CXL’s Digital Psychology and Persuasion Minidegree review [part-7]

Photo by Letizia Bordoni on Unsplash

Hi, if you gone through previous parts of this review, thank you, but if you missed them, I highly suggest you to go through them.

CXL’s Digital Psychology and Persuasion Minidegree review:

[part-1] [part-2] [part-3] [part-4] [part-5] [part-6]

Today, I am going to cover at least 10 cognitive Biases out of hundreds identified by scientists and experts. But before that let me explain you what a bias is and how it can effect our decision process. So, lets jump into it.

Brain & Biases

Our brain is a really complex machine. It works 24x7, continuously absorbing information from our surroundings. It process information consciously (actively) and unconsciously (passively). However, only a fraction of the total information we process are being proceeded consciously and majority part is processed unconsciously.

But the problem with our brain is, it is very limited when it comes to processing information via conscious mode, also it is volatile, means it can’t hold information for longer periods in the main(conscious) memory. And on top of that it works serially means can only focus on one thing at a time.

So what it do to overcome these limitations is, it uses some kind of unconscious shortcuts known as heuristics for processing information. But, often these heuristics fail to understand the whole information or simply neglects some key parts of the information, which ultimately leads to erroneous results or decisions.

These incorrect results are known as cognitive biases. And they are of many types, mostly distributed among 20 categories which are further grouped in 4 sections as below:

• Too much information
• What should we remember?
• Not enough meaning
• Need to act fast

It is not sensible to cover everything here, so for your and mine convenience today I am going to focus on around 10 important biases from various categories and I am going to cover them in no specific order.

Biases & Marketing

Section 1: Too Much Information

Availability Heuristic

This bias is based on the fact that for us what is easier to remember is more important. It is human tendency that when we think about something, the examples that strike us first are more relevant for us even if the truth is far from it.

For example, when we see several news related to car theft, we perceive it as vehicle theft is very common even in our own area, but the chances are very slim that something like this ever happens with you.

Another example, airlines see a significant drop in booking if any flight faces a crash or other unwanted issues. This is because survival mechanism of brain keeps record of it current and this makes people perceive air travel unsafe, even if the chances of something like happening with them is negligible.

Availability Heuristic Marketing?

• Content marketing is an easier way to keep information related to you or your brand anew.
• Try using vivid stories and images
• Make your message available or easier to recall.

Mere Exposure Effect

The mere exposure effect is the tendency of people to prefer things that they are most familiar with. It is also know as familiarity principle as it is based on the familiarity of things.

Mere Exposure Effect: Familiar = Good

This effect works on the principle that, if something is exposed to someone often, it makes that thing more desirable.

Mere Exposure Marketing

• Repetition: Use logo, brand name, etc in multiple places including your content strategy and in your ads
• Use familiar names, imagery etc to make it related and memorable.

Bizarreness Effect

This effect works on the findings (from a study) that people tend to remember bizarre or unexpected things they face. We can use this effect by surprising the readers with the words, visuals or other such things that they weren’t expecting.

The End, thanks for reading. Good Bye :)

Bizarre Marketing

• Use unexpected words in your copy.
• Use unexpected visuals.
• Use unexpected elements like a totally different color button in your theme to add sudden contrast.

Section 2: What should we Remember?

Peak-end Rule

The peak end rule cognitive bias impacts how people remember past events. Because of this bias our mind makes us remember past events in way that gives more importance to extreme positive or negative moments and the final moments of a experience.

for example, when you try to remember any past event, you most probably remember the most remarkable moments and the last moments of the event.

Peak-End Rule Marketing

• Attract attention (for example by using colors, highlighting an element, using funny or catchy phrases to make things lighter or humorous etc)
• Try delivering as many peaks as possible (for example — surprise gifts, personalized notes, happy birthday wishes, secret sales etc)
• End with a strong memory (for example — give the customized good bye, give them surprise departure gift, offer some incentive to visit again etc)

Recency Effect

The recency effect is our tendency to remember the most recent information or fact that is presented to us.

for example: if we try to remember a list of items, we can more likely recall the last item in the list without any cognitive load because of the recency effect cognitive bias.

Recency Effect Marketing

• Intentionally organize your content or information for positive ending
• Conclude your campaigns, ads and articles on a good note
• Have a conclusion and a Call to Action in your material, copy and other marketing material

Section 3: Not Enough Meaning

Bandwagon Effect

The bandwagon effect is our tendency to pick up a style, behavior, belief, ideas or even attitude just because everyone else is doing it.

for example: when people starts adopting some certain style of clothes, other people more easily pick that style and this trend put that style in fashion. Same happens with music and other trending things.

Bandwagon Effect Marketing

• Feature customer testimonials with their pics
• Highlight your numbers if you have big numbers (for example long list of previous clients, experience etc)
• Try adding customer review along with products
• Leverage association with a celebrity or a industry expert
• Showcase real-time customer activity (really popular these days)

Cheerleader effect

The cheerleader effect is a cognitive bias that make us perceive individuals as more attractive when they are in a group. It is also know as the attractiveness effect.

Cheerleader Effect Marketing

• Use this for your staff, testimonials, etc
• Use group photos or photos in groups (photo montages)
• Even a group of 4 helps in initiating this effect

Section 4: Need To Act Fast

Endowment Effect

This effect explains the increase amount of attachment people feel to items they’ve experienced or had some investment in. People perceive higher value of owed objects, often irrationally, than its market value because of the emotional bond.

Endowment Effect Marketing

• Use free trials to employ this effect
• Simply picking up an item also invoke this effect
• Even imagining touching an object invoke this effect
• Let your customers try or atleast touch your product
• Use vivid images and sensory descriptions

Decoy Effect

It is a phenomena that makes people chance their preference between two choices when a third choice is introduced. This effect works on the principle that people always make comparisons.

Decoy Effect Marketing

• You can add this effect by introducing a less attractive offer to boost sales of similar offer.
• When offering two or more identical products, try keeping the price varied marginally. This helps customers in deciding a purchase easily.

IKEA Effect

It is a cognitive bias in which users perceive higher value of an item they partially created. But it is not like endowment effect, it expands on the process of developing an attachment or bond between the user and the product by promoting ownership and co-creation.

It is named after the Swedish manufacturer and furniture retailer IKEA, which sells many items of furniture that require assembly.

IKEA Effect Marketing

• Let customer finish product
• Let customer customize product
• Promote Co-creation, it invoke ‘Unity’

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

So, these are the 10 cognitive biases that are useful in marketing. There are many more biases but to keep the post short and sweet, I thought its better to only mention 10 of these. If you want you can study these and all others in-depth, Google is your friend.

Thanks for reading till end, do read my other posts and don’t forget to comment your opinion or feedback. Have a great day.