How has a logo that is prominently advertised, that people come into contact with very frequently and that was designed to be recognisable become so unrecognisable? According to the authors it is due to a “form of attentional saturation” which leads to “inattentional amnesia”. They state that due to the logos simplicity and ubiquity, people stop noticing the details because their brain tells them they don’t need to. As we see it everyday, and therefore don’t need to memorise the details, our brains use an “efficient and adaptive memory system” to avoid storing unnecessary information and just remember the gist of the logo. Unfortunately for advertisers these findings show how frequent exposure does not always lead to deep, accurate visual memories but does show how clever our brains are to constantly adapting to our new environments.
- 4. BIAS OF THE MONTH The Bye-Now Effect Our behaviour is often altered by unconscious primes around us in the environment, but new research suggests that just reading the word ‘bye’ could go on to increase the amount you spend by triggering associations with the word ‘buy’ – which our friends at Cognitive Lode have ingeniously dubbed ‘the bye-now effect’. Derick and Herr (2014) gave participants a travel blog post to read, that either ended with “Bye-bye!” or “So long!” Participants were then shown a ‘name your price’ restaurant and asked how much they would be willing to pay; those who’d read the “Bye-bye!” post were willing to pay around $5 more than their “So long!” counterparts. In similar experiments, the authors found participants would write significantly more when told to focus on the right side of their body than the left, and said they would make fewer savings when a man in a story said, “Phew!” than “Close Call!” When we read, we subvocalise each word; that is, say it silently in our heads. This means that when we come across a homophone, a word that shares its pronunciation with another that is spelled differently, the meaning and associations for both words are activated. Usually, the erroneous word and its associations can be suppressed and there is no effect on our comprehension, but certain conditions make this suppression more difficult. One such condition is cognitive load; when the brain is occupied with other tasks, it increases its reliance on automatic processes, therefore reducing the cognitive control that would filter out irrelevant information. Importantly, Derick and Herr’s effects were only found in participants experiencing cognitive load, whether due to being asked to hold a seven-digit number in their heads or counting the number of ‘a’s in the passage they were reading. On an unrelated note, if you remember the number 9268563, I hope this bias has managed to pique your interest (to take a peek at the rest of O Behave!). Davis, D.F., & Herr, P.M. (2014). From Bye to Buy: Homophones as a Phonological Route to Priming. Journal of Consumer Research, 40 (6), 1063-1077.
- 5. Entries close 10th April 2015 www.thenudgeawards.com Grand Prix judged by Daniel Kahneman
- 6. HOW TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE Having the ability to motivate people to achieve a goal is a skill that everybody wants but not everybody has. The science of motivation is still a growing field and an area in which fascinating new research has just been published. Shen, Fishbach and Hsee (2015) have found that uncertain rewards are more powerful than certain rewards in boosting motivation towards a goal, making us work harder, spend more and enjoy the process more. It is worth noting that although past research states we prefer certainty over uncertainty as we are risk averse in nature, this study builds on this robust finding and states that it is the uncertainty of what the reward is that is more motivating than a clear certain reward, as it fosters a feeling of excitement and enjoyment. Here are two of the studies that show this motivating effect: Water Drinking: Participants were asked to drink a large amount of water within two minutes. Half were told they would receive £2 if they completed the challenge; others were told they would receive either £1 or £2, with the outcome dictated by a coin toss. Results found that those in the latter group with the uncertain reward completed the task 70% of the time, whereas the certain reward group only completed the task 43% of the time. The Truffle Test: In another study, researchers asked participants to bid on a bag of chocolate truffles. Half the participants were shown a bag with 4 chocolates in it, the other half weren’t shown the contents but were told that there was an equal chance of the bag containing either 2 or 4 truffles. Results found that participants were willing to spend over double the amount for the uncertain bag (£1.49) than the certain bag with 4 truffles (£0.66). Overall these experiments found that we’re more likely to invest more effort, time, and money in pursuing rewards of an uncertain nature even if the uncertain reward has a lower potential value than a certain reward. These findings have huge potential implications for many fields including healthcare (getting people to do more exercise), gaming apps, loyalty cards (complete coffee card and receive 1 or 2 free coffees, to be decided by a coin flip) and show that a higher reward doesn’t necessarily mean a more motivating reward. Fascinating! Shen, L., Fishbach, A., & Hsee, C.K. (2015). The Motivating-Uncertainty Effect: Uncertainty Increases Resource Investment in the Process of Reward Pursuit. Journal of Consumer Research, 41 (5), 1301-1315.
- 7. POWERFUL INSPIRATION The next time your boss is boring you with a lengthy story about his or her life, you can take comfort (or not) in knowing they genuinely find this story inspirational – because it’s about them. New research by Van Kleef et al (2015) shows that people in positions of power, or who perceive themselves as more powerful, are more likely to derive their inspiration from themselves than from others. Inspiration is a feeling vital for human motivation, but very little is known about it. Defined as the feeling of being enthused, moved, amazed and uplifted, more is coming to light about where this feeling comes from; for some – like Matthew McConaughey, who was quoted as saying his hero is himself in ten years – the self is inspiring, while others get their inspiration from the people around them. Given people in positions of power tend to prioritise themselves over others and can have poor perspective-taking and emotional recognition, it seems likely that these people would derive more inspiration from themselves; which is exactly what Van Kleef and colleagues found. They asked groups of students in Amsterdam and California to rate how powerful they felt and what they found inspirational on a scale, and found a significant relationship between power and inspiration from the self. This held true when they were asked to discuss an event they found inspirational with another participant or write about an inspirational event, with those who felt powerful tending to choose stories about the self. Interestingly, the authors were able to manipulate the feeling of power by asking participants to give an example of a time they had power over others or a time others had power over them. Just thinking about an event were they felt powerful made participants find themselves more inspirational. As this study was performed with undergraduates and feelings of power rather than with people who actually are in positions of power. This is a potentially confounding variable, as more narcissistic people may feel more powerful and find themselves inspirational, without any actual power to make them feel this way. Perhaps you can test it out on your own boss and see if it holds true. Van Kleef, G.A., Oveis, C., Homan, A.C., van der Lowe, I., Keltner, D. (2015). Power Gets You High: The Powerful Are More Inspired by Themselves Than by Others. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1-9.
- 8. INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE – A COURSE BY PROFESSOR PAUL DOLAN Professor Paul Dolan, world-leading expert on happiness and one of our headline speakers at Nudgestock 3, is running an unmissable one-day introduction to behavioural science. In this session, held at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden, Paul will provide a taster of what we know about the way in which humans make decisions and the implications of this for the public and private sectors. The course is for anyone who wants to understand and change behaviour, and will help you understand some of the mistakes we make about human behaviour and wellbeing, gain insights into how to influence client engagement and consumer behaviour, and become better equipped with the tools to create a happier, healthier and more productive workplace. This is an amazing opportunity to find out how the context of our decisions can have a far greater influence than our cognitions from a leading authority on behavioural science. We interviewed Paul to find out more about the course, his book Happiness by Design and his experience of human behaviour. Paul Dolan is a Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. As an internationally renowned expert on happiness, behaviour and public policy, he conducts original research into the measurement of happiness, its causes and consequences and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications. In 2010, he was seconded to the cabinet office to embed the Mindspace report into policymaking which he co-authored. He has previously worked with Daniel Kahneman at Princeton University, written the questions for the Office for National Statistics in measuring wellbeing and he regularly advises global corporations in behavioural economics. His bestselling book Happiness by Design was published by Penguin in August last year and has been bought by over ten countries worldwide.
- 9. OUR INTERVIEW WITH PAUL What's your favourite example of context having an unexpected effect on behaviour? We conducted an energy experiment where we tested the effects of offering people £100 to reduce their consumption by 30% on its own and in combination with a social norm message. We had an 8% reduction with the incentive on its own, but when we combined it with the social norm message, we saw no effect. We have some ideas about why we got this unexpected finding and will test them in due course. What's the main thing people will learn from the course? Participants of the course will begin to understand the extent to which we don’t consciously know why we do what we do. They will be given the tools to make them more likely to influence client, employee and consumer behaviour by accounting for the effects unconscious and automatic processes have on what we do. Behaviour is more about context than it is about cognition. Your best-selling book, Happiness by Design, is all about deliberately changing the environment to create happiness. How does your course build on this theme? In the book, I talk about designing your life in ways that make it easier for you to experience more pleasure and purpose in everyday life and the course will demonstrate how these insights can be applied to your life at work. Happier workers are more productive and take less time off sick, so as well as designing situations and contexts, we offer latest evidence behind the design elements of the work environment and the huge effect they have on employee health and productivity. During your career, the influence and popularity of behavioural science has increased exponentially. What do you attribute this to? If you think about it, who isn’t interested in human behaviour? People from all sorts of disciplines are now beginning to discover the significance of the unconscious processes which drive our behaviour. You are more likely to be honest if under bright lights but more creative in darker environments. These sorts of insights are changing the way we work, and live, and this is exciting. Don’t fall behind, the time to start is now.
- 10. Spotted: Loss aversion and social norms in a text from Three Those scamps at Three aren’t new to using psychology to sell – like their use of cute animals to appeal to system 1 – but this text suggests they may have been listening to our principles of persuasion in the call centre, as featured on Freakonomics. Here they use loss aversion: “we just don’t want you to miss out,” and social norms: “hundreds of thousands of customers already love it,” to ensure you download their Three inTouch app. They’re further incentivising the download by reassuring you it “only takes 2 mins” and “it’s free”. Combining nudges can have a multiplicative effect on behaviour, known as the lollapalooza effect, and with an impressive total of four in such a short message, it would almost be rude not to download it. REAL LIFE NUDGE OF THE MONTH UPCOMING EVENTS Behavioural Boozeonomics with the London Behavioural Economics Network Monday 13th April, 6.30-11.00pm http://www.meetup.com/London-behavioural-comms-monthly-informal-drinks/events/219744928/ ICMBSE 2015 : 17th International Conference on Management, Behavioral Sciences and Economics Thursday 16th – Friday 17th April https://www.waset.org/apply/2015/04/lisbon/ICMBSE?step=2 The World Beyond Your Head: How to flourish in an age of distraction, LSE Monday 20th April, 6.30-8.00pm http://www.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2015/04/20150420t1830vNT.aspx
- 11. Cíosa Garrahan @CiosaGarrahan [email protected] BROUGHT TO YOU BY Juliet Hodges @hulietjodges [email protected]